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SLARDAR Championship 2004 gets underway

By M. Shamil Amit
The motor race championships of Sri Lanka Association of Racing Drivers and Riders (SLARDAR) for the year 2004 which consists of five racing meets got underway with the conducting of the Katukurunda Motor Races which is the first round being held at the Katukurunda Air Force base recently.

The SLARDAR championship events consists of Katukurunda Circuit Meet 1 and 2, Radella Hill Climb, Foxhill Supercross, Karandupone Hill Climb and Gajaba Supercross.

The championship classes for cars are Ford Laser/Mazda 1500cc, Formula Ford 1600cc and the Super Car event 3500cc with one event for motorcycle which is for bikes upto 250cc. All these events are given top priority by allocating two races for them.

The meet at Katukurunda consisted of twenty events for motorcars and motorcycles. In the Ford Laser/Mazda event where nearly 20 participants including defending champion Nishan Wasalathanthri and runner up Upulwan Serasinghe who are the pre favourites found a tough customer in Sajad Zuhair who rode a fantastic race to win both the events pushing Nishan and Upul to second place.

With five more events to the run up for the championship title. Sajad has put himself in early contention for the title.

Romani de Silva the defending Formula Ford champion though facing stiff opposition from Dinesh Jayawardena and Rizvi Farook kept his chances alive of retaining the title when he won both the events in this category.

In the Super Car event it was a battle between Mitsubishi Evolution and Subaru. But defending champ Aravinda Premadasa who occupied the first pole position got off to a flying start to lead the competitors for nearly half way through to the event but had to retire due to engine over heating. Dan who was trailing Aravinda took over the lead and went on to win the race with ace driver Dinesh Deheragoda coming in second followed by Riyaz Farouk.

The second event in this category saw fortunes fluctuating with many drivers in contention but Riyaz Farouk broke away from the bunch to take the lead from Deheragoda and was leading for almost two laps before he lost his head only to give back the lead to Deheragoda who maintained the lead and went on to win the race from Riyaz pushing Dan to the third slot. All three were aboard Mitsubishi Evo's.

The championship motorcycle event for bikes up to 250cc was a one horse race with Maduranga Caldera winning both the events with ease.

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