KLM

Yes that another option. The guy who runs this shop is the brother of the guy who runs the other shop on Galle Road. Both of them promote a brand called Yohe, which sells reasonable looking full-face helmets for Rs. 2,500 or thereabouts.

Try Cool Bykes opposite the Pizza Hut in Dehiwela. Its on Galle Road, and its pretty easy to find. They have a good collection of helmets, reasonably priced, that you might find interesting.

You're into sportscars? I'm a huge fan of Le Mans and the ALMS, having attended the odd round a few years ago. Too bad the Peugeots couldn't pull it off, huh? Maybe next year, hopefully with Villeneuve. I was also disappointed that one of my favourites, Flying Lizard Motorsports, couldn't win GT2.

Here are a few pics from the finish. Thats us, Car #2. Team Takuful receiving their trophies for winning the Team category. Two of Team Takaful's entries. Mansur Hassen's Montero and Tariq Hassen's Hilux. Nishan Weerasooriya was the third member of the team, also in a Hilux. Shafraz Junaid's Nissan Pick-up. Ashan Silva, better known as 'Evo 3 Ashan', navigated him. I think this was the Wrangler that finished second overall. We had a great, great rally apart from an issue early in Stage 2. During the 6 KM beach run somewhere near Udappu, there was a massive sandstorm, limiting visibility. In fact, the howling winds were so bad, I had to shout instructions to Tariq. Anyway while we were on the route, churning through the sand in 4WD, we noticed Car #1, Mansur, coming back towards us, having obviously lost his way. His lights momentarily distracted us and from that point on, we lost our way as well. We tried to find the marked course but couldn't and by then Cars #3 (Shafraz) and 4 (Rizvi Farouk) had also joined the hunt, all of us failing to find the supposed marked route. We did notice, however, a pair of tractors stuck on a dune but didn't see any markings there. Since we were all now fast losing time we decided to get off the beach (much harder than it sounds) and find a reference point, which on the instructions read 'Turn Left keeping statue of 'Our Lady' on left'. Yeah right we did. We drove like maniacs through the deeply rutted roads of a desolate fishing village (it was past 1 AM then) trying to find the said statue and by the time we got back on track, we were all well and truly late. Shafraz left the group early and found his way back to the route but we circled for longer, frantically trying to find our way. When we eventually went back to the beach, it turned out that the route actually led past the tractors, although in the sandstorm none of us had seen it. That mistake pretty much eliminated the four of us from competing for the win, in one fell swoop. However, it must be said that when we came to the tractors the second time, there were men with torches guiding the way. By being over 45 minutes late to the nearest checkpoint, we inccured a 100 debit penalty which effectively killed our hopes then and there. From then on we all thrashed like maniacs trying to make up time and we suffered from having an NA diesel engine. The petrol Montero and the Turbodiesels left us for dead and made up their deficits much faster. After completing Stage 1 with only 5 debits, suffering a 100 debit penalty on one CP was tough to bear, personally. But thats TSD rallying, I guess. Almost everybody else behind us seemed to find their way without a problem so I can't complain. The rest of the rally was great, even though the speeds on most of the tarmac sections were too slow to be enjoyable. We made our way through the Knuckles range, up through Corbett's Gap, and down to the overnight campsite, which was located at Maduru Oya. The next day the route led back through the other side of the Knuckles range onto the finish of the competitive stages, near Kandy. The 4WD sections weren't as bad as we expected them to be, and despite the Stage 1 river crossing being cancelled due to a surge in water levels, we still had to wade through bonnet-high water after finding our way through an abandoned paddy field; on Stage 4 there was a timed river crossing, conducted as a Special Stage. We eventually finished just off the top ten, I believe, which was terribly disappointing, considering we accrued very low debit totals on each of the other three stages. However, I don't think we were the hottest guys through the river crossing - the petrol vehicles had the advantage there. The Montero, for example, was 4 seconds faster than us through the river, and I believe Sathy Watson in his Discovery was the fastest overall there. All in all, it was a great experience. The SLARDAR 1000 is a historic event, and true to form, produced its 8th different winner from 8 events over 20 years. SLARDAR and the FWDC did a tremendous job, and despite minor shortcomings, it was generally a well-received event, with very few mishaps. As much as I love circuit racing and Special Stage Rallying, the spirit of adventure that comes with TSD rallying is a major draw factor. This was my first SLARDAR 1000 and I thoroughly enjoyed it so it becomes a more regular event than it has been in the past.

