James Russell is a young rally driver with plenty of potential. At only 20 years of age, he has had success in both go kart racing and single seaters. In 2003, with only one year of go kart racing experience, he became the Dunlop AMC Endurance Champion, even when he went up against some good and very experienced competition. He progressed to the world of track racing with the Formula Malaysia single seaters.
Doing two Formula One Support Races in the cars, he achieved best rookie on his first attempt and got himself on the podium by his second. Now that he is old enough, James is following his passion of rallying, and with two years under his belt has had several good results to boast about including two podiums finishes.
James started his rally career back in 2004, co-driving for Simon Eastlake in the SR Motorsport prepared Subaru Impreza. They managed 2nd overall on just their first rally together. In 2005 he progressed to the driving seat, again in a lesser tuned Impreza to gain valuable experience. He did both the Malaysian and SouthEast Asian Championships, and moved up to a more powerful machine later in the year.
Unfortunately, luck was not always on his side, and there were many retirements throughout the year due to both driver error and mechanical faults, but in the midst of the problems were several good results and some good raw speed.
2006 was a slow year for James as he struggled for sponsorship and with the cancellation of the SouthEast Asian Championship that he had planned to do. He was supported by Pennzoil for the Asia Pacific round in Malaysia though.
In 2007, he had very experienced co-driver Douglas Pickering alongside him, and in the Group A Subaru Impreza prepared SR Motorsport, took the 2007 Group A Championship. He also had some good overall performances throughout the year. He also joined Pennzoil again in 2007 to drive a Proton Satria Gti race car in the B class. Using his previous single seater experience at Sepang, the team finished 5th in class as well as setting the fastest lap in
class with James at the wheel.
This year James has been continuing his assault of the Malaysian Rally Championship, and will be competing in the Pirelli Driver Search in October. He has also been competing in many other forms of racing, including Grass Roots Autosports events, an MAM Rally X event which he won, and the Malaysian Super Series at Sepang.
Besides being a feisty driver on track, James is also knockout fighter off track, armed with a black belt in Taekwando. He also enjoys playing soccer, basketball and rock climbing.
James is currently pursuing his Bachelors in Victoria University, majoring in accounting.
CV:
Name: James Russell
Date of Birth: November 1987
Place of Birth: Canada
Nationality: Malaysia
Education: Victoria University, Bachelor of Business – Accounting.
Website: www.james-russell.com
List of Achievements in Motorsport:
Group A Champion MRC 2007
2nd Overall Rnd.5 MRC 2007
5th in Class and Fastest Lap MME 2007
3rd Overall Rnd.6 SEA Rally 2005
3rd in Class Rnd.1 SEA Rally 2005
3rd in Class Malaysian Rally Championship 2005
3rd Overall Formula One Support Race 2005
2nd in Class Malaysian Rally Championship 2004
Best Rookie Formula One Support Race 2004
Dunlop AMC Endurance Champion 2003
2nd Overall Malaysian Kart Prix 2003
