MALAYSIA WILL BE REPRESENTED IN PIRELLI DRIVER SEARCH
3/10/2008

Shah Alam, Malaysia – Friday October 3rd., 2008 … S R Motorsport is delighted to confirm that Malaysia will be represented in the forthcoming Pirelli Star Driver Search, which will be held as part of next weekend's Ancom Malaysian Rally 2008.

James Russell, who – at only twenty years of age – is now in his third year of rally driving, will be partnered by his regular and highly experienced co-driver Doug Pickering. The pair will tackle the two days of challenging plantation special stages in Johore, in the hope of being selected as the team to represent the Asia/Pacific region in six rounds of next year's World Rally Championship. This is the major prize on offer from Pirelli.

Competition will be tough. Although open only to drivers no older than 27 years, the challenge is for drivers from the whole Asia/Pacific region, from India to New Zealand, and most of those entered have many more years of experience than James. However; James does have the advantage of being on home ground, and should the rally turn out to be wet and muddy, he could pull off a major upset.

Team Manager, Paul Russell, commented: “Rallying is a difficult sport where anything that can go wrong, usually does. This means will James' will need to call on all his past experience just to get the car to the finish. Over the past few years he has become a proficient rally mechanic, and this knowledge will be very useful in keeping the car
running and in liaising with our mechanics during the brief service halts. In addition, his broad range of driving knowledge – from several years in karts, to extensive circuit racing, plus rallying as a driver and co-driver – will all prove to be valuable on this challenging event.”

For this event, James will be sponsored by just4airlines.com sdn. bhd. along with additional support from suppliers Silverstone Tire and Carlube.

just4airlines.com is a growing on-line media company with its headquarters in Shah Alam, and offices in both Malaysia and the UK. It provides web-based industry news, travel information, a supplier directory and a job center plus event management services to the airline industry worldwide. The company draws on its founders' expertise acquired with industry leaders such as BOAC, British Airways, IATA, and Canadian Pacific. just4airlines.com's popular e-newsletter reaches 120,000 aviation professionals every week - highlighting current news, events and travel information – and its website receives five million hits every month.

For this event, James and Douglas will set aside their usual SR Motorsport Subaru Impreza for a much newer model. The Group N4 GDB model is recently acquired and this will be its first event. As James noted “I'm excited at the prospect of rallying our new car, but at the same time I realize it may take me a stage or two to get up to speed. The last thing I want to do is make a mistake early in the event, due to the unfamiliarity with the car, but it's a long event, so hopefully this won't present too much of a problem for me.” He continued “Just having the chance to win six drives in the World Rally Championship is an awesome thought.”

The Ancom Malaysian Rally 2008 will take place on the gravel roads in the plantations of southern Johore state, from October 10th. to 12th. The official start and finish ceremonies will be at the Zon Hotel in Johor Bahru. The rally is a round of both the Asia Pacific Rally Championship and the Malaysian Rally Championship and has attracted an entry of more than forty cars.