{"id":27397,"date":"2020-09-29T07:09:18","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T11:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=27397"},"modified":"2020-09-29T07:09:20","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T11:09:20","slug":"pre-season-work-turns-into-regular-season-success-for-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2020\/09\/pre-season-work-turns-into-regular-season-success-for-jordan\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-season work turns into regular season success for Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pre-season work turns into regular season success for Jordan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WATERFORD \u2014 Tim Jordan says running fast laps in the SK Modified division at the New London Waterford Speedbowl has never been a problem for him. Trying to run 35 fast laps in the same race, however, was a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cOur story in the SKs is that we always ran up front, but we never sealed the deal,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cAnd when you have good runs and you don\u2019t win, the pressure mounts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n


This season, however, Jordan\u2019s end game has been formidable. He won on opening weekend July 18 and hasn\u2019t stopped winning.
He also won the Bob Potter Memorial on Sept. 19, worth more than $5,000, and also won the following week, on Sept. 26 for this third win of the season.
Jordan will go into Saturday\u2019s 35-lap SK Modified feature with a 25-point lead over Joe Gada in the battle for the season championship.
\u201cI think the potential has always been there,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cBut we definitely have had more success this year, We\u2019ve used our experiences over the past few years and tried some different things. We\u2019ve come up with something that\u2019s been consistent and good.\u201d
Consistency would be an understatement. Jordan hasn\u2019t finished out of the Top 5 in any race this year. The fact that Jordan has competed in all seven races has also made a major difference.
\u201cDuring the past few years, we really haven\u2019t race that much,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cPeople associated me with full-time racing, but we really haven\u2019t been full time since 2014,
\u201cThis is the first time in five years where we said let\u2019s go racing every week regardless of what happens,\u00a0 In the past the team took time off if we got wrecked or if family stuff came up. Racing was a focus, but it wasn\u2019t our main focus. This year we put racing right up at the forefront. No matter what happens, we\u2019re going racing every week.\u201d
This success story, however, actually started before the season began. The late start, because of the coronavirus, worked to Jordan\u2019s advantage.
\u201cWe had more time, and that allowed us to work on stuff that we normally don\u2019t have time to work on,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t wait until the last minute to get things done. We treated it like the season was going to start on time and we kept working.\u201d
That work ethic continued into the start of the season.
\u201cWe kept working on the things that made us better,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cWee were able to focus strictly on the race car, rather than other aspects of the sport.\u201d
Perhaps the defining moment for Jordan in 2020 was his win in the 102-lap Potter Memorial, a race in which he went toe-to-toe with all-time Speedbowl winner Keith Rocco lap after lap.
\u201cIt was a pretty good night,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cBeing a Speedbowl third generation driver and knowing the history of the track, I know how significant Bob Potter was. He was the man. Before Dennis Gada and before Keith Rocco, Bob Potter set the precedent of winning. It\u2019s a race I\u2019ll always remember. And I think it\u2019s a race everyone else will remember too.\u201d
Jordan said the battle between Rocco and him was an old-fashioned Saturday night shootout.
\u201c\u201dIt was a throwback to old school racing,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cIt was two guys slugging out, but never wrecking. We trusted each other\u2019s talent to run as hard as we could.
\u201cI knew I had a better car \u2014 I just had to be smart and to wait as long as I could. I knew what I had to do, and I did it.\u201d
Then he did it again the following week, finishing ahead of Andrew Molleur.
\u2018We have been consistent, that\u2019s been the big thing,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cOur main goal is to run up front and wind up in tech after every race. I want to see the tech officials, I don\u2019t want to see the wrecker guys.\u201d
So far the hard work is paying off.
\u201cThis is basically a full-time job for me and my dad to maintain the car,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how much work you have to put in. There\u2019s no magic bullet. It just boils down to working hard, being crafty and being on top of your game on and off the track.
\u201cWe\u2019ve been on the other end of it. I\u2019ve struggled up to this point and I know people have expected a lot from me. But that\u2019s the beauty of this year. This is the season I knew I could have and it\u2019s finally happening.
Helping to make it happen is a crew consisting of Chris Burton, Jim Hugh, Chris Mullin, his dad Pat Jordan, spotter Cam Robinson and Jim Combs.
His sponsors include the Brynes Agency, LFR, Magnus Performance Products, SKM and Concrete Express. His engine builder is Larry\u2019s Auto Machine.
Jordan said his focus for the final races is not going to change.
\u201cWe\u2019re just going to keep doing what we\u2019re doing,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to change our mindset.\u201d
A title would give Jordan championships in three Speedbowl divisions, the SK Modifieds, the Late Models and the Mini Stocks.
\u201cI\u2019m working so hard in the Sks, sometimes I forget I\u2019ve raced in the other two divisions,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cMaybe when my career is over, I\u2019ll sit back and reflect on it, but not now.\u201d
His attention is exclusively on the SK Modifieds. The money he earned in the Potter race should get him through the season.
\u201cThe money is all going back into the race car,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cThere will be no vacations, no gifts and no treats. It\u2019s all about racing.\u201d
After all, Jordan has big plans every Saturday for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pre-season work turns into regular season success for Jordan WATERFORD \u2014 Tim Jordan says running fast laps in the SK Modified division at the New London Waterford Speedbowl has never been a problem for him. Trying to run 35 fast laps in the same race, however, was a problem. \u201cOur story in the SKs is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-waterford-speedbowl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27398,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27397\/revisions\/27398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}