Ashan de Silva - fastest hill climber at Mahagastota

by S.M. Jiffrey ABDEEN- Kandy Sports Corr. at Mahagastota.

MOTOR RACING: Up and coming motor racing driver Ashan de Silva proved his class by becoming the fastest hill climber at Nuwara Eliya this season in his Mitsubishi Evolution when he clocked the fastest timing at the 77th Mahagastota Speed Hill Climb organised by the Ceylon Motor Sports Club and worked off at the beautiful winding course at Mahagastota Estate in Blackpool, Nanu Oya.

Young Ashan de Silva earlier won the award for the fastest timing of the meet at the Radella Hill Climb thus completing a fine double, a feat earlier performed by top racing drivers like formula experts Rohan de Silva and Suranjith Premadasa and stock car drivers Nishan Weerasooriya and others.

On this day, Ashan de Silva was the complete master and driving his machine in the SLGT class 3500 cc with power and skills he clocked 36.015 seconds in his first run and this was never battered by any other competitor though former champion driver Arvinda Premadasa came close with a blistering second run in his Mitsubishi Evolution 7 to time 36.642 seconds to finish second.

Arvinda Premadasa's run was fantastic and he could have returned the fastest timing of the day, had he not lost a little time at the first hair pin bend when the vehicle swung a little but he corrected himself to continue winning a big round of applanse. Young Darin Weerasinghe driving a Subaru Impreza gave an impressive display to finish third with a timing of 37.268 seconds. Little over a second seperated this trio in the super cars event.

The fastest for motorcycles was returned by Shafraz Junaid in his Honda with a timing of 39.935 seconds and he is the present course record holder for motorcycles.

The current course record for all vehicles is held jointly by maestro Rohan de Silva in a modified formula clocking 35.57 seconds in 2005 and later this was equalled by Nishan Weerasooriya in a Mitsubishi Evolution by clocking 35.573 seconds in 2010. But these records remained intack. Modified formula event has been now discontinued while Nishan Weerasooriya did not participate at this year's meet.

The McLarens formula 1300 cc event which was introduced last year was won by Rohan de Silva giving a repeat performance while the Standard Formula 1600 cc event was won by Dilan Senaviratne following his success in his Honda in the event for Group SL-N cars 1600 cc.

Ashan de Silva not satisfied in winning the Group SLGT cars (Super Cars) event completed the double by winning the event for Group - Cars upto 1600 cc taking sweet revenge on Dilan Senaviratne who won this event at Radella and this time finished second and Dinesh Jayawardena finished third in this event.

It is not known whether any class records were lowered at this year's hill climb as the timings were not released to the media after the conclusion of the meet on grounds of ratification by the Committee of the Ceylon Motor Sports Club. The timings have been not released even five days after the meet.

Only the fastest timing fox motor cars and the motorcycles were announced and the balance would be released later.

A fairly large holiday crowd was present at this event and they were treated with some time fare especially by the drivers running in the higher class.

As for the spills a Susuki Maruti which went out of control at the first hair pin bend toppled back into the road which it had passed only a second ago. Next a Formula car which had its brake locked and the suspensions not balanced properly want out of control also at the first hair pin bend to crash into the sand bags damaging its suspensions and the radiator.

The results (Provisional)

Motorcycles 80 cc open: 1. Hashan Pasindu (Kawasaki), 2. Vijitha Perera (Honda), 3. W.M. Gunasinghe.

Standard Motorcycles up to 125 cc - 2 stroke single cylinder: 1. Shane Silva (Yamaha), 2. A. Sampath Weerasinghe (Kawasaki), 3. K. Sivalingam (Yamaha).

Standard motorcycles upto 125 cc Forest Event (4 stroke): 1. M.C.S. Perera (Baslin), 2. S. Sunanda (Bajaj), 3. Salinda Ekanayake (Bajaj).

Racing Motorcycles upto and including 250 cc: 1. Shafras Junaid (Honda CR), 2. Sarath Marasinghe (Honda CR), 3. Vikum Ranjith (Honda CR).

Standard Motorcycles upto 250 cc (4 stroke): 1. Ananda Sampath Weerasinghe (Honda XR), 2. M.D.M. Ariyaratne (Honda XR), 3. Sarath Kumarasingha (Suzuki).

Standard Motorcycles upto 125 cc (4 stroke single cylinder): 1. Ananda Weerasinghe (Hondai), 2. S.I.D. Weerasinghe (Honda JX), 3. Gabriel Rockwood (Hero Honda Glamour).

Racing Motorcycles upto 125 cc: 1 Chinthaka Nishantha (Honda CR), 2. S. Wasudewan (Yamaha YX), 3. W.M. Gunasingha (Honda RS).

Standard Motorcycles upto 250 cc (2 stroke): 1. Shane Silva) Honda CM), 2. Vijaya Kumara Ganeshan (Yamaha TER), 3. S. Wasudewan (Honda CMM).

Motorcycles Open: 1. Shafraz Junaid (Honda CR 500 cc), 2. Vijitha Perera (Yamaha CR 350 cc).

Lake Mini Standard 1000 cc: 1. Dilan Perera (Austin Mini), 2. Mudith Maddumaarachchi (Austin Mini), 3. Shafraz Junaid (Austin XXY Mini).

Suzuki Maruti One Make Event 800 cc: 1. Hussain Akbarally (Suzuki Alto), 2. Gabriel Rockwood (Suzuki Alto), 3. Roshan Tillakaratne (Suzuki Alto).

Formula McLerens 1300cc: 1. Rohan de Silva (Formula McLarens), 2. Dilan Senaviratna (Formula McLarens), 3. Dinesh Jayawardena (Formula McLarens).

Group SL - M Cars 8 to 10 Kg/Hp: 1. Upeksha de Silva (Suzuki Swift), 2. Dharsha Pathirana (Nissan Primera), 3. Dinesh Senanayake (CS, Suzuki Swift).

Nissan March One Make event 1000 cc: 1. Ushan de Silva, 2. Bri Ponnambalam, 3. Raveen Senaviratne.

Group SL - A Cars upto 1050 cc: 1. Ajith Keerthi (Austin Mini), 2. Mohan Madugalle (Austin Mini), 3. Buddhika de Silva (Nissan March)

Group SL - M Cars upto 1600 cc: 1. Ashan de Silva (Honda Civic), 2. Dilan Senaviratne (Honda SIR), 3. Dinesh Jayawardena (Honda).

Standard Formula Ford 1600 cc Post 85: 1. Dilan Senaviratne (Formula Ford), 2, Rohan de Silva (Formula Ford), 3. Shirendra Lawrence (Formula Ford).

Group SLGT Super Cars up to 3500 cc: 1. Ashan de Silva (Mitsubishi Evolution 9-2000 cc), 2. Aravinda Premadasa (Mitsubishi Evolution 7-2000 cc), 3. Darin Weerasingha (Subaru Impreza 1990 cc).

Fastest Timing MotorCycles: Shafraz Junaid 39.035 secs.

Fastest Timing MotorCars: Ashan de silva 36.815 secs.

Special Award for Oldest Competitor: Ananda de Alwis 73 years

Overall Fastest Timing of the Day: Ashan de Silva 36.015 secs.