{"id":52,"date":"2022-05-17T14:43:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T14:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/?p=52"},"modified":"2022-06-08T15:44:43","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T15:44:43","slug":"king-extends-podium-streak-to-seven-at-imola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/?p=52","title":{"rendered":"KING EXTENDS PODIUM STREAK TO SEVEN AT IMOLA"},"content":{"rendered":"

George King\u00a0<\/span><\/span>stood on the podium for a seventh successive event at round two of the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Ligier European Series over the weekend,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>but left the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari insisting that he wanted more<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span><\/span>he rising British sportscar talent added a third top three finish \u2014 from four races \u2014 to his early Ligier tally, continuing his run of podium appearances from a successful winter in the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Gulf Radical Cup,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>where he comfortably claimed his first motorsport title.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>However, the 21-year-old Essex native was quick to identify areas where he could have improved his Italian weekend behind the wheel of the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Monza Garage team's\u00a0<\/span><\/span>JSP4 prototype.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With King s<\/span><\/span>haring driving duties\u00a0<\/span><\/span>alongside<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Italian\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Ronnie Valori,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the #23 machine was a consistent fourth-fastest through the two free practice sessions that opened the weekend, and rose briefly to claim third spot in the first of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Friday's\u00a0<\/span><\/span>two qualifying sessions, b<\/span><\/span>efore reverting to the outside of row two in the second.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"<\/em><\/span><\/span>Imola is a mega track to drive, but also very challenging,<\/em><\/span><\/span>\"<\/em><\/span><\/span>\u00a0King noted.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\"It was my first ever visit to the circuit and, with less than an hour's practice, I probably shouldn't be too upset about the results we got in qualifying, especially with less than two years\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>of racing\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>under my belt and going up against far more experienced drivers,\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>many of whom had the chance to test the car over the winter<\/em><\/span><\/span>.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>W<\/em><\/span><\/span>e\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>just<\/em><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>struggled to\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>unlock the<\/em><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>potential\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>pace\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>of<\/em><\/span><\/span>\u00a0the car\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>and that confined us to row two for both races.\"<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

O<\/span><\/span>pening a packed programme of sportscar racing on Saturday morning, the Ligier series again put on an exciting encounter, with multiple lead changes and a late podium charge from the Monza Garage duo. The #23 car conceded a spot in the opening lap mel<\/span><\/span>\u00e9<\/span><\/span>e but then held fourth place through to the mid-race pit-stop window. Once the driver change shuffle had worked itself out, however, King and Valori\u00a0<\/span><\/span>found themselves in position to challenge for the top three, eventually claiming the final step of the podium eight laps from the chequered flag.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Race two told a similar story only, this time, it was the Monza Garage duo being denied further silverware as a recovery drive saw the #23 passed for third a few laps from home. Again running fourth on the road through to the mandatory pit-stop, the striking black-and-blue machine was twice elevated to third in the second half of the race, only to fall back with five laps to run.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Of course, I'm happy with another podium, but\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>I'm equally\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span>frustrated it wasn\u2019t more,\"<\/em><\/span><\/span>\u00a0King reflected.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\"Imola took my streak of having at least one podium to seven consecutive race meetings this year, and that's not a bad streak to have. Thanks to my team-mate for a mega drive this weekend, and to Monza Garage for a great effort in ensuring we again had a car that could contend for the podium.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Overall, I\u2019m pretty happy with the result, especially considering the pace of the car this weekend and the levels I\u2019ve jumped since starting my racing career, but I'm always looking \u2014 and working \u2014 for more. I got used to that winning feeling in the Gulf Radical Cup and I really want to experience it again in the Ligier European Series. Our full focus is now on the next round, the biggest one of the season, in support of the Le Mans 24 Hours. That would be a special place to put my sponsors Goldcrest Oil, Blue Ocean Yacht Supply and BCG Investments back on the top step of the podium!\"<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

R<\/span><\/span>ound t<\/span><\/span>hree<\/span><\/span>\u00a0of the Ligier European Series takes place at the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Circuit de la Sarthe<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Le Mans<\/span><\/span>\u00a0over the weekend of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>8-11<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>June<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George King\u00a0stood on the podium for a seventh successive event at round two of the\u00a0Ligier European Series over the weekend,\u00a0but left the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari insisting that he wanted more. The rising British sportscar talent added a third top three finish \u2014 from four races \u2014 to his early Ligier tally, continuing his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10,6,9,8,7],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-race-report","tag-10","tag-george-king","tag-imola","tag-ligier-european-series","tag-monza-garage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","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=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/54"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkracing.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}