Results may not have gone the way of his Tigani Motorsport entry at Queensland Raceway, but Britiain’s George King showed his endurance credentials with two battling performances in the #55 Geyer Valmont Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Although the circuit nicknamed ‘the paperclip’ was another new challenge for King, he at least had the benefit of testing there several weeks before round three of the GTWC Australia series was due to take place. Unfortunately, the weather throughout the test was glorious, perfect for testing, but not for a race weekend where the weather gods laughed — and turned on the taps!
The test had been positive for the Briton, who lapped just a couple of tenths shy of the more experienced Jayden Ojeda in the #66 Tigani entry, but it all looked to have been in vain when race weekend dawned wet and stayed that way. Despite that, King and the #55 machine clocked the sixth-fastest time in both the opening practice sessions, before the heavens opened and jeopardised the third and final outing.
“It was torrential rain and, had it been in Europe, I honestly think it would have been red-flagged from the beginning,” King opined. “We’d hoped to bed in some new brake pads during the session, ready for qualifying and the rest of the weekend, but the conditions made the bedding in process longer, and a bit more dangerous. Nevertheless, I went out, bedded the pads in for around 20 minutes, and then managed a couple of fast laps at the end to confirm that the process had worked and to set the bias quickly for the following day. My times were good for P2 at that point, before we decided to park and preserve the car as it was really too dangerous to continue, and remained in the top five when the session began to dry out right at the end, which I wasn’t too upset about.”
The miserable conditions carried over into day two, ensuring that the circuit was still wet when qualifying rolled around. This time, however, the track surface was in the awkward phase when neither wet tyres or slicks were the ideal choice, but King and co-driver Sergio Pires both clocked times good enough for P6 in their respective sessions to secure the outside of row three for Sunday’s pair of races.
Pires started the first of the weekend’s events and, having narrowly avoided being caught up in a start-line incident, found himself second on the road and chasing the race leader as they gapped the rest of the field. Despite challenging for top spot during his stint, the Australian handed the #55 over to King still sitting P2, and the Briton rejoined having dropped just one position, but knowing that the car ahead of him was due to serve a penalty. Having shown that he had greater pace than his quarry, however, King suffered a major setback when the power steering pump failed on the Geyer Valmont car.
“I was clearly faster than the car I was chasing, and only had to wait for his drive-thru’ penalty to move back into second position, but the pump failed — and handed me the hardest half-hour of driving I’ve ever had to do,” the Briton confirmed. “I had the worst ‘arm pump’ ever when I finished, but managed to keep the car on the road and somehow go quickly enough to still bring it home in sixth place, which was becoming a theme of the weekend…”
King was back behind the wheel for the start of race two later in the day and, recovered from the symptoms inflicted on his by his heroic first race effort, managed a rapid-enough launch to get inside two cars ahead of him and emerge in fourth place. He then held position until encountering a spun car broadside across the circuit at T4 when, instead of being able to claim another place, the #55 was forced wide in avoidance and, having taken to the grass, dropped to dead last.
“From that point on, it was simply a recovery drive,” the 24-year-old sighed. “From the high of getting a good start to the low of then seeing that effort negated, I managed to claw my way back to P7 by the time I handed over to Sergio, and he was able to bring the car home in sixth — again!
“Despite that, we managed to gain a position in the championship standings, moving to P5 but only a handful of points away from the top three — and, overall, I’m happy with what I was able to show across the weekend. Even though we should have comfortably finished second in the opening race, I hope that, by taking the car to the chequered flag, it shows I’m willing to push myself. Although not result we deserved, I was happy to show my strength — physically and mentally — to keep going and score important points for the team. Race two was a little more disappointing, but every outing is a new lesson in this car and the championship and I’m already looking forward to the next challenge.”
Round four of the 2025 GTWC Australia powered by AWS takes place at Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, over the weekend of 25-27 July.
