George King again resisted the will of Lady Luck to maintain his hold on top spot in the 2021-22 Gulf Radical Cup standings as the series returned to the Yas Marina Circuit for round five.
With the unfortunate cancellation of the scheduled seventh and final round in Qatar, the GRC timetables for rounds five and six were restructured to ensure drivers received the promised amount of track time, providing King with an extra event in Abu Dhabi with which to bolster his points lead. Not being one to waste an opportunity, the young Briton opened the event with a new lap record of 1min 56.890secs in qualifying for the sprint races, crossing the line a full 0.6secs faster than Alex Bukhantsov, with Team JWR partner Ian Loggie in third.
Come the race, however, King found his hands full as series returnee Ramez Azzam made a good start and led the field at the end of the opening lap. While King was able to remain right with the UAE ace, they proved to be so well-matched that a passing opportunity failed to materialise, leaving the yellow SR3 XX to settle for second at the chequered flag.
This was where Lady Luck intervened for the first time, the stewards adjudging that King — and fellow front row starter Bukhantsov — had gained an advantage by running off-track at the start of the race, demoted the Briton to third place, behind title rival Loggie. The pair were left to battle over second spot in the ensuing sprint event too, with King coming out on top to redress the points balance as Bukhantsov took the win.
The following day held two endurance races rather than the usual one, with the longer event from round seven being added to the schedule. This time, qualifying didn't quite go to plan for King, but he claimed third and second on the grid nonetheless, keeping himself in the hunt for valuable points.
Although he had qualified outside of the top, Azzam again threw a spanner in the works of the title contenders by vaulting into the lead, with King following him through to claim second spot, ahead of Loggie and James Sweetnam. Despite the positions remaining unchanged through the opening part of the race, the pit-stop window reshuffled the order, with Loggie initially taking over in second spot. Once he had assumed the lead, both King and Sweetnam began swarming over Ian Roberts, who had taken over from Azzam. Unfortunately for King, the battle got a little too close for comfort, with heavy contact eventually forcing the #14 machine into a rare retirement.
There was contact at the start of the second endurance race as well but, this time, it was behind King and, once the safety crews had done their job, it was the yellow Team JWR machine that assumed the lead. With team-mate Loggie carrying the 15-second pit-stop handicap for winning the previous enduro event, King — enjoying a trouble-free run out front — was able to consolidate his advantage and eventually claim his tenth win of the winter season to carry a 73-point lead into the final round. However, with double points on offer in Dubai, and four sprint races plus an enduro on the slate, the title is far from settled.
"Probably not as good as the other weekends we've had this season, but you’ve got to look at the positives," King insisted. "We got double pole for both Saturday sprint races and followed that up with another win, so it's not all bad. Indeed, I've still got a 100% podium record for every race I’ve finished, even though I was given a silly ten-second penalty for avoiding a collision and 'overtaking off track' in race one!
"Qualifying for the enduros on Sunday was poor by my standards, but we still managed to get a win — and I was looking good for a solid second place in the first endurance race when I was rear-ended and had to DNF. The racing is getting closer each time we go out and, while that makes it exciting on track, it means that we're going to need a few more wins yet to put this title to bed."
The sixth and final round of the Gulf Radical Cup takes place at Dubai Autodrome this weekend (11-13 March).
