Farouk, Junaid give 1-2 finish for EZY at Kantale

Published : 9:02 am  October 7, 2010 |  No comments so far  |     |   (6)  |  

Teammates Rizvi Farouk and Shafraz Junaid provided a packed crowd of racing enthusiasts in Kantale a spectacular display of Rally driving as they battled it all the way till the end to help EZY Racing dominate the Kantale rally conducted by Ceylon Motor Sports Club (CMSC) along with the MRA.

Experienced Farouk, co-driven by 21-year-old Jamal Hussain (who flew from Malaysia specially for the rally) were made to fight hard after conceding close to a 2 minute lead to championship leader Junaid at the completion of the first three stages on day one.

The dawn of day two saw a hungry and aggressive Farouk in full throttle, driving superbly to win all 4 stages. Farouk flew through the Kantale roads to shave 45 seconds per stage in three consecutive stages to take the lead in his Subaru STI 8, overtaking Junaid in his EZY Subaru WRX.

“It is great to get back into the winning ways. At Pelwatte (1st Rally in February) I was disappointed that I had to retire from the rally after winning the first stage. So on the first day over here I didn’t want to push the car and put ourselves in a situation similar to what we faced before. Although we were placed 3rd on the first day, we knew our car was working very well and that we could push it further on Day 2. I should say we didn’t expect to win all the stages though and this wouldn’t have been a possibility without the outstanding navigation of Jamal” said a jubilant Farouk after the rally.

After the race, Rizvi dedicated the result to the team: “I want to thank the whole team for all their hard work. This result is the start of the reward for our efforts. It’s a fantastic result to not only win the Rally but have a 1,2 finish for the team. It’s a great feeling to be back up on the championship hunt again and this is a great end to a strong weekend for us. We’re not quite where we want to be yet, we need to do some necessary upgrades in order to push on but I’m confident that we’ll get there soon.”

Commenting on his team’s performance CEO, EZY Holdings, Shafraz Hamzadeen who also is the co-driver for Shafraz Junaid, stated “Today is the true result of all the hard work our team has underdone for the last few months.

In the past we have always fought it out to make the best out of the circumstances that were presented to us and our drivers have always overcome those challenges successfully.

Today, we led the rally from the front, we had a strategy, the team stuck to it and most importantly both our driver were successful in taking the cars home without braking them down in spite of the tough most conditions that were presented.”

EZY Racing, are currently leading both the team championship as well as the drivers’ championship with two more events to be completed.