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| Saturday, 31 January 2004 |
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Rajitha drives Westfield to success The 23 year old Rajitha Cooke driving his Westfield Sei emerged victorious in all the events he participated in, returning very fast timings at these meets. Despite many obstacles placed in his path to victory, he overcame same with grit and determination, concentrating on his objective, which was to justify the confidence placed in him by his Main Sponsor One Yellow and co-sponsor Morris Lubricants and Hatton National Bank. Since motor racing is an expensive sport, it would not have been possible to achieve the success he had achieved, if not for his sponsors who had readily come forward to sponsor him. Rajitha commenced his motor racing career at the age of 11 with Junior Go-Kart championship, and was the winner of the 1994 Junior Championship organised by the Ceylon Motor Sports Club. In the same year he was the runner-up in the S.L.A.D.A.R. Championship for juniors, and was runner-up in the Sri Lanka Junior National Championship. In 1999, he was the runner-up in the Caltex/MRA Go-Kart National Championship for seniors. Thereafter he started racing with his fathers Westfield (with a 1000 cc Ford engine) at track meets, which he says was a very good experience, as that car didn't have much power at all, which helped him to drive it to its limits. Thereafter he left the island in the year 2000 to complete his studies in Australia. While in Australia, he underwent an advanced driving course in Go-Karts using a Rotax 125 cc water-cooled engine. This exposure of driving on International Circuits helped him immensely. On his return to Sri Lanka, he has been racing the latest model of the Westfield Sei at local track events, where he has had tremendous success. The Westfield Sei is a series production car manufactured by the Westfield Motor Co. of UK similar to the famous Lotus 7, built by the late Colin Chapman. The engine is a 4 cylinder, four stroke Honda unit driven via a six-speed sequential gearbox. The car is extremely light, combined with the reliable engine and the fine handling characteristics, the Westfield is famous for, it is one of the most competitive racing machines currently in the country. It is has become the centre of attraction at every event that it participates. His main sponsor Suresh Fernandez - Director - One Yellow commending Rajitha's victories said, "Yellow Pages is extremely proud to be the main sponsor, infact our sponsorship was to give visibility and project the speed & efficiency of One Yellow the 'one stop' customer care centre. We are happy with the outcome," on his performance in 2003. The Westfield, driven by Rajitha Cooke is a race-winning combination. Together with the fact that the car is "head turner" at any venue, this combination has a very high value to potential sponsors in 2004, this combination did live upto its expectation by producing some eye-raising victories and timings. |
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