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26/04/09
Rounds 3, 4 & 5
Knockhill Racing Circuit, Fife
A bitterly cold wind and overcast conditions did little to deter the racers for Knockhill’s first meeting of the year, with over 130 drivers in attendance. A healthy grid of 17 mini coopers lined up to compete the championship’s third, fourth and fifth rounds.
Qualifying - Dry
With lap times in Saturday practice showing that the pace had increased from 2008, qualifying was always going to be a close-fought affair. The track action failed to disappoint, with the top seven drivers on the grid separated by just over 4 tenths of a second. Jordan lined up 4th fastest, just two hundredths of a second away from 2nd on the grid.
Race 1 - Dry
At the lights, Jordan made a better start than 3rd placed Vic Covey Jnr and was immediately promoted a place. However, David Sleigh made a still-better getaway and leapfrogged both drivers to take third into the first corner, Duffus. Jordan’s efforts to hang onto 3rd saw him push the car to it’s limit over the crest of Duffus Dip with a sideways moment giving the crowd something to keep them entertained. Jordan pushed hard in the early laps but found the car lacking in pace compared to qualifying and despite his best efforts, he dropped to 7th. At the halfway point, Jordan’s pace began to recover and a stunning maneuver on Michael Rowan at Scotsman corner yielded 6th place, which he was to keep till the flag.
“We made some changes to the car after qualifying to try and cure some understeer and they obviously didn’t have the desired effect as we weren’t fast enough to hold onto 4th.’ Said Jordan. ‘We finished in the points again though, which is the most important thing.”
 Race 2 - Wet
The heavens opened prior to race two, giving the track enough water to call for a wet setup on the minis. A relatively uneventful race saw Jordan locked in battle with Rowan to retain 6th, which became 5th when Mark Dryden lost the rear of his car at Scotsman.
“The car was really unbalanced in the race.’ Explained Jordan. “We haven’t ran in the wet since we made some fundamental setup changes and our best-guess setup turned out not to be good enough and it was a real struggle to keep the car on the track, let alone fight for position. I managed to stay on the black stuff though, and we’ve been rewarded with some more important points. We can learn from the race though, and improve the car next time it rains.”
The randomly selected reverse-grid position was drawn to 5th place, meaning Jordan would start from pole position in race three.
Race 3 - Dry
With Jordan lining up on pole for the final race of the day, the circuit was predominantly dry with some damp patches off the racing line. At the off both Jordan and Covey Jnr in second made good starts and entered Duffus side-by side. It was Jordan who held the line and retained the lead as the field streamed through. At the hairpin, Jordan was forced to defend the inside line which gave Covey a run up the main straight. Jordan, determined not to give in easily, fought back at the first corner to keep the lead.
A race-long dogfight ensued as lap-after-lap the pair would race wheel-to-wheel round corners and down straights. Jordan never able to shake-off Covey but always retaining the lead. With over half the race gone, Kenneth Thirwall took advantage of the dicing duo to dive up the inside at the hairpin. The three drivers raced towards Duffus side-by-side and inches apart. With the inside line, Thirwall snatched the lead as Jordan once again relegated Covey to behind his rear bumper. A lap later  Covey finally made it past Jordan at Scotsman with a very late braking move which almost ended with Vic overshooting the corner. he kept the car under control and in the process secured second. With a lap to go, Jordan’s attentions turned to defending his third place from Chris Knox who had since set a new lap record. At the last corner of the last lap, Knox dived up the inside of Jordan in a move which was reminiscent of Jordan’s Kirkistown incident a month earlier. The outcome was the same for the overtaking car, with Knox missing the corner and finding himself in the gravel, recovering to finish 7th. Jordan calmly retook the stranded Knox and sealed 3rd place at the flag, the team’s first podium finish of 2009.
“What a race!’ Exclaimed Jordan afterwards. ‘To fight absolutely as hard as possible every lap of the race and for every position was really great fun and the fact that no-one took any damage in the racing makes it all the more satisfying. It really was something and I’m looking forward to seeing that from the spectator’s perspective on TV! To come out of such a race with a podium is superb. We’ve worked really hard to get here and I have to thank my dad again for all his hard work all weekend as I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”
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“On a more reflective note, we didn’t have the pace to pull away in the race, which is something we have to analyze. Of course we are delighted to take this result but we cannot count on a reverse-grid draw to deliver a pole position to us in the future. We have to go away and work to make the car faster so that we can now start to put in regular podium finishes and even wins. There are some technical developments which we didn’t have here but will have on the car for the next race and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they will help us.’
‘Finally, a huge thanks to all our official sponsors as their support is essential to enable us to have great days such as this!”
Championship points and positions available on the 2009 results page. Click here.
Follow all the action from Knockhill on Motors TV on Wednesday, 13th of May at 18:00
All pictures courtesy of Pamela Gronkowski
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