Bridgestone Cup domination ends in heartbreak for rapid Jordon Lennox-Lamb 24.10.2009: Jordon Lennox-Lamb was cruising to victory in the prestigious annual Bridgestone Cup in Italy when an engine failure dashed his dream and left him to return home empty-handed – but his scintillating form has nonetheless

Jordon Lennox-Lamb was cruising to victory in the prestigious annual Bridgestone Cup in Italy when an engine failure dashed his dream and left him to return home empty-handed – but his scintillating form has nonetheless left him brimful of confidence for the final international meeting of his 2009 karting campaign next month.

Jordon travelled to Lonato near Garda intending to treat the event as both a glorified testing session for the new 2010 Birel Motorsport chassis, as well as an opportunity to prepare for the WSK International Series curtain-closer at the same circuit on November 1st.

Despite having competed there before, though, with the likes of former Monaco Kart Cup winner Max Goff, fellow Brit James Dixon, Australian Mitchell Gilbert, the Energy brigade and the Ghirelli brothers all present – not to mention his own front-running Birel team-mate, home hero Matteo Viganò – he knew it was going to be no Sunday afternoon stroll in the park.

“There were some very good drivers there,” he acknowledged, “so I knew it would be quite a tough meeting, but still we were expecting to be inside the top five. I enjoy the circuit; it’s similar in a way to PF International in England, in that it’s quite easy to be fast but it’s always very close – if you can gain two tenths of a second on someone, you’re doing well. It’s dominated by hairpins, and you’ve got to be very smooth and consistent – and you definitely need to have a good package behind you.”

That Jordon certainly did, and after continuing to use the practice sessions and qualifying for predominantly testing purposes – saving the speed for when it really counted – the Bedford star initially wound up sixth-fastest of the 42 KF2 class competitors entered, and firmly in the ballpark. From there, he would transform fourth-place grid slots in his two heat races to close runner-up finishes both times, passing Mans Grenhagen to chase down Viganò in the first and setting fastest lap in the second for good measure.

“I dropped back at the start of heat two,” he recounted. “It’s quite difficult at Lonato, because the first corner is a left followed by a right, meaning whilst pole is on the left-hand side it should really be on the right. Drivers are always trying to get across, which can lead to some bad crashes. We were quite happy with two second places, though; the tyres were coming on brilliantly which meant we weren’t having to put too much load on the engines at all – and we knew we still had a bit of time in-hand.”

Third in the intermediate rankings and feeling ‘really confident’, Jordon stuck to his game plan of keeping things steady in the pre-final and keeping his powder dry, battling back from an early tussle to regain ground on the three runaway leaders. Lapping consistently the quickest of anyone on the track, the 17-year-old recovered to fourth at the chequered flag – and then in the all-important grand final later in the day, he would demonstrate the teamwork ethos that has made him such a valued member of Birel’s attack, and also the devastating raw pace that has for some time marked him out as a driver to genuinely keep an eye on over the years to come.

“I pushed Nicolaj Møller Madsen through at the start and we both got past Viganò,” he recounted, “but I then backed off to let Matteo back in again so he wouldn’t get messed around in the pack at the first corner. We both passed Møller Madsen and began pulling away, and later on in the race I passed Matteo for the lead.

“Shortly afterwards, his engine broke – he just lost all power and ultimately had to go into the pits. After that there were about eight laps left to go, and I was just trying to make sure I brought it home. I was lapping two or three tenths quicker than the next-fastest driver, then exactly the same thing suddenly happened to my engine as had happened to Matteo’s...”

It was a crushing blow, depriving Jordon as it did of what would have been a superb result and arguably the finest trophy in his 2009 collection – as a better fastest lap time than the eventual top four underlined his superiority. The cause of the failures was traced back to the pistons, but preferring to look forwards rather than back, the Kimbolton Road ace has warned his rivals that they would do well to watch out in the WSK finale. Admitting to still not having shown his and Birel’s true hand even in the Bridgestone Cup grand final, he is clearly revved up to end the year in style.

“It was gutting not to win and I was really disappointed afterwards,” he mused. “It would have been really good to have had the Bridgestone Cup on my CV – and it would have been nice for Birel to have got a one-two. It was a shame about what happened, but it was just one of those things at the end of the day – and everyone could see how fast we were. When we turn up for the WSK now, I know we’ll be on the pace.


- RA -  photo Chris Walker kartpix.net