Ananda – motor racing driver par excellence

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen – Kandy Sports correspondent

Veteran motor racing driver Ananda de Alwis is no more but his record breaking feats some of them may be world records will live forever.

Highlight of his motor racing career which began in 1963 with an old Austin car ended on April 7, 2013, at the 79th Mahagastota Speed Hill Climb organised by the CeylonMotor Sports Club at Blackpool, Nanu Oya. He reached the finish line of his motor racing after clocking 50 years of continuous participation at this speed hill climb which is the oldest in Asia.

Ananda de Alwis

The Ceylon Motor Sports Club headed by its President Niroshan Pereira in appreciation of his feat presented him with a special award.

His last run in a motor racing event was at Mahagastota was in his old and faithful Ford Mexico when he timed 52.373 seconds in the first run and slightly slower in his second ran timing 54.372 seconds. He was 75 years and was driving and old Ford Mexico competing with Honda's and Toyotas driven by racing drivers who were less than half his age. He knew that winning is not possible but he wanted to set an example to the youngsters that participation is more important than winning.

Possible world records

He has participated for 50 years without a break in the same racing event, Mahagastota Speed Hill Climb and this could be a possible world record. The number of hill climbs may be more than fifty as this club has been having hill climbs during August in some years and this is done every ten years. In the year 2004 they had two hill climbs, thus Ananda de Alwis's achievements may be more than fifty participations at the prestigious Hill Climb. Two years ago Ananda de Alwis told this writer that he had completed fifty times participation at this Hill Climb. His trusted racing car Ford Mexico was acquired by him in 1978, after his wife Tulvan managed to ship this vehicle while she was in the United Kingdom at a time that import of motor vehicles was banned in Sri Lanka except under special circumstances. He has been using this vehicle without a break for 35 years in circuit races, hill climbs and rallies both in tarmac, dirt track and also in combination of both like the now discontinued Taladuwa races organised by the Motor Racing Association. This track also had grass.

To compete in a race at 74 years could be a record and a clear indication of his reflexes as motor racing is a combination of the machine and the skills of the driver and if one fails, it could be disastrous. To the credit of Ananda de Alwis, he has never met with an accident in a motor racing event in his fifty years and this could be another record.

There are many world records he could claim and take a long time to break or may never be broken as it is not only skills but the age. This was possible because Ananda de Alwis lived till the ripe age of 75 where others if among the living may even find it difficult to walk.

Veteran racing driver Rohan de Silva who has completed 35 years of motor racing, the most experienced in the scene today said that the passing away of Ananda de Alwis takes away from the motor racing scene, a gentleman who was dedicated to motor sports whether it was a circuit race, rally or Hill Climb and he was there to encourage the youngsters. He will be sadly missed at the next years Mahagastota speed hill climb which has been a part of his life and he has participated for 50 years in the 79 year old history of this hill climb.

Late Ananda de Aliws as a young man first particpated at the Katukurunda races in 1963 along with his brother in their father's old Austin car.

Those were the days the Cadillacs, Jaguar, Ford, Austin, and Hillaman's all English makes were seen on the streets. It was much later the faster Japanese make cars took to the streets.

In 1964 Ananda de Alwis took up billet as a trainee planter known as ‘creeper’ in planting parlance and was posted in the Nuwara Eliya District. The same year he participated at the Mahagastota Speed Hill and he was to create a world record at this event 50 years later in 2013. He retired many years ago at Dunsinane Group, Pundaluoya.

His body lying at is residence 17 Maraminiya Road, Kelaniya and the cortège will leave his residence on today (June 5) at 2 p.m for cremation at the Borella Cemetery.