Pole position, hitting top gear, in sight of the chequered flag?

As a member of the Silverstone Golf Club near that famous old motorsport circuit, Gary Boyd has probably had every ropey reference to racing flung at him. Then again, his form prior to this season bore more of a resemblance to a clanking, spluttering jalopy than a shimmering, streamlined super car from a Grand Prix. The grand prize here in Aviemore is the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge title and Boyd got his foot to the floor on day two at Macdonald Spey Valley as he powered into a four stroke lead with a second successive seven-under 64 for a 14-under tally of 128.

"There have been a lot of lows over the past couple of years but the highs seem to be coming back," said the 28-year-old, who continues his clamber back up the golfing order after a prolonged period in the dreaded doldrums. Boyd's one and only professional victory to date came on the Challenge Tour back in 2009 when he won the Tusker Kenyan Open. There's a queer old difference between Nairobi and the highlands of Scotland, of course. Kenya's dry season, for instance, lasts for months. Aviemore's stretches for minutes. Yet, in these contrasting environments, Boyd is finding plenty of similarities. The winning feeling stirs the senses wherever you are on the planet. "I won from the front in Kenya and I feel comfortable in this position," he added. "I enjoy that the rest of the field have to chase me."

Boyd, who is six-under-par for Spey's Valley's par-3s so far this week, made some major gains on the closing stretch as he birdied his last three holes for the second day in a row. His three on the last was achieved with a nicely flighted wedge that dribbled to within six inches of the hole. The record low aggregate for this championship is 19-under and if he keeps on motoring, Boyd could hurtle past that.

Motherwell's Ross Kellett is also cruising along nicely and his four-under 67 lifted him into the top-10 as the leading home hopeful with a seven-under 135. Unlike some of his peers, Kellett will resist the temptation to try and qualify for both the Scottish Open and the Open over the next week as he puts all his energies into his Challenge Tour campaign. His sound judgements have paid off before. Three years ago, he turned down an invitation to the Scottish Open, stuck to his schedule on the Alps Tour and won on that circuit in Italy the same week as the domestic showpiece was unfolding at Castle Stuart. Here in 2015, Kellett is sticking to the bread and butter as he seeks to climb up the professional ladder.

"It's about priorities and controlling your own destiny," he said. "It would be great to play in the Open, especially at St Andrews, but hopefully there are many years of that to come. I can control things out here and I'll stick to that. If I go and miss my tour card by 50 euro because I was jumping about or my preparation wasn't good I wouldn't be very happy."

In contrast to Kellett's single-minded approach, Andrew McArthur is juggling competition on both the Challenge Tour and the main European circuit while he will give the Scottish Open and the Open qualifiers a go. There's plenty going on for the former Scottish Amateur champion. A four-under 67 for a five-under 137 yesterday would appear to be purposeful progress but looks can be deceptive. "This course still perplexes me," admitted the two-times Challenge Tour champion, who had six birdies in his first eight holes and highlighted that haul with a chip-in from 25 yards on the 15th, his fifth. "I'm not sure how to handle it but it's been fairly steady so far."

Grant Forrest and Jack McDonald, a finalist and a semi-finalist respectively in last week's Amateur Championship, both made the weekend on two-under totals but Bradley Neil's debut as a professional ended in a deflating early exit and a quintuple bogey nine on his penultimate hole saw him depart with an eight-over 150.