WITH FIRST TEST OF 2009Menasheh Idafar made his first on-track appearance of 2009 earlier today, Wednesday, 18th February, at Rockingham in Northamptonshire as preparations for his maiden season in the Formula Renault UK Championship get underway.

The 17-year-old Hillspeed driver, who has graduated to the UK’s premier junior single-seater category from the club-level Formula Renault BARC series, spent the entire day ‘running-in’ his new FR 2.0 car in persistently wet conditions.

Joining Formula Renault UK team-mate Michael Lyons, and Ahmad Al Harthy and James Theodore from Hillspeed’s Formula Renault BARC operation, the British-born Bahraini was delighted to be back on track for the first time this year.

“Menasheh was very happy to be back behind the wheel, it was a good day”, said Hillspeed team principal Richard Ollerenshaw, “Psychologically, Menasheh was very strong and focused and we couldn’t have hoped for more from him. The day was all about running-in the new car and everything went very well.”

Menasheh and the team now travel across Northamptonshire to Silverstone where they will take part in a test on the full Grand Prix Circuit today, Thursday, 19th February.

From there, the squad will make the journey south to Hampshire for a rare opportunity to test on the ultra-fast Thruxton Circuit this Friday, 20th February.