Mal McKee/oldwiki
| Mal McKee | |
|---|---|
| Mal testing for Stealth F1 in 2006 | |
| Nationality |  British
|
| Current team | Synergetic Motorsports F2</a> |
| Current control method | 
|
| Championship career | |
| F1 career | |
| Races | 2 |
| World Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podium finishes | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Points | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| Best qualify | 10th |
| Best race finish | 10th |
| Highest Champ position | 33rd |
| First race | Brazil 2002 |
| First win | |
| Last win | |
| Latest race | Hungary 2003 |
| 2003 SL Season position | ?? (0 points) |
| F2 career | |
| Races | 16 |
| Supercup Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podium finishes | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Points | 117 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| Best qualify | 6th |
| Best race finish | 4th |
| Highest Champ position | 5th |
| First race | San Marino 2005 |
| First win | |
| Last win | |
| Latest race | Belgium 2006 |
| 2006 Supercup season position | 5th (50 points) |
Mal McKee (b. 17th April, 1970 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a British simracing driver and team manager in the Virtual World Championship. He currently owns Synergetic Motorsports (now in partnership with Stealth International), and manages and drives for Synergetic F2 in the Supercup Championship.
McKee discovered online simracing in the Millenium year - 2001, and joined the GPVWC the following year, near the start of the season. In first race start in the league he failed to finish the full race distance, but managed a respectable 10th place despite this. His second race start was in the wet at Imola in San Marino where he finished 14th place.
Early career
Mal was originally signed by <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Dan_Prescott" title="Dan Prescott">Dan Prescott</a> for <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php?title=DPI&action=edit" class="new" title="DPI">DPI</a> but, unfortunately due to a political upheaval, Prescott left the GPVWC before he could drive the DPI car competitively. Fortunately league co-ordinator <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Dan_Lawrence" title="Dan Lawrence">Dan Lawrence</a> took the rookie under his wing and signed him to his newly-formed <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php?title=BA_Racing&action=edit" class="new" title="BA Racing">BA Racing</a>. A string of techical and reliability problems saw McKee only race twice and qualify three times that season — in four different race meetings.
Halfway through the season, Lawrence found two quick drivers replacing first Mal, then himself, in an effort to secure some badly needed points for the team.
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, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php?title=Down_Racing&action=edit" class="new" title="Down Racing">Down Racing</a> (after the county in which Mal had lived half his life) was literally thrown together in time for the second 2003 season race at <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/2002_F1_Malaysian_Grand_Prix" title="2002 F1 Malaysian Grand Prix">Maylasia</a>.
The very next race, the Down Racing team was rebranded as <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php?title=Ultima_Racing&action=edit" class="new" title="Ultima Racing">Ultima Racing</a> 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, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/William_Ponissi" title="William Ponissi">William Ponissi</a> 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 F2VWC league that Mal made a reappearance though.
<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Mariano_Malisani" title="Mariano Malisani">Mariano Malisani</a>, owner of the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php?title=Aftermath_Simracing_Group&action=edit" class="new" title="Aftermath Simracing Group">Aftermath Simracing Group</a> (Molotov F1) had founded Synergetic Motorsports and had started to build the team specifically for the F2 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 <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Amin_Lladhon" title="Amin Lladhon">Amin Lladhon</a>. 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 <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Mike_Pitman" title="Mike Pitman">Mike Pitman</a>'s young rookie brother, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Richard_Pitman" title="Richard Pitman">Richard</a> raced for the team in <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/2005_F2_Hungarian_Grand_Prix" title="2005 F2 Hungarian Grand Prix">Hungary</a>. 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 F2 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 <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Jorge_Caranti" title="Jorge Caranti">Jorge Caranti</a> in the third race at <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/2006_F2_Nurburgring_Grand_Prix" title="2006 F2 Nurburgring Grand Prix">Nürburgring</a>, which saw Caranti gifting Synergetic its first win.
In May of that year, Mal spoke to <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Ted_Cragg" title="Ted Cragg">Ted Cragg</a> 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 <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php?title=2006_F2_British_Grand_Prix&action=edit" class="new" title="2006 F2 British Grand Prix">British grand prix</a>. 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 <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Juha_Tanskanen" title="Juha Tanskanen">Juha Tanskanen</a> at the helm, the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Synergetic_F1" title="Synergetic F1">Synergetic F1</a> ship was launched.
Another benefit of the marriage was that Synergetic F2 gained a second driver, in the shape of Stealth president <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Ted_Cragg" title="Ted Cragg">Ted Cragg</a>. The team had two stable drivers for the first time at last, from <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php?title=2006_F2_Monaco_Grand_Prix&action=edit" class="new" title="2006 F2 Monaco Grand Prix">Monaco</a> on.
Although Monaco failed to produce a race from either driver, with Mal not starting, the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php?title=2006_F2_British_Grand_Prix&action=edit" class="new" title="2006 F2 British Grand Prix">British Grand Prix</a> saw Mal picking up his best race finish to date, just missing the podium by finishing thirteen seconds after third-placed <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/Quico_Garcia" title="Quico Garcia">Quico Garcia</a>.
By the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/2006_F2VWC_Season" title="2006 F2VWC Season">end of the season</a> Mal had improved in terms of average race finish and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/2006_F2VWC_Season#Drivers" title="2006 F2VWC Season">drivers' championship</a> position, finishing fifth overall. The team also came in fifth in the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070519220008/http://www.juhatanskanen.com/vwcwiki/index.php/2006_F2VWC_Season#Constructors" title="2006 F2VWC Season">constructors' championship</a>.
Stats, more stats and damn stats!
Best laptimes
F1 Results
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F2 Results
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Average F2 Free Practice: 8
Average F2 grid position: 9
Average F2 finish: 7
Total F2 race laps: 365
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