Leading Formula Renault BARC Championship entrant Hillspeed enjoyed a highly promising outing at Rockingham Motor Speedway in Northamptonshire earlier this week, the first official Renault Sport UK test of the 2008 pre-season.All three of the team’s BARC drivers, Ahmad Al Harthy, Menasheh Idafar and Michael Lyons, took part in the test and each produced good pace as the pre-season proper gathers momentum. The opening two rounds of the championship will take place on Easter Monday, 24th March, at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in KentHathersage-based Hillspeed, which is run by team principal Richard Ollerenshaw, is aiming to achieve consistent podium results in the headline FR2000 Class this year and on the evidence shown at Rockingham, the squad is already well on course.As the only team to run throughout the day’s testing with its BARC engine restrictors in place, the reigning Winter Champion outfit has been seriously buoyed by its performance relative to rivals running with cars which, theoretically, should have been approximately two seconds per lap quicker.Menasheh Idafar, the 16-year-old British-born Bahraini racer, produced by far his most impressive performance in a Formula Renault BARC car since his 2007 debut. He lapped within a 10th of a second of fellow FR2000 Class drivers who were known to be running without BARC restrictors.Omani 26-year-old Ahmad Al Harthy took things a little easier than he would normally due to a shoulder and elbow problem which is continuing to heal. That said though, the category returnee was within half a second of Idafar and will undoubtedly be much closer to the outright pace as the pre-season continues.Essex racer Michael Lyons, who will be making his full season Formula Renault BARC debut this year, also ran strongly and coped well with the extra pressure a couple of unfortunate car problems added to his day’s testing.The 16-year-old former historic racer, the youngest ever driver to race a Formula One car when competing in last year’s Grand Prix Masters event at Germany’s Nurburgring, shows great promise in contemporary single-seater machinery and has the potential to become a genuine front-runner.Richard Ollerenshaw commented: “It’s been a good day for the whole Hillspeed team, we made a lot of progress and showed impressive pace so we’re looking forward to taking that momentum forward to Silverstone on Friday where we’ll be testing again.“Menasheh stamped his authority on the BARC class and you would never have known he hasn’t been in the car since the winter series, he performed very well. Ahmad ran strongly but his performance was tempered by his shoulder problem which will hopefully be fully better by Friday.“Michael is set to be the youngest driver in BARC this year but he has shown maturity far belying his years during testing. We’re certain he’s going to be a very exciting prospect as the season progresses. All in all, I’m very pleased with our three drivers.”