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Sunday Dec 15, 2024
Thursday, 25 February 2016 00:08 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The two young guns, Chandima Goonarathna and Lakshika Weerasinghe was awarded the year 2015 National Championship awards recently at a special ceremony held celebrating the two Formula McLarens events which was conducted during 2015.
The awards were presented by Single Seater Formula Motor Sports Association the governing body of single seater motor sports in Sri Lanka which includes Formula events and go karting events.
The champions were selected based on their performances on Formula McLarens 4 EFI and Formula McLarens 1300cc Carburetor events which were organised during last year. The Championship race meets included the AMRC-SLARDAR Tarmac Championship 3 rounds which were held at Katukurunda and Pannala Circuits.
From left: Lakshika Weerasinghe (Formula McLarens 1300cc Carburetor Champion), Single Seater Formula Motor Sports Association Secretary Jaliya Jayasekara and Chandima Goonarathne (Formula McLarens 4 EFI Champion)
Both young drivers battled it hard with intense competition among other drivers in first two rounds of the championship bringing the Championship decider to the last round at Pannala.
In the Formula McLarens 4 EFI event, Brayan Perera won the AMRC-SLARDAR Tarmac Championship first round held at Katukurunda and Chandima Goonarathne managed to secure second place. However Chandima manage to strike back winning the round 2 at Katukurunda while Brayan Perera securing the second. Both drivers were on equal points entering the third and final round, which was a rain hit race meet at Pannala in November 2015.
Chandima through his A race secured the pole position on qualifying, while Brayan Perera only managed grid 4. First lap of the race Brayan was right behind Chandima battling it out for the Championship. However Chandima manage to hold on to his nerves and ended a well driven race grabbing not only the top of the podium for Round 3 as well as the Championship title.
In Formula McLaren 1300cc Carburetor event, a set of novice drivers who graduated from Go Karting were selected beginning of the year through a selection program held at Pannala.
Lakshika won the 1st Round at Katukurunda but only managed the 4th place in the Round 2 when Sumal Marco Waranakulasuriya defended his way to win the second round. This left the Formula McLarens 1300cc Carburetor Championship table wide open for few drivers to grab the Championship at last round at Pannala.
Lakshika came in to the race 3 points behind the Championship leader Sumal, however the race went in favor of Lakshika due to a mid-race tussle between Ramesh Perera and Sumal Marco leaving Lakshika to end the race not only as the winner but also as the Championship driver for the event.
The Single Seater Formula Motor Sports Association believes in identifying the young and vibrant talents every years and inserting them to the local racing arena.
