McKenna Fights Forward In Tight Silverstone Scraps

BRDC Rising Star Scott McKenna fought back from a difficult qualifying to claim a brace of top-seven finishes at Silverstone and keep in the hunt for a strong finish in his maiden Porsche Carrera Cup GB season.

The North Yorkshire rookie looked to bounce back from narrowly missing out on a podium finish a week prior at Thruxton, and testing times showed promise for the Redline Racing driver earlier in the week.

McKenna sat second in the times in mixed conditions at the shorter National layout of the famous Northampton circuit, matching his strong pace shown in testing prior to the season back in the spring.

While Friday brought optimism, Saturday’s qualifying session was another tightly-bunched affair. Unfortunately, track limits were the talking point for many, McKenna among those to have had times deleted during the session as he qualified ninth on the grid, despite being a mere 0.3s from pole position.

The first of two 27-lap races took place later that Saturday afternoon, with the Teessider fully focused on recovering ground at the 1.64-mile circuit. A good getaway gave the 19-year-old his shot at recovering places, and he duly made his way up two spots to seventh place by the time the safety car emerged to slow the field after an incident further back in the field.

On the restart, McKenna latched into an entertaining seven-car battle for second spot. The rookie tailed team-mate Matty Graham and moved ahead of Josh Webster through a time penalty for the latter to climb into the top six, briefly losing out to Mark Kimber late on.

McKenna would not be denied however, snatching the spot back with a fine move to seal a hard-fought sixth spot, narrowly missing out on the reverse grid pole position for race two the following day.

McKenna’s Porsche 911 started sixth in front of the ITV2 cameras on Sunday and looked to have moved up to fifth as the Redline racer nosed inside Will Martin at Becketts. Stuck on the wrong side heading into Brooklands, a tag from Webster sent McKenna wide and down to eighth place as he recovered well from the unplanned sideways moment.

Determined to recover, McKenna settled into the race and soon caught up to Sam MacLeod, lunging inside his rival at Becketts successfully to grab seventh place. Chasing Kimber to the flag, last year’s Ginetta GT5 Challenge champion just missed out in another tight race, finishing only four seconds from the podium.

Salvaging solid points keeps McKenna sitting fifth in the overall Carrera Cup GB standings with third place still well within sight, also remaining a comfortable third in the rookie standings with four races remaining.

McKenna next heads to the Snetterton 300 circuit in Norfolk for the latest pair of races on 24/25 October, a track he won at in Ginettas last year in front of the BTCC crowds. Races will be broadcast LIVE on ITV in support of the British Touring Car Championship.

Scott McKenna (#82 Redline Racing):
“We started well and showed great pace in our cars throughout testing. We went into the weekend knowing that we could fight towards the front again.

“Saturday unfortunately was a tough day for us and it started with qualifying. We were all so close, but a few lap times taken off us meant we got a late time to our name which left us playing catch up.

“In both races we were in the fight, but it’s hard to overtake cleanly around here when there’s not much in it. I got a few chances and had a great battle with Mark in the first race, then almost grabbed fifth at the start of the second before we were eased out and had to fight back again.

“Snetterton has been kind to me in recent years so I hope it’s the same again this year! We’ve again shown we can be up there, so I’ll be focusing on a good qualifying to get us back in the hunt for trophies.”

Photos: Dan Bathie/Porsche GB

Promise, Pace And Points For McKenna In Brands Hatch Battles

BRDC Rising Star Scott McKenna was denied more Rookie Cup silverware by misfortune in the BTCC-supporting Porsche Carrera Cup GB championship at Brands Hatch GP last weekend (8/9 August).

The North Yorkshire youngster entered the famous Kent circuit keen to kick on from an eye-opening maiden weekend at Donington Park where he picked up a podium finish for fellow Teesside-based team, Redline Racing.

Last year’s Ginetta GT5 Challenge champion started strongly in official testing on Friday, trading the top spot with Northumberland team-mate Matty Graham to put himself in the mix for a good showing in qualifying the following day.

Qualifying became a tight affair for the field, with rookie McKenna battling inside the top six throughout. Despite a late charge in scorching temperatures, the Eighty One Powerdrink, Rocket Medical and Watchgecko-backed driver finished sixth by the end of the session but only a mere 0.123s from sealing a front row spot.

