McKenzie Wins 2009 Ferrari F430 Challenge Championship

December 4, 2009

Texan Mark McKenzie won the 2009 Ferrari F430 Challenge over Kansas’ Scott Tucker, in one of the closest finishes in the 16 year history of the series. McKenzie outscored Tucker, 2005 to 2000, where five points represents just one position difference over the 14 races in the 2009 season! McKenzie, who races for Ferrari of Houston, was trailing Tucker into the Ferrari Challenge World Finals at Valencia, Spain, but came out the Champion.

　

Tucker had an outstanding season. Racing for the Boardwalk Ferrari team, he won ten races, and finished on the podium in every race during the season. A technical infraction cost him the points from one event, but Tucker was running strongly at the World Finals when he was hit as he passed another driver, dropping him to ninth place. That hit settled the championship.

　

Tucker had begun the season with a pole position at the Miami-Homestead Speedway, with McKenzie alongside, and that initial front row defined the season’s competition. There were others, of course, who ran at the front: Zak Brown, Richard Fant, 2007 Champion Mike Zoi, and Henri Richard -– all were capable of qualifying on pole, running at the front, and winning. This group was consistently on the podium, but there were two men in the lead.

　

Tucker won the first four races, at Homestead and Road Atlanta. At the fifth, at Infineon Raceway, Tucker was on pole, but both he and McKenzie spun off the wet track at the second corner of the first lap, and had to sit until the entire field went by. The pair set out, dead last and next to last, and in 45 minutes worked their way through the entire field to the podium. McKenzie won, breaking Tucker’s streak and proving he was a serious contender for the championship. (That last-to-podium charge, on a damp track, demonstrated the outstanding skills of both drivers.)

　

After that weekend one or the other took every win through the balance of the North American season, and continued one-two in the points, with the championship a possibility for either. The final races at Valencia produced the closest result since 1994, the first year of the North American Challenge.

 

McKenzie inherited his life-long interest in cars and racing from his father. He entered a few club races in the mid 1980s, but family and career kept him out of the cockpit until 1999, when he began racing in a marque series. McKenzie purchased a retired Ferrari 355 Challenge racer in 2005, and raced in club events in Texas for two years. In 2008 McKenzie joined the Ferrari Challenge series in a new F430 Challenge racer, on the Ferrari of Houston team, with ex-Ferrari racer Anthony Lazzaro as his coach. He was the top rookie that year, finishing fifth in the championship. His championship came in his second year racing in the series.

　

The Ferrari Challenge is presented by Ferrari North America, and is sanctioned by the Grand-American Road Racing Association, Daytona Beach, Florida. Sponsors for the Ferrari Challenge include Shell Oil, Pirelli, Motorola, Sabelt, and Avantair. Ferrari North America, Inc. is headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and is the exclusive North, Central and South American importer of Ferrari vehicles including the 599 GTB Fiorano V-12 sports coupe, F430 Berlinetta, F430 Spider convertible sports car, 430 Scuderia, California Gran Tourer and 612 Scaglietti (luxury performance 2+2).