Kandy will go gay today when the Kandy Motor Sports Club conducts the first motor racing event of the new Millennium. The Kandy Wace Park Speed Hill Climb 2000 gets underway in the heart of Kandy city. It will commence at 8.30 a.m. and the competitors should report at the Paddocks by 7 a.m., for scrutinsing of the vehicles.

There are 114 entries, including almost all of Sri Lanka’s top racers.

The first event will be flagged off by the Mayor of Kandy Harindranath Dunuwille who will also be the chief guest at the awards ceremony which will be held immediately after the completion of the race. Guests of Honour will be the Deputy Mayor of Kandy Al Haj M. Rasick, Municipal Councillor L. B. Aluwihare, DIG Kandy Sirisena Herath, SSP Kandy Nimal Mediwake, ASP Kandy Daya Samaraweera and HQI Chief Inspector Saliya Silva.

This meet will be conducted with the assistance of the officials of the Sri Lanka Association of Racing Drivers and Riders (SLARDAR) who have kindly agreed to provide the timing equipment and their members to act as officials. The starters will be Palitha Ratnayake and Rodney Mason.

The present course record is held by Nishan Weerasuriya who recorded the fastest timing last year in his Mitsubishi Evolution 5 in the Group M & T event for cars over 1665 cc. But this year he will have a tough time in defending his record as he will be up against the Subaru Imprezzas driven by Romani de Silva, Nalin D. Perera, Carmen Thenuwara, Dinesh Deheragoda behind a Vesco Carisma GT, Bri Ponnambalam (Nissan Pulsar) and Uditha Ekanayake who will be driving a Toyota Glenza with an engine capacity of 2394 on while the others are of 2000 cc and under.

Most of these cars will be running in this for the first time.

Then there will be that maestro, a one time course record holder Rohan de Silva driving in the Formula Ford Modified upto 2080 cc in his McLaren Special and again in the Formula Ford 1600 cc event in his Van Dieman Ford which will also see his pal Romani de Silva (van Dieman Scholar), Rizvy Farook (Formula Ford) and newcomer Dinesh Jayawardena (Van Dieman Ford) who are all racing drivers with skill and expertise who will make an all out effort to have a go at the Class and Course records.

Group A cars over 14 Kg/Kp will see a fight between Upulwan Serasinghe, Mangala Jayasiriwardena, Kandan Parameswaran and Niroshan Silva.

The battle in the group A cars between 12.0 and 14.0 Kh/HP will see top fare with Upulwan Serasinghe, Mahen Thambiah, Kumar Samarasinghe, Sisira Gunasekera, Ravi Mayadunne, Dinesh Jayawardena, Randy Batcho, and Ashrer Hameem fighting for honours.

In the event for group A Cars between 10 to 12 Kg/HP will see the only lady competitor of the race teenager Shehera de Silva (daughter of the illustrious Rohan de Silva) who flew in from ‘Old Blighty’ and she will be pitted against the most experienced and the oldest competitor Ananda de Alwis, Ananda Krishnaratne, Anuradha Amerasinghe, veteran Mahes Gammanpila, John Baskaran, Carmen Thenuwara, burly Ravi Iddamalgoda, Pradeep Kavikara and Nishan Fernando, a pilot by profession who will be flying low.

As you go higher in the Group A cars between 8 to 10 Kg/HP event there will be a relentless battle between Sadath Nazar, Nalin D. Perera, Mario Dias, Sheran Cooke and Sajitha Wedisinghe.

There will be a three cornered fight between class record holder Amitha Dheerasekera, Ashan Fernando and Kasun Pathiraja.

Next will see the high powered cars in action with the events entering the Turbo, Modified, Supercharged and Formula scene. In the Group M & T cars upto 1040 cc there will be a prestige battle between Cricket Board’s Janaka Pathirana and Henry Mudalige with the latter having fitted with highly sophisticated equipment including computer controls. There will be also Dhammika Krishnaratne (Mini Levellon) and Nissanka Illangakoon (Tyre House Volkswagon).

Event No. 12 which will feature the Ford Formula 1600 cc cars the three ‘R’s’ Romani, Rohan and Rizvi will have a ding dong battle with Dinesh Jayawardena also thrown into the fray.

More classy events will be witnessed in the Group M & T cars between 1040 cc and 1350 cc with veteran Yoga Perera one of the best exponents in Mini racing will be pitted against Shanthilal Abeyratne driving a Skoda and will be joined in by Udesh Wedisinghe (Mazda Turbo) and Leelaratne Krishnaratne who will be behind the oldest car in the competition, a forty year old Austin Healy Sprite with a sprightly appearance capable of an upset.

There will be a big tussle for honours where no quarter will be asked nor given in the Group M & T cars between 1350 cc and 1665 cc with ripper Rizvi Farook up against the experiences of Yoga Perera in his Caltex Mini. Rizvy Farook is the class record holder for this event and will make a determined effort to have a go at his own record. Others who will make an impression here are Zackie Ismail, Devaka Amarasuriya and Rohan Muthumani in a West Field JAI Racing which will be seen for the first time in this circuit.

Team wise there will be three teams battling out for honours. The Mobil team led by the maestro himself Rohan de Silva, includes Yoga Perera and Nishan Weerasuriya.

The weather up in the hills has kept fine upto the time of writing and motor racing of the highest order is in store for motor racing fans. The start will be near the Bogambara Stadium and will proceed along Ehelapola Kumarihamy Mawatha before taking a U turn into the Rajapihilla Mawatha and there will be several sharp corners before the finish at Arthur’s seat on the hill overlooking the Kandy Lake. The proceeds of this race till go to swell the Kandy Mayor’s Fund.