On Sunday, McKenna arrived ready to make up that time in the day’s two races alongside the BTCC, and found himself in the middle of the fight for top-five spots as the safety car emerged in the final 10 minutes. Battling with Sam Macleod for fifth, the latter made contact with McKenna which unfortunately sent the Redline racer plummeting down the order to 14th by the flag, when fifth place was on target.

Left back in 13th to start the second race, McKenna set about making his recovery. After dodging a first accident neatly at Paddock Hill Bend, McKenna’s reactions were again tested by a multi-car collision ahead of him at the rapid Hawthorns right-hander, climbing up the order to seventh.

Chasing after GT racer Ryan Ratcliffe in the closing stages after another tag from Macleod cost him time, McKenna salvaged ninth place with a late attack, results not a true reflection of the team’s pace at Brands Hatch.

McKenna still sits fifth in the overall Carrera Cup GB standings, but only eight points adrift of the top of the Rookie standings with more wins from the opening two rounds. The Stokesley man next heads to Oulton Park in Cheshire in two weeks’ time (22/23 August) for the latest pair of races.

Races will once again be broadcast LIVE on ITV4 in support of the British Touring Car Championship.

Scott McKenna (#82 Redline Racing):
“One of those weekends unfortunately. Two collisions ruined our weekend when we were in a position to mix it for potentially another podium or two. The pace we showed in testing in the run-up to the weekend was very promising. If we can transfer that into qualifying in the next few rounds then it will give us a shot like we had at Donington.

“After plenty of travelling in a short space of time, I’m looking forward to a short relax now to regroup and get myself ready to attack at Oulton Park, a circuit where Redline has plenty of success around – let’s try and keep that success going!”

Photo credits: Dan Bathie/Porsche Motorsport GB

Double Delight For Scott McKenna At Home Of British Motorsport

North East racer Scott McKenna enjoyed a weekend to remember at Silverstone, taking an emphatic double win in the British GT-supporting Ginetta GT5 Challenge to break his 2019 victory duck.

Battling changeable conditions at the Home of British Motorsport, the 17-year-old from Stokesley, North Yorkshire, took a brace of dominant victories in the ultra-competitive one-make series to close in on the championship lead.

The weekend started in difficult weather conditions for qualifying around the full-length 3.6-mile GP circuit, but that did not deter McKenna from sharing pole positions with Gordie Mutch to grab his opportunity ahead of the two races.

Chasing his first win of the season, the Xentek Motorsport youngster duly delivered in the opening race on Saturday, grabbing the edge thanks to a better start before mastering the drying conditions on slick tyres. McKenna – carrying the helmet colours of the late Formula 1 racer Ronnie Peterson – finished seven seconds clear of a fierce battle for second, a feat he looked to repeat in the 20-minute second encounter on Sunday.

Drier conditions threatened a closer contest at the slipstream-friendly circuit, but a lightning start and consistent string of early laps were all McKenna needed to stamp his authority. Dropping front-row starter Mutch, he proceeded to pull clear of the battle for second between Geri Nicosia, Danny Harrison and Josh Malin to clinch another triumph by five seconds.

With a British GT seat on his radar, the double win moves McKenna to within 15 points of championship leader Nicosia, on a weekend where fellow title contender Adam Smalley struggled after a time penalty was applied to his second race result.

McKenna will look to continue his strong run of form at the next meeting at Donington Park, held over the weekend of June 22/23.

Scott McKenna (#27 Xentek Motorsport):

“From my perspective, it was like I’d gone testing all weekend. We’re now being really consistent. In race one we literally got the perfect start, and that was it. One thing I heard from the commentators was that they said the real damage seemed to be done by my first few laps in both races.

“Qualifying was probably the worst conditions I’d ever driven in and something I’d never experienced before, so it was more a task of trying not to crash, but it couldn’t have gone much better. The first race looked wet, but about half an hour before the race the sun came out and we put slicks on it. That played into our hands because we’d done no wet testing until Friday.

“It was exactly what happened in the second race too. I dropped Gordie Mutch off the start and that was it – I didn’t look back. It’s massive points and I think the key now is that as long as we stay consistent and stay ahead of Geri and Adam, we’ll chip into the lead. I don’t need to start taking risks, just be clever.”