{"id":497,"date":"2025-06-16T00:40:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T00:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/?p=497"},"modified":"2025-06-16T00:40:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T00:40:48","slug":"king-strong-arms-sixths-in-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/?p=497","title":{"rendered":"KING STRONG ARMS SIXTHS IN QUEENSLAND"},"content":{"rendered":"

Results may not have gone the way of his Tigani Motorsport entry at Queensland Raceway<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>but <\/span><\/span>Britiain\u2019s George King <\/span><\/span>showed his endurance credentials with two battling performances in the #55 Geyer Valmont Mercedes-AMG GT3.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Although the circuit nicknamed \u2018the paperclip\u2019 was another new challenge for King, he at least had the benefit of testing there several weeks before round three of the <\/span><\/span>GTWC Australia <\/span><\/span>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 \u2014 and turned on the taps!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was torrential rain and, had it been in Europe, I honestly think it would have been red-flagged from the beginning,\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span> King opined. <\/span><\/span>\u201cWe\u2019d 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\u2019t too upset about.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s pair of races.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pires started the first of the weekend\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was clearly faster than the car I was chasing, and only had to wait for his drive-thru\u2019 penalty to move back into second position, but the pump failed \u2014 and handed me the hardest half-hour of driving I\u2019ve ever had to do,\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span> the Briton confirmed. <\/span><\/span>\u201cI had the worst \u2018arm pump\u2019 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\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that point on, it was simply a recovery drive,\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span> the 24-year-old sighed. <\/span><\/span>\u201cFrom 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 \u2014 again!<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDespite 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 \u2014 and, overall, I\u2019m 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\u2019m willing to push myself. Although not result we deserved, I was happy to show my strength \u2014 physically and mentally \u2014 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\u2019m already looking forward to the next challenge.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Round <\/span><\/span>four<\/span><\/span> of the 2025 GTWC Australia powered by AWS takes place at <\/span><\/span>Sandown<\/span><\/span> Raceway, <\/span><\/span>near Melbourne,<\/span><\/span> over the weekend of <\/span><\/span>25-27 July<\/span><\/span>.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Results may not have gone the way of his Tigani Motorsport entry at Queensland Raceway, but Britiain\u2019s George King showed his endurance credentials with two battling performances in the #55 Geyer Valmont Mercedes-AMG GT3. Although the circuit nicknamed \u2018the paperclip\u2019 was another new challenge for King, he at least had the benefit of testing there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[6,59,62,67,57],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-race-report","tag-george-king","tag-gtwc-australia","tag-mercedes-amg","tag-queensland-raceway","tag-tigani-motorsport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","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=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}