Unprecedented numbers expected for Mahagastotte Festival of Speed

By Amindha de Alwis

The Ceylon Motor Sports Club (CMSC) is expecting a high turnout for the 87th Mahagastotte Hill Climb which is to be held on April 3 and 4 at Mahagastotte Hill in Nuwara Eliya.

 Entries for the event close on March 29 but the club has already received an unprecedented number of entries.
CMSC is expecting to have 80 national race cars, 60 classic cars and 125 motorcycles participating at the event.
This year’s event will be particularly significant as the organisers have taken the initiative to make it a Carbon Neutral Hill Climb which is a first for motorsports in the island.

Treasurer of CMSC Hussain Akbarally said that he hoped the step would kickstart a trend towards promoting sustainability in the Sri Lankan motor sports arena.

“The world of motorsports is shifting to be more sustainable and to reduce its carbon footprint. It has always been branded as a polluting kind of sport but we as a motor sport club want to change that image by bringing in an element of sustainability and want to see if this can continue and become a trend with other motor sports events in Sri Lanka.”

“We are working with an independent third party who are conducting a study with us on this event which entails how many cars are participating, how much exhaust gas each gives out, the mode of spectator arrivals to the event, waste disposal and so on. They have a checklist of over 300 points. What we do as a club is we pay a certain amount and buy carbon credits which are credits generated from clean energy sources like wind, hydro and solar and we offset everything we have polluted and that gives us a global certification of carbon neutral,” he explained.

The world of motorsports is shifting to be more sustainable and to reduce its carbon footprint. It has always been branded as a polluting kind of sport but we as a motor sport club want to change that image by bringing in an element of sustainability and want to see if this can continue and become a trend with other motor sports events in Sri Lanka

Furthermore, the club has also tied up with DriveGreen Lanka to award cash prizes to the car/bike with the least emissions from the Modern Car, Historic Car and Motorbike categories. 

Despite the hiatus imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CMSC has been extremely active over the last year largely thanks to their e-sports programme which was envisaged in 2019, prior to the pandemic, and managed to hit a sweet spot with virtually all physical events being called off last year, according to CMSC President 
Niroshan Pereira.

“We had an e-sports programme that ran right through COVID. We started a brand called ‘Race from Home’ and we had a lot of membership engagement through that where participants race together on these rigs while at home and we had a Sri Lanka versus India championship as well where we tied up with an Indian motor sports club and our famous racers from here went up against them.”

“We wanted to reduce the cost of entry for motor sports in Sri Lanka. The biggest thing stopping people from racing is that it is too expensive, so we have developed a pathway where you start racing digitally; starting on these simulators which are quite affordable. And these skills do transfer; if you do well on these rigs you do tend to perform well in the car and then we can help them move into a cart and then from a cart if you are performing well, the club will also assist you and help you get into a car. The idea is to get younger, maybe not as affluent racers into the sports,” Pereira said. 

“Due to COVID and the lockdown, a lot of the competitors are looking forward to taking part at Mahagastotte.They have been deprived of competition for so long and are dying to come back. They also trust that we are doing it in a safe and secure manner with social distancing and all the COVID guidelines and they are excited to come and participate,” he added.