Early conclusion for 2015 Formula 1 Season

With the ending of the US Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton won his 3rd World Championship title. There are few more races remaining in the year but mathematically their results won’t change the championship status. From the beginning of the season it was evident Hamilton dominated the season and it was well deserved at the end.

Ferrari meanwhile has improved significantly after mid season with their engine upgrades and could be threatening the Mercedes power units. It’s clear that Renault engines are no match at the straight lines for the front runners.

2015 Formula 1 Mid-Season Review

After the conclusion of the Hungarian Gran Prix it’s clear that Mercedes is still the fastest car, as long as they are at the front they remain unchallenged. Lewis Hamilton has scored most amounts of Poles but we saw how poor the launch was on both Mercedes Cars compared to Williams and Ferrari.

The moment Mercedes get passed by another car at the start line they have a miserable time. This was the same with RedBull in the previous winning seasons – as long as they got a clear start they were winning.

At the Hungarian Gran Prix it was like having Launch Control for Ferrari, the start was very quick. We have noticed Ferrari having much better starts in the previous seasons as well.

Mercedes needs to revisit on the race starts and the pit stops and rectify their selves, otherwise irrespective of having the fastest car (by a big margin) they’ll end up having to put a tough battle, which is totally unnecessary.

Meanwhile at the McLaren garage we see some big improvements for the results. Frankly the McLaren car wasn’t ready at the start of the season – that’s the bitter truth. Now they are playing in the catching up game. I don’t expect McLaren to score big finishes in this season but if they keep the current pace of improvements it’ll be valuable for the development of the next year’s car.

Winners and Losers in 2015 Formula 1 Season

It might be too early to say who the real winners and losers are in Formula 1 this year, but by looking at the first 2 races you can say a few things. It’s clear that McLaren are far away from getting any good outcome, and Alonso is a big loser with the switch from Ferrari to McLaren. Ferrari on the other hand is looking well with Vettel. It might a Mercedes strategy error that cost them the victory but overall Ferrari is coming strong. RedBull is another loser in the game and so as Lotus.

McLaren-Honda

We have seen how successful the McLaren-Honda partnership has been in the past in Formula 1. In 2015 they have again joined hands but this time it will be a tough challenge as Honda has not been an engine supplier for many years. I would like to think this as more of an early gamble for next year rather than expecting anything big for 2015.

New York City Marathon – 2013

The New York City Marathon took place on 3rd November 2013. With 47,000 runners participating on a 42 kilometer race it's the world's largest marathon. Among the famous celebrities was Pamela Anderson who finished the race under 6 hours (5:41:03)

One of the first waves of runners

Runners coming down the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge exit

An amputated runner

Team work?

Juggler on the marathon

Colombo Night Races – 2012

After a year Colombo Night Races held in the heart of the city on Saturday, 15th December 2012. The event was rather an exact replica of the event last year plus an annoying Tuk Tuk race. The main event everyone was expecting was the Super Car event which was easily won by Dilantha Malagamuwa in his Lamborghini.

Dilantha on first lap chased by a Porsche

Dilantha Malagamuwa's Lamborghini

The SL-GT Event

Bike Action

Rider with an interesting helmet

Carlton Super 7s

For the 4th year Carlton Sports has organized a large scale Rugby tournament in Sri Lanka. This year there were many international players than previous years and the tournament had 2 stages; first stage in Kandy and the other in Police Park grounds in Colombo.

I was lucky enough to get some Free tickets and a shirt from one of the franchises - North Western Blacks. Unfortunately for me I could only attend Saturday, 2nd June 2012 as I was planning on a trip the next day (It would have been much exciting on Sunday). The event was well organized and even on Saturday there were much crowd at the Police Park grounds.

Rugby Players in action

Cheer Leader

Rally Sweden

The Swedish Rally for the WRC 2012 took place between 9th to 12th February 2012 in North Varmland. We went to see the races in the woods on 11th February 2012 and it was very different to Formula racing. The track was completely covered with snow and the drivers did an amazing job to stay in the track and race.

