News - Successful F3 Debut for Jordan at Snetterton

Successful F3 Debut for Jordan at Snetterton

"Being thrown in at the deep end" is the only way that Jordan’s debut into Formula 3 can be described. Having never driven an F3 car ever before in his life, Jordan was recruited by his former Formula BMW Team, Team Loctite, to compete in the F3 round at Snetterton. This was always going to be a huge challenge for Jordan to just turn up at Snetterton and race and he was understandably apprehensive, but by the very first few laps of the practice session these worries soon disappeared and he never looked back.

The conditions on Friday were appalling with torrential rain, deep puddles and rivers of water running across the circuit, leaving the cars struggling for grip and even aquaplaning along the pit straight. For his first day in the car Jordan managed extremely well in the toughest of conditions, achieving the fourth fastest time in National Class by the end of the day delighting team owner Trevor Powell, "Jordan has justified our decision to give him his F3 debut, I never doubted for a single moment that he would be quick."

Qualifying on Saturday was once again very wet. In the first session Jordan put together a good lap placing him P4 in national class. With the rain coming down more, the decision was made to bring Jordan in to save the tyres as times were not going to get any quicker. However in the last five minutes the weather suddenly had a short period where no rain fell and the track dried slightly. By the time Jordan had got back out to try and go quicker, he had been bumped down the order by cars who were now going quicker, but Jordan still ended up a very creditable 7th place in his first ever F3 qualifying.

The second qualifying was even better, with growing confidence he qualified in front of the current championship leader finishing in 5th place on the grid for race 2, however even this did not tell the whole story. With 10 minutes remaining of the session Jordan was in 2nd place in National class and 13th overall. A red flag then came out allowing the track to dry, and when the track re opened a frantic scramble to improve times ensued. By the end of the session Jordan once again had been bumped down the order to 5th national, but still finished up with 8th best first sector overall well ahead of all other national cars and even ahead of many international class cars.

Race day on Sunday dawned dry and fine presenting Jordan and the team with a novel problem of never having run the car in dry warm conditions. After a totally wet meeting so far Jordan only had the data on a laptop to go by to try and understand just how quickly F3 cars go in the dry! The cornering speeds were up 55 mph faster through the corners and going straight out to race was not what would have been planned! Race 1 was always going to be difficult and it was, Jordan made up several places in Riches corner only to be forced wide by the more experienced drivers losing all the gains in the process. He went on to drive superbly until the car let him down, a spacer plate in the clutch disintegrated leaving him without any gears and he was forced to retire after 16 laps. With the car repaired just in time, Race 2 was an opportunity for Jordan to record his first F3 race finish. The race again was going to be difficult but he drove very well and brought the car home in 7th place, scoring his first F3 points and finishing ahead of several really excellent drivers including the Class leader Andy Meyrick and his former team mate and International class star, Australian Sam Abay. The weekend turned out to be a great experience for Jordan and although he was thrown in at the deep end he came out the other side with a very good performance. Team Boss Trevor Powell said: 'Jordan is a naturally talented driver and has acquitted himself very well in his Formula 3 debut. The Team LOCTITE crew did a magnificent job this weekend and special thanks go the Crew Chief Rich, No.1 mechanic Joe, Data engineer Ed and No. 2 mechanic Alex.

Jordan finished by saying:
"This was a huge challenge for me and I have to admit I was extremely apprehensive coming here. Having never driven the car before and competing against drivers who have had up to 80 days testing before the year even started is very difficult. The practice and qualifying went really well and I was pleased where I ended up even though it could have been even better! The races were very tough, going into a race not knowing how fast I could drive the car was unbelievable but in the end it did go well. I am happy to have recorded a finish in the second race and I and the team will improve each time we go out. I would like to say a big thank you to all of the team and especially Trevor Powell.