Aaron in the limelight at 2017 Asian Road Racing C’ship
The younger of the Gunawardena brothers, Aaron, had the ride of his life while also gaining valuable points for Sri Lanka in a dramatic wet race last weekend.
The Asian Road Racing Championship organised by Suzuki Japan kicked off on April 1 and 2, 2017 and saw the Lankan rider master the treacherous conditions that were ahead of him. He took on the lead with three laps to go. Unable to break away from far more experienced and seasoned riders who were breathing down his back, young Gunawardena had to give up the lead and stay focused on finishing the race instead of focusing on a podium. It was a split second difference between the top five riders, and Gunawardena had to settle for a very close fourth place in the curtain raiser.
The wet conditions caused havoc for many of the riders who showed promising race pace earlier in the free practice and qualifying, but he was comfortable in going in for the second race under any condition. However, it was a dry race and Gunawardena, who started sixth on the grid, could not make a move on the race leaders in the earlier stage of the race, as a few riders including Gunawardena were slowed down owing to a crash.
April King Mascardo from the Philippines who got the advantage of the crash pulled out a significant lead from the rest of the pack and comfortably won the second race of the day. Gunawardena did mention it would have been quite a risk to fight for a podium finish at the pace the riders maintained, and he finished fifth and bagged a collective 24 valuable points for Sri Lanka in the first round of the championship. The next round of the Suzuki Asia Challenge would be in Thailand in mid April.
Proud dad Shane Gunawardena said, “This is a good start for us as I see quite a lot of progress in Aaron this year. It is a lot easier this year as Jaden would be running a few selected meets, as he needs to cope up with his studies. The last year was too hectic with both of them racing the Asian Challenge as well as the Indian Championship,” adding, “I am glad about the exposure Sri Lanka has got with this series as we are currently ranked fifth on the points table.”
He also stated that he is happy to see involvement of the lubricant specialist from Ulm, Germany showing interest in supporting local racing activities and is looking at the possibility of partnering Aaron and Jaden in their careers.
He also added, “The Sports Ministry has supported us to a great extent and we sincerely like to thank the Minister of Sports and his team for it.”