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Former Thomian, young Eshan Pieris took second place in the Rotax Max Challenge Asia – Round 2 held at the Elite Plus Speedway Circuit, Malaysia on 2-3 April. This came on the heels of another excellent performance, earlier in March, when he was a podium finisher, placing 5th in the Senior Category at Round 1 of X30 Challenge Singapore 2016. This is Singapore’s biggest internationally sanctioned race.
Driving for RL Karting Team Malaysia, Eshan in a new BirelArt showed his pace with a 2nd in the Time Trials and a 3rd in Heat 1.
In Heat 2, Eshan’s engine shut down in the warm-up lap which resulted in an 11th starting position for the pre-finals but he fought back to take a decisive 3rd place, giving him a good place to start the finals where he went on to finish second. He also recorded the fastest lap in both pre-final and finals.
Richaryd Rabot, Head of Operations at the Sri Lanka Karting Circuit Bandaragama (SLKC), who watched Eshan’s epic performance said, “Eshan drove brilliantly against a field of extremely experienced champions from around Asia. He was hot on the wheels of the ultimate winner, Senna Sulaiman Noor who was a mere 0.133 seconds ahead, while Weiron Tan, who came in third, trailed Eshan by 3.847 seconds.”
Most F1 drivers have started off as Go-kart Champions, including Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Schumacher was just six when he won his first karting championship. Hamilton began karting at the age of eight and quickly began winning races and Cadet class championships. Button also started karting at eight, and at nine, came first in the British Super Prix and went on to win all 34 races of the 1991 British Cadet Kart Championship. The rest, as they say, is history.
Richayrd added that “it is essential that talent is identified and training starts at a young age if they are to make an impact in the motor sports arena. This is why we have brought down Cadet Karts which are designed for children between the ages of seven to about eleven or twelve. We are even more fortunate to have had Eshan conduct the training for these young drivers as he is able to share his expertise to inspire and give these future champions the best start for success.”
He went on to explain that the current 800-meter racing track at SLKC, the largest in the country, is being expanded further to over 1,100 meters which will allow Sri Lanka to host regional and internationally accredited races. Discussions are already underway to conduct one leg of the X30 Championship here. In addition to putting Sri Lanka on the motor sporting and Go-karting map, attracting many visitors from the region who are passionate about the sport, this will help expose the island’s young drivers to the best competition and take Go-karting and motor sports in Sri Lanka to a different league.
