KING ON THE PODIUM IN LMP3 DEBUT

Luke King on the podium in his LMP3 debut – Photo: Supplied

Australian Luke King has finished on the podium in the opening round of the FRD LMP3 China Endurance Series over the weekend.

The Toyota 86 Series racer received a last-minute call up to join Team FFS to drive one of their Marvel themed Liger Onroak Nissan’s at the Tianjin Circuit in China.

After receiving the call Australian based Brit James Winslow on Tuesday, King raised the funds to cover his travel and then flew to China on Thursday night to compete in the event.

“I booked flights Thursday arvo and Liz Dad and I flew out on Thursday night,” said King after the event.

“We did 3 hours of track study on the plane for the recently completed Tianjin Circuit, which is part permanent circuit part street circuit.”

“It’s a very very challenging track. High grip on the permanent and very low grip on the street circuit. Some track repairs had happened between Asian GT3 round 2 weeks ago. The track was such a blast to drive but some parts of the surface were breaking up and in the LMP3 cars it felt as if we were going over speed humps at the local supermarket!”

“We were teammates with James all weekend and we shared data, track knowledge and a hotel room. It was an extremely valuable weekend for me to team with such an experienced knowledgeable driver and learn from his success. He has an unbeaten record at Tianjin.”

“We were also up against some stiff competition in professional China Touring Car Driver ‘Rainey He’ who has a great knowledge of the circuit and cars, as well as a star appearance from Aaron Kwok, who is basically China’s Tom Cruise!”

King’s weekend was a little unsettled, with the car he was scheduled to drive, running an Iron Man inspired livery, suffering ongoing fuel issues.

Despite the issues King qualified third, behind Winslow’s who took pole and Chinese driver Rainey He.

A last-minute switch after further issues on the grid, saw King drive the teams Black Panther liveried car, which he used to great effect. Launching from the start he slotted into second straight away and maintained that position for the duration of the race.

Winslow took the win, while Rainey He completed the podium.

“Over the 22 lap race we managed to stay with Winslow before rear tire deg saw us drop the pace and battle with Rainey.” said King.

“It was a matter of getting the car to the finish in the end as the heat was getting to all aspects of the car, tires, brakes and engine cooling.”

“We managed to come out on the second step of the podium next to our teammate Winslow as the second Pro of the round.”

“Such a great result and last-minute experience. So glad we jumped at the opportunity and stopped everything to go abroad.”

King is now looking at his options to continue to compete in the remaining rounds of the FRD Chinese Endurance Series.

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