Ashan shines with three victories in Speed Championship final round

Sunday 14 October was a day that completely belonged to Ashan Silva who had three great victories during the final round of the Speed Championship at Pannala International Circuit. Ashan showed that he is a master driver in the classes winning Group SL-GT up to 3500cc, Group SL-H up to 1600ccc and the Ford Formula 1600cc class.

Ashan, powered by Motul Lubricants for the Ford Formula 1600, saw him thrill all motor racing fans trough out the race. Though he had a late start moved swiftly following the leaders up until the third lap. He really measured the event for his advantage during these three laps and worked his way to grab the front position and went on smoothly increasing the lead meter by meter to see the finish the race in favor of him. He was followed by Dinesh Jayawardene under the banner ‘Mobil’ while the second runner up was Shiren dra Lawrence.

Ashan also had a fine race in the Group SL-GT up to 3500cc category winning the same in grand style. In this event it was Abeeth Dangalla who created a major upset at the recently concluded Katukurunda Meet winning both events in the class was the first o move hoping for a repeat of his earlier performance. At this stage Champion driver Dinesh Deheragoda and Ashan Silva was following Dangalla for almost three laps.

Ashan and Dinesh used all their experience while on the move and waited for the opportune time to go past the leader. Ashan first got ahead of the leader Dangalla in the third lap and was on the right track to win the event extending his lead to almost 100 meters. In the meantime Dangalla and Dinesh was engaged in a tough battle for the second runner up position. Dangalla showing his maturity gained through the Katukurunda held grimly to his second slot until the final lap.

Dinesh the leader in the 2012 Speed Championship for the event went pst the Dagalla with around half away from the finish line. However full credit should go to Dangalla for his masterly driving skills displayed throughout the race.

Ashan the driver with superlative skills once again thrilled the large crowd winning the SL-H Cars up to 1600cc. Ashan taking off in quick time was in front and it became the most interesting event of the day as all other leading drivers in this class were bunched together to fight the leader which also was the reason for the battle to reach greater height that thrilled the spectators.

The only major incident took place in the 1300cc Ford /Laser event when Susantha Gunewardene crashed on to Randika Niroshan in the third lap where both riders escaped unhurt but with damage caused to vehicles.

The Ford formula 1600cc event also saw an accident involving Formula Sedialist Rohan de Silva when Rikaz Khalid slammed on to former’s vehicle. Here too both drivers had to give up the racedue to this incident and the spectators lost a spectacular finish to the race minus a veteran driving.

 Meanwhile in the Motor Cycle events it was ten year old Jaden Goonewardene who stole the limelight riding along with veterans manage to win the Group ‘O’ standard up to 125cc class in grand style. He had only face the challenge from his younger brother Aaron who took the first runner up position. Jaden also was placed second Racing class up to 125 2/T and 250cc 4/T behind experienced Prabath Peiris.

 Chandima Goneratne was the winner in the Formula McLarens 1300cc but failed to capitalize from the advantage he got in the first race for race two when he was placed behind Tharindu Gamage. These are the two drivers in contention for the Formula McLarens championship 2012.

The other drivers to record victories on this day were Rohan de Silva in the Sl-N 1000 class, Praveen Madugalla, Irfan Fuard in the Ford Laser 1500cc class and  Sajjad Zuhair in the 1500cc category. The results of three events were with held as the stewards were unable to release them due to reasons not known to the media.

All in all the full day was a completely belonged to racing sensation Ashan Silva who performed well to record three victories.