Jaden Gunawardena sets benchmark and wins all six races
Road to Rookies 2017
The final round of the Road to Rookies Championship 2017 got underway on September 3 and 4, 2017 at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. Raring to go, once again were the best of India’s young talent trying to secure a slot for the rookie’s cup in Spain. Jaden Gunawardena, the only foreign competitor, was invited on a wild card basis, but not eligible for points in the championship, as it was a local selection.
The Road to Rookies Cup in collaboration with Suzuki India was a platform for budding young riders to showcase and hone their talents. The winner from India and Sri Lanka get a chance to participate in the Red Bull Motogp Rookies Cup, giving them a chance to fulfill their Motogp dream.
Jaden joining the selection rounds and pre-season testing was a huge indicator of what to expect for the season ahead. Jaden set the benchmark for racing in the opening round in July with the fastest lap times in the rookies events and went on to better his timing in round two in August. On concluding the third and final round of the Road to Rookies, the five fastest riders all set times under a minute and 24 seconds, with Jaden Gunawardena smashing his own record, and being the sole rookie rider to break into the one minute and 23 second barrier, which was set during qualifying.
Lalhruaizela seems all set to make India proud at the Road to Motogp series in Spain, the North Eastern rider bagged the ticket in having consistently finished second in almost every race of the championship behind Jaden.
The younger Gunawardena, Aaron, is making the big in the Asian rounds and currently has Sri Lanka on fifth on the championship standings. Aaron says, “I am learning as much as possible with every outing at the Asian round and making progress, and I am happy about setting a fastest lap of time in Japan on the Suzuka circuit.”
The Gunawardena brothers have submitted their progress reports for 2017 and await the invitation for the selection of the Red Bull Rookies in Spain and the Asian Talent Cup in Malaysia which takes place in mid October.