Suranjith, Shafraz best timers at Motor Triathlon
 

by Bernard Perera

Suranjith Premadasa the founder of the Southern Motor Sports Club, the organiser of the first ever motor Racing Triathlon became the hero at the Eliyakanda Hill Climb last Sunday at Matara. He was awarded the Preethi Palliyaguru Challenge Trophy when he was declared the overall winner at the Hill Climb when Suranjith clocked the best time for the day for cars. Ford Formula Class 36.29 secs for the 600m long climb.

Shafraz Junaid was the man who stole the limelight on his Honda CR 500 cc bike timing the fastest for Bikes on this day 38.63 secs in the Racing Category over 125 cc. He also won the 125 cc Racing event on a Honda CR clocking 39.96 secs.

The other rider who performed well on the Hill climb was Rohana Jayaratne, he too won two classes, the 250 cc four stroke and standard modified over 250 cc event. He had timings 39.85 and 41.00 secs respectively.

The only Policeman M. C. S. Perera who had taken to the sport after a long lapse to fill the gap created by ace rider U. D. Jinadasa did well here to bag the Racing upto 250 cc event with a time of 46.98. He is a rider the Police should look to assist as he is sure to bring back the past glory for the Police Dept. which they lacked for nearly three decades. He looks a fine rider who push forward to give the top rider a challenge in the bigger class.

Susantha Gunawardene is a promising driver who showed that he is capable of handling any type of car at any circuit and to compete against all top drivers in fray. Driving under the banner of McLarens group he managed to out-drive experienced Dhammika Pieris and Upulwan Serasinghe to second and third places in Ford laser/Mazda 323 category. Upulwan Serasinghe who competed in a higher class did well to win the Diesel cars upto 2000 cc driving a Toyota Starlet.

Shehara de Silva the lady driver and his cousin Harsha de Silva also came up with splendid performances to win SLN cars upto 1600 cc and Modified cars over 1050 cc.

The youngster from Matara Dasaraj Dahanayake drove his Mitsubishi Evo VI to clinch the modified cars 3600 cc. He was in full control of his vehicle from the word go.

FIA-N cars upto 1600 cc event saw Dinesh Jayawardena take major honours. When he drove the DHL sponsored Honda to victory with a time of 39.01. Harsha and Sheran the veterans were the runners up behind Jayawardene. The powerful car the Mitsubishi Evo VIII was driven by Nishan Weerasooriya carried away the Toshiba Trophy for FIA-N cars upto 3500 cc.

The Auto Test which was conducted for the first time in Sri Lanka saw veterans Dhammika Pieris, Prasanna de Alwis, Harsha de Silva, Dinesh Jayawardene, K. Parameshwara and lady driver Shehara Jayawardene recorded best timings in their respective classes.

Yositha Rajapakse, the son of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse who came as an late entrant for the Jeeps and Trucks upto 3000 cc event recorded the best time to grab the Trophy for this class. He manured his vehicle in great style to clock a time of 1.47.20 secs for the two kilo metre event. He was closely followed by Lalin Galaboda.

The drag races which was held could not be completed as scheduled due to heavy downpour. Ramal Pathirana won two different classes on Motor cycles while Indika Gurusinghe won the 250 cc four stroke event.

Upulwan Serasinghe, Ashan Silva, Lalin Galaboda, Randeer Rodrigo won their respective events for men while in the ladies event, two drivers from Matara Maduri Devanarayana pipped Chinthika Badathuruge to second slot.

All in all the meet was conducted on high note though there were few lapses in running the meet according to the time schedule. But this has to be excused as the organisers were new to the Triathlon format which was organised for the first time. The organisers should take special care in keeping to time in future meets after reading their lapses that took place during the meet.