In-form North East racer Scott McKenna channelled his motorsport heroes to take another step closer to the Protyre Ginetta GT5 Challenge title, with a brace of wins at Zandvoort.
Carrying the helmet colours of his late motorsport hero, Ronnie Peterson, who finished second at the Dutch venue in what would ultimately to be his final F1 race in 1978, McKenna quickly adapted to the picturesque circuit on his maiden visit to Zandvoort.
Qualifying offered a glimpse of McKenna’s frontrunning pace, the championship leader from Stokesley, North Yorkshire, lining up third fastest on the grid ahead of the weekend’s three races.
From then, a tense trio of encounters pitted the Xentek Motorsport youngster in combat with title rival Adam Smalley, who narrowly pipped McKenna in the opening contest on Saturday. McKenna kept the leader honest in the closing stages, having grabbed second place from Gordie Mutch late in the race after a clean fight between the pair.
The Donington winner finished a close 1.6s adrift to maintain his title authority, but he hit back strongly in race two to take victory after an entertaining duel with Mutch, Geri Nicosia and Smalley – the latter demoted to third afterwards by stewards for a collision with Mutch.
McKenna’s winning cushion was a mere 0.191s as less than a second covered the top four, and it would soon get even better for the Xentek driver.
A Sunday double was completed with a hard-fought victory in race three from pole position, McKenna fending off his rivals from the front at the slipstream-friendly circuit. The reward was sealing his second win of the weekend by a narrow 0.064s from Smalley, as the pair took the chequered flag side-by-side at the track which will host the Dutch Grand Prix once again next year.
McKenna therefore extends his championship lead to almost 50 points with two meetings remaining, riding the purple patch of having claimed five wins in the last eight races.
The next of those is back in the UK at Snetterton’s 300 circuit in Norfolk, supporting the British Touring Car Championship on 3/4 August which will be shown live on ITV4.
Scott McKenna 