Sajaad and Sriyan dominate Kandy for EZY Racing

EZY Racing’s Sajaad Zuhair and Sriyan Samuels dominated Kandy streets for the second consecutive year in front of approximately 100,000 spectators when they went on to repeat their last year’s dominance and show their prowess by winning three races between them in the second edition of the Speed at Kandy, better known as the ‘Kandy Night Race’ organised by the SLMCC.

EZY Racing, which has fast become Sri Lanka’s most favoured motor racing team, repeated their dominance of the Kandy Streets in the inaugural Kandy Night Race in 2011, as their drivers and riders displayed their skills yet again to bag five podiums out of the six races they competed in to stamp their authority on the streets of Kandy

Sri Lanka’s only professional motor racing team, which has been victorious in all four racing events conducted in 2012, had its entire line up of drivers and riders competing in Kandy for the first time this year and was given a very strong start for the weekend when Sajaad Zuhair and Pasindu Pieris locked up the front row in the respective order, thereby giving EZY Racing its very first 1-2 qualifying for the year in the SLH up to 1600CC event during Saturdays Qualifying session.

With a massive crowd turning out to watch this exciting event, the Black and Red team were given the perfect start by 10-year-old Jaden Gunawardane who rode his 125CC (ERY) with grit and might to finish second.

With the night heating up, Sriyan Samuels then entertained the massive crowd first in the four stroke 250CC (in his ER Q) event and thereafter in the Motorbike up to 1000CC open event (in his ER Z), where in both events he started last and went on to win by a massive lead over his closest competitor Maduranga Caldera. Sriyan, who specially flew down from Qatar to participate in this race, also won the same events for his team in the inaugural Colombo Night Race.

The SLH up to 1600CC event, which was one of the most looked forward to races, started at a hectic pace as team mates Sajaad driving his EZY Honda ER6 and Pasindu in his EZY Honda ER4 drew away from the rest of the pack.

With Sajaad establishing himself as the leader, Pasindu unfortunately had to retire due to heating issues, depriving EZY Racing of its first 1-2 finish. The six-lap race ended with Sajaad Zuhair having a comfortable lead over second placed Sashika Lakmal, who was closely followed by S.A. Harsha.

“It’s a very good feeling to know that we have been victorious in Kandy in both races. It’s even more gratifying to know that I have won both the races held this month. It was a perfect weekend for us considering that both our cars were in front of the grid. We showed great pace in the race and it was evident from the lead that we had throughout. The ER6 was handling itself perfectly and everything went smoothly,” said Sajaad Zuhair.

Veteran driver Rizvi Farouk who was driving his EZY Subaru ER8 added the icing on the cake when he went onto finish third after starting seventh on the grid to complete a very strong weekend for his team.

Commenting on his team’s performance, Team Principal/CEO Shafraz Hamzadeen said: “It has been another phenomenal weekend for us. Getting five podiums in the six events we participated in shows how strong we have been as a team. When we came to Kandy, we were a touch disappointed that Pasindu (in his EZY Mitsubishi ER9) and Junaid (in his EZY Subaru ER3) couldn’t participate in the SL GT class. However, Sajaad’s victory, Pasindu’s pace in his ER4, Rizvi getting his first podium in the Super Car for 2012, Sriyan’s dominance on the bikes and the kids Jaden and Aaron doing what they do best, managed to provide us with yet another strong performance this weekend.

“As a team, we have put in a lot of hours preparing ourselves to better our performance. Today’s results are the outcome. Sajaad has always shown that he is a great driver on the tarmac. The fact that he has got back-to-back victories in Kandy further proves it. Sriyan is also a born racer. It is unfortunate that his work commitments only allow him to participate in limited races for us. What matters most for us is that it has not been an individual performance that has brought us recognition, but a team effort. We saw this in Sigiriya where Sajaad elevated his game to win from third on the grid after seeing Pasindu falling back. We saw it yet again this weekend when Rizvi drove all out to finish third after starting seventh, to provide us a podium in the absence of Pasindu.”EZY Racing, which has an ardent following of over 14,000 fans (www.fb.com/ezyracing), will participate yet again at the Foxhill Supercross in April at Diyatalawa.