{"id":350,"date":"2023-09-27T23:24:32","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T23:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/?p=350"},"modified":"2023-09-27T23:24:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T23:24:32","slug":"happy-ending-for-king-at-spa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/?p=350","title":{"rendered":"HAPPY ENDING FOR KING AT SPA"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took five rounds, but <\/span><\/span>George King <\/span><\/span>was finally able to shift a major monkey off his back with a first <\/span><\/span>Ligier European Series <\/span><\/span>victory of the season on what, at times, appeared to be a tough weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With tyre issues and monsoon conditions limiting the #60 Team Virage entry to a lowly \u2014 and unrepresentative \u2014 eighth on the grid, King and co-driver Bernardo Pinheiro knew they had their work cut out to make the podium in an increasingly-competitive prototype class, but were encouraged by the fact that the car appeared transformed ahead of the second hour-long encounter of the weekend.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Having qualified the #60 in torrential rain on Saturd<\/span><\/span>a<\/span><\/span>y, Pinheiro took the start and almost immediately made up four places, vaulting to fourth by the end of lap two, and then confidently despatching Virage team-mate and championship leader Mihnea Stefan before pitting for the mandatory driver change at half distance.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Once installed in the cockpit, King was pleased to find a better-handling car than he had had all weekend and, with the #60 having also gained a position during the pit-stop window, was able to put his foot down in pursuit of at least a podium finish. Unaware of his actual position in the order, the 22-year-old focused on not making any mistakes as he fought his way through traffic, eventually catching the leading Monza Garage machine and making short work of taking top spot with a move that began at Turn 9 and finished on the sweep through Pouhon.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

King's work was far from completed, however, as both team-mate Stefan and LR Motorsport's Simone Riccitelli continued to hound the #60, the Romanian again benefiting from driving solo and <\/span><\/span>having already acclimatised to track conditions<\/span><\/span>. Capitalising on his prowess through the slower traffic, King managed to extend his advantage and, with Stefan and Riccitelli then engaging in battle for second place, pulled away to the tune of six seconds \u2014 a margin he maintained to the chequered flag <\/span><\/span>to claim that long-awaited win.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"<\/i><\/span><\/span>Towards the end, the fuel warning popped up again <\/i><\/span><\/span>and, whilst that is <\/i><\/span><\/span>normal, <\/i><\/span><\/span>after<\/i><\/span><\/span> what happened a<\/i><\/span><\/span>t<\/i><\/span><\/span> Arag\u00f3n, <\/i><\/span><\/span>when the car stopped in sight of victory,<\/i><\/span><\/span> I wasn\u2019t taking any <\/i><\/span><\/span>chances<\/i><\/span><\/span> and <\/i><\/span><\/span>s<\/i><\/span><\/span>tarted fuel saving. <\/i><\/span><\/span>Fortunately, <\/i><\/span><\/span>I had enough of a lead to be able to do so,<\/i><\/span><\/span>\"<\/i><\/span><\/span> King smiled after the initial celebrations had died down.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"As soon as <\/i><\/span><\/span>I jumped in<\/i><\/span><\/span>to the car at the driver change, I<\/i><\/span><\/span> immediately noticed the difference in <\/i><\/span><\/span>how it was performing \u2014 i<\/i><\/span><\/span>t felt great again! We<\/i><\/span><\/span>'d<\/i><\/span><\/span> had to use ou<\/i><\/span><\/span>r<\/i><\/span><\/span> <\/i>'<\/i><\/span><\/span>joker<\/i><\/span><\/span>'<\/i><\/span><\/span> tyres for <\/i><\/span><\/span>this <\/i><\/span><\/span>race as we didn\u2019t want to risk <\/i><\/span><\/span>a repeat of the <\/i><\/span><\/span>tyre <\/i><\/span><\/span>issue<\/i><\/span><\/span>s <\/i><\/span><\/span>from earlier in the weekend, and it was good to<\/i><\/span><\/span> have some fresh rubber on the right-<\/i><\/span><\/span>hand<\/i><\/span><\/span> side of the car, which does a lot of work during the race <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"<\/i><\/span><\/span>I didn\u2019t know what position I <\/i><\/span><\/span>had <\/i><\/span><\/span>c<\/i><\/span><\/span>o<\/i><\/span><\/span>me out in <\/i><\/span><\/span>\u2014<\/i><\/span><\/span> and didn\u2019t hear it over the radio <\/i><\/span><\/span>\u2014 so I<\/i><\/span><\/span> just kept my head down and eyes forward. <\/i><\/span><\/span>Even after getting into the lead, though, <\/i><\/span><\/span>it was a challenge to try and drop <\/i><\/span><\/span>Minhea<\/i><\/span><\/span> and Ric<\/i><\/span><\/span>c<\/i><\/span><\/span>itelli <\/i><\/span><\/span>but, <\/i><\/span><\/span>after some moves through traffic, <\/i><\/span><\/span>everything settled down and I was over the moon to cross the line in P1. I was shouting over the radio with the team \u2014 it was an awesome moment \u2014 and the champagne shower felt even better from the top step!