Russell Racing’s Mark Gillibrand surprised both the team and himself at Oulton Park Island Circuit this afternoon, Saturday, 16th June, after producing a season-best result of eighth position from 17th on the grid with a determined and committed drive during the fourth round of the 2007 Formula Renault BARC season.Wet-weather qualifying in the morning proved tricky for the Doncaster-based team’s quartet of drivers with Middle East-Russell Racing entered teenager Mohamed Al A’li emerging as the best placed at the end of the 20-minute session, a lap of 1m 31.839 seconds (88.589 mph) placing him 15th on the grid.Manchester-based Mark would line-up 17th on the grid for the afternoon’s 15-lap encounter at the 2.2-mile Cheshire venue with Menasheh Idafar setting the 20th fastest time, one place ahead of fellow Bahraini driver Essa Mohammed.All four racers were disappointed with the outcome of the wet qualifying session and each desperately wanted to make amends during round four – not that anyone realised how much of a race of attrition it would be.Mark produced the best start of Russell Racing’s four drivers, the 24-year-old rocketing into the top 12 as the cars headed into Old Hall Corner for the first time, but he was then forced to slot into 14th place on the exit of the turn. This would quickly become 12th once more though when race leaders Aaron Steele and Ollie Hancock tangled at the hairpin.Approaching Lodge Corner towards the end of the opening lap, Mark held 12th position with Essa having gained five places in 15th, just ahead of Mohamed. Sadly, the latter saw what promised to be another good race performance ruined when a spin on the run up Deer Leep on lap two forced him into retirement.By lap five, Mark had managed to climb into the points after taking 10th position at the expense of Louis Hamilton-Smith who, in a near carbon-copy of Mohamed’s spin, encountered troubles on the exit of Deer Leep.Further retirements enabled Mark to climb into eighth position, the highest placing of his maiden single-seater season, but he then went one better by moving into seventh on lap nine. Unfortunately this was short-lived and after slipping back to ninth he managed to claim eighth place on the final lap when problems befell Frenchman Denis Autier.As Mohamed Al A’li watched on from the sidelines, fellow Bahraini 16-year-olds Essa and Menasheh continued and drove well on their first ever competitive appearance at Oulton Park to finish the race in 12th and 13th positions respectively – 11th and 12th in the FR2000 Class.Both Middle Eastern youngsters lost out during the last three laps to Hamilton-Smith on his recovery drive, meaning Essa was just eight 10ths of a second shy of his first ever points finish. He was also the quickest of the Russell Racing drivers in race conditions, his fastest lap shading Mark’s best by five 100ths of a second.

Mark’s race result, meanwhile, sees him remain in 13th position in the FR2000 Class driver standings, tied on six points with Ahmad Al Harthy.Reflecting on a highly unpredictable fourth round of the championship, Russell Racing team owner Tim Russell said: “After qualifying none of us expected to see one car in the points and two others just outside the top 10 so we’re delighted to come away from Oulton Park with a fair set of results.“We were obviously assisted to a certain extent by the retirements which took pace during the race but the drivers still had to do their job and keep their heads. They all performed well and it was just a shame Mohamed had his spin on the second lap, he deserved more from the weekend.”The next race meeting on the 2007 Formula Renault BARC calendar will be the second double-header of the season, rounds five and six, which will be held at Silverstone National Circuit in Northamptonshire five weeks from now on 21st/22nd July.

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