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Damien top at Katu with four timer
By M. Shamil Amit
Young Damien Goonetileke provided the thrills for the two wheeled fans while Romani de Silva and Pradeep Jayawardena gave the four wheeled fans their share in the SLARAR Katukurunda Motor Races held at the Air Force race track in Katukurunda last Sunday. The main feature of Damiens victory was that he won all his races in a Honda 125 putting riders with more powerful bikes in the shade.

It was sheer skill riding by this youngster trailing behind the leaders but with patience he gradually caught up and overtook them to win with ease. Damien won the first race of the day which was for bikes upto 125cc. The second and third events he won was for Bikes Upto 600cc 4 Stroke Race 1 and 2. And completed his four timer winning the Open event competing with bikes of 1000cc.

Romani de Silva who has vast experience in the Ford Formula event made amends for the loss of veteran Rohan de Silva to take the two events held in this category. But in time to come they will have to wade off the challenge of 18 year old Dejan de Zoysa who with his experience in participating in these events will be driver to follow. He has the potential of becoming a top driver. Pradeep Jayawardena coming after a long period too showed that he has not lost his touch and will be the main challenger to Dinesh Deheragoda. Of the two events held for the Super Cars, Pradeep bagged one while the other was won by Dinesh. Though losing the second race the effort put in by Dinesh cannot be ignored. He started off in the back of the grid been penalised for running without airflow restrictors at the trials.

The Mini Car event was won by K. Parameswaran in the 998cc which was the second event for the day. Hafiz Cader also in Austin Mini took event number nine for cars upto 1050cc. Nishan Wasalathanthri won both the events for cars over 12kg/hp on a Ford Laser. His second win was a well contested event where he put his driving skills to real effect. Zakie Ismail was another driver who won his event with ease winning event number ten for cars 8-10 kg/hp.

Two other veterans Bri Ponnambalam and Yoga Perera too won their respective events. Bri winning the event for cars 6-8kg/hp while Mini specialist Yoga winning the event for cars upto 1665cc. Yoga driving with perfection in his Austin Mini had the other prominent drivers trailing behind him. The most unfortunate driver was Upulwan Serasinghe who is nursing an injury after a nasty road accident which nearly cost his life. Driving a Ford Laser he had another narrow shave when his car overturned at the goose bend of the track, he was lucky to escape without any serious injuries.

With the motor racing season just begun the battle has begun between the main teams consisting of Team Caltex, Mobil Autocolor and McFoil Team clashing for honours. After round one Team Caltex lead with 16 comprising of eight wins, five second places and three third placings. Mobil Autocolor in second place with nine comprising of six wins one second and two third and McFoil on seven with one win four seconds and two third places.

Tanakura captures Celltel top award
Celltel the Cellular Phone specialist made a magnificent contribution towards the progress of golf with a lavish sponsorship of a competition through the courtesy of Duminda Ratnayake their effervescent Chief Executive Officer.

The Course played true producing a crop of excellent returns when even Frank Weeraratne our well preserved Senior shot a commendable 2 under par nett 69 and caused much jubilation at the award ceremony.

"A" Division
Satori Tanakura was outstanding with a well compiled nett 69 and coming behind him were Arjun Fernando on nett 70 and Steward Ritchie on nett 71.

"B" Division
Min Kim was exceptional with a stunning nett 62 followed by Jae IlKo on net 69 and S.V. Jayakody on 70.

"C" Division
Chubby Nigel Coomaraswamy came much alive oozing with excitement telling the world the secrets of his success nett 61. It was a great round devoid of aqua phobia, earth moving and visits to ponds. He was an extremely popular winner. Sumedha Amerasinghe played a round that was as good but unfortunately his back nine was not as good as Coomaraswmy's. Amerasinghe a glutton for celebrating joined Coomaraswamy in an elastic round of "have another". UL Srinivs Rao came third with an excellent nett 62.

Gymkhana event
Noordeen Setwala hit the 300 yard mark to win the longest Drive contest comfortably and Sumedha Amerasingthe settled closest to the pin in the other contest to collect a special award.

Low score award
As a Celltel Cellular user Nigel Coomarawwamy organized a special award for himself for the lowest gross score. He relished the applause he received even though the audience was sparse. Stewart Ritchie struck a fine gross 73 to win a special award.

Gracious gesture
Celltel Ltd. the sponsors were absolutely gracious inviting the Caddie class players to participate in a special category. It gladdened the hearts of many of us to recognize an opportunity afforded to these very talented guys. B.G Lalith Kumara was absolutely magnificent. He blazed through the course with 5 stunning birdies and one hole-in-one to capture an astounding Gross 64 and the admiration of all round him. I hope the Golf Club and the Golf Union will now open their misty eyes and afford these guys more opportunities to play competitive golf.

Awards
The Award Ceremony was again an embarrassment to the Executive Committee. One hundred and seventy five participated and near 350 were invited and only about 50 turned up to participate in the lavish spread provided by Celltel.

The arrangements were slipshod and what must have been most annoying and upsetting was to find that over a dozen participants captured the food booths and got loud in conversation disturbing the speeches even that of the chief host Duminda Ratnayake. Absolutely disgusting to say the least.

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