BUGBROOKE kart star Ronan McKenzie has made good progress in the latest round of the MSA Super One British KF3 Karting Championship at Larkhall, Scotland.
Following his team’s decision to switch to a new brand of chassis and a different make of engine for the Scottish round, McKenzie showed his future potential by making great improvements on the previous two rounds’ results.
Of the 24 drivers competing, McKenzie, 13, qualified 15th despite difficult conditions, with regular spells of rain throughout the day.
This was a great improvement on qualifying 24th out of 28 at the previous round – especially as McKenzie had never been to the Larkhall circuit before, compared to the last round being his local track, Whilton Mill.
Starting 15th on the grid in heat one, early on in the 15-lap race McKenzie was forced off the track by another driver.
This saw him beached in a soft run-off area for three laps while the marshalls extracted the kart, with McKenzie eventually finishing in 22nd position.
A few laps into heat two McKenzie was already up two places from 15th when the race was red flagged due to two karts colliding and stopping in a dangerous position.
After the restart, another kart made contact with McKenzie’s which then lost pace, and positions, to see him finish 19th in the 17-lap race. It was discovered that the impact had cracked the front left wheel rim losing pressure in the tyre, causing the drop in performance.
McKenzie started 22nd on the grid for the 25-lap final one, and had a storming drive as he picked his way through the field to finish 13th – a nine place gain and only three tenths off the fastest lap.
Starting 13th on the grid in final two McKenzie was up to eleventh by the first corner, but lost several places after a few laps when forced wide on a corner.
He worked hard in the 25-lap race and eventually finished in 14th place, and only two tenths off the fastest lap, compared to eight tenths adrift in the final two race in the previous kart at round two.
McKenzie, who claimed three UK Championship titles in previous classes before stepping up to the KF3 class in April, now jumps from 20th to 16th in the championship standings of 25 drivers, with four rounds to go.
McKenzie also scored the tenth highest points overall for the Larkhall round.
Round four of the Championship will take place at the Glan-y-Gors track in Wales on July 28-29.