Far from being ‘up the Creek without a paddle’, Britiain’s George King made another strong impression on the GTWC Australia paddock at Sydney Motorsport Park as he helped his Tigani Motorsport team to a brace of top five finishes in round two of the 2025 season.
Buoyed by a strong showing on his series debut a month earlier, King showed that he was adapting quickly to his new Mercedes-AMG GT3 mount, but was again confronted by a venue new to him, as will be the case for the entirety of his first season ‘down under’. A track walk with driver coach James Winslow, a veteran — and champion — of multiple Australian series over the years, provided vital clues to tackling the Eastern Creek layout, allowing King to focus on driving the #55 Mercedes for the first time in wet conditions.
Two of the three one-hour sessions allotted to the GTWC field on the official practice were subject to changeable weather, but provided King with valuable laps in the rain without the pressure of competition. Handed the keys at the start of each session, the Briton was allowed to build up his knowledge of both the car and circuit before handing over to team-mate Sergio Pires for the drier second half of each hour.
“The practice day was on-and-off rain throughout, with the first two sessions really being affected by the weather,” King confirmed. “FP1 was good fun, finding the limits of the car in the wet, but having my first run in a GT car in the wet, and on a new circuit, was a big task. Despite that, I posted the fifth-fastest lap of the session, which I was happy with, especially considering it started drying out after my run. With the circuit being so hilly, some parts dry faster than others, so it made it hard to determine when to swap from wets to slicks. With the car handling badly on hot wet tyres — and Sergio already sitting amongst the fastest drivers on track — the team sent me out on slicks in order not to waste valuable track time and allow me to continue to learn the circuit. To then put in the third-fastest lap of FP2 against the likes of Broc Feeney, Jaxson Evans and Thomas Randle was really encouraging, especially as I was running on older slick tyres than most.”
Confident in his pace ahead of qualifying, King was to be frustrated in the timed session, as a red flag was shown to halt the action just as he was lapping half a second faster than his previous best time of the day. The torment was then amplified when the stewards decided not to restart the session, leaving King sitting on his slower lap time and the #55 entry lower in the starting order than it deserved to be.
Sunday’s opening race proved to be just as eventful for the 24-year-old, who was blocked during the mandatory pit-stops and emerged into the thick of the fight with some of the best young drivers in Australia.
“Qualifying was frustrating as I knew we should've started higher up, but Sergio had an amazing stint [to start the race], getting up into P2,” King noted. “We were looking extremely good to be leading the race but, for some reason, our sister car was pushed back into ours as I was trying to leave the pits which cost us an extra seven seconds! I still thought I was leading the race due to coming out with all of the pro drivers right on my tail but, somehow, one of the Ferraris had got out a whole 20 seconds in front of us...
“From there on, I was defending my second position, holding off Feeney and Randle — both of whom had recently raced at the circuit in V8 Supercars — until, with four minutes to go, Randle finally managed to slip past. Then, later in the lap, Sydney Motorsport Park bit me, as I hit a bump in T1 a fraction wrong and it picked up the front of the car and caused it to understeer towards the exit kerb — at 240kph! Having to lift a fraction in order not to go completely off the track, I lost all momentum heading into T2 and lost two more places. Despite hanging on to the cars in front and trying to get the positions back, we eventually finished in P5, which was especially frustrating as I was one of the fastest drivers on average lap time.”
Race two proved to be slightly better in terms of the result, with Pires climbing back through the pack to claim an eventual fourth place after King had suffered with pace-limiting tyre problems throughout his stint, but left the Briton with conflicting emotions at the culmination of the weekend.
“I’m both happy and annoyed with the weekend,” King admitted. “I learned a lot and gained valuable experiences as going against the best is teaching me new things every time I go out on track, which I am enjoying. I was extremely happy with my driving and the progress I’ve made, holding off world-class talent on their home circuit for my whole stint, but I can’t help but be frustrated at how I lost the positions in race one.
“I’m forever learning in this car and championship, and it is only my second GT race meeting, with everything being brand new, so I shouldn’t knock myself down too hard. But I’m always aiming higher and wanting more. It’s still early in the season, so I’ll keep looking forward.”
Round three of the 2025 GTWC Australia powered by AWS takes place at Queensland Raceway over the weekend of 30 May – 1 June.
