Eshan Pieris speeding ahead

Friday, 6 May 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

In another exciting performance, young Eshan Pieris was placed third at the Rotax Max Challenge Asia – round three, last weekend at Elite Speedway in Malaysia.

The weekend didn’t get off to the best start for Eshan, despite qualifying fourth fastest in the time trials. In heat one, he was unable to start his kart for the formation lap due to an electrical fault.

However, in heat two on Sunday, Eshan finished fourth behind India’s Nayan Chatterjee, Malaysian James Veerapenand and Japan’s Riki Tanioka. Eshan showed his tremendous pace by setting the fastest time in the heats.

The pre-finals take the results from both heats which meant that Eshan started from 12th position. Then things got even worse and in the warm-up lap Eshan ended up in the pebbles which pushed him back to 20th place. But this seemed to give Eshan his second wind. Incredible determination and skill saw Eshan climb to fourth place behind Nayan Chatterjee, Indonesia’s Senna Noor and James Veerapen.

The very close and well fought final saw the same four drivers fight it out with each in the front at different times. But in the end Noor got the better of Chatterjee, and Pieris managed to pass Veerapen for third place just before the race ended.

Eshan Pieris has, once again, done Sri Lanka and his home track, the Sri Lanka Karting Circuit Bandaragama, proud.

It is certainly a great boost for local motorsports and Sri Lanka to see our national flag on the podium and the opportunity to see Sri Lanka as a strong contender to represent Asia in the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Final.

We wish him all success as he races again in the X30 Challenge Malaysia in Perlis in a fortnight’s time and is then off to race in Europe.