Aravinda joins Gayan to set the pace

Sri Lanka's leading racing driver Aravinda Premadasa and racing rider Gayan Sandaruwan grabbed the honours at the 16th Foxhill Supercross conducted at the Sri Lanka Military Academy (SLMA) race track in Diyatalawa yesterday. Aravinda with his two wins from two outings of the gruelling Group SL-GT Cars upto 3500cc went on to take the coveted Foxhill Supercross championship in the motor car category while Gayan also won both his races -- the Group MX motor cycles up to 125cc to 250cc events to take the motor cycle category.

Aravinda's award winning performance was his eighth from the 12 Foxhill events he has participated in. He first won the top drivers award in 1997 and again in 1999 and 2001 before taking the title for four consecutive years from 2004 to 2007. Gayan's top riders wins began in 2004 and followed with it in 2006 and 2007.

Aravinda a driver with immense experience behind him gave the other drivers a run for their money. His two wins was effortless as he won the two events with the minimum of fuss. It was a start to finish win for the top driver.

In contrast Gayan had some anxious moments as Pasindu Peiris took the lead in both the events. The first race was a ding dong battle with Pasindu taking an early lead and maintained it for three rounds. In between a nasty fall in the third round by Gayan gave Pasindu some advantage before he too fell off in the fourth lap. This gave Gayan the lead but and that too lasted a few minutes before he fell again. But as usual Gayan who begins his fight back in the latter stages of the race put himself in position to take the event.

The race two of this category saw Gayan giving the lead to Pasindu for only one lap of the six lap event. He ran away from his opponents and even lapped some of the riders to take the race with ease. Another driver to impress was veteran driver Upulwan Serasinghe an expert in the Ford Laser/Mazda category, he was in top form reaching the winning post five time from the six events he took part.

The much looked forward Foxhill Supercross organized by the SLMA consisted of 25 events for the day with the principal sponsor being Hutch Telecom and Lankan IOC as special sponsor along with Cargills, Exide, Kinetic Singer, NSB as co sponsors and Hemas as general sponsor.