Interview: Jordan King – From Four Wheels to Two

As Formula 2 follows Formula One in taking its summer break, for many of the drivers this means rest, relaxation and recuperation. Not for Jordan King though.

The 25-year-old, having spent the first half of the year flying around the world to race in three world class championships, will spend the next week trekking through the highlands, on a bike, for 500 miles, all in the name of charity.

500 miles is not an unfamiliar distance for the Indycar racer, but this time he won’t have an engine to support him. Motorsport Radio caught up with King to ask him the story behind the journey, his maiden Indy 500 exploits and how he’s become one of Britain’s busiest racing drivers.

Speaking honestly, King revealed he was cycling to raise money for the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, a place where he was treated for a ‘Wilms Tumor’, a type of cancer, when he was 11 months old.

“My mum saw a lump on the side of my stomach and within 48 hours I was being operated on. Luckily for me the type of cancer I had, had two specialist locations, one of which was in America and the other was Birmingham Children’s Hospital. So luck would have it that it was close to where I lived.”

“I’ve been in and out of hospital quite a lot during my childhood years. Originally I was in there every week and then every month for check ups, getting less frequent until I was 10 when I stopped going regularly.”

King has spent much of his adult life raising money for the Hospital and this weeks expedition, which takes him across the Northern Coast 500, is a 5 day marathon journey which he’ll ride along with his Uncle. Speaking about his relationship with the hospital staff, King revealed he still has lunch regularly with his consultant, Bruce Moorland.

“He once said to myself and my mum when I was 10, that there was a 50% chance of the cancer coming back [within 3 years]. I remember mum getting really angry with him, saying; ‘If you’d told me that, I would have been more cautious’, and he said, ‘But your son would never have had a normal childhood. If I’d told you, you’d be back in a year doing the same treatment, you’d never let him go outside and play and be a kid.’”

Fortunately for King, the cancer did not return and treatment was largely phased out before his karting career got serious, though a scar remains where his kidney once was. “I’ve got a large scar that’s grown with me as well.”

The bike ride will take him around the Scottish coast and is described by their tourism board as the ‘Scottish Route 66’. Expecting to be in the saddle for over 8 hours a day, King is eager for the challenge. After starting his ride on Tuesday, he expects to cross the line at Inverness on Saturday 10^th August, having journeyed from Wick for over 100 miles on that final day.

“I’ve wanted to do it for a little while – mainly to drive it for obvious reasons – but driving is easy, anyone can do that. I’ve always wanted to do it and I had a week off, so I thought I’d jump on a bike and cycle it.”

“I’m doing it myself, self-funded, booked hotels every 100 miles. It’ll be over 5 days. I simply went to google, marked out every 100 miles and looked for a hotel within a 5 mile radius of that. It’s not a competition, but I’ll be pushing as I’ll be in the saddle for about 8 hours a day and being the Scottish highlands there’ll be a lot of climbing. The weather may be bad as we’re near the coast, the next stop is the arctic circle!”

King, of course, is well used to challenges and back in May competed in his maiden Indianapolis 500. Racing for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, the former-British F3 champion was running as high as seventh during the early stages of the race, but fell back during a pitlane incident, in which he slid sideways into his box, finishing the race 24^th.

“We did a good job considering we weren’t based in America. I knew I was doing it for a long time, but I had other racing commitments I was focusing on, so I couldn’t turn my full focus to that one thing. So to be able to just jump in and compete is very encouraging.”

“If you look at where my teammates finished, we were in that mix, so it’s frustrating to think that maybe we could have finished in the top 10.”

For some drivers, Indycar has been their life for 2019, though unfortunately for King the Indy 500 was his only appearance in the series this year and has had to rely on Formula 2 in order to keep himself race-fit throughout the year.

“I finished in Barcelona for F2 and literally got straight on a plane to America and the next day I was in the car. It has been a very busy 3 months, I’ve only slept in my bed 3 nights in the last 3 months,” explained King. “We qualified very solidly for the race, which not everyone did. Only the best qualified for the 500.”

While King laughed, explaining it wasn’t a comment on Alonso, he has been acquainted with the Spaniard on the race track this year, as the Warwickshire driver made his first appearance outside single-seaters in the World Endurance Championship.

“It was always doomed to hurt my Sportscar perception, as we turned up and had almost the perfect race.”

King’s first WEC race saw him competing for Jackie Chan DC Racing in the Oreca 07 LMP2. Alongside David Heinemeier Hansen and countryman Will Stevens, the team won the Sebring 12 Hours, Jackie Chan DC’s fourth back-to-back win that season.

“We had almost lapped the whole field until the safety car came out and it was one of those unbelievable weeks you wish you could have every weekend. It almost felt easy, it was that good. In all the interviews afterwards I kept saying; ‘I really like this championship, but I’m probably only saying this because we’ve just gone and won the race on our first try’.”

He had been setting some of the fastest laps of any driver in LMP2, but sadly for King, reality came crashing down at Spa and Le Mans, with the car failing to record any more top five finishes.

“Then we went to Spa and it was all looking good, until it rained, snowed and then the sun came out, before it rained and hailed again. So it ended up being a horrible race in which we finished almost last because of the strategy, as the rain put us out of sequence. It was the same with Le Mans, as we were on course to finish second until the gearbox broke.”

King was on track last weekend, scything his way up to sixth during the F2 Feature Race in Hungary, despite starting tenth, while also recording the fastest lap. A fourth place in race two leaves him tenth in the standings and again continuing to peddles forward, as he now battles the brisk Scottish air.

“It’s not going to be easy, I’m looking forward to it, I want to be able to push myself all the way through.”

You can donate to Jordan’s cause here.