EZY Racing drives to triple in Anuradhapura

Zuhair with his second win of the day in the SLS 1500 class

EZY Racing delivered yet another dominant performance in Anuradhapura through Sajaad Zuhair, who went on to secure a triple victory for the team at the Gajaba Super Cross in the CEAT SLADA Championship. 

Zuhair, who comfortably leads the SLH1600 CC Championship even after having competed in one race less than his competitors, was at his usual best at the Gajaba event after having experienced technical issues with the car during last month’s Sigirya Super Cross. Zuhair, who has been contracted with EZY Racing since the team’s inception, has been simply untouchable over the last two years, during which time he has been at the pinnacle of his motor racing career. 

Powered by lubricant partner Mobil’s 1 0W-40 advanced fully-synthetic engine oil for ultimate all-round performance, the black and red team, were seen demonstrating their strength in the circuit when Zuhair secured yet another pole position in the race in his Honda ER6 in the SLH 1600 event. 

Zuhair, who had dominated both the SLH1600 and SLS1500 classes, experienced problems with his gears and conceded his familiar pole position in the ER2, in the SL1500 race to the youngest of the famous Wahab Family, Zakir Wahab. 

Ezy Racing, the iconic motor racing team which has become Sri Lanka’s first international motor racing brand, has had a very successful year both on home and international race circuits with Kiwi driver Mike Young throwing an all-new challenge to the frontrunners in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. EZY Racing’s affiliation with Japan-based Cusco Racing, which engineers the cars in which Young competes, have elevated them to being a serious contender at this year’s championship of Asia Pacific’s leading motor racing event. 

Sunday’s race started in standard style for Zuhair, who managed to have a comfortable victory over Damith Weerasinghe in the ER6 in the SLH 1600 race category with Zakir Wahab taking the last spot on the podium. 

The winner of the 2014 Gajaba Super Cross, Zuhair, displayed some entertaining gravel driving to win back the position he lost in the ER2 in the SLS 1500 event when he lined up race leader Zakir Wahab, while exiting Turn 2 in the opening lap to win back the race leader position. 

Thereafter, Zuhair went on to comfortably win his second race of the weekend as both Wahab and young Kushan Peiris were engaged in an interesting tussle for second position, which was claimed by the latter. Zuhair, who later on in the afternoon competed in race 2 of the SLH1600 event, was once again seen dominating proceedings, leading the race from start to finish.

“This weekend was one of two extremes for us,” stated EZY Racing’s Founder/CEO Shafraz Hamzadeen. “We were very happy that Sajaad secured the three wins that we had planned after it eluded us with technical issues in Sigiriya a month back,” said the entrepreneur whose race team is followed by over 200,000 followers on their official Facebook fan page www.fb.com/ezyracing. 

“What happened to Dilan (Seneviratne) left us a little bemused as it was something we could have avoided.”

Hamzadeen was commenting on EZY Racer Senviratne, who experienced technical problems at the start of the SLGT Race 1 in his ER 10 and finished the race in sixth position. 

Season’s first victory

Zuhair, who won three triple victories in 2014, delivered his first victory for the season after technical issues in Foxhill in the ER2 and Sigiriya in the ER6 prevented him from carrying the same success through to the current season. 

“We are extremely pleased with our performance,” said Zuhair. “The entire technical team, which includes Auto Force and Tuned I Chips, worked hard over the last month or so to give us a strong car for the race. We had a temporary setback during qualification when I experienced a gearbox issue where I had to virtually hold onto my gear lever while driving which hampered my qualifying time. The team managed to replace the gearbox and sort the problem overnight. Hopefully this puts us en route to a strong position in the championship,” stated Zuhair. Speaking to the media, Hamzadeen was extremely pleased with the performance of Zuhair in his ER 2 and ER 6. “We are very glad to be back to our winning ways. In the recent past we experienced many issues technically. No matter how well we prepare ourselves there are certain performance-related technical issues that crop up because of the strain these machines take month in, month out, since the race season begins. Some of these technical issues have potentially stolen race victories from us this season. Although it’s all a part of racing, when you look at things in hindsight these costly misses could bite you in the back as far as momentum is concerned. So it feels really good to know that we are back at the top of the podium in our strength events. Sajaad always puts in his absolute best. There is nothing more motivating to him than having to fight back to gain his position. So when Sajaad actually qualified second in the SLS event, I knew we had enough motivation for the triple win over the weekend.” 

With Dilan Seneviratne showing huge improvement in the SLGT category during the 2015 race season, Hamzadeen felt that this setback would definitely wake up the team to commit itself to deliver an impeccable performance in the remaining two races of the season. 

“I felt sorry for Dilan from a personal perspective. However, I feel as a team we should look past this weekend’s challenge and ensure we finish the season strong.”

The team will next be seen in a very rare multi-destination race weekend when both their international race team and the local race team will compete on the same weekend on 19 and 20 September in Hokkaido, Japan and Katukurunda, Sri Lanka.