Press Releases - Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Leonard McCoy.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Leonard McCoy.

Hi folks, Muscles O'Shaughnessy bringing you news about a very special talent, that Irish manager Emerald has unearthed for this season.

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It's very rare a rookie driver can achieve anything worthwhile in his first competitive race, but Leonard McCoy is no ordinary driver.

On Tuesday McCoy set a marker in qualifying for the rookie season opener in Catalunya today, when he claimed P4 on the grid for the sprint race. Today though, he underlined exactly how talented he is.

At the end of the first lap McCoy managed to jump 2 places up the grid to put pressure on the race leader, and after a bit of yo-yoing managed to claim the outright lead on the 5th lap.
Emerald watched on, but even he couldn't have scripted a better race for his young pilot to have in his first ever competitive outing.

To a neutral observer, this wouldn't have been an interesting race to watch as it was basically decided on the 5th lap who was going to finish first. At the end of the 5th lap McCoy was over 2.5 seconds clear of P2 and did not look back for the rest of the race. By the time he crossed the finish line he was a remarkable 15.3 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed finisher.

A truly remarkable drive by the young Irishman when you consider he has very basic driving and mental skills, but his intelligence, it would seem, left the rest in his wake.

I caught up with McCoy after he accepted the winners’ trophy for a brief chat.

M O'S: Wow, where did that come from Leonard?

L McC: Ha, I have no idea! I came here much focused this week and wanted to make a good first impression. I never dreamt of a debut race like this, I guess it puts a lot of pressure on me now to reproduce this sort of driving, but I won't be getting caught up in the thick of things. I'm young, inexperienced, under-skilled.. But I'm a very quick learner and I hopefully can call this the first of many race victories I will have in my career. I'm just over the moon at the moment!

M O'S: I know you've got to rush to the press interview shortly, but obviously you'll want to continue this form into the feature race here this coming weekend, what are intentions now you'll be starting from pole position?

L McC: Wow... I'll have to sit down with the team over the next day or two and formulate a strategy for the feature race, but it won't be easy to stay P1, I know that for sure.
It's a longer race, and there are drivers at this event that will obviously have more staying power over the longer course.
I would obviously love to score some more good points but I will just want to stay on the track first, and then hopefully keep myself in contention during the last few laps. Sure we'll see how it goes. I gotta go Muscles, my PR guy is screaming at me. Good luck!

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Some wise words indeed from such a young driver, but I have a feeling this isn't a flash in the pan.
Sure, we may not see him win a race again this season, but McCoy can be extremely proud of what he has achieved here today.
There are many, many experienced and older drivers still awaiting their first career win, it simply shouldn't happen in your very first competitive race, but as I said earlier McCoy is no ordinary driver.

That's all from Barcelona for now! Muscles O'Shaughnessy signing out!