A tough weekend on the perimeter roads of the equine racecourse at Sandown Park reminded George King just how competitive the GTWC Australia championship can be, but the Briton continues to accumulate vital experience to carry into both the remaining rounds and whatever the future may hold.
As with every other venue this season, the race weekend at Sandown was King’s first outing on the unique circuit, which features a range of tarmac surfaces thanks to various upgrades carried out over the years, as well as some notoriously …. walls that await with very little run-off. The 24-year-old was given the opening laps of first practice as a sighter, gradually increasing his pace as he became more accustomed to the layout, before handing the wheel to co-driver Sergio Pires. Unfortunately for the pairing, and more so for their #55 Geyer Valmont Mercedes-AMG GT3, the Australian suffered an off at T1 that resulted in heavy contact with the tyre barrier and an early end to their session.
King was back in the cockpit for the start of second practice after Team Tigani worked strenuously to get the car repaired, and focused on ensuring the predominantly-yellow machine was in good order before Pires took over. While the Briton reported that the repaired #55 felt ‘loose’ compared to previous outings, and made appropriate setup tweaks ahead of Pre-Qualifying later in the day, the handling was almost the complete opposite in the final session.
“We put the loose feeling down to track conditions as a number of other teams were reporting the same thing,” King explained, “but, come Pre-Qualifying, we were fighting with a massively oversteering car. Once the team had had a proper chance to check the setup at the end of the day, they discovered that multiple things were wrong, including a broken splitter — which at least explained the inconsistency of the oversteer.”
With the car returned to the ‘safe’ setup used in opening practice, King set about the all-important qualifying session still trying to put a perfect lap together, but his efforts were hampered by a red flag stoppage midway through what was already a short session. Despite the interruption causing his tyres to cool, the Briton still posted a best time just a couple of tenths off veteran V8 Supercar champions who knew the venue intimately.
Further changes were made to the setup in a bid to improve the handling and performance ahead of the first race of the weekend, and Pires was able to hang onto the lead group having moved up to fourth following a good getaway, and handed over to his young team-mate with the #55 still in contention. King didn’t allow his inexperience to show as he held position with seasoned pros breathing down his neck, but was still learning the nuances of the Geyer Valmont machine and its revised setup in the heat of battle, and eventually came home in fifth place, right behind the sister Tigani entry with its AMG factory driver at the wheel.
Keen to employ what he had learned from race one, King was eager to hit the track for the second leg of the event — only for the heavens to open and throw in the added hurdle of a first-ever wet race at the wheel of a GT3 machine. Again, the Briton belied his lack of experience to hold position throughout his stint and hand the car over to Pires with a chance of a strong result, only for misfortune to strike in pit-lane when a timing error released the #55 before the end of the mandated service period, leading to a drive-thru’ penalty that took the car out of contention and left Pires to cross the line in ninth position.
“Definitely a weekend to forget,” King sighed later. “Right from the off, things didn’t seem to be going our way, so it’s one to consign to the rear view mirror while we set our sights on the final two rounds of the season. There was still a lot that I learned this weekend, and I’ll put that to good use in order to maximise my learning for the remainder of this year and to take with me into the future.”
Round five of the 2025 GTWC Australia powered by AWS takes place at the evocatively-named Bend Motorsport Park, in South Australia, over the weekend of 5-7 September.
