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Gillibrand on Course for First Points of Season |
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Saturday, 19 May 2007 |
Russell Racing’s Mark Gillibrand is firmly on course to achieve his maiden Formula Renault BARC Championship points finish at Croft Circuit tomorrow, Sunday, 20th May, following a solid performance in qualifying at the North Yorkshire venue earlier today.
Ahead of the second and third rounds of the campaign, the first ‘double-header’ meeting of the 2007 season, the Manchester-based FR2000 Class category rookie is bidding to seal his first top 10 result of the year in only his second ever single-seater outing and after today’s two qualifying sessions he stands every chance of achieving that aim with the Doncaster team.
During round two qualifying, 24-year-old Mark posted the 10th quickest
time with a lap of 1m 22.950 seconds (92.23mph), just six 10ths of a
second shy of the top six, and then in the round three session a best
lap of 1m 23.573 seconds (91.54mph) saw him just miss out on another
top 10 start by a mere five 100ths of a second.
Bahraini team-mate Essa Mohammed will start round two from 12th
position on the grid, his best lap of the session a tour of 1m 23.268
seconds (91.88mph). The 16-year-old, who races under the Middle
East-Russell Racing banner, will then line up in 18th place on the grid
for round three.
Fellow Middle East-Russell Racing entered 16-year-old Menasheh Idafar
will begin the second of tomorrow’s two races from 20th position on the
grid courtesy of a quickest time of 1m 24.728 seconds (90.29mph).
Although qualifying a highly creditable 14th fastest for round two with
a lap of 1m 23.311 seconds (91.83mph), Menasheh – who only arrived back
in the UK on Friday after sitting exams in his homeland – will be
forced to wait and see if he can take part in Sunday’s first encounter
as he is considered a ‘reserve driver’ due to the capacity field of
entries.
There is also a similar situation for outstanding Bahraini newcomer
Mohamed Al A’li, the 16-year-old producing an excellent performance on
his UK debut to post the 12th and 13th fastest times in round two and
three qualifying respectively.
Due to the fact he is a newly registered driver in the championship,
and the entries for this weekend are full to capacity, he has to wait
and see if any rival competitors pull-out ahead of the races to give
him a chance of proving his undoubted pace. There is certainly some
consternation within Middle East-Russell Racing regarding the situation.
Rounds two and three of the 2007 Formula Renault BARC Championship will
take place at Croft tomorrow, Sunday, 20th May, with the first race
timetabled to get underway at 12.25 and the second encounter scheduled
to begin at 16.55.
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