Sunday Nov 17, 2024
Sunday Nov 17, 2024
Wednesday, 16 October 2013 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Zuhair who is EZY Racing’s tarmac specialist for the year 2013, came into the weekend’s race at the country’s fastest tarmac track in sublime form. Saturday’s qualifying race was hotly contested by young Iran Fuad splitting the two EZY Racing drivers on the front row of the grid, with Dilan Seneviratne occupying the pole position and Zuhair occupying the 3rd position on the grid.
The SLH race one got off to a close start with Seneviratne managing to hold on to his lead. Unfortunately an accident in the very tight first corner saw a restart which again saw Seneviratne safely keeping his lead while being pressured by team mate Zuhair. The Black and Red EZY Racing cars were seen hotly contesting for the lead when Seneviratne unfortunately had to retire with an engine failure which saw Zuhair taking the lead. Zuhair managed to finish the race comfortably in front, with Dinesh Jayawardana who started back of the grid, putting on a spectacular drive to finish 2nd ahead of Mohan Perera. 
In the SLH 1600 race two, Zuhair managed to hold off a close tussle from young Damith Weerasinghe when he went on to win a comfortable race. Zuhair who had a bad start lost his lead momentarily to Mohan Perera, before lining up Perera to take the inside line to regain his lead.
“I reckon the best way I could describe the win is by saying, - finally,” said a jubilant Zuhair. “We always knew we had the pace to challenge the win, but this year has been a mixed year for me. Starting from the Colombo Night Race in 2012, I have been able to be on pole on all the tarmac races leading to this race. It has been very frustrating for me because I have led every race before retiring for different reasons, a few laps from the end. So today’s double victory is finally the result we have been looking for.”
Zuhair went on to say that it was very unfortunate that his team mate and close friend Seneviratne had to retire from the race lead.
Zuhair who was occupying the pole position in the SLH 1500 event was deprived of a possible hat-trick of victories when the event was called off by the organisers.
“Today was a very mixed day for us. We saw Sajaad (Zuhair) dominating the track while Dilan (Seneviratne) experienced some challenges with both his vehicles,” said EZY Founder /CEO Racing Shafraz Hamzadeen.
“We knew we were very strongly positioned in the SLH 1600 Cc event when we qualified 1st and 3rd. However it was very unfortunate that Dilan had engine issues and retired a few laps from the chequered flag. As a team we definitely feel for him as he had performed impeccably well all weekend. The best part of today was that Sajaad was on equal pace with Dilan to give the team two wins.”
EZY Racing who are the country’s only professional motor racing outfit have a very strong 34,000 passionate fans in their Facebook fan page www.fb.com/ezyracing, and plan to provide all those fans a memorable end to season 2013 at the Colombo Night Race 2013.
