CEAT Racing sets Foxhill ablaze with 3 championships and 18 podium finishes

Tuesday, 26 April 2016 12:33 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

CEAT Racing’s Foxhill champions (from left) Deshan Solanki, Gayantha Rangana, Pasindu Peiris and Evon Gurusinghe

Any reservations about the CEAT Racing Team’s aspirations for 2016 and its ability to achieve them were emphatically dispelled on the Foxhill track last weekend when the team grabbed three of the top four championship awards and posted 18 podium finishes.

In possibly its best performance at a single race meet to date, the CEAT Racing Team’s Pasindu Peiris was adjudged Champion Driver, Pasindu Peiris and team mate Gayantha Rangana were declared Car Team Champions and Evon Gurusinghe and Deshan Solanki took the trophy for Bike Team Champions.

In all, the CEAT Racing Team achieved nine first places, four second places, two third places and three fifth places at Foxhill on Sunday, 24 April, setting the Diyatalawa track alight with a masterful display of racing.

“We could not have asked for more from the team,” CEAT Sri Lanka Vice President Sales & Marketing Ravi Dadlani said. “The team’s performance at Foxhill was a perfect example of how great skill and good teamwork can be enhanced by passionate corporate support to create a winning combination.”

The CEAT Racing Team members that achieved first places at the events for cars were Pasindu Peiris with two wins and Gayantha Rangana, Upulwan Serasinghe, Janaka Dias and Malika Kuruvitarachchi. In the events for bikes, Evon Gurusinghe and Deshan Solanki won two races and one race respectively.

The CEAT Racing Team for 2016 comprises of stalwarts Upulwan Serasinghe, Janaka Dias, Pasindu Peiris, Lalin Kirinda, Prasanna De Alwis, Lt. Colonel Duminda Jayasinghe, Lt. Colonel Indu Samarakoon and Ushan Perera and newcomers Malika Kuruvitarachchi, Gayantha Rangana, Devin Serasinghe, Evon B. Gurusinghe and Deshan Solanki. The team will race under CEAT colours at the five race meets conducted by the Sri Lanka Auto-sports Drivers Association (SLADA) for the 2016 CEAT SLADA Championship. The five race meets are the Katukurunda Circuit Meet I (20 March), the Foxhill Supercross (24 April), Sigiriya Rallycross (5 June), Gunners Supercross (10 July) and Rotherham Circuit Meet II (23 October).

The CEAT Racing Team won the Team Championship for Cars for a second successive year in 2015 with a total of 61 podium finishes, accounting for the one two top laurels at the CEAT SLADA Championship awards of last year.

Besides its sponsorship of the CEAT SLADA Championship CEAT supports the race meets conducted by the Sri Lanka Army and the Sri Lanka Air Force, as well as the sport’s governing body Sri Lanka Automobile Sports (SLAS). As part of its partnership with SLAS, CEAT Kelani Holdings is the principal sponsor of all Ford Laser/Mazda 1300cc and 1500cc and Nissan March 1000 cc ‘one-make’ racing events conducted during the year, at which all competing drivers race on CEAT radial tyres.