A Rally Car taking a turn on Snow

The famous jump in the Rally Sweden

The award ceremony was held on 12th February 2012 at the Karlstad City Center. The Winner of the 60th Swedish Rally was Jari-Matti Latvala while P. G. Anderson winning the SWRC event.

Jari-Matti Latvala celebrating the win

P. G. Anderson and the co-driver celebrating the SWRC win

Ice Hockey

Ice Hocky very special for the Swedes. I went to see the Ice Hocky game between the teams from Gothenburg and Karlstad (FBK) on 2nd February 2012 at the Löfbergs Lila Arena.

An Ice Hockey player's "Show Off"

After a failed attempt to score

The goal keeper entering the field

Skiing

Just like Ice Skating, Skiing was something new for me. Again I was only watching people Skiing and watching them was fun. Swedish kids are real pros in Skiing; there were some amazing Snowboarders too :)

A kid playing on Snow

Snowboarder

A kid Skiing

Ice Skating

Winter is something new for me; I've seen winter activities on TV but have never experienced any of this before.

Ice Skating on the frozen lakes in Sweden was fun and it was a brand new experience although I didn't quite get how to do Ice Skating properly.

A baby cart on Frozen lakes

Kids playing on Frozen Lakes

Colombo Night Races - 2011

For the first time in Colombo, the official Night Races happened at 17th December 2011. The main event people were waiting for was the Super Car event which Dilantha Malagamuwa was participating, however the most exciting event was the evermore competitive SL-GT event packed with Evos and Subaru cars.

Dilantha Malagamuwa's Porsche 996

Lotus Car

Lamborghini

Racing Bikes

Safety Car

Formula McLaren racing at Pannala

In Sri Lanka we don’t have Formula 1 cars or GP2 cars. The best we have also cannot be compared with any of the cars mentioned above. There are couple of types of Formula cars in Sri Lanka, namely Formula Ford and Formula McLarens (LGB). Formula McLarens are powered by a 1300cc engines whereas the Formula Fords has a little more power.

The car i drove at Pannala

I got to know about a Formula training program conducting in Sri Lanka, this is the first time I have heard of such a training program conducted in Sri Lanka. The Asian Motor Racing Association (AMRC) has brought down an ex Formula 1 license holder Akbar Ebrahim to get the training done. I signed up for the program after doing some research on the trainer. The practice session was scheduled on 12th and 13th of June 2010 from 10.00am to 6.00pm on both days at the Pannala racing track. The AMRC provided us transport from SpeedRome to Pannala and the way back on both days.

Giving advice to the drivers

We the drivers got in to the bus and went to Pannala race track. It’s my first time at Pannala; most of the other drivers had previous experience at Pannala track. We arrived at Pannala late due to traffic and had couple of rain showers on the way. Luckily it wasn’t raining at Pannala but it was a cloudy day and the track was wet. As we arrived we were briefed by Mr. Akbar and the drivers were divided in to three groups because we only had 9 cars. Then the lessons started both theory and more practical. Mr. Akbar been a professional trainer gave us very useful advice. Since the Formula cars are build with the least complicated parts without the theory no one would have survived. The very first theory lesson included driving techniques like Blip to get the maximum traction from the rear wheels at corners, late breaking, in-slow out-fast and lot more. Once we were sent to the track we had to follow the safety car in the first few laps. That gave me an idea on the track. Pannala track is only 1.4 kilometers long, but it had all sort of corners, straights and so on. After the safety car went in to the pits the real practice started. I spun several times at the last corner and during the last practice on Saturday I crashed the car but myself and the car was not damaged. Saturday there were many incidents, but according to Mr. Akbar the incidents were nothing big. Sunday was the qualifying and our lap timing was taken in to account. During qualifying a somewhat serious incident happened to one of the cars. That happened at the same place where I crashed on previous day. During Qualifying 1 it was yellow flagged for 2 laps out of 5 laps for the batch I was racing. Despite that out of all 27 drivers (from all 3 batches) I was rated 7th from the lap timing on Qualifying 1. However the Qualifying 2 was a disaster for me, I again spun at the last corner and lost lot of time and couldn’t carry the pace for the next lap as well so my timing in Q2 was worse than in Q1.

