Russell Racing enjoyed a solid start to the 2007 Formula Renault BARC Championship at Donington Park National Circuit on 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.
