Riders and Drivers from 10 to 70 celebrate 80 years of the Ceylon Motor Sports Club at Mahagastota
Wednesday, 16 April 2014 00:00
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In a celebration fitting the 80th Anniversary of the Ceylon Motor Sports Club, the annual Mahagastota Hill Climb was held recently in Nuwara Eliya. Whilst there has been a little bit of the long overdue rains in Nuwara Eliya, the event was held in the glorious sunshine of the hill country.
Although recently converted to a one day event, this year the event took place over both Saturday and the Sunday.
Saturday morning was reserved for the classic cars and bikes and it was a truly special moment to see a number of cars and bikes have their two runs up the hill. The cars included sports cars like Mini’s, MGA’s, MGB’s, Austin Healy and Sprites, through to a quick eight. Although not a “competition” in the strict sense the drivers and riders were certainly out to prove the point that old is gold and we saw some great driving of the vehicles up the hill. Quickest up included the Mini’s of Mahen and son Praveen Madugalle, and Dinesh Jayawardena in the Lotus Elan all of whom were under the 43 second mark which was a competitive time even in today’s context.
Sunday was the more traditional event with some 130 entries across both bikes and cars. With the weather gods threatening rain, the event started off half an hour earlier than scheduled as the organisers were keen to ensure that all drivers and riders got both their runs up the hill. This worked well, as the meet finished in the sunshine and it was into prize giving when the heavens opened and brought the much needed rains.
In the motor bike event, the previous record of 36.364 seconds established last year by Ananda Sampath Weerasinghe was bettered by no less than four riders. Ananda Sampath Weerasinghe recorded 36.100 on his RM250, Shiran Samuel did a 36.143, Irtantha Tharaka came up in 36.313 and Nadun Wijesekera clocked 36.054 on his BMW 1000cc. Top honours however went back to Ananda Sampath Weerasinghe who set a new course record for bikes with a time of 35.372 on his CBR 450, and was the only sub 35 second time recorded for the day. The youngest rider up the hill was 10 year old Aaron Gunawardena who had to get special permission from the Federation to take part in this event.
Fastest time of the day in cars went to Darin Weerasinghe with a time of 34.522. The course record (held by Darin) however from last year remained unbroken at 34.348. Darin, along with Nishan Weerasooriya and a couple of other drivers were caught out at Wakefield this year. The track has recently been resurfaced and it’s possible that the faster entry into Wakefield made it difficult for the drives this year.
Whilst there was a 10 year old on the bikes, at the other end of the scale we saw drivers like Sumanapala Mannapperuma who is well past 70, take part at the event.
The Formula events as always proved spectacular with Chandima Gooneratne winning the 1300cc event with a time of 37.551 seconds from Praveen Madugalle (38.136) and Clement Senaratne (38.302). In the Formula 1665cc event Ashan Silva topped the pile with a time of 35.28 seconds from Rohan De Silva and Dilan Seneviratne.
The event was sponsored this year by Mclarens who through Rohan De Silva have a long association with the event. Rohan’s daughter Shehara was the only lady competitor this year, and she was placed second in her event. One face that was dearly missed this year was the late Ananda De Alwis who had over 50 years of racing at the event. His wife dedicated a new challenge trophy in his memory. The trophy was awarded to the fastest time of the day in a car, and went to Darin Weerasinghe.
