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Pressure eased for Luke King after podium result
Hyundai’s strong record at Sydney Motorsport Park continued last round as HMO Customer Racing took two victories and privateer squad DashSport made its maiden podium appearance as Luke King finished second in Race 2.
King missed the opening two rounds, but returned at Bathurst driving the DashSport privateer Hyundai i30 N TCR previously raced by team owner and the unrelated Michael King.
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Featuring continued backing from Moutai and new supporter ZIPPAY, King had never driven the Hyundai before Bathurst as he eyed a strong result at Sydney Motorsport Park.
With supporters eager for results after his strong debut season last year, King was excited to deliver at his home circuit as he finished second in Race 2 and just missed out on a podium in the final in a spirited battle with Jordan Cox.
“I was pretty stoked about that,” said King.
“Definitely the pressure has been on considering what we gave to the sponsors last year in terms of multiple podium finishes and a series fight.
“To tick that off the list in a car I had only driven twice, I’m pretty happy with that.”
King’s transition from last year’s Melbourne Performance Centre-prepared Audi to the Hyundai has been an eye opening experience.
“The interesting thing for me is how different a car can be with a similar wheelbase, front-wheel-drive, with a locked diff can be to another,” King explained.
“I really thought that there was a driving style to a TCR car in general, but I didn’t realise it switched from model-to-model, I thought it would be much the same. The Hyundai has proven that not to be the case.
“It’s quite stable through the high speed stuff compared to the Audi, which was quite twitchy as last year through Turn 1 at Sydney Motorsport Park it was a battle to hold onto.
“This year we saw Browny (Will Brown) drift through Turn 1 and the Hyundai is definitely not like that.”
Support from factory supported squad and inaugural series winner HMO Customer Racing has aided in King’s rapid learning.
“I’ve got to give some credit to HMO Customer Racing because the team has been a great help to me as I’ve tried to get to grips with the i30N,” said King.
“When I was getting this deal together, I had said I wanted some HMO input and HMO has been really good with all of that.
“There’s certainly more from us to come throughout the season and the more we get to know the package, the better we’re going to be so I can’t wait for Queensland Raceway.”