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| Sunday, 21 April 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Romani de Silva: fastest at Radella Speed Hill Climb by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen , Kandy Sports Correspondent Romani de Silva of Mobil Auto Colar Racing Team drove his Mobil Formula with astounding success to return the fastest timing of the day at the Annual Radella Speed Hill Climb organised by the Sri Lanka Association of Racing Drivers and Riders (SLARDAR) which also formed a part of the (SLARDAR) National championship and held at the Radella Short Cut in Nanu Oya on Wednesday. Romani de Silva, behind a Formula Ford Mobil Auto Color gave an impressive display to return the timing of 33.94 seconds which was just around two seconds short of the course record of 31.85 seconds held by Rohan de Silva who timed 34.10 seconds at the meet which was just 0.16 seconds behind. This was the second time that Romani de Silva has clocked the fastest timing up here. Team Mobil Auto Color once again gave impressive display to record six wins (2 mobikes, 4 motor cars). Team Caltex won 2 events (both motor cars). If the Formula events were dominated by the Mobil Auto Color Team, then the Super Car events were controlled by the Team Caltex winning two places. There were two spills too, when Team Caltex's Javidh Wahab, after a brilliant run, spun on the road and the Honda Civic came to rest on the sand bags which prevented the vehicle from going down the precipice. Then Tariq Hassen, in his Ford Laser lost control, missed the sand bags and ended up in the tea bushes in the last corner. None of the existing records were lowered and many got close to the class records but just did not have that extra bit to improve on them, perhaps their vehicles were tuned to conditions for the Fox Supercross which was due to be held at Diyatalawa two days later and the official practices on Thursday. Group M&T Cars upto 3500cc provided the major thrills with top drivers like the winner Dinesh Deheragoda, Aravinda Premadasa, Nalin D. Perera, Nishan Weerasooriya, Carmen Thenuwara, Romani de Silva thrown into a tense struggle. Dinesh, driving a UNL Mitsubishi Evolution VII which is on a success trail, timed 34.56 in the first run but did not improve on it in the second but the lead of 0.55 seconds was enough for him to clinch the title for the Super cars event and also further enhance his lead in the SLARDAR Championship at which he is in front for this Group of cars. Nalin D. Perera driving Caltex Impress, kept improving and timed 35.11 seconds while Aravinda Premadasa was not far behind, timing 35.31 seconds. Rizvi Farouk of Team Caltex proved in no uncertain terms that he is the best exponent of Honda V Tech when he won the event for M&T Cars upto 1665cc with a superb run which was slower only by a little over a second of the existing class record held by himself. Yoga Perera continued his success with his Caltex Mini Moke when he timed 38.20 seconds which was short by a mere 0.40 seconds of the class record for M&T Cars upto 1350cc. The other winners in the event for motor cars were Rajitha Cooke, Rohan de Silva (who drove in a style of his own to clock 34.95 seconds which was behind the existing record for Standard Formula cars by a mere 0.20 seconds), Sumanapala Mannapperuma, Devaka Amarasuriya, Buddhika de Silva, Sri Ponnambalam, Hafiz Cader, and in the contest for motor cycles, Ujitha Samarawickrema, Shafraz Junaid, Nalin Perera, Rohan Jayaratne, Veteran Kumar Rajapreyar (who has participated in all the Radella Hill Climbs since the inaugural one in 1985 and is now in his 35th year of motor racing), Suresh Fernando, Andrew Buultjens. Veteran planter Mahen Madugalle kept the crowds entertained with an excellent description of the hill climb over the public address and also a little bio date of the competitors which was found to be very useful. His description of the machine and the conditions under which it climbed were good. The distribution of awards took place at the Dimbula Athletic and Cricket Club in the evening with Palitha Ratnayake, Ranjith Chandrasekera, S.A. Amarasiri, S. de Silva, Mahes Gammanpila, Rodney Mason, doing the honours. |
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