The 2008 Carlton Super Cross was held over the weekend of 15 th, 16 th and 17 th February at the Ceylon Auto Drome (CAD) in Tissamaharama. Organized by the Tharunyata Hetak foundation and conducted by the Motor Racing Association (MRA), the aim of this year’s event was to collect funds for the purpose of building a new swimming pool for the Jaffna University. Last year’s Carlton Super Cross was also held in the same manner, and the resulting funds were utilised to build an Army hospital in Anuradhapura.

The day was perfect for racing and the dry and dusty conditions prevailing over Tissamaharama made the CAD an ideal proving ground for all the competitors. Spectators in their thousands were flocking to the CAD and were queuing up to get in from early morning. Getting in though was no mean task as there were no ‘passes’ for the media or anybody else for that matter. Each person was body searched before entering the arena.

As always, Gayan Sandaruwan and Aravinda Premadasa were in total control of their respective events dominating them from the beginning. Young gun Pasindu Peiris also managed to make his mark taking two victories in the SL-H Cars upto 1600cc pushing aside veterans like Dinesh Jayawardena and Upulwan Serasinghe.

The race was on with Gayan and Pasindu battling it out in the Racing 125cc motorcycle event. Pasindu was in the lead until he lost control sending, both machine and rider, plummeting to the ground. Pasindu’s younger sibling Sasindu, was also rushed to hospital after going through a nasty spill in the same event trying to overtake leader Gayan. Winning most of the events he participated, Gayan’s racing prowess came into the spotlight in the Open event when he was the last to get off the starting line. His uncanny ability to navigate corners with superb precision and his knack for overtaking even on the jumps was his trump card that gave him the chequered flag with a considerable lead over others.

Aravinda was the king of the day when it came to four wheels taking two wins in the GT Cars events in his Mitsubishi Evolution VII. The result was more or less ‘predicted’ having not much competition in the said event. With only three cars on the track, Aravinda raced towards the finish in considerable ease with Pasindu trailing behind him for second place. The second race too saw the same fate with Aravinda winning with a huge margin and all the other competitors trailing behind him. The Group A Cars upto 1050cc saw yet another domination, this time by K. Parameshwaran in his Austin Mini. Taking the lead in a haze of dust, he managed to take the chequered flag making Eranda Wakista and Harsha Panduwawala settle for second and third places respectively.

The most number of entries were witnessed in the Group A Cars upto 1600cc which saw the likes of veterans Upulwan Serasinghe and Dinesh jayawarden in it's ranks. Most of the race was invisible to the naked eye (or even a not so naked eye for that fact) with all the machines attacking each other creating a massive cloud of dust on the track over the entire duration of the race. Occasionally, one could see a car screaming by which was followed by another and another making them invisible again. Ultimately, Upulwan took the chequered flag shoving off the entire competition and making them literally ‘bite the dust!’