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by Bernard Perera

Prabath Pieris was seen at his best last Sunday at the Katukurunda racers which was the fourth and final stage of the Sri Lanka Association for Racing Drivers and Riders Mc'Foil Championship 2003. Prabath rode his Yamaha 125 in great style to win three races the 250 Racing (two races) and the open event competing against machines with high power.

In the first race he got off to flying start and kept on his lead until the finish with Feroz Omar and Damien Gunatilleke chasing right through the race. Feroz was the biggest threat with 1000 cc engine.

The second race too was hotly contested with three riders Feroz, Damien and Maduranga Caldera giving everything what was in store to outclass Prabath, but they all failed when the winner taking full control of the race to become a clear winner. The Open Motor Cycles event was the best seen after long period, here too it was Prabath that kept the motor racing fans on their toes with superb cornering, where no one could manage to override this rider.

At one stage it was a ding dong battle between Feroz and Prabath.

Feroz with his powerful machine was seen overtaking Prabath on the open straight stretch. Prabath was never in trouble when it came to cornering he always had the advantage and went ahead. It was the thrill that all fans expected and this also helped Prabath to grab the third victory on the day.

The other rider to impress on this day was Mohamed Manaf on his Honda 250 cc. participating in the Group P Motor Cycle event. He went on to win both events for the day in this category with ease. Damien Gunetilleke won the day's first event for motorcycles Group P up to 125 cc on his Yamaha 125.

On the four wheeler category it was Dinesh Deheragoda who thrilled the spectators with two victories in the super car event Group M & T up to 3500 cc.

In the first race Dinesh who went off in flash got to the lead followed by Aravinda Premadasa and Riyaz Farook chasing all the way.

The race leader made no mistakes and the opponent's could not get pass him though every effort was made by them. Dinesh was a clear winner behind the wheel of Mitsubishi Evolution VIII the most powerful car on the track this day. It was a battle between Mitsubishi's in this race. The second race for these cars saw a different picture with Aravinda Premadasa becoming the race leader followed by Dinesh and Pradeep Jayawardene both in Mitsubishi Evolutions.

Aravinda was in front for six laps and with two more laps remaining Dinesh got closer to Aravinda in a bid to get past the leader. In the last lap Dinesh got the chance what he was looking for at the right hand corner soon after the straight and sped away like a bullet to go, ahead of Aravinda. He ended up by making it his second win for the day.

Though Aravinda was placed second in both racers he became overall SLARDAR champion when had collected a total of 62 points from four stages against Dinesh's 60 points.

Rohith de Silva was another driver who excelled last Sunday registering two victories. First he won Group 'A' Mini Saloon cars event driving his Mini. The second victory for him came in Group M & T up to 1050 cc cars even behind the wheel of his Mini Rover.

The Formula Car events were dominated by top drivers in this category Romani de Silva and Dinesh Jayawardene winning a race each. Romani drove a van Diemen while Dinesh drove Formula Ford Post '85.

Dhammika Pieris, Sheran Fernando, Javid Wahab, Sajaad Zuhair and Yoga Perera won an event each in their categories to prove their class on the track as top drivers.

The awards were given away soon after the meet. A large gathering of motor racing fans witnessed a well organised racing conducted by the Sri Lanka Association of Racing Drivers and Riders (SLARDAR).

The awards ceremony of the SLARDAR championship 2003 for Mc'Foil Challenge is to be held on November 7 at Trans Asia Hotel.

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