MOTORSPORT McKenna Unstoppable in Indianapolis

Dunlop Young Racing Driver of the Year Patrick McKenna scored his first victory in US racing when he romped to victory in the third round of the Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda in Indanapolis on Saturday.

On his oval racing debut McKenna took a comfortable seven second win in the 'Night before Indy' event at O'Reilly Raceway Park, a traditional curtainraiser to Sunday's Indianapolis 500 event.

But it wasn't the trouble free cruise to victory that the bare statistics might suggest as McKenna, having started from pole position, ceded the race lead to points leader Sage Karam at the start. McKenna then shadowed Karam throughout the first 29 laps making numerous bids for the lead before finally forcing an opening at the start of lap 30 of 50.

As his rival made an error through turn four, McKenna saw his chance and swept into the lead into turn one. With a clear track in front, McKenna put the head down in his Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing run Van Diemen and opened up a 7.33 second lead by the time the chequered flag flew to herald his first victory in the important 'Road to Indy' feeder series.

Having dominated pre-event testing and the race weekend practice sessions, McKenna converted his pace into pole position, setting a two-lap aggregate of 44.466 seconds, just .043s ahead of Karam. While the rolling start didn't go his way, McKenna showed admirable pace and maturity to stay within touching distance of the leader before picking the moment to deliver the coup de grace to perfection.

McKenna was understandably delighted with his breakthrough win afterwards: "Winning my first race in the US is great and to do it on an oval is especially satisfying as I'd never even attended an oval race before this weekend" said the Willsborough Transport supported driver.

"I knew it was going to be a really close race, but Sage raced me fair, which I appreciate. "After I got around him I was able to get a gap and when I was out in front it was a dream, really.

"I really want to thank my team, Cape Motorsports, for giving me such a good car, and my sponsors for allowing me to be here."
The rewards for victory are numerous in US racing as McKenna discovered. As well as the 31 point haul of points towards his quest for victory in the USF2000 series, McKenna enjoyed the special honour of being interviewed in Victory Circle ahead of the Indianapolis 500 the following afternoon.

McKenna now lies second in the points standings, 14 points behind Karam heading to the next event in the series, another oval race at Iowa Speedway on June 19th.

The Swords driver is racing this year with scholarship funding from Dunlop, Motorsport Ireland and the Irish Sports Council. McKenna also enjoys support from Paul Kenny of Willsborough Transport, a long time patron, and DIT.