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Hillspeed can rightly reflect on the fifth round of the 2008 Formula
Renault BARC season as its most luckless outing of the campaign after the loss
of a near-certain podium for Menasheh Idafar and a disappointing non-finish for
fellow front-runner Ahmad Al Harthy at Oulton Park Island Circuit on Spring Bank
Holiday Monday, 26th May.
Having seen Idafar scorch to a dominant pole position in qualifying on
Monday morning with a time of 1m 22.175 seconds (97.51mph) – an incredible half
a second quicker than his closest challenger – the Derbyshire team headed into
the 12-lap race confident the British-born Bahraini would be able to fight for
the podium at least and, potentially, a win.
Round five, however, turned into chaos with three enforced stoppages – the
second of the re-starts seeing Idafar forced out of contention for a top finish
due to contact from rival Ash Davies on the approach to Old Hall Corner.
Having led the race off the grid at the original start, and running in a
very close second place following the re-start, he wasn’t quite able to
replicate as good a getaway at the third time of asking and slipped into the
battle over fourth place.
Heading into the first corner as the filling in a Nathan Coulter and Ash
Davies sandwich, Idafar found himself clipped by the latter, breaking the front
wing of the Hillspeed car and seeing Davies spear into Coulter to eliminate both
from the race.
Thankfully Idafar managed to continue and after recovering onto the circuit
following a bumpy run over the grass on the exit of Old Hall due to the lack of
downforce at the front of his car, he fought very well indeed to come home in an
eventual seventh place.
British team-mate Michael Lyons took the chequered flag in eighth position
behind Idafar, the Essex 17-year-old coming close to matching his career best
Formula Renault BARC result of seventh.
Qualifying 15th on the grid, Lyons remained out of trouble as chaos ensued
around him and the category rookie maintained terrific composure throughout all
three starts to be in a position to claim his third points scoring result from
five races.
Although Al Harthy hoped to qualify further up the order than eighth
position, his fastest time of 1m 22.842 seconds (96.73mph) was only a fraction
over a 10th of a second shy of the front row.
His start to round five was absolutely impeccable, climbing into the top
four by the time the cars headed through Old Hall for the first time.
Disastrously for Al Harthy though, an accident on the grid resulted in red flags
being shown immediately and so the promise of a podium challenge
evaporated.
Before he had an opportunity to repeat his great getaway and mount another
battle over a podium finish, the Omani racer then suffered a rare failure on his
front-right suspension as he rounded the track on the green flag formation lap.
Hugely disappointing for Al Harthy, he was unable to take part in the race
at all after the upright pin sheared, causing the front suspension to collapse.
Looking back on an event which initially promised so much for the
Hathersage based squad, team principal Richard Ollerenshaw said: “There’s no
question we had the pace, and the drivers, to potentially achieve a
double-podium finish – it’s disappointing the way things turned out for Menasheh
and Ahmad.
“We have to look at the positives though and Michael did a great job to
finish in the top eight and score points for the third time this season. He
raced well and we’re pleased yet again with his progress.
“I’ve no doubt Menasheh could have taken his first win, the pace he showed
in qualifying was incredible but there was nothing he could do when Davies
turned in on him. We are all really disappointed for Ahmad, his first start was
fantastic but then to have the suspension problem was a bitter pill to swallow.
We believe he may have been tagged during the confusion of the first start or
somewhere out on track.”
Hillspeed travelled directly from Oulton Park on Monday evening to Croft
Circuit in North Yorkshire where all three of the team’s drivers tested their
Formula Renault BARC cars yesterday, Tuesday, 27th May, in preparation for the
next two rounds of the season.
Taking a mammoth eight week sojourn before the sixth and seventh rounds of
the campaign, the Formula Renault BARC Championship will resume on 19th/20th
July at Croft – the scene of podium success for both Al Harthy and Idafar in the
BARC Class of the 2007 Formula Renault UK Winter Championship.
Provisional 2008 Formula Renault BARC Championship Standings (after
Rd5)
2nd Menasheh Idafar, 47pts; =5th Ahmad
Al Harthy, Brett Parris & Ash Davies, 22pts;
12th Michael Lyons, 8pts
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