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| Sunday, 22 May 2005 |
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Speed championship round one involves motor cars and racing cycles! by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Corr It is going to be a race with a difference when the round one of the Speed Championship organised by the Asian Motor Racing Club (AMRC) and the Ceylon Motor Sports Club (CMSC) on Saturday, May 28 at the Pannala International Circuit, Pannala commencing at 1 p.m. This event will be sponsored by DHL, United Motors, and Mobil. This Speed Championship will feature not only motor cars and motor cycles but also racing cycles to make speed entertainment for all both motorised and manually pedalled. At the press briefing held by the AMRC, the President of the Motor Racing Drivers Union Mahen Thambiah said that it was heartening to note that the organisers have decided on independent time-keepers which will be carried out by the Swimming Association. This change is vital and certainly a positive sign for the improvement of motor sports. Mahen Thambiah said that motor racing revolves around a small community and they are known to each other. This sort of independent time keeping will eliminate heartburn among the drivers. Speed is measured by time and the timings achieved by a particular driver if it is fast will help him in the start grid positions and hold an advantage over the others. Therefore the importance of this key element of timing could be visualised. Mahen Thambiah paid a glowing tribute to the AMRC for successfully conducting racing meets in the past and assured that over 90 per cent of the Motor Racing Drivers Association will be participating in this race. All rules and regulations will be strictly enforced and the drivers and riders are expected to follow it. The Secretary AMRC Risvi Faruk, himself an ace motor racing driver one of the best exponents of the Honda V Tec, said that over 100 entries have been received to-date and more are expected to pour in the next couple of days. A total of 14 events will be worked off and of which seven will be championship events which will be worked off in four rounds. There will be cash awards for the first three who are placed. Amal Suriyage of the Cycle Federation said that this is the first time that racing cycle race which will be held in a racing circuits in Sri Lanka. Hitherto cycle races have been held on highways and the back woods and this is going to be new experience for the cyclists. In the past the cyclists are visually timed and photo finish is going to be a big breakthrough in cycle racing. The Interim Committee for Cycling has a data base of the riders and the top 110 riders have been invited to participate and this will include cycling teams from popular clubs such as Army, Navy, Air Force, Police and Paragon Peddlars. This 20 lap race will be over a distance of 34 kilometres and is expected to be completed in 40 minutes. This race will be conducted by the Interim Committee for Cycling. He thanked the AMRC for their fine gesture in inviting the racing cyclists to participate. Attractive cash prizes which will be scaled down from Rs. 10,000 will be awarded to the winners. The President of the Sri Lanka Racing Riders Association and the owner of the Pannala International Racing Circuit - Upali Dassanayake, said that they have made a significant change in the programme and instead of starting the races on Sunday morning, we have decided to commence it on Saturday at 1 p.m. and will go on till 6 p.m. and will be completed by 6 p.m. and thereafter the distribution of awards will take place. There will be a lot of cash awards. The official practices will be held on Friday and the racing drivers and riders will have to adjust themselves to these changes. Boniface Perera of DHL who will be one of the main sponsors said that in the past they had sponsored other sporting events and this year they had taken a major step by entering the motor racing scene and had sponsored a winner in Dinesh Jayawardena. The business operations of DHL depends on speed and on how fast you could deliver an item and motor racing also depends on how fast you can finish the race and there speed is common to both. The President of the AMRC Trevor Reckermann thanked the media personnel for having graced the occasion and for their past support and looked forward to their continued support. |
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