\"<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span><\/span>he breakthrough win came hours after Pinheiro <\/span><\/span>had guided the #60 Ligier through to fourth place in the opening race of the weekend. King started the race, frustrated with his qualifying performance which, as well as being interrupted by the inevitable Ardennes rain, saw the Briton fighting constant tyre woes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"We all pushed hard to try and set the best time as soon as possible, but my tyres felt like they never got up to temperature, meaning every other car had much more significant grip,\"<\/i><\/span><\/span> he noted.<\/span><\/span> \"I would be locking my front right wheel all the time and could not get a competitive time out of the car no matter how hard I tried \u2014 or how many different techniques I used \u2014 to try and make it comply. After the session, we found that the front right pressure had ballooned due to some moisture getting into the tyre, which caused the lock-ups as the contact patch became smaller.\"<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Finding the #60 developing<\/span><\/span> the same issue <\/span><\/span>from the start of the race \u2014 making the car difficult to steer as it gained increasingly<\/span><\/span> severe understeer <\/span><\/span>\u2014 King was powerless to either <\/span><\/span>defend or attack.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"<\/i><\/span><\/span>We were <\/i><\/span><\/span>super s<\/i><\/span><\/span>low and it <\/i><\/span><\/span>made for<\/i><\/span><\/span> a painful first half of the race knowing <\/i><\/span><\/span>that<\/i><\/span><\/span> I was off the pace but not d<\/i><\/span><\/span>own<\/i><\/span><\/span> to my abilities,<\/i><\/span><\/span>\"<\/i><\/span><\/span> he lamented. <\/span><\/span>\"<\/i><\/span><\/span>When we <\/i><\/span><\/span>pitt<\/i><\/span><\/span>ed for the driver changed, the team decided to change the tyres to the brand new set we <\/i><\/span><\/span>had <\/i><\/span><\/span>saved from qualifying when Bernardo <\/i><\/span><\/span>had to <\/i><\/span><\/span>use <\/i><\/span><\/span>full<\/i><\/span><\/span> wets. <\/i><\/span><\/span>While this <\/i><\/span><\/span>allow<\/i><\/span><\/span>ed<\/i><\/span><\/span> us to <\/i><\/span><\/span>solve the tyre problem, it still wasn't ideal as had <\/i><\/span><\/span>wanted to save them for <\/i><\/span><\/span>r<\/i><\/span><\/span>ace <\/i><\/span><\/span>two<\/i><\/span><\/span> like everyone else.<\/i><\/span><\/span>\"<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It proved to be<\/span><\/span> a good call from the team, <\/span><\/span>as <\/span><\/span>Bernardo <\/span><\/span>revelled in the change to the handling and <\/span><\/span>moved all the way up to <\/span><\/span>fourth place,<\/span><\/span> salvaging good points and <\/span><\/span>finishing<\/span><\/span> ahead of the other teams fighting for P2 in the championship.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"<\/i><\/span><\/span>The weekend was certainly up and down,\"<\/i><\/span><\/span> King concluded, <\/span><\/span>\"but there w<\/i><\/span><\/span>as <\/i><\/span><\/span>still <\/i><\/span><\/span>a big celebration as <\/i><\/span><\/span>M<\/i><\/span><\/span>ihnea <\/i><\/span><\/span>was <\/i><\/span><\/span>officially <\/i><\/span><\/span>confirmed as champion with a round still to run. O<\/i><\/span><\/span>ur first win <\/i><\/span><\/span>\u2014<\/i><\/span><\/span> which we so deserved after our horrid luck this season <\/i><\/span><\/span>\u2014 also felt like we'd achieved something major, so thank you to all our sponsors and even bigger thanks<\/i><\/span><\/span> to the team, who didn\u2019t stop <\/i><\/span><\/span>even during<\/i><\/span><\/span> <\/i>the <\/i><\/span><\/span>very late nights <\/i><\/span><\/span>they had to work<\/i><\/span><\/span> this weekend. <\/i><\/span><\/span>Now let's go secure a championship 1-2!\"<\/i><\/span><\/span> <\/i><\/p>\n

The<\/span><\/span> sixth and final round<\/span><\/span> of the Ligier European Series takes place at <\/span><\/span>Portimao in Portugal<\/span><\/span> over the weekend of <\/span><\/span>19-22<\/span><\/span> Octo<\/span><\/span>ber.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took five rounds, but George King was finally able to shift a major monkey off his back with a first Ligier European Series victory of the season on what, at times, appeared to be a tough weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. With tyre issues and monsoon conditions limiting the #60 Team Virage entry to a lowly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[28,6,26,8,22,38,25,29,39],"class_list":["post-350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-race-report","tag-28","tag-george-king","tag-ligier","tag-ligier-european-series","tag-podium","tag-race-win","tag-spa-francorchamps","tag-team-virage","tag-victory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions\/357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}