Record holder Nishan Weerasooriya to skip Mahagastota Climb

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

Course record holder at the oldest hill climb in South Asia and hill stormer Nishan Weerasooriya will give this year's Mahagastota speed hill climb a miss but he will be present as a spectator at this major motor racing event which is expected to be worked off at the Magagastota Estate, Nanu Oya on today commencing at 8 a.m.

Weerasooriya is fastest man on machine at Magagastota Nishan Weerasooriya said that business commitments and pressures of work had prevented him from preparing his car for this major event.The champion driver said that he will be back in the fray next year and let us see whether anyone could break my course record and I will come back and have a go at this record. It is exciting to break records rather than holding on to it."

Nishan Weerasooriya was a member of the prestigious Caltex Racing team and has held several hill climbing records as well, winning at road races.A few years back he hinted of retiring from the racing scene and kept away from the races for a few years.

A change of mind saw him making a come back after a few years and stunned the motor racing fans at Mahagastota when he almost broke the then Course record held by Rohan de Silva. There was a little confusion whether he had really broken the record till the Ceylon Motor Sports Club the organisers of this confirmed that Rohan de Silva was faster by a few micro seconds. But Nishan Weerasooriya was hell bent on breaking the Course record and last year driving his Mitsubishi Evolution in a show of classic driving timed 34.17 seconds to wear the crown as the fastest man on machine at Mahagastota, history dating back to 1934 and has been held every year except in 1954 when the scenario was shifted to St. James Estate. Hali Ela as the then Vicar of Nuwara Eliya had raised objections to this event being conducted on a Easter Sunday.

But there is good news for the motor racing fans maestro, Rohan de Silva will be there participating in two formula events. These two formula events will be McLarens Formula 1300cc and Ford Modified Formula 3600cc which could be classed as an event with high powered class. Rohan de Silva is no ordinary motor racing personality as he started his motor racing career in 1977 on a Fiat 124 and is the second oldest in the motor racing scene and has been driving both formulas and stock cars and excelled in both.

What is most remarkable about him is that he participates in motor racing events every year and he is essentially a hill climber holding records at Wace Park Hill Climb, kotmale Hill Climb, Karunadapona Hill Climb, Radella Hill Climb.

His records are so fascinating that a few years back he held four records simultaneously at Mahagastota which are the Overall Course record, Class records for Standard Ford Formula, McLarens Formula and Modified Formula. But recently with the development of the track surface from a cart road to that of a carpet surface and in the eve of his career saw him lose these records to the younger generation. Some are good on six certain surfaces but Rohan is good on all surfaces whether it is a flat road or hills with hair pin corners and on formulas as well as Production cars. Rohan de Silva the motor racing are in his career spanning forty years and is still good enough to have a crack at the records. The others who have excelled at Mahagastota in recent years are Darin Weerasinghe, Suranjith Premadasa and in two wheelers Saffraz Junaid Shanaka Ambrose and the present record holder Ananda Sampath.