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Beyond speed, beyond limits
Come April, the tea-clad hills of Mahagastota are alive with the sound of revving engines. Cars of all types, as well as motorbikes race at great speed up the steep inclines of the Mahagastota tea estate. At the top of the hill, the paddock is packed with racing cars and bikes, with their competitor numbers and sponsors' messages prominently displayed. Back up vehicles filled with spare parts, tyres, tools and extra fuel are parked nearby along the estate road. Mechanics are busy tuning and tinkering with the racing vehicles, in an effort to make them a fraction faster. The hill swarms with drivers, riders, meet officials and spectators.

The Mahagastota Hill Climb, which takes place at Nuwara Eliya today, is one of the popular events of the holiday season. The meet is held every April, when hordes of visitors throng the picturesque hill resort. Racing enthusiasts gather here for this event, which holds a key place among the numerous racing events now conducted in the country.

Competitors find the Mahagastota Hill Climb an exhilarating challenge, requiring skill and concentration. They start preparing their cars months in advance and also book their accommodation in the hill resort well in time. Novices on their first time out and veterans of many years' experience line up at the start, some eager, others nervous, to await their turn to drive up the 617 metres of track.

One by one they race up the hill, from the starting line at the bottom, through a slight S bend to Cemetery Corner, past a sweeping left-hander, skilfully negotiating the first hairpin bend, then the second, through a sweeping right-hander to the notorious Wakefield Corner and with a final burst of speed to the finish. To a casual observer at the top of the hill, it may not seem too difficult. However, as one regular competitor commented, taking off at the correct revs to minimize wheel-spin, taking the correct line into the corners, steering away from the sandbags that bank the edges, while keeping the foot down to reach the finish in 35 to 45 seconds is no easy feat.

The Mahagastota Hill Climb is believed to be the oldest hill climb in Asia, its origins going back almost 70 years. In the 1930s, European planters of the area often spent their Sundays in friendly competition, racing on their gravel estate roads, purely for the thrill of speed. Then at a gathering at the Grand Hotel in Nuwara Eliya on September 4, 1934, these young planters inaugurated the Ceylon Motor Sports Club (CMSC). While all other clubs formed by Europeans admitted whites only, from its inception the CMSC, welcomed Ceylonese as members.

Ranjit Jinasena, a longstanding member and official of the Motor Sports Club relates that when the new club held its inaugural meet, the first hill climb at Mahagastota estate on October 28, 1934, his father, T.S. Jinasena, then a young engineer, was warmly welcomed as a competitor by club secretary Graham Gordon. "Jinasena I presume," Graham is reported to have said, “Welcome to the club.”

Ten cars and two motor- cycles competed. Although no prizes were offered, the competitors enjoyed a successful day of racing. The day's fastest time for cars was 69.8 seconds, returned by Phil Fowke in a Tourist Trophy Austin. Riding a Scott motorcycle, T. Dickson clocked a time 64 seconds flat for motorbikes.

Mahagastota became a regular feature in the motor sports calendar of Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then known. At the meet in 1939, T.S.

Jinasena had a spectacular run that set a new course record of 55.75 seconds, making him the first Ceylonese to set a record at Mahagastota. He achieved this record run in the 'Magpie', a super-charged car he himself had assembled combining parts from other vehicles.

"The Mahagastota Hill Climb was usually held on Easter Sunday," recalled J.P. Obeyesekere, a veteran driver and Secretary of the CMSC for many years. "However, the meet planned in 1948 had to be cancelled because the vicar of Nuwara Eliya at the time raised a hue and cry and even wrote to the Bishop objecting to it. The venue for the hill climb was therefore moved during the next few years to St. James estate, Haliella and Oodowerre estate. The hill climb at Mahagastota resumed in 1952."

"The Mahagastota course has remained the same from its inception, although the track has become wider and the gravel track now has a tarred surface," said Ranjit Jinasena. "The track today is such that one cannot afford to make a single mistake. If you have one hundredth of a second too much wheel-spin, you can forget about winning. There are at least six gear changes and they are fighting for tenths and hundredths of a second."

Records tumbled, as faster, modern racing vehicles came on the track and drivers and riders became more fiercely competitive. The entry of formula cars into the fray clipped seconds off the timings. The current course record, held by Suranjith Premadasa, is 35.84 seconds, almost half the first record set. The results over the years have proved that Mahagastota is truly a drivers' and riders' track, where experience and skill count.

The meet has come a long way since the first dozen competitors met in 1934. Modern racing vehicles and electronic timing have also wrought great changes in an event launched up a gravel track with flag signals for time keeping. Yohan Lawrence, current President of CMSC says a total of 38 motorcycles and 60 cars will battle it out on the hill this year. "A great day's racing is clearly on the cards," he says.

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