Speed Championship 2011 awards winners

The Speed Championship 2011 award ceremony was held on a grand scale on Thursday at the Speed Drome, Battaramulla. The championship was organised by Asian Motor Racing Club, Motor Racing Association, Sri Lanka Motor Racing Club and Sri Lanka Motor Cycle Club.

The champions in 11 categories were found after the completion of four gruelling rounds of racing for the year 2011 conducted at the Pannala Racing Track.

It was also highly notable to see the emergence of a lady driver becoming a Champion in the Nissan March category. S.A. Lakshika came up with a classy performance to win this class championship for 2011 and received the coveted trophy.

Dinesh Jayawardene received the championship for the Formula Ford post 85 category, while S.A. Harsha carried away the trophy for pre 85 class.

The Formula McLarens 1300cc champion was Thivanka Wijesekera who is a product of the Speed Drome go-karting center at Bataramulla.

Dinesh Deheragoda, the man who won many titles in Sri Lanka for the SL-GT 3500cc class, once again became the proud winner of the championship in this class, while another veteran in the Ford Laser 1300cc class Upulwan Serasinghe bagged the coveted title.

Young energetic Ashan Silva drove magnificently during 2011 to grab the SL H 1600cc championship title; Hafiz Cader was awarded the trophy for the SL-A 1050 class and Shashika Lakmal Wijeratne received the championship for the minis.

Ten-year-old Jaden Gunawardene was the main star at the awards ceremony as he carried away two major awards on offer for otor cycles.

This young lad riding alongside seniors managed to overcome all of them especially in the Motor Cycles Group ‘O’ Standard up to 125cc 4/T and also was the winner in the under 16 age riding in the Group ‘J’ Standard up to 125cc class.

The other championship award winners for otor cycles were Udika Malavige in the Super Motard 250cc, Sujith Karunasekera in the Group ‘O’ up to 125cc and Suraj Perera in Group ‘SM’ Super Motard up to 450cc category.

All these winners received cash awards in addition to the trophies.

The most encouraging factor at this function was the felicitation of the mechanics who prepare the vehicles for the drivers and riders to victory.

A few years ago at a ceremony of this nature, the example of appreciating the mechanics was shown when Chaminda Weerasooriya invited his tuner on stage and handed over the cheque to him saying that if not for his services, he would not have won achieved success. That example was well utilised by the organisers of the Speed Championship, which is highly commendable.