An enforced change of co-driver did little to halt George King’s pursuit of a top five championship finish in the GTWC Australia series, as he maintained his 100 percent scoring record at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park.
The Briton had scored in each double-header outing through four rounds, but headed to the South Australian circuit colloquially known as ‘The Bend’ without regular team-mate Sergio Pires, who had to be replaced by former Tigani Motorsport pilot Marcel Zalloua after failing to recover from a knee injury. Although the outing would be Zalloua’s first appearance in the GTWC series since May, he ended that weekend with a podium finish in the #44 Geyer Valmont Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO from Sydney Motorsport Park and, as Pires’ co-driver in last season’s run to the AM-class title, ensured a like-for-like substitution alongside the less-experienced King, who had not had the chance to drive the circuit prior to race weekend.
As a result, the 24-year-old again spent a large part of the pre-event test acclimatising to the 18-turn International Circuit layout, consistently lowering his best time to find himself mixing in with the assorted factory ‘pro’ drivers and V8 Supercar regulars who were effectively racing ‘in their back yard’. Despite being buoyed by his performance, however, King was still up against it in a short qualifying session that only allowed a couple of windows for the perfect lap — something neither he nor Zalloua were able to produce.
“Testing went well and I thought we were looking good for qualifying, but the short session meant there were only had a couple of laps to put it all together,” the erstwhile Radical and Ultimate Cup champion confirmed. “As I was still learning from the data we’d gathered from the practice sessions, it was hard enough to put a perfect lap together and a small mistake cost a chunk of time on my best lap.”
Poor qualifying results from both drivers in a highly-competitive field left the #55 Geyer Valmont Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO mired mid-grid for the weekend’s two races, with King posting the ninth-fastest time in the first session and Zalloua tenth next time out. The veteran, however, kept his nose clean in the opening stint of race one, climbing to seventh on the road before handing over to King, who rejoined in fifth place courtesy of the leading cars taking ‘success penalties’ in the form of additional time at their pit-stops.
With 29 seconds to make up on fourth place, however, the Briton didn’t have enough track time to improve the #55’s position any further, but at least had the satisfaction of closing the gap over the duration of his stint, before dropping back again in order to let Tigani team-mate Jayden Ojeda — who remains in contention for the overall title and had been closing on King after fitting fresh tyres at his pit-stop — claim vital extra points.
“It was fun racing with Jayden but, at the end of the day, we’re not fighting them for a championship position, so I didn’t make it crazy hard for him to pass,” King admitted. “It wouldn’t have been that way had it not been a Tigani car, and finishing sixth from tenth after a clean race was still a good result.”
With the driving order reversed for race two, King got the start and made a good job of sticking with the lead group before being held up by a slower car. Once past, however, the Briton homed back in on those at the head of the field, rising to fifth place before the end of his stint — only for his work to be undone when, shortly after a safety car had bunched the field, Zalloua was hit by another competitor. With minor damage to the #55 Mercedes, the Australian — co-founder of team sponsor Valmont — struggled to achieve maximum pace but slotted into sixth place and remained there until the chequered flag as the crew waited to hear the stewards’ decision on potential penalties.
“Marcel had a good restart, but was clearly knocked out of the way by the #1 car,” King explained. “Rightly, they got a 15-second penalty for the incident — to add to a similar penalty from another earlier in the race — so we were promoted back to fifth position, which is no more than we deserved. Knowing that we could have potentially challenged for the podium stings a little, but I’m happy to have taken another step forward in my own performance, especially in race two, where I was catching Jordan Love’s Ferrari before everyone’s pace plateaued out.
“This is one of the most difficult, technical circuits on the calendar, but one which most of the other drivers know extremely well. They’re also in action in other series and racing almost every weekend of the season, whereas I’m only out in this championship, so only get to practice and develop once a month at best. Thanks to Marcel, the team and the sponsors for their efforts in chasing that elusive podium this weekend — we’ll keep fighting. Onto the next...”
With Pires likely to be fit to resume co-driver duties alongside him for the sixth and final round of the 2025 GTWC Australia powered by AWS season, King heads across the Tasman Sea to Hampton Downs, in New Zealand, over the weekend of 31 October – 2 November. The Briton currently holds sixth place in the drivers’ standings, but is just five points off fifth and eight from the top four. Tigani Motorsport sits third overall in the teams’ championship.
