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Patrick McKenna has emerged as the fastest up and
coming driver in Irish motor racing after capping a
perfect week by breaking the long-standing Formula
Ford 1600 lap record at Kirkistown last Saturday.
Dubliner McKenna steered his Ray 07 to a lap time of
1 minute 01.36 seconds at the County Down venue,
slicing over a tenth of a second off the time set by
Jonny Kane in 1990 which was later equaled by
Richard Lyons.
McKenna also holds the Formula Ford 1600 lap record
for the Mondello Park National circuit which he set
the previous week, bettering the existing benchmark
by two hundredths of a second with 57.767s on his
way to winning both IFFDA races on the day.
The former British Championship kart racer currently
leads the Northern Ireland FF1600 Championship by 38
points and is just seven points off the lead of the
IFFDA Formula Ford series.
Last Saturday's lap record was the culmination of
top testing form for the Bernard Dolan Racing run
driver who was consistently below the record in
testing and qualifying before finally reducing the
mark by 12 hundredths of a second on his way to
victory in the 15 lap race.
"I
managed a 61.29s lap in testing and then set a
61.33s lap in qualifying so I knew the record was
on," the 20-year-old said afterwards. "To come out
with the win and the lap record is a dream come true
because everyone in Formula Ford has been talking
about that record for a long time."
Having been shortlisted for the Motorsport Ireland
Young Racing Driver of the Year award as the Dunlop
Young Driver of the Month for April, McKenna is
looking forward to reaffirming his status in the
coming months ahead of a planned move to UK racing
in 2009.
"I'm interested in moving to the UK Formula Ford
Duratec championship next season which I think would
be the ideal springboard for an international
career.
"I'll be talking to teams later in the year but we
still have plenty of work to do this season starting
with the Martin Donnelly Trophy at Kirkistown in 30th
August.
"Then I'll be working hard to finish off the two
championships in style and after that there's the
Leinster Trophy meeting in Mondello, the Formula
Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy events in
England."
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