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| Tuesday, 13 April 2004 |
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Five records broken at Mahagastota Speed Hill Climb by S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports correspondent Class records, spills and thrills were in aplenty at the Annual Suzuki Mahagastota Speed Hill Climb organised by the Ceylon Motor Sports Club with Motor Marvels (Pct.) Limited as main sponsor and Suntel as co-sponsor and worked off at the Mahagastota track at Blackpool in sunny weather conditions on Sunday. A total of five class records were broken - 1 motor cycles and 4 in respect of motor cars. The record breakers were Shafraz Junaid (Mobike) and the others in the motor car events young Darin Weerasinghe, Dinesh Jayawardena, Sheran Fernando and Rajitha Cooke and the last two named broke their own class records. Though no new class record was set up the Formula event for standard formula cars drew a lot of attention of the crowds with five competitors competing for honours. Romani de Silva of Team Mobil did two splendid runs to clock 37-22 seconds which was just 0.26 seconds short of the class record to win the event. Maestro Rohan de Silva too sparkled and his first run was a neat and clear one but nearing the Wakefield corner his vehicle spun a full turn when he tried to push harder to gain that extra second. But he finished second. Rizvi Farouk had two misfortunes in his first run when he went over the sand bags at the second hair pin corner pushing the sand bags out. In the same run at the next corner he almost went off the road hitting the sand bags and narrowly escaped falling into the vegetable plot about 30 feet below with the nose of the vehicle protruding out. The President of the Sri Lanka Automobile Sports Suranjith Premadasa regained his title for the modified formula event by 36.78 seconds which was won by Rohan de Silva last year with a timing of 38.07 seconds. Suranjith Premadasa who clocked his winning timing in his first run had the misfortune of going over the sand bags at the second hair pin bend, a repeat of his last year's bad luck, and it took sometime to put the machine back on the track and returned to the paddock. Maestro Rohan de Silva in his outwardly new look machine too had the back luck of the machine not pulling at full throttle in his first run but he sparkled in his second run but a little braking or losing time at the corner resulted in him finishing with a timing of 37.26 seconds. The first record to go for the day was by Shafraz Junaid now running without a sponsor when he clocked 37.66 seconds in the event for mobikes over 125 cc and upto 250 in his Honda CR 250 which bettered the existing record of 38.82 second set up by Udesh Wedisinghe in 1999. Shafraz Junaid also won his second event for mobikes over 350 cc in his Honda CR 500 with a timing of 39.21 seconds. It was some skilful riding by this youngster which thrilled the crowds. Junaid earlier rode for Team Mobil and later crossed over to Team Caltex and is now without a sponsor. His timing was close to the course record for Mobikes which is 38.73 set up in 1999 by Shanaka Ambrose. The first motor car class record to go was in the event 10-12 Kg/HP young Darin Weerasinghe in a daring run in his Honda Civic clocked 42.21 seconds to better the timing of Dhammika Peiris (42.42 seconds) established in 2003, who last year bettered this record held by Simon Lourensz since 1990. Daring Darin Weerasinghe is the son of the famous motor racing driver Bandula Weerasinghe. Nihal Premasiri from Kahawatte finished second and in third place was Air Pilot Hishan Fernando and not being air borne and did well in a more mundane competition. Sheran Fernando driving a Browns Citroen Saxo did justice to himself when he timed 41.14 to lower his own record of 41.28 seconds which he established in 2003 in the same machine. It was some superb driving by the burly Sheran Fernando which made the crowds taste ecstasy and his manoeuvring of the machine at the corners were a treat to watch. But not far behind was Zackie Ismail in his Honda timing 41.92 improving much on his performance of 43.14 seconds in the same vehicle last year. Young Israq Wahab finished third, that was in the event for motor cars 8 to 10 Kg/HP. The fourth class record for the day was established by Dinesh Jayawrdena of Team Mobil who in a screeching run in his Mobil Honda Civic returned a timing of 40.13 seconds to lower the record of 40.44 seconds established by veteran Bri Ponnambalam in a Mobil Honda V Tech last year, in the event for cars 6 to 8 Kg/HP. Dinesh Senanayake in a similar make of vehicle showed flashes of brilliance to take the spot with a timing of 41.02 seconds and Sumanapala Mannapperuma finished third with 41.39 seconds. Last record to go was by Rajitha Cooke in the event for SLA Cars upto 1050 cc who timed 41.07 seconds to break his own record of 41.50 seconds established in 2002. It is a pity that this once highly competitive event had just a solitary competitor with most of them opting to keep away for reasons best known to them. But this does take away any gloss from Rajitha Cooke's performance in his Westfield as in a hill climb the number of competitors is of less significance and it is the speed, power and skills of handling a machine at sharp and narrow corners which matters. |
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