George King returned to the top step of an international sportscar racing podium at the first attempt in 2023, sharing the winning car on his Ultimate Cup Series debut at Paul Ricard.
For the young Briton — already a champion in the Gulf Radical Cup and a frontrunner in the Ligier European Series — the event was also another step up the endurance racing ladder as he made his LMP3 class debut alongside European Le Mans Series pilot Manuel Espírito Santo and 2023 Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 runner-up Vyacheslav Gutak in the #14 Team Virage Ligier JS P320.
The value of having experienced team-mates, as well as a frontrunning team and established driver coach James Winslow, on hand was evident as King settled into his new surroundings over two days of pre-event testing, which not only included the usual set-up and track learning challenges, but also the 22-year-old's first sports prototype laps under the cover of darkness. Despite the amount he had to learn, King adapted and acquitted himself well, improving his technique and shaving seconds off his lap times in the process.
The ability to learn quickly was then put to the test almost as soon as the weekend's competition began, with King finding himself in the same qualifying group as the majority of the series' pro drivers. Once more, however, he showed his natural ability by posting a respectable sixth fastest time which, when allied to the best efforts from both team-mates, was enough to put the Team Virage car on pole.
"My first-ever weekend in an LMP3 could have been daunting, but I felt ready to take on the challenge thanks to my team, team-mates and coach," King noted. "After a lot of work prepping the car and learning the track, I then had to drive it in darkness, which was exciting. Having had some night racing experience from competing in the Dubai 24 Hours, I was happy to be able to show pace and consistency in that session, just as I was to post the sixth-best time in my qualifying session the following day, despite being up against some extremely quick pro drivers such as Matt Bell and Mathias Beche. Naturally, the team was super happy to then land pole position thanks to rapid laps from my two team-mates."
Content with being thrown in at the deep end, King also accepted the challenge of starting the race, despite it being his first in the powerful LMP3 category. A good start was slightly negated as the other car on the front row cut across the #14's bows into Turn 1, causing King to drive more cautiously as he assessed any possible damage to the Team Virage machine. Having dropped several seconds behind the leader — but holding the rest of the field in his mirrors — the youngster eventually made the most of his growing confidence and warming tyres to post faster and faster laps, quickly chipping away at the deficit as he expertly managed the traffic to be just a single tick adrift as first place dived for the pit-lane.
King remained on track for a further four laps as the new leader of the race, bringing the car in for Team Virage's first driver change in first position and with the fastest race lap to that point. While the lap time would eventually be beaten towards the end of the race when the pro drivers went out with light fuel loads and a very grippy track surface, Team Virage would not be headed again, eventually romping to a 30-second margin of victory after incident-free runs for both other drivers.
"It was a difficult race because we had to be faultless as a team, especially with our mandatory pit-stop times being 20+ seconds longer than many others due to our driver gradings," King pointed out. "However, everyone performed seamlessly, with Manuel and Vyacheslav completing perfect stints to bring home the win.
"Starting a race was nothing new as I had done it plenty of times in Radicals, but now, being in a proper bit of racing machinery, I'll admit that the nerves started to kick in. However, that probably made me perform better and, after the slight incident at Turn 1, I just settled into a rhythm and put the car where it needed to be ahead of the stops.
"Overall, I’m super happy with how this weekend has gone and how much I learned and improved. From the beginning of the weekend to the end, I shaved almost five seconds off my lap time, which is insane! Hopefully we can hit the ground running at round two and enjoy more of the same."
King's next outing is at the opening round of the Ligier European Series at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona in Spain over the weekend of 21-22 April.
