Darin Weerasinghe sets new course record for Eliyakanda Hill Climb

Monday, 24 February 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Text and pix by P.D. De Silva Darin Weerasinghe driving a Subaru STI X set a new course record of 34.35 seconds, bettering the 34.80 second record held by Ashan Silva at the 18th Southern Eliyakanda Hill Climb last Saturday (22). Safraz Junaid riding a Honda CRF was the fastest rider with a time of 37.49 seconds. Darin was awarded the Preethi Pallyaguru Memorial trophy for recording the fastest time of the day.

The Eliyakanda track is 700 meters in length and is the winding road leading to the District Secretary (GA)’s residence. It is a unique track, with four extremely tricky and challenging corners known as the Single Tree Corner, Southern Corner, Residency Corner and Tower Corner which required high driving skills and perfect man-machine combination to conquer. The track was re carpeted on Friday in time for the hill climb. Veteran driver Mahen Madugalla said that “the surface would have been ideal if it had dried up a little more and better timings could be expected next year”. The Southern Eliyakanda Hill Climb is organized and conducted by the Southern Motor Sports Club.