Rohan – the star at Mahagastota Speed Hill Climb on April 7

by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen – Kandy Sports Corr.

Ceylon Motor Sports Club, the organisers of the Mahagastota Speed Hill Climbs have this week confirmed that the motor racing ace Rohan de Silva the overall course record holder at this hill climb which will be 79 years old this year and is scheduled to be held next Sunday April 7.

This confirmation was made by the President of the Ceylon Motor Sports Club Niroshan Pereira.

It must be recalled that maestro Rohan de Silva driving a Mobil Modified Form Formula 1600 with a fine drive run timed 35.57 seconds which broke the existing record. The timings recorded upto that were of decimal point two digits which interpreted it as .70 seconds. That was in the year 2004.

This record stood for five years till Nishan Weerasooriya behind a Mitsubishi Evolution in the event for SLGT 3500cc cars made an excellent run to time 35.573 seconds and with the improvement of technology decimal three digit timing came into place. At that it was announced that Nishan Weerasooriya had equalled the course and that they were joint record holders.

This position was resolved this week with the announcement by the club that maestro Rohan de Silva had a faster timing and he is the Overall Course record holder or the fastest man in this oldest hill climb in the country and is also known as the cradle of motor racing as the first hill climb was held in 1934 by a group of enthusiastic expatriate planters.

Rohan de Silva is a legendary motor racing driver of our times and at present holds the following records at the Mahagastota Hill Climb.

1. McLarens Formula 1300cc
2. Standard Formula Ford 1600cc
3. Modified Formula Ford 1600cc
4. Overall Course record at Mahagastota.

With the advancement of technology and the upgrading of the tracks at least three of these records could be lowered in the near future except one which is the Modified Ford Formula 1600cc as the governing body for motor sports in Sri Lanka had taken a decision a few years back to discontinue the running of this type of vehicles at open meets.

Rohan de Silva is the King among motor racing hill climbers holding the course records at Radella Hill Climb, Mahagastota Hill Climb and Kotmale Hill Climb. A record which will be hard to dislodge. This is apart from many other class records.

Nishan Weerasooriya is now the record holder from SLGT cars 3500cc and the fastest for stock cars.