Mahagastota Hill Climb tomorrow

HILL CLIMB: The Ceylon Motor Sports Club (CMSC) will kick start the session of festivals in Nuwara Eliya with the Formula Plus Mahagastota Hill Climb sponsored by Sri Lanka Insurance. Held annually in April, the event this year sees a record number of entries both in the Motor Car and Motor Cycle classes.

The events which will attract the most interest will be the one make events for the Mini, the Ford Laser, Nissan March and the Formula Fords. These events have been tailored to bring competition to an event level, marking it much more challenging for the driver.

Mahagastota traditionally attracts certain drivers and riders and this year is no exception. Mahen Tambiah, Bri Ponnambalam, Nishan Weerasooriya, Ananda de Alwis, Vikum Ranjith are faces only seen at this event.

The Motorcycle events are also hotly contested this year. The governing body for this sport has put out new classes and regulation for 2006 and Mahagastota sees the debut of these regs. Old favourites like Shane Silva, M. G. Sarath Kumarasinghe and Indika Gurusinghe will be seen in action.

The "supercars" are not forgotten, and this class contested by Nalin Perera, Aravinda Premadasa, Nishan Weerasooriya and Romani de Silva.