Jordan King has stated that he was keen to race at oval venues during his debut season in the IndyCar Series, but that the opportunity “wasn’t quite there.”
King will drive for Ed Carpenter Racing at the road and street courses in 2018. It will be his first year in America following three seasons in GP2 and F2 after climbing the European single-seater ladder.
His role will comprise a total of 11 races, while Ed Carpenter will take over the seat for all the oval races including the Indy 500.
“I would like to do the ovals,” King stated when speaking on stage at the Autosport International show. “But the opportunity wasn’t quite there.
“The way it has panned out is that Ed wants to do the ovals. He enjoys that side of things and he is quite good at it as well. It’s his team, it’s his car so I let him choose what he wanted to do and I do the others basically.
“We will leave the scary stuff to the oval professionals for a year before I do that.”
In moving to America, King leaves behind a career in Europe in which he claimed two race victories in GP2, along with having completed an FP1 session for Manor in Formula 1.
However, with Manor slipping into administration at the end of the 2016 season, the team switched to the World Endurance Championship. First competing for a season in LMP2, Manor will contest as a privateer LMP1 outfit this year.
Given his previous affiliation with Manor, King was asked whether a WEC seat with Manor was an option for 2018.
“I spoke to the guys at Manor and it was a genuine possibility,” he added. “I thought about it long and hard. But the Indycar deal was too good to turn down really.”
King’s first IndyCar race will be the season opener at St. Petersburg on March 11.