Ashar Hameem & Rizmin Razik won from Deepthi Perera & S. Wickramasinghe. Nishan Weerasooriya & Sriomal De Silva were third.

I especially enjoy hearing Brundle shout "Let him through, let him through Alexander. Don't get silly, don't be silly!" Ironically Wurz made his F1 debut 10 years ago at Montreal, subbing for Gerhard Berger, now a part-owner of STR.

Fernando Alonso, the whiny little bitch. http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns19266.html

Are you looking to race in SL 'A' Upto 1000 CC by any chance?

You're right, Kris, it was a great show by Alex Wurz. I'm so glad to see him racing again after years of testing for McLaren and Williams. McLaren valued his testing feedback so much they were pretty damn upset when he decided to move to Williams. They offered him tons of cash etc, but I guess the lure of racing again in the future was too much to resist. Anybody remember Monaco 1998 when, in the Benetton, he went wheel-to-wheel with Michael from the hairpin all the way to the entrance of the tunnel? Thats some fantastic footage, which I still actually have with me. He had a great career which never took off because of those crap Supertec/Mechachrome engines that Benetton had so its nice to see him back on the podium. But the real forgotten man of this race had to be The Beard, consistently running second and fully deserving to finish there. He was literally balls-to-the-wall in qualifying, and whitewalled his right side tires beautifully once or twice. Also, lest anybody think that Super Aguri were utterly incompetent in not being ready for Davidson that one time, grandprix.com reports that he in fact hit a beaver out on the circuit (no doubt killing it) and came in to get the blood cleaned off. The joker of the race was definitely Alonso, who contrary to popular belief, did not have brake trouble but was in his own words, "trying to keep up". Kimi on the other hand, was nudged by Massa and that ruined his handling for the entire race.

There was one in the papers this weekend. Right, Fuzzo?

Lewis Hamilton cannot be human.

Nice footage, bra. I especially like the downhill section through the chicane. Is it just me or does Willow Springs look a little run-down and frayed at the edges?

This story reminds me a of a buddy of mine from Sri Lanka, who, in college, used to tell people in bar fights that 'if this was my country, people bust a cap in yo ass'. True story. Plus, he was called Dogg.

That'll be funny. Just imagine thousands of rice-boys parked in front of the Ministry of Transport or whatever, stereos blaring, neons glowing, stickers peeling and body-kits sagging.

If Gayan's car is a maroon, rattly, slow POS, then yes.

Yes, it sounds like it was a bad night. Too bad the old fogies at SLAS don't realize that by refusing to bring drag racing into the mainstream, this is the result.

KLM & Nigel went there on time, recce'd both routes and on our way back to the control area, the bearings went in the Starlet, big-time. We were out before even the first competitive stage. It was sad because we got a good rythem going on the fast recces we did and would have been competitive. The other Starlet also went out with bearing failure after the first stage. The tragedy of the rally had to be Rizvi Farouk and the STi 8 Spec C. His guys sent his car to the start of SS1 on the wrong tires completely and by the time they got the right tires on, the first stage was over and he was practically out of the rally. However, he ran the second stage just to shake down the car and was quite quick, just 9 seconds behind Aravinda despite being held up by another car or two.

A quick question: How many of you would pay Rs. 2,000 as entry fees for a properly organized drag racing event with pre-arranged classes, a best-of-three-races format, starting lights, and trophies for the top three finishers in each class? Assume, of course, that there will be a variety of classes to fit all categories of cars, ranging from bone-stock to street modified. Answers and thoughts please.