Car crashes - Left: my car, Right: some other car

Then there was a simulation of a race and simulation of safety car deployment, after that each batch started the race. I started from the 4th position due to my Q2 timing. Formation lap started and I warmed up my tyres for the race, came to the grid and as the green flag waved I started my race. I had a really good start placing myself just behind the car in the 3rd position. It was a generally slow car and I managed to pass that in the first lap itself. After a couple of laps I passed the car in the 2nd position too but soon later I did a mistake and lost a position. In lap before the final lap the car in the 2nd position did a mistake and I took the maximum advantage of it. I saw the chequered flag just after the guy in 1st position. I really wished I had few more laps, at that time I was closing in on the car in the 1st position continuously.

My car before the Qualifying

We all had a good session and I’m so glad I came 2nd in my race, and I’m evermore happy with the rating I got during the Qualifying. There were some well experienced drivers as well as rookie formula drivers so overall I’m very happy with the session and specially the advices from Mr. Akbar. My body was hurting from the first day but after the 2nd day we all were exhausted. But the fun and the experience were well worth it.

Captions from the race

Race start

Link(s): http://www.amrcspeed.lk

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

Speed Drome

Speed Drome

There is an outdoor Go-Kart track located near the parliament grounds. I’ve seen it many times but have never been there. I had no plans and I called Udara to check what he was doing. He said he is near Speed Drome with Dinendre. Then I asked them to wait there till I come so we can do some karting, he called back and said you need to wear shoes and he is coming home to get his pair of shoes. I asked my sister whether she is interested to come and she said ok. Went to Udara’s place and picked up Udara and his sister Bagya. Dinendre has done some karting and he gave us basic instructions when we arrived at Speed Drome.

The ticket cost was Rs. 750 for 10 minutes, so all 5 of us got the tickets. While we were waiting we saw another group racing karts. It was faster than I expected. And they were really good at drifting at the corners. Finally it was our turn and we went to the pit lane. Soon as we walked in we were given a paper which has the set of rules that to be obeyed. Then we were given helmets and a pair of gloves for each. Then we got in to these tiny Go-Karts and some guy came and stared my Go-Kart, I was racing from the very first second. Too bad I spun while taking turns few times. Then some instructor came and told me that I need to slow down at the bends and blah blah blah...

10 minutes was way too short, I really wished I could do few more laps. This is good for a change and trust me the moment I got out of the kart I was so exhausted. Karting is fun, should do it more often :)

Karting at Speed Drome

Link(s): http://www.speedrome.lk

Indoor Cricket

I’m not a fan of Cricket except for watching those 20 over matches. Udara asked me whether I’m interested of playing some indoor cricket. He has already booked the Indoor cricket court at Austasia and invited myself and my brother to come with them. Me and my brother were on our way for something else and luckily it finished early. So we came to Austasia.

Playing Indoor Cricket at Austasia

Indoor cricket is something different to outdoor version of cricket we know. The rules are totally upside down. However playing indoor cricket for 2 hours is quite a workout.

Back to playing Basketball

It has been over 5 years since I haven’t played basketball. I did try once last year when Udara came back to SL. That day I almost fainted after playing for 5 minutes so that doesn’t count :D

My new RBK Basketball

I went to Reebok and got myself a new Basketball (which has Allen Iverson’s signature on it) and initiated basketball practices again. Dinuka has invited couple of his friends from school and we played some good 2 hours of basketball on Saturday, 10th October at my old place called 'The Church'

I rested the whole Sunday and even at the time of writing this my legs still hurts.