Jordan King impresses with overtaking masterclass
Date: 31 / 07 / 2018
Jordan King improved eight places in two laps to match his best road course result of the season this past weekend, finishing the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio in 12th place to collect more championship points.
Jordan King’s recent run of good form extended this past weekend at the thirteenth round of the season at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. With a twelfth and eleventh place finish in the past two round of the series, Jordan headed to the 2.258-mile circuit ready for the challenge another new circuit would bring.
Jordan used Friday’s practice sessions to get up to speed with the 13-turn undulating road course circuit and consistently went quicker through the session – posting a best 1:06.3398 lap time in Friday’s second session.
Saturday commenced with practice in the morning and Jordan, now up to speed with the track, broke into the 1:05’s as he finished the third practice session of the weekend in 13th place and just seven-tenths off the fastest car.
Drawn into group two for the first round of qualifying, Jordan only managed to record one timed lap before the red flag was brought out when Sebastien Bourdais ran off the course at turn two.
Jordan was then left with less than four minutes to build a healthy gap and set a flying lap on a set of quicker sticker red tyres.
Jordan continued his upward trend as he recorded a 1:05.7699 lap time to finish 8th in the group, missing out on progressing through to round two by only two-tenths. His 8th place in his group translated to a 16th place start for Sunday’s race and as the highest Ed Carpenter qualifier.
“It’s a little bit frustrating, only being two-tenths away from advancing! Right from the start of the weekend, I’ve been playing catch up. I’ve not driven here before, some of the other teams have been here testing, so it’s been quite a steep learning curve to get into the car and get fast. Spencer’s been down a good job this weekend so I’ve been learning from him. We put it together in qualifying, maybe there was a little bit of the time left on the table from me just not knowing the circuit that well. It’s a but annoying, but it is what it is!”
When action got underway at Mid-Ohio for the start of the Honda Indy 200, Jordan got off to a blistering start and, through the first three corners of the race, Jordan had managed to pass five cars to move up to 11th place.
Jordan continued to showcase his overtaking prowess and gained two more positions on the next lap and when Max Chilton had to serve a drive-through penalty, Jordan slotted into 8th place.
Jordan then made his first stop of the race on lap fifteen, sticking with quicker red tires but a slight miscue with one of the tires had the No. 20 back up on the air jack a second time, but the problem was quickly rectified and King was on his way. However, Jordan’s slow stop meant he lost out on two positions and return to the race running in 10th after the stop.
Despite being on the quicker of the two tyres, Jordan struggled with grip during his second stints but managed to pick up a position when Rene Binder made a pit stop, promoting Jordan to 9th place.
Jordan’s second atop came on lap 40 and after his stop, Jordan remained out in 10th but this time on the slower black tyres. With this disadvantage, Jordan wasn’t able to hold off Zach Veach and Marco Andretti, who were on the quicker red tires, and Jordan dropped down to 12th, where he would remain through the end of his stint.
Jordan’s third and final stop came on Lap 64 and Jordan opted for a set of sticker reds and remained in the 12th position. Jordan continued to close the gap to the cars in front but wasn’t able to improve on his position and eventually crossed the finishing line to earn a 12th place finish.
“I sent it on the first couple of corners! That was really good fun, a bit of wheel-banging and running side-by-side with a few people. We got up to 9th in those first two laps. Our pace was pretty good during the race, I don’t think we were a million miles off at all.”
“We had a bit of a slow first pit stop and lost a few places there, then we just seemed to struggle a bit on out laps. Those are the two areas where we lost the time; otherwise, I think we would have been a bit higher up. We still have a bit of work that we need to do, but overall it was a good race!”
Team owner Ed Carpenter will step back into the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet for the next two rounds, the oval events at Pocono Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park. Jordan’s next event will be IndyCar’s return to Portland International Raceway on 30th August – 2nd September.