His professor wrote him the following email the next day. From www.collegehumor.com......... _____________________________________________________________ Dear Michael, Every year I attempt to boost my students' final grades by giving them this relatively simple exam consisting of 100 True/False questions from only 3 chapters of material. For the past 20 years that I have taught Intro Communications 101 at this institution I have never once seen someone score below a 65 on this exam. Consequently, your score of a zero is the first in history and ultimately brought the entire class average down a whole 8 points. There were two possible answer choices: A (True) and B (False). You chose C for all 100 questions in an obvious attempt to get lucky with a least a quarter of the answers. It's as if you didn't look at a single question. Unfortunately, this brings your final grade in this class to failing. See you next year! May God have mercy on your soul. Sincerely, Professor William Turner P.S. If all else fails, go with B from now on. B is the new C. _____________________________________________________________ Fifty cents for a scantron. I miss those days...........

Aravinda Premadasa won the MRA Kukuleganga Rally 2007 this weekend in his Evo VII, followed home by Dinesh Deheragoda in the Evo IX. Javidh Wahab finished third in his SiR. More news later.....

Guys, The MRA is running KKG this weekend, and whoever can should come check it out. Some of the better known car/driver combinations running this weekend are as follows: Dinesh Deheragoda - Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX GT Nishan Weerasooriya - Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX GT Aravinda Premadasa - Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII RS Rizvi Farouk - Subaru Impreza WRX STi Spec C Type RA (GD) Janaka Dias - Subaru Impreza WRX STi (GC) Javidh Wahab - Honda Civic SiR (EG) Tharindu Lokuge - Honda Civic SiR (EK) Shafraz Junaid - Honda Civic (EF) Nigel Perera - Toyota Starlet GT Turbo Ameen Deane - Toyota Starlet GT Turbo Upul Perera - Toyota Starlet AWD Dilshard Hamdoon - Ford Laser The event timings will be as follows. Stage 1: Saturday, 10:30 AM Stage 2: Saturday, 12:00 PM Stage 3: Saturday, 8:00 PM Stage 4: Saturday, 10:00 PM Stage 5: Sunday, 10:00 AM Stage 6: Sunday, 12:00 PM As you can imagine there will be some really great action, and with this being an all-tarmac rally the cars will look spectacular as well. There are some big names running along with some new car/driver combinations. Those of you who can make it out there should do so. I know Madhawa, Preveen and Dimantha are going, but more of you should come. Maybe AL will carry regularly updated stage results. Madz?

You should've put him up at the Airport Garden then, and shielded him from the chaos.

I refuse to believe that Kimi is being overshadowed by Felipe. Over the last 5 years, Kimi Raikonnen has been arguably the best driver in F1, and the only reason that he has finished second 3 times with no championships is due to terrible, terrible luck. There are still 13 races left, so hopefully the Iceman will catch a few breaks and contend seriously. On another note, in case anybody forgets how special Lewis Hamilton is, get this: this season's next best rookie, Heikki Kovaleinen, is so good, that at the Race of Champions 2 years ago, he beat the reigning World F1 Champion, Michael Schumacher, in a straight shoot-out in Ferrari 360 Modenas, and then, more impressivey, beat the reigning WRC Champion Sebastian Loeb in Seb's own Citroen Xsara WRC despite it being his first time driving a WRC car competitively. Thats how good Heikki is, and still, Hamilton is leagues ahead.

Try hitting up drake or Sharkster for their ones.

Overdrive I believe Lewis has actually won at Monaco in F3 and GP2. Apart from that one big hit in the run up to the hairpin, he hit the barriers 'many times' according to his post-race statement. What a great show from an absolute rookie. To race a car twice as fast as the GP2 car and finish on the podium in his first time there makes him an absoute stud. I still think McLaren should get a 5 race ban though.