McLaren wins the Bull fight

Just finished watching the Turkish Gran Prix and what a disaster for the RedBulls. RedBulls were pretty much settled as one-two either Mark Webber or Sebastian Vettel getting the victory, but what a disaster for them when Vettel tried to overtake Webber. Vettel was constantly closing on Webber and he knew when to overtake; but did his team mate give him room? Unfortunately no and not only that, they collided and it was race over for Vettel while leaving Webber with a damaged front wing. Both McLarens passed the damaged Webber and passed the chequered flag after few laps giving a much deserved victory for Lewis Hamilton.

During qualifying both McLarens matched the pace of the RedBulls giving 2nd position for Lewis Hamilton and 4th for Jenson Button. And during the race Hamilton was keeping very closely with Webber till the first pit stop where he really shouldn’t have pitted. The pit release gave Vettel the advantage over Hamilton and his trouble was doubled. Somehow Vettel and Webber had a little dance while overtaking and gave upper hand for both McLarens. McLaren’s F-duct worked very well to keep up with the Bulls. While the RedBull’s and McLaren’s were only a second or two from each other the rest of the cars were nowhere to be found.

McLaren’s traditional rival Ferrari is lacking pace a lot and their car is not in a good shape howsoever. Meanwhile Renault has improved a lot during the past few races. But none of these teams could keep up with the RedBull’s or the McLaren’s.

Rationalist Day 2010

I was quite surprised when I heard there is a group called "Rationalist Association" existed in Sri Lanka. After that one member from our group “Secular Sri Lanka” has contacted the president of the Rationalist Association and he was told that their association is organizing a day called Rationalist Day 2010.

We at Secular Sri Lanka thought of attending the event for the purpose of introducing our web site Secular Sri Lanka among the members of Rationalist Association. So I borrowed a good quality camera and a tripod from a friend to cover the event. And we have given a good publicity about this event from our website as well.

Rationalist Day - 2010

Finally the day arrived - 18th May 2010; we went to this place called “Punchi Theater” at Borella with our equipment to get the video and to present our site. I also printed some handbills to distribute among the members of the Rationalist Association. The President of the Rationalist Association in his welcome speech itself gave an extensive introduction to our website and the group. It was something I didn’t expect. Then just after the keynote speech from Professor Carlo Fonseka a member from our group introduced our group and the website to the audience. I must say the audience was very excited about the effort we have put so far. After that the Rationalist Day was pretty much in our hands, there was a time allocated for a discussion and throughout the discussion the topic discussed was a Secular Sri Lanka. This is by far the best discussion I have ever had with a bunch of professors. Long story short, we rocked Rationalist Day 2010.

Link(s): Secular Sri Lanka, Secular Sri Lanka - Alternative Link

Karting with Rookies

We were planning to do this Go-Kart session for over a month, due to many reasons it got postponed. Finally we made it to the Speed Drome Go-Kart track on Sunday, 9th May 2010 around 10.30 am. It was the first time I’ve been to Speed Drome in a morning. The place was very quiet; no one else was there apart from the bunch of us.

The Karts

So I briefed my rookie friends Lahiru, Rajeev and Jo for the race. We went to the pit lane and geared up for Karting. Normally when I race with others it’s impossible to overtake because they are real pros, but the rookies have got it all wrong. They were way too wide on every corner and overtaking was just a piece of cake. I remember myself karting for the first time in the same track couple of months ago but I pushed the kart hard enough and gave a real hard time for the experienced fellows on the track. After the 10 minute session we pitted and got the timesheets, it was a complete disaster for me. My lap time was not good enough. Of course all the slow carts on the track had something to do with it but the main factor was the track temperature. The tarmac had some vapor even though it was 10.30 am. It was a cloudy day and there were no direct sun light to heat up the tarmac. However this karting session was not a competition. I was just showing the fun side of karting to my friends.

Karting at Speed Drome

Coral Sands - Hikkaduwa

Corel Sands Hotel at Hikkaduwa is not a very luxurious hotel but a decent location for an outing. Below are few pictures from an outing from 1st to 2nd May 2010.

Sea View

Hotel View

Outdoor Restaurant View

Dinner Table(s)