Kotmale Hill Climb only for cars

By S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen, Kandy Sports Corr.

HILL CLIMB - The annual Kotmale Speed Hill Climb organised by the Upcountry Motor Sports Club (UMSC) will be worked off along Chaitya Road in Mawatura in Kotmale on Sunday - November 26, commencing at 9 a.m.

This year the events will be restricted to motor cars and a total of 16 events will be worked off in this beautiful track overlooking the Kotmale reservoir hemmed by mountain ranges of Pussellawa and Talawakelle.

Maestro Rohan de Silva is the course record holder when he timed 55.17 seconds in his modified Mobil Ford Formula about two years ago. This year too Rohan de Silva will be back in his Ford Formula and he lined to participate in four events including two formula events - Standard Formula and Modified Formula.

Subhachani Meegama will be the Secretary of the meet and the Clerk of the Course Mr. Mohan Fernando. The UMSC stewards will be Rally Dean (Motor Cycles) and Dammika Swarnasinghe (motor cars) and there will be also a steward from the governing body Sri Lanka Automobile Sports.

The scrutinizing of the vehicles will be done at 8.30 a.m. and the drivers briefing will be at 8.45 a.m. before the meet gets under way at 9 a.m.

According to many top racing drivers this course is one of the best hill climbing tracks in the island with an excellent surface and wide roads but most challenging. The course is along Chaithya Road in Kotmale and turns off the main access road to the Kotmale dam. The road was built circa in 1987 by Skanska International Civil Engineering AB of Sweden to a very high standard at the time of construction of the Kotmale dam under the accelerated Mahaweli Diversion Scheme. Since then the roads have been well maintained by the Mahaweli Authority with not much of movement of vehicles as it is off the beaten track. The Mahaweli Authority have kindly granted permission to the UMSC to conduct this race every year since the mid eighties.

The course is of one kilometres length with 8 left handed and 6 right handed corners and the minium width is 3 metres. The climb itself is sharp between the start and finish lines at an average gradient of 1.7.5. In the past the course record had been hold by Aslam Sattar in a formula and later it was Roshan de Silva. Very lately the club started afresh with new records with the past records being shelved and it was maestro who clocked the fastest timing of 55.17 seconds which stands as the present course record.

The competition rules indicate that any vehicle could be driven by only two competitors and a competitor could take part only in four events. The events which are expected to be worked off are:

Group SL-F Productions cars equipped with normally aspirated engines. Classes over 12.0 kg/bhp, Between 10.0 kg/bhp and 12.0 kg/bhp. Between 8.0 kg/bhp and 10.0 kg/bhp.

Group SL-F One Make Classes, Ford Laser/Mazda 323 upto 1300 cc, Ford Laser/Mazda 323 upto 1500 cc, Nissan March upto 1000 cc, Mini Saloon upto 1000 cc.

Group SL - A Modified Cars: Upto 1050 cc, Between 1050 cc and 1400 cc, Between 1400 cc and 1600 cc. Group F - Formula Cars: Formula Ford Standard pro - 1985, Formula Ford Standard Post 1985, Formula Ford Modified upto 1665 cc.

Group SL-S Specials and Prototypes - Cars upto 1600 cc.

Group SL - GT: Starlet GT. Cars upto 3500 cc - Super Cars.

The timing of the events will be done to 1/1000th second using UMSC's Tag Houer equipment: Entries could be handed over to Shehan Meegama, John Keells Limited, Rubber Department (2nd floor) 130 Glennie Street, Colombo 2 or Nihal Weerasinghe, Autoway Enterprises (Pvt.) Ltd, 445, Nawala Road, Rajagiriya. - Tel. 0773291663 (Shehan) 0777-783050 (Nihal).