News - Terrific Podium Finish for Jordan at Final Meeting of Formula BMW UK Championship

The technical and very difficult, hillside circuit of Knockhill in deep Scotland was the venue for the final round of what has been a very exciting Formula BMW UK season.

Jordan came to the circuit having never even seen the place before, not even on a video game. This would be hard enough to deal with at any circuit, but at Knockhill the demands of the steep climbs and blind corners, require a lot of courage and belief in the drivers line and the cars capabilities.

Jordan spent Thursday riding around the circuit on his bike to try and get some familiarity with the layout of the track. This defiantly helped as Jordan finished the first practice on Friday in a very impressive 9th and this was a signal of the pace that Jordan and indeed the car had. However qualifying on Saturday did not go to plan at all, problems with the car had seem to appear overnight. After not using any new tyres on Friday practice Jordan knew that some of the time he lacked to the front was going to come by simply using the compulsory new tyres for the qualifying and races, therefore putting him back on a level playing field with the other drivers. To the surprise of Jordan and the team the car did not handle at all well on the new tyres in qualifying. The ride height of the car had dropped dramatically and this made the car very unstable around the bumpy circuit. This caused Jordan to lack pace in Q1 and he only managed to qualify 14th.

After adjusting the car for Q2 there now appeared another problem. From where the car was grounding out in Q1, it had caused the diff and clutch to start slipping. This meant that Jordan was unable to put together a good lap as the car simply wouldn’t drive out of the slow corners. In a session that was disrupted by red flags and was more like a car park that a race qualification, Jordan was unaided by not gaining a clear lap to get in a good time. Ending up in 13th place he was left disappointed once again.

However things definitely were on the up. After finding the two problems from qualifying on Saturday night, the team assured Jordan the car would be back to normal for the races, and this was to be the case!

Race one of the weekend was to be Jordan finest race this year, starting from a lowly 14th he had no idea of what he could achieve. As the drivers all came to the grid on wets there was a feeling that with a drying circuit anyone who gambled onto slicks would do very well. However the gamble was soon reduced as the race was delayed by 15 minutes as there was a problem with the power at the circuit. The drivers then all had to get out of the cars and go to the front of the gird to be briefed on the situation. It was then told that the race would not be started by lights, as there was no power, and instead by the national flag shown at the top of the pit wall. As the pit straight is on an incline at Knockhill, the drivers from grid 10 backwards would not be able to see the flag held at the front of the grid. This situation was seemingly resolved by having another flag that would be dropped simultaneously by another starter. Jordan had already decided from what he heard at the briefing that he would try and place his car so that he could see the first flag and start when that one dropped. This was to be a brilliant plan as all the other drivers around him looked at the second flag which was dropped momentarily later. After a good start Jordan was up into 10th place on lap 4. The pace in the car seemed to most defiantly be there and he chased the leading pack. As other drivers made mistakes Jordan capitalised and was soon up into 7th place. The circuit had a dry line with the rest of the circuit rather wet, this meant that overtaking was difficult.

On lap ten a safety car period was induced as a accident at the first corner unfortunately ended Henry Arundel’s chances of the championship. This was good for Jordan as he was now really in contention for a podium as the pack bunched up. On the first green flag lap after the safety car had come in, Jordan made his move on Josef Kral into the tight hairpin, a daunting enough move, let alone when the move had to take place on a wet and slippery circuit, this was stunning move and got Jordan up into 6th place. The race then developed and while others lost their heads in front of Jordan, colliding and running wide he was soon up into 3rd place. With only four laps to go Kral came back at Jordan and put him under immense pressure over the last few laps. However Jordan responded and quickened his race pace by 3 tenths per lap and eased the gap back up again. As Kral made a mistake on the last lap Jordan was guaranteed his elusive and long awaited podium, crossing the line he celebrated like he had just won the race.

Race two of the weekend was to be another very good result for Jordan. Starting from 13th on the grid he had all the work to do once more. After getting another good start and making up places to 10th, he then lost them again after some silly driving from other drivers left Jordan having to battle his way back through the pack again. He found himself back to 16th on lap 3. Once out of the carnage Jordan proceeded to try and catch the front pack, however his task was almost impossible as by this stage the race was very spread out. The gaps in-between every deriver at the front left no opportunity to catch up what he had lost at the start of the race and Jordan was left to finish in a lonely but strong 8th position.

Jordan said: " The weekend looked as if it was going to be a disaster to start with. You always want the last round to be your best and after qualifying the car just didn’t feel right. The team did a great job to find and fix the problems and it showed in the races because I had the pace! Finishing on the podium for the first time is just a dream feeling, I have had such bad luck this year. There have been many other times where I looked odds on for a podium or a win but then something went wrong! This time thankfully it all just came into place. The season has not been the best, but I think I have proved my capabilities and have had many compliments from people about my driving over the year. I am really looking forward to whatever I do next , but before that I hope to go to the Formula BMW World Final in Valencia and be at least the top UK driver. I think that it is defiantly achievable because Team Loctite did well there last year and I think the circuit will really suit me! Bring on that and next year!"