Mark is hoping for global success after achieving a perfect 10

MARK King is hoping to achieve success at world level this week when he travels to Valencia to compete in his second FIA Motorsport Games.

Having competed in the 2022 edition of the event in France, the Newmills man is keen to improve on the result he achieved at Circuit Paul Ricard when the action switches to Spain.

The autotest ace will go into the Games full of confidence after a hugely successful end to his regular season when he helped Northern Ireland win a 10th Ken Wharton Trophy in a row and a 40th overall last weekend.

Alongside Stewartstown’s Steven Ferguson, who won the top individual accolade in Worcestershire, Robin Lyons and Andrew Blair, Northern Ireland dominated proceedings to not only win the team title by a considerable margin, but they also won each of the individual class crowns in the process, while their B team of Castlederg’s Jack and Adam Lowry, Coagh’s Trevor Ferguson and George McMillan, came home fifth overall.

“It went as well as we could have hoped,” King beamed. “Steven got FTD (first overall), we got four class wins and a margin of 150 seconds, it’s an absolutely huge win.

“I think it’s the first time all of those have been done on the one day.”

Conditions at the Pear Tree Inn proved tricky initially last Saturday with rain leaving the tests slippery but as the weather improved and dry lines began to appear, Northern Ireland were able to put their feet down and charge to an emphatic triumph.

“It wasn’t until the afternoon that the whole car park dried out properly and everyone could get a bit of pace on,” King observed.

“The Northern Ireland A team, the four of us were in the top six, which shows how fast we were. Steven has won it nine times now, Robin nine times, I’ve won it eight times and that’s Andy Blair’s second time to win it, it was really, really good.”

With that goal achieved, King is now turning his attentions to success in Valencia where he will represent Motorsport UK in the Auto Slalom discipline alongside Tesa Whitock, which gets underway on Thursday.

As it’s a team event, success isn’t entirely in King’s hand and he will be reliant upon Whitock, who is primarily a drift driver, using her considerable skills in a style of motorsport that is much more similar to autotesting.

Fortunately, she has some experience in the discipline, having competed alongside King and Jack Lowry at the Taipei International Gymkhana Prize earlier this year.

“It’s entirely all or bust!,” King explained. “You have to go with the team and I think that is where some countries excel in that they have male and female competitors who are competitive in that discipline but I’m semi-confident because when we were in Taiwan she was quick enough.

“I’m looking forward to it and I’m indebted to Lowry Building and Civil Engineering for sponsoring me to get me down the road. I’m looking forward to going and hopefully it’s a good one.