King shines for Team GB in France

WHILE slightly disappointed not to have come home from the FIA Motorsport Games with a medal, Mark King thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Great Britain team at Circuit Paul Ricard last week.

The Newmills man, who is best known for his autotesting skills, teamed up with Laura Christmas to make up GB’s Autoslalom team, who took on the best of the rest of the world during three days of intense competition in the heat of the South of France where the fire proof suits and other safety gear made driving all the more difficult.

King, who quickly adapted to competing in a left hand drive car for the first time, certainly did his part, finishing as the fastest individual on two days and he was fourth on the other as GB narrowly missed out on a place in the last-eight shoot-out.

The pair battled through the qualifying section of the event to finish 12th, which meant they had to take on fifth placed Israel in the top-16 knockout section and they looked on course to seal a place in the quarter-finals after King produced two stunning drives to build up a more than 15 seconds advantage!

Unfortunately, Christmas was unable to match her team-mate’s pace, losing all but 0.1 of a second of their advantage over her two runs before clipping a cone towards the end of her second test, which meant GB were eliminated by just over three seconds.

And while a little disappointed by the manner of their departure from the competition, King was pleased with his own performance and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the FIA Motorsport Games as a whole.

“Seventh wasn’t really what I was hoping for but it was a great experience,” King acknowledged.

“It was an absolutely amazing experience. To be in a team – every time we weren’t competing we were watching another competitor doing their discipline and when they weren’t competing they were watching you compete – it felt really good to be in a UK squad type thing.

“It was unbelievable walking around in your suit, with your gear on and people look at you and you feel like a superstar.

“You may not be but you feel like one if that makes sense.

“It’s one of those things, it doesn’t matter what discipline you’re in, you feel like you’re part of the big show, which is nice.”

With his competitive season now at an end, King may widen his motorsport horizons beyond autotesting in 2023 after having ‘a fire lit’ in France.

“It’s given me a bit of a taste to maybe do something else,” he explained. “You see all the circuit guys, you see all the rallying and it lights a bit of fire that you maybe didn’t have before, which is nice.

“I now have purchased all the gear to do a rally, a sprint, the only thing I don’t have is a HANS device, but everything else I’ve had to purchase anyway to compete in France – suit, underwear, everything – so I’m fully kitted out.

“So, it’s either a sprint or a hillclimb to try and see if we can show them what it’s all about because I think the skills are transferable.”