& IDAFARHillspeed team principal Richard Ollerenshaw praised his team and the squad’s Formula Renault UK challenger Menasheh Idafar at Snetterton Circuit, Thursday, 12th March, following a positive two-day officially timed test outing at the Norfolk venue.
With the curtain-raiser to the 2009 Formula Renault UK Championship now just three weeks away, the importance of the remaining official test sessions cannot be underestimated. To that end, Hillspeed is very upbeat as Idafar continues to improve each time he ventures out on track.
During the opening morning of this week’s official test on Wednesday, 11th March, the 17-year-old produced the 14th quickest time overall and was also fourth fastest of the drivers eligible for this year’s Graduate Cup with a time of 1m 05.639 seconds (107.05mph).
In the afternoon, the British-born Bahraini improved by more than three 10ths of a second and was on course to be even quicker but a session stoppage unfortunately curtailed his new tyre run. Even so, the teenage racer produced a best lap of 1m 05.316 seconds (107.58mph) to end the day 15th overall and the fifth best Graduate Cup contender.
Today, Thursday, 12th March, the championship rookie improved by four 10ths of a second on his day one best with a lap of 1m 04.985 seconds (108.13mph) during the morning session. Good enough to maintain a top 15 position overall on combined times for day two, Menasheh ended the outing just over three 10ths of a second away from the top four – a very encouraging result.
Commenting, Richard Ollerenshaw said: “I’m very pleased with the hard work the team is doing and the effort Menasheh is putting in. This week’s test has been very positive for us and to end today just over three 10ths of a second away from the top four is highly encouraging for all of us.
“Menasheh ran with new tyres this morning, which is when he posted his quickest time of the two days, but in the afternoon we didn’t see any point in wasting another set of fresh rubber so we ended our running after 23 laps. It’s been another good test, Menasheh did an exceptional job.”
The next official Formula Renault UK test outing will take place this coming Wednesday, 18th March, at the picturesque Oulton Park Island Circuit in Cheshire.
Away from Formula Renault UK, Hillspeed’s Formula Renault BARC Winter Champion James Theodore joins the team at Snetterton today, Friday, 13th March, for an unofficially timed outing at the wheel of his BARC specification Formula Renault.
