Sangeeth Suriyage sets sights in producing the next generation of drivers
Suriyage poses with his prized posession
The present five-time national champion in motor bike racing Sangeeth Suriyage after many awards and accolades is now looking forward in developing his students in his driving school in a bid to propel them in succeeding him.
His driving school – Pure Performance Team – consist a student-base of half-a-dozen of them and settled Suriyage in his sport of motor racing is keen in developing and installing all the knowledge he has on them.
“If the kids can surpass me that would be my achievement and plan. Chris Watson, a fellow driver from Britain, and I, have been working en masse to develop the Lankan platform, to get drivers at the Asian Games and the European Championship”, the 29-year-old told the Sunday Times at his high-end cycle-based start-up Pure Performance Pvt Ltd.
But before all these, the driver-turned-trainer saw blood, sweat, and toil, before he became the award-winning biker he is today. Hailing from a non-sporting family, he did not have an avenue of entering this sport. Since his father was involved in cycles, he got into bicycles and started cycling when he was aged seven. Then he started competing at national level.
At 16, he had ventured into the now-defunct Colombo Night Race. After dwelling and dealing with cars, self-realisation had struck him that he was not armed with the budget neither the experience. It is then; he resorted into two-wheelers and since then a bond with the bike began to blend. However, though, deep-diving into the bikes was not all tickety-boo and had to find the finance for it as he was still schooling. He approached his father and kith and kin. A year since then, he had bought his first bike. In 2014, he tasted his maiden ride at the national level championship in selected rounds.
After a year or two, he felt the transition was becoming tough.
“Because bikes much harder, riskier compared to cars, because in the bike we have to be very precise. You don’t have a roller cage surrounded and if you crash, and a bad crash breaking bones is very simple here. But paralysis is a high-chance and perilous,” said Suriyage, having won the Katukurunda races at least 12-13-times in-a-row.
By the end of 2015, he came across an opening in the Asian Supermoto championship, which is also his class and discipline and this was called super motor bike for Sri Lankans. By then, none of his fellow drivers had ever been to that competition. After making a case to grant him a chance, what he was about to experience was life-changing.
So much so, he considers that trip to Malaysia, a watershed moment in his career. That passport and ticket to the Muslim-majority country opened the doors to rub shoulders with drivers from all corners of the globe.
Given his policies and principles to be an independent individual and to make it on his own will- those stances makes it tasteful, he said.
Another watershed point in 2016 was, suffering a bad crash when he was teaching and training a student of his. He had been on the bike with his trainee, on the pillion, and let go off the handle to show him a line. Suddenly, the handle had begun to wobble; he lost control hitting the tarmac at 200kmp/h.
The old Joe recollecting that deadly crash pointing to a black-and-red helmet placed closely said, “The student was losing concentration and he took hands of the handle to make him move closer to him. We’ve certain hand signals, I was showing one and hit small bump at the Katukurunda track. After that I just went flying at 200kmp/h”.
Having started with cars, he has now returned to them after little more than a decade. He did so returning on a winning note last Sunday (20), when he rode on car and bike on the same day and becoming the first rider to do so on a Tarmac.
“I had five sleepless nights continuously because I was running the car for the first time after eleven-years. The preparation it took was so crazy, because the car had so much of mechanical problems”.
Nevertheless finishing on top in the biking category, and narrowly missing out of getting placed in the car category, he is unhappy but proud that he got to the start line somehow.
“I’m more patient but I’m still aggressive in my thought process to attack. I now know to take time and not rush through things. At certain points, I purposely slow down to process the information rather than to pass them down,”
Touching on the global stage exposure he got, he is content about representing his mother land and the networking opportunities.
“It’s a whole different experience. Other than racing, the people we meet are just unbelievable. Because some of those experienced people like to give so much of information, I feel my three international tours only gave me the motivation and confidence to keep pushing to different boundaries”.
In his message to the budding bikers he says haste makes waste and don’t rush through.
“Last Sunday also with my last experience, people are trying. They want to achieve certain targets but you can’t be distracted by other people’s success. Your story could be different. You need to understand at what you’re good at, and what you’re not good at, try to polish and take your time. Stay consistent, stay disciplined and write your own story”, he concluded.