RISING motorsport star Dean MacDonald began life in the fast lane with McLaren in style during the opening rounds of the British GT Championship.

Last month we reported that the talented 16-year-old, from Kelty, was one of eight drivers that had joined the McLaren GT Driver Academy, which is designed to provide a pathway for youngsters to make the move into sports cars.

Dean is one of six newcomers brought into an expanded academy – which is now in its third year – and joined the official McLaren team for the championship, which began at Cheshire's Oulton Park from April 15-16.

The youngster driver on the grid, the West Fifer's jump from karting – in which he won multiple British titles – to cars is significant, especially as the McLaren 570s he is competing in can accelerate from 0-124mph in just 9.5 seconds.

MacDonald is competing in the GT4 class of the competition, which is held simultaneously with the GT3 version, and has regulations that ensure cars more closely resemble their road-going counterparts than GT3 machines.

Making his debut with McLaren's Black Bull Garage 59 line-up, MacDonald teamed up with Akhil Rabindra and qualified in sixth place in round one, with Rabindra securing 14th in round two for their car #59.

Starting round one in wet conditions, the Kelty racer managed to hold his track position of fifth until the driver changeover, where his team-mate took over and brought the car back to finish sixth overall in the GT4 Silver Cup, which is aimed at young professionals and aims to bridge the gap to full Pro/Am crews.

It was a strong opening performance from the teenager and it got even better in round two when Rabindra, having started from 14th, handed over the mantle seven places higher.

MacDonald set out to improve on the work that his team-mate had already carried out but only narrowly avoided being involved in an incident between two other cars that saw him have to merge onto the grass and avoid debris that would have caused a puncture.

That saw the safety car deployed to the track and brought the race to an early finish by approximately eight minutes, but it proved to be a successful outcome for MacDonald, who brought his car back up to fifth place and helped him achieve 10 points in the drivers standings.

The opening two rounds have left MacDonald sixth in the driver standings, and fourth in the Silver Cup, ahead of the next round of racing at Rockingham this weekend.