EZY team bags 6 podiums...
A heavily battered EZY Racing, who witnessed two of their race drivers Dilan Seneviratne and Shafraz Junaid involved in high impact crashes were however heartened when Pasindu Peiris and Sajaad Zuhair went on to win their respective classes in the SLGT 3500cc and SLH 1600cc and categories at the Foxhill Super Cross held at the Diyathalawa Army Camp for the 21st consecutive year.
EZY Racing went in for the Foxhill Super Cross, considered to be the Mecca of motor racing in Sri Lanka with a star studded driver line up which included the '2012 Super Fox' Pasindu Peiris, 2012 SLH 1600cc winner Dilan Seneviratne, 2010 SLH 1600cc winner Sajaad Zuhair, 2010 Rally Champion Shafraz Junaid and racing veteran Rizvi Farouk, who were positioned very strongly at the end of the qualifying day on Friday with Pasindu Peiris and Dilan Seneviratne occupying 1st and 5 positions in the SLGT 3500cc grid, while Sajaad Zuhair joined the two drivers in 3rd place to form a formidable 3rd, 4th and 5th position grid in the SLH 1600cc event. Shafraz Junaid who participating in the SLH 1500cc event in the recently introduced EZY Honda ER1 was strongly placed 3rd on the grid.
The race day was given a thrilling start when Seneviratne who started from 3rd place on the grid got off to a great start when he outraced pole sitter Ishraq Wahab and Indian rally champion Narain Kumar racing for HTL Motor Sports to the first corner. Seneviratne who was a new entrant to the SLGT event, was in just his second gravel event in this category of racing lead for 3 laps before being overtaken by Ishraq Wahab who was in scintillating form. Seneviratne was then in an enthralling battle for 2nd place with Narain Kumar, who was equally matched by Sene- viratne in driving skills as they kept the crowd on their feet for 3 more laps before he crashed out of the race. While coming out of the final corner, up the hill to the main straight, Seneviratne lost the rear grip in his EZY Evolution ER10 and was ploughed into the protective tyre barriers where the car flipped over and was thrown back onto the track right in the way of Kumar's car which crashed into the ER 10 and rolled over twice. Fortunately for both drivers they were able to walk out of their cars, although Seneviratne had to have minor treatment. Both cars were substantially damaged, however the high safety measures in place in the cars protected the drivers from harm.
In the SLGT race 2, Gravel King Peiris who was returning to the race track after his marriage, was able to put his team mate’s unfortunate incident behind him to win his race with ease.
Sajaad Zuhair who earlier had a close tussle with Dinesh Senanayake for supremacy in the SLH 1500cc where he finished a very close second, once again was placed second while starting from grid 3 in the SLH 1600cc where he managed to gain a position and challenge race winner Ashan Silva for the race win. Peiris was placed 3rd to give EZY Racing a double podium.
Going into the SLH 1600cc race 2x, Zuhair was able to get a good start and gain the lead while going into turn one, and held to the lead comfortably to win from Ashan Silva. This was indeed a great victory for Zuhair as he had been leading the race on two previous occasions in the Colombia Night Race, as well as at Pannala, before these unfortunate incidents saw him retiring from the race lead.
With another podium up for grabs in the SLH 1500cc event, Junaid was in a close tussle with Kaushalya Samarasinghe, before an unfortunate incident which saw Samarasinghe's car entangling with Junaid’s car which made Junaid's ER1 flip and plough over the side of the track and tumble down the hill shocking over 30x000 ardent EZY Racing fans who were immediately seen showing their concerns and offering their prayers in their fan page (www.fb.com/ezyracing).
'Today was one of the toughest days for us. Two of our team's drivers were involved in devastating crashes. I Thank God truly for saving them from any major injuries. As a team it was quite a challenge for our technical staff to continuously engage and prepare the vehicles for the next races when they witnessed both Dilan's and Junaid's incidents. I must say that it was not easy on Sajaad, Rizvi and Pasindu who had to keep their morale high inspite of witnessing these crashes which disturbed the entire mindset of the team. Taking this into context, their performances were exceptional and commendable” said Shafraz Hamzadeen, Team Principal / CEO of EZY Racing.
The crocodile dressed team, were given another podium when Rizvi Farouk went on to grab the final podium position when he finished 3rd in the 3rd SLGT race in which Peiris had an unfortunate mechanical failure.
Commenting further on the incident Hamzadeen went on to state, that incidents such as these were part of motor racing. 'Motor racing quite a high adrenaline sport. It involves action at very high speeds. This is why we all concentrate very hard on the safety measures in our race cars. We were quite fortunate this weekend and I believe it's a timely reminder for everyone who engages in the sport that safety is of utmost importance and never to compromise on it.'
EZY Racing who had a mixed race weekends pocketed 6 podiums which included 2 wins, 2 second positions and 2 third positions, would have had a much greater if not for the mishaps.
EZY Racing who are on the verge of having 30,000 motor racing fans, the highest fans ever for a motor racing team in Sri Lanka paid special tribute to their fans by having their facebook profile pictures on each and every racing car, something that truly inspired all motor racing fans.