Junaid leads EZY Racing's SLARDAR 1000 bid
Sri Lanka's rally kings, EZY Racing will enter as strong favourites
to win the 2012 SLARDAR 1000 rally, considered the epitome of TSD
Rallying in Sri Lanka, which will be held from the 26th to 28th October.
The motor racing team who have completed a successful 2012 season, is
looking forward to another strong performance from their TSD rally team,
lead by 2010 Speed Rally Champion and TSD rally stalwart Shafraz Junaid.
Junaid who is the only successful competitor to have won the coveted
Southern Monsoon Rally twice, will go into the 1000km grueling rally
with a new navigator in Sabri Abdul Salami. Junaid who last won the 2010
Southern Monsoon Rally, will be joined by Yaqoob Aariff who was the
runner up in the same rally. Aariff, together with his navigator Arshad
Kabir has made steady progress as a specialist TSD rally driver since he
took up rallying in 2007.
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The Ezy Racing Team : (From left): Arshad Kabir(co-driver),
Yakub Ariff(driver), Hassan Alaldeen, Shafraz Junaid(driver),
Sabry Salam(co-driver) |
With the absence of past winner and EZY Racing team mate Rizvi
Farouk, Junaid will be totally focused on inspiring his team to bring
home the coveted trophy. This much looked forward to event which was
initiated in 1987 is considered to be the most grueling and challenging
rally, and is being held after a lapse of five long years. The rally
which will be flagged off on Friday evening will have Twenty eight
competitors passing 60 check points over 1000kms, all of whom will be
making every effort to be crowned as Sri Lanka's Rally King. EZY's
Shafraz Junaid, developed a passion for rallying following in the
footsteps of his father Faizal Junaid and started his rally career at
the age of 19 , riding his Honda 600CC motorbike at a SLARDAR 1000 in
1998. This will be his 5th SLARDAR 1000 rally. J
uanid who was the sole motor bike competitor to take part in this
gruelling rally for a long time, migrated to 4 wheeled vehicles in 2007.
He has participated in and won many rallies on both bikes and cars since
launching his sporting career 15 years back. As an all round motor
racer, Junaid also holds the record for motorbikes for the Mahagasote
Hill Climb.
He will drive the EZY Subaru ER3, on which he won he speed rally
championship in 2010, for the very first time in TSD format. Junaid's co
drvier for this event is Sabri Abdul Salam, who is an experienced speed
rally navigator in both local as well as international rallies. Sabri
will be navigating a TSD rally for the very first time and he is a
Formula Driver with mechanical knowledge . Yakub Ariff will be driving
his Suzuki Grand Vitara and has many accolades under his belt including
the Mobil Ruhunu Motor Rally - June 2008 - Placed 3rd (NRP), CMSC Lotus
Motor Rally - August 2008 - Placed 11th (RP), Southern Monsoon Motor
Rally - September 2008 - 3rd (NRP), CMSC Lotus Motor Rally - August 2009
- Placed 12th (RP), Southern Monsoon Motor Rally - October 2009 - Placed
1st (NRP), Southern Monsoon Motor Rally - October 2010 - Placed 2nd
(RP), CMSC-MRA Sevanagala Speed Rally - 2010 - Placed 3rd (RP) and the
Southern Monsoon Motor Rally - 2011 - Placed 10th (RP).
EZY Racing intends on providing live updates on their facebook
fanpage www.facebook.com/ezyracing for the 23, 000 motor racing fans of
theirs. |
