King’s delighted to retain his Team UK spot

NEWMILLS driver Mark King was relieved and delighted in equal measure when Motorsport UK confirmed he had retained his place in the FIA Motorsport Games squad for 2022.

The autotest expert had qualified for the second ever games a year ago but when they were cancelled due to Covid he thought his opportunity was lost.

Not so, however, as Motorsport UK confirmed late last week that King was one of eight members of last year’s team to be retained for the 2022 event in France this coming October 26th to 30th when he will compete with Laura Christmas in the Auto Slalom competition at Circuit Paul Ricard.

“We’re going now!,” he beamed. “It’s an unbelievable relief because I was worried that I had spent a lot of time and money to get qualified in the first place, so I was a wee bit worried that they were going to start afresh, but they haven’t done that thankfully.”

Prior to his international debut for Team UK, Mark will finish his Northern Ireland Autotest Championship campaign with the Dungannon Motor Club round at Loughry Campus in August.

And while he admits his 2022 season hasn’t gone quite as he would have hoped, he feels the corner has been turned and a bright finish awaits.

“It’s been a season of ups and downs so far, but I did a rebuild on the car before the season and through mistakes of my own it hasn’t been 100 per cent right,” he explained.

“It’s been a fixing match since then to now but in the last round or two we have come on song and we’ve been very close and by the end of the season it will all come right.

“I’m happy enough with third overall and consecutively being close to first in class in recent rounds has been good, I’m happy with it.”

Between now and King’s departure to France in October, he’s hoping to raise funds to support his bid to impress on the world stage by contacting the ANICC, the local council and by hosting a fundraising evening.

“I’ve put a lot of cash behind this thing,” he confirmed. “My entire year of motorsport might cost me about £3,000, but this is costing about £4,000, it’s a whole different ball game.

“The entry fee alone is £1,000, so I think Grace [his wife and Dungannon Motor Club secretary] is going to help me arrange a fundraising night to try to have a bit of a night’s craic and raise some funds in the process.”