Fox Hill Super Cross:

Gayan and Aravinda light up track

Bernard PERERA in Diyatalawa

Rider Gayan Sandaruwan and driver Aravinda Premadasa starred at the 17th Fox Hill Super Cross dazzling the track before a 40,000 strong spectator turn out at Diyatalawa yesterday.

The meet consisting of 24 events (10 motorcycle and 14 cars) was organised by the Military Academy and conducted by the Sri Lanka Association for Racing Drivers and Riders.

Gayan first won the Group XI Class up to 250 cc Class after a hectic battle coming from the two runners-up Pasindu Pieris and Nuwan Dassanayake.

The winner was seen trailing behind six riders as he had a late start, but came on to third lap managing to reach the second slot behind Pasindu and Tuan Ossen to win.

Later, in the same class Gayan was off to a flying start with Tuan Ossen and Pasindu Pieris chasing him for nearly three laps.

Pasindu had few mishaps during this race, but managed to hold on to his second position while Ishan Dasanayake overtook Ossen to be the second runner-up.

In the Super Car event for cars up to 3500 cc it was a battle between Sri Lanka’s top two drivers Aravinda Premadasa and Dinesh Deheragoda in Mitsubishis, but it was Aravinda from the word go.

The second race too was similarly contested between these two drivers and the result was the same.

Reyaz Farook overtook Pasindu Pieris in the final lap to be runner-up.It was really interesting to see the kids race competed by over 20 riders under the age of ten years. M. Nikesh Manchanayake won this event followed by Thilina Leeshan Devinda and Y. Binath de Silva.

The Group SC H Class Cars 1600 cc was won by Nishan Wasalathanthri. Nishan, who held the pole position was off in a flash and had a clear lead to win convincingly. He was followed by Sheran Fernando and Sasindu Pieris. This was the first time that Sasindu entered a car event.

Upulwan Serasinghe in his Ford Laser Class could not perform at his best winning one event, but had three placings.

Lt. Col. Duminda Jayasinghe, driving in the Group SL-N Ford Lesser event along with Upulwan Serasinghe and Annesley Perera crashed out of the track and fell into a pond. Only the tyrs were visible as the car turned upside down and it took nearly ten minutes to pull him out of the car, thanks to the soldiers who were on duty at this point. He was rushed to hospital and discharged not long after with no serious injuries.

The other riders to impress were Nuwan Dassanayake, Indika Gurusinghe in the Super Motor Class and youngsters U. Siriwardene and Shehan C. Adikari, the latter with two victories to emerge as an upcoming rider for the future. Nuwan Dassanayake was the winner in the Racing Class up to 125 cc.Sheran Fernando won the first event for Truck and Jeep.

In the second race Dinesh Senanayake edged out Shehan to win.

The event was sponsored by Hotel Browns Group and Singer Sri Lanka Ltd., Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. was the media sponsor.