Difference between revisions of "Mal McKee/oldwiki"

The following season saw Mal's qualifying position improve, but not a single race finish. McKee began to doubt his future, when an open slot became available for a team in the league. In a flurry of intense negotiations and and a series of visits to the bank manager, Down Racing (after the county in which Mal had lived half his life) was literally thrown together in time for the second 2003 season race at Malaysia.

The very next race, the Down Racing team was rebranded as Ultima Racing and fitted out with the same Ferrari workhouse. Unfortunately there was a massive political upheaval in the GPVWC which saw co-ordinator Dan Lawrence leave the organisation forever, and Mal became very disheartened and disillusioned with the scene. Many others followed suit.

Rebirth

Somehow, William Ponissi managed to resurrect the league with the help and dedication of a few core believers. Most of this Mal was oblivious to at the time, favouring a different league for a while, and dealing with personal issues while his cars sat in their garages idle. Slowly people began to return to the league however, until it finished the season with the same number of drivers and teams it had started with.

Mal was still plagued with problems both on and off the track, including his frustration with his own results, lingering techical problems with an under-developed car and a lack of any sign of a co-driver. After Hungary 2003, Mal had decided to take a break. Ultima folded at the end of the season.

Other than testing, that was the last McKee has driven in the F1 class.

Formula 2 class

The bug had bitten however, and Mal wanted to race again. Having kept in touch with some of the VWC people involved with the ressurection of the league, and with no intention of running a team at all, one was to fall into his lap later on his return in the 2005 season. It was to a newly-established Supercup league that Mal made a reappearance though.

Mariano Malisani, owner of the Aftermath Simracing Group (Molotov F1) had founded Synergetic Motorsports and had started to build the team specifically for the Supercup league. When he contracted Mal as a driver, initially he was going to drive in the second car. Other committments meant having to contract a second driver though, in the shape of Amin Lladhon. Unfortunately, despite having consistantly out-qualified Mal at the first two race meetings, Amin had problems that led to his disappearance from the league after that. Amin didn't take part in race day once in the 2005 season. Worse was to come for the team.

Mariano became increasingly involved in outside projects, and subsequently harder to contact. Mal became caretaker manager and made an announcement to that affect at the end of July. Both his and his teams fortune only increaseed slightly when Mike Pitman's young rookie brother, Richard raced for the team in Hungary. Briefly, Synergetic F2 had two race drivers.

Having amassed enough capital, Mal announced in December that he had bought Synergetic Motorsports from its parent company, Aftermath SG.

Second Supercup season

The start of the 2006 season was much the same as most of the previous season: for the first four or five races, Mal found it impossible to find a second driver for the team. He perservered however, and came up with a plan to rescue the team from demise and disinterest.

Some much needed respite came from Jorge Caranti in the third race at Nürburgring, which saw Caranti gifting Synergetic its first win.

In May of that year, Mal spoke to Ted Cragg about his plan, and Ted was keen to combine resources and expand the Stealth simracing empire. Synergetic Motorsports became a subsidiary of Stealth International, with Mal remaining both as boss of the F2 team and as owner of Synergetic. An official press release was issued by Stealth in June, on the eve of the British Grand Prix. Further to this, Ted and Mal discussed more plans for the company. Mal had revealed his intention to expand Synergetic into F1 and Ted had a person in mind to manage an F1 team. And so, with Juha Tanskanen at the helm, the Synergetic F1 ship was launched.

Another benefit of the marriage was that Synergetic F2 gained a second driver, in the shape of Stealth president Ted Cragg. The team had two stable drivers for the first time at last, from Monaco on.

Although Monaco failed to produce a race from either driver, with Mal not starting, the British Grand Prix saw Mal picking up his best race finish to date, just missing the podium by finishing thirteen seconds after third-placed Quico Garcia.

By the end of the season Mal had improved in terms of average race finish and drivers' championship position, finishing fifth overall. The team also came in fifth in the constructors' championship.

Stats, more stats and damn stats!

Best laptimes

F1VWC Grand Prix Team Record Personal Best Australia 1:26.704 Malaysia Down Racing 1:37.620 (Q) 1:36.318 Monaco BA Racing 1:27.123 (Q) 1:16.585 San Marino 1:23.040 Austria 1:10.599 Europe Ultima GP 1:17.931 (Q) 1:15.911 Canada BA Racing 1:22.152 (Q) 1:15.939 France Stealth F1 1:20.375 (T) 1:12.419 United Kingdom Stealth F1 1:43.283 (T) 1:21.544 Hungary Ultima GP 1:15.099 (Q) 1:14.170 Germany 1:39.067 Belgium 1:46.993 Italy Stealth F1 1:25.273 (T) 1:21.912 Brazil BA Racing 1:20.284 (R) 1:13.771 United States of America 1:12.299 Spain Stealth F1 1:20.706 (T) 1:18.060 Jerez Stealth F1 1:20.547 (T) Japan 1:34.351

F2VWC Grand Prix Team Record San Marino Synergetic F2 1:29.593 (FP) Spain Synergetic F2 1:24.394 (R) Monaco Synergetic F2 1:21.591 (Q) Nurburgring Synergetic F2 1:22.871 (FP) France Synergetic F2 1:21.885 (Q) United Kingdom Synergetic F2 1:28.403 (R) Germany Synergetic F2 1:25.546 (R) Hungary Synergetic F2 1:20.072 (Q) Italy N/A Belgium Synergetic F2 1:58.463 (R) Jerez Synergetic F2 1:25.424 (FP) Turkey N/A

F1 Results

[[2002 Superleague season</a> Grand Prix Team FP Qual Race Brazil BA Racing - - 10 San Marino BA Racing - 17 14 Monaco Mapes-VO - Honda - 18 DNS Canada Mapes-VO - Honda - 18 DNS

2003 Superleague season Grand Prix Team FP Qual Race Malaysia Down Racing - Ferrari - 18 DNS Europe Ultima GP - Ferrari - 10 DNS France Ultima GP - Ferrari - 10 DNS Hungary Ultima GP - Ferrari - 13 DNS

F2 Results

2005 Supercup season Grand Prix Team FP Qual Race San Marino Synergetic F2 7 14 7 Spain Synergetic F2 12 12 10 Monaco Synergetic F2 6 6 6 Europe Synergetic F2 5 8 10 France Synergetic F2 - pen [7] DNS UK Synergetic F2 - 6 7 Germany Synergetic F2 - 8 8 Hungary Synergetic F2 - pen 9 Italy Synergetic F2 - - DNS Belgium Synergetic F2 - - DNS

2006 Supercup season Grand Prix Team FP Qual Race Jerez Synergetic F2 9 pen [8] 6 San Marino Synergetic F2 4 6 7 Europe Synergetic F2 13 pen [15] DNF <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/2006_F2_Spanish_Grand_Prix" title="2006 F2 Spanish Grand Prix">Spain</a> Synergetic F2 - pen [22] 8 Monaco Synergetic F2 - pen [16] DNS UK Synergetic F2 - 12 4 France Synergetic F2 7 10 7 Germany Synergetic F2 - pen [22] 10 Hungary Synergetic F2 - 12 8 Turkey Synergetic F2 - - DNS Italy Synergetic F2 - - DNS Belgium Synergetic F2 - pen [22] 5

Average F2 Free Practice: 8
Average F2 grid position: 9
Average F2 finish: 7