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Solid Debut For Russell Racing Trio At Donington |
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Monday, 30 April 2007 |
Russell Racing enjoyed a solid start to the 2007 Formula Renault BARC Championship at Donington Park National Circuit today, Sunday, 29th April, with all three of the team’s debutant drivers making good progress during the opening meeting of the campaign.
Competing in the headline FR2000 Class of the two-tier championship, the team’s charge was led home by 24-year-old single-seater rookie Mark Gillibrand who capped off his maiden car racing appearance by taking the chequered flag just three 10ths of a second shy of a top 10 points-scoring finish.
The Manchester driver qualified in 11th position with a best lap of 1m
10.594 seconds (99.82mph) and although a minor gearbox issue did affect
the first couple of laps of the afternoon’s race, Mark did break into
the top 10 on lap seven following a spin by sixth placed Sten Pentus.
Although Pentus recovered to take 10th place back from Mark at Redgate
Corner on lap nine, the Russell Racing driver did shadow the Estonian
over the line on lap 14 to end his first race in the category just
three 10ths of a second outside a points-scoring result.
For the team’s Bahraini duo Essa Mohammed and Menasheh Idafar, their UK
race debut was certainly action-packed and saw big improvements
throughout the meeting in their Middle East-Russell Racing entered cars.
With Essa emerging as the quicker of the two London-based 16-year-olds
during qualifying, his quickest lap of 1m 11.099 seconds (99.11mph)
just over two 10ths of a second faster than the best Menasheh could
manage, both drivers enjoyed competitive debuts in the 14-lap race.
Making a good getaway from 14th on the grid, Essa challenged around the
outside for 13th position as the field headed through Redgate and
Hollywood for the first time and managed to gain the place with an
impressive piece of driving. Menasheh, meanwhile, ended the opening lap
in his starting position of 16th.
With the midfield battle very close indeed, Essa slipped to 14th place
on lap three and subsequently lost out again on lap six but a great
pass on Sung Hak Mun at Redgate on the seventh tour put him back into
14th position. Unfortunately, an excursion at Coppice later in the lap
forced Essa out of the race.
Menasheh moved into the top 15 on lap two and after slipping back into
16th place a couple of laps later, he moved back into 15th spot on lap
seven by virtue of Essa’s retirement and pressured experienced BARC
runner Pierre Renom during the closing stages to cross the line less
than three 10ths of a second adrift of the Frenchman.
Speaking at the conclusion of round one of the Formula Renault BARC
season, team owner Tim Russell said: “We’re pleased with the start to
the season we’ve made and we’re confident we’ll make more steps forward
at Croft during the next two rounds.
“Mark was very close to a top 10 result for his first race with us
which was good and both Essa and Menasheh have shown a great deal of
promise. Our aim is to see at least one car finish in the points at
Croft – we’re confident we’ll be able to achieve that aim.”
The first ‘double-header’ race meeting of the 2007 Formula Renault BARC
season, the second and third rounds of the championship, will take
place three weeks from now, 19th/20th May, at Croft Circuit in North
Yorkshire. Three 30-minute sessions of testing will precede the event
on Friday, 18th May.
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