Gayan blazes a trail on two wheels
By M. Shamil Amit
Nineteen year old Gateway International School student Gayan Sandaruwan was the cynosure of all eyes at the Gajaba Supercross held at the Saliyapura Army camp in Anuradhapura recently landing four titles while forcing other experienced riders into the shade. The irony of it was that he participated in only four events and the fact-he won them all. He won the award for the most outstanding rider of the Gajaba Supercross as well while ace driver Aravinda Premadasa in his newly acquired Mitshubishi Evolution VI stamped his class with the award for the most outstanding driver for the third successive year.
The Supercross organized by the Sri Lanka Association of Racing Drivers and Riders (SLARDAR) produced the spills and thrills in the latter stages. The most serious was when Dinesh Deheragoda's new vehicle the Mitsubishi Evolution VIII turtled, completely damaging it. This was only the second racing meet that Dinesh contested with this vehicle which he had brought two months ago.
Young Sandaruwan's riding was something special as he got the better of three professional riders from India's TVS team on his way to winning all four events. The Indian riders had to play second fiddle to Sandaruwan in all the events. This is the second time that he has defeated the Indians and he showed that the earlier wins were not flash in the pans.
Aravinda Premadasa driving his new Mitshubishi Evo VI for the first time gave indications of what could be expected in the days to come. Though he had to pull out in the third lap of his first event he came back and drove a superb race in the open event giving the other drivers little chance of overtaking him.
However the first round of the super car event was won by Deheragoda who snatched the lead from the start with Nain D. Perera and Rizvi Farouk coming second and third. Champion Rizvy Farouk marked a sort of a comeback when he clinched two events, one on his Peugeot which was for Cars 8-10kg/hp and the other on his Honda Civic which was for Cars upto 1665cc.
Two other drivers K. Parameswaran and Upulwan Serasinghe won both their races with Parameshwaran winning the Mini Saloon and M&T Cars upto 1050cc events while Upulwan won both Race 1 and 2 for Cars Over 12kg/hp. Others to impress were Major Bandula Samarakoon who won the first event for day which was the Truck and Jeep event.
Seven year old Joshua Karpinski won the motorcycle events upto 55cc for Kids upto and including eight years. Indika Gurusinghe took the event for Bikes upto 125cc while Rohana Jayaratne of Slimline Racing who two weeks ago won two events at the Pannala Motocross was successful in the event for Bikes upto 450cc. Internatonal driver Dilantha Malagamuwa in his Suzuki McPride 660cc pushed more powerful cars to shame when he landed the race for Cars upto 1350cc.
Young Gayan Sandaruwan began his success when he won the event for Motorcycles upto 125cc, riding with sheer skill he took an early lead and maintained it followed by India's Seyed Rehman and Nalin Perera. He repeated the same in the race two of this event. But the best piece of riding of his was in the next two events that he won which was the 250cc/450cc 4 Stroke Motorcycles event and the Motorcycle Open event.
With the Indians Wijayakumar, Rehman and Prasad in their TVS 250cc, Ananda Wedisinghe in his Honda CR 450/4S and many more powerful machines. Gayan riding a Honda CR 125cc rode a well calculated race to win both the events. Though Indians were trying hard and at one time they overtook him but Gayan fought back to take the lead and win the events.
Gayan's mother was beaming with joy, proud of her sons achievements. Speaking to the Sunday Times she said though Gayan from his younger days was interested in motorcycles he never took it seriously.
But his father encouraged him and purchased a new bike for him. When he took part in his first race he was a student of Thurstan College but he never neglected his studies.
He combined both his interests well and got through the GCE 'O' Levels examination with flying colours. He passed the exam with eight distinctions and joined Gateway International to do his higher studies. She said we dont discourage him, but give him all the support and freedom to make his own decisions. Gayan's achievement of balancing life's teenage challenges is a good example for other youngsters to emulate.
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