EZY Racing crowned Team Champions in Sigiriya

Zuhair and Seneviratne win 4 podiums

Sri Lanka’s first-ever international motor racing team EZY Racing continued to stamp their dominance in the Sri Lankan motor racing circuits when their most successful duo Sajaad Zuhair and Dilan Seneviratne entertained over 35,000 spectators in the heritage city of the country, to crown EZY Racing team Champions in Round 3 of the 6 Round SLADA Championship.

EZY Racing who have been victorious in every race since 2014, yet again demonstrated their capabilities when the Sri Lankan driver duo Zuhair and Seneviratne ensured that the team was able to deliver this success through a sustainable performance on the track.

Zuhair who leads both the SLH 1600 Championship and SLS 1500 Championship, with continuous victories in the respective classes was given a rude shock when he was relegated from his familiar grid position by 19 year old Damith Weerasinghe, who was later reprimanded for driving an underweight car, thereby handing Zuhair his ever familiar pole position for the race. Zuhair went on to win the race with ease from there onwards from Upulwan Serasinghe and Sashika Lakmal to deliver EZY Racing the first victory of the race weekend.

However the real excitement for the weekend was delivered by Dilan Seneviratne who has forced himself to be recognised as top runner in the SLGT 3500cc category when he finished 2nd in Race 1 of the class after having qualified 5th on the grid. Seneviratne managed to get the better of former EZY Racing driver Pasindu Peiris before going on to finish 2nd behind race winner Ashan Silva. The Sigirya track which is renowned for its dusty racing environment, made it impossible for Seneviratne to catch up with Silva as he consolidated his 2nd position.

The Black and Red team’s veteran racer Zuhair who faced a mechanical failure in the ER2 in the SLS 1500 event in Katukurunda the previous weekend had a shocking start when his car was slow off the start lights. Zuhair who lost a few positions off the start line managed to regain two positions to tail behind Kushan Peiris for 4 laps in the 6 laps race.

With 2 laps to complete, Zuhair managed to maintain his pace in the slipstream of Peiris in near impossible conditions with weak visibility due to the dust, to overtake Peiris at the end Home Straight. There onwards Zuhair put his head down and recorded some incredibly fast laps to win the race with over half a lap lead.

“We had a great start for the race weekend and bagging 5 podiums (a podium in every race) was a reality. Unfortunately Dilan (Seneviratne) experienced some mechanical issues and couldn’t convert his 2nd placed grid position to a strong finish. The same happened to Sajaad (Zuhair) when he had bad start and then ran off the track to finish 4th in the second race in SLH 1600. I believe we had two potentially race winning situations that slipped our grasp. This is motor racing. You cannot take anything for granted.

“Both Sajaad and Dilan performed extremely well considering that they were competing on consecutive race weekends where they had to totally change their car settings. I believe the technical support we have received from our technical partners Auto Force, Dynamic Racing and Tuned I Chips have been tremendous. Our race results for the last 2 years and especially this year stands as a true testimony to our partnerships. Unlike many others who field multiple teams, we have channeled our focus and efforts into one team, EZY Racing where we have two exceptional drivers representing us.

“We have never focused on winning the Team Championship as we are well aware that the odds are heavily stacked against us. Therefore winning the Team Championship has not yet been our primary target, instead engaging in quality motor racing has always been our priority. However, this Team Championship win is a bonus for our weekends efforts, specially for the team who is behind the curtain that has put in endless hours to make our performance on the track a reality,” said Shafraz Hamzadeen, the Founder/CEO of EZY Racing.

Zuhair who has won in every race since September 2013, went on to state that it was unfortunate that he couldn’t convert a winning position on the SLH 1600 race 2.

“We knew this weekend was going to be tough, especially considering the fact that we were one of the few competitors who were coming directly out of another race weekend. We were very pleased when we had two victories in the previous two events. Unfortunately we had a bad start in the 2nd race in the ER 6 and from there onwards it was always going to be a catching up game. I knew we had the pace and if we could keep close to the front runners while coming out of the gravel, we had the pace to take then going into turn 1.

“Following in the slipstream in the gravel in Sigiriya is a near impossible task as the dust that gets aroused gives you no visibility. You basically end up driving on the memory that you have of every corner rather than on visibility and that’s what happened when I went off the track due to non visibility. I was fortunate to have been able to get back on the race and finish 4th.

“Dilan too had a fantastic start for the weekend. It was very pleasing to see that Dilan was able to put the ER10 in a potentially race winning position for Race 2 in the SLGT event. I guess we didn’t have fortune favouring us in the second half of the races,” said the championship leader in SLH and SLS classes respectively

Seneviratne who has been on the podium in every race in 2015 was very unfortunate when he lost turbo boost during the warm up lap which ended up heavily hindering his race pace in the SLGT Race 2 where he had to agonisingly watch his car losing power and being overtaken by the competitors who he had surpassed in the previous race.

Hamzadeen whose brainchild EZY Racing has developed into an International Racing Brand in just 5 years, went onto state that he has been quite pleased with the efforts of his team during the season 2015.

“In Motor Racing you have your highs and lows. We experienced both ends today. However, we take a lot of positives out of this weekend’s races. For example Dilan demonstrated the ability to fight through the pack. We need to remember that Dilan entered SLGT just two years back and he has made huge strides in a short period of time. Sajaad on the other hand had a weekend where he lost his pole position only to regain in the ER6 and lost his race lead for four laps in the ER2 once again to regain. This shows the grit and might of our drivers. This is all a part of motor racing. The expectation from us is always high, especially our strong multinational fan base expects us to win every time we go out onto the track. This gives our team the motivation to perform. We have three weeks before the next race. We intend on regrouping and learning from this weekend to come out strongly for the next race.”

With over a 150,000 strong followership, EZY Racing is now preparing to challenge the Asia Cup of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) in Malaysia on 14-16 August where their International Driver Mike Young who is currently leading the Production Cup will challenge 2013 APRC Champion Gaurav Gill and former PWRC driver Subhan Aksa for the Crown of Asian Motor Racing.