Sri Lanka’s Eshan Pieris once again lived up to his record as one of Asia’s best karters by winning the Rotax Invitational Race 2018 held in Malaysia last week. This came hot on the heels of his brilliant performance at the X30 Asia Cup 2018 held on the preceding weekend in Bandaragama, Sri Lanka where he took second place in the senior category in a hard-fought race
with his nemesis Prassetyo Hardja of Indonesia. Driving in the DD2 class, the Qualifying saw Eshan, the defending champion in this race in 3rd place, which meant he started both heats from this position. Then a brilliant show of skill and determination saw him win both heats. Heat No 2 saw a nail biting finish when a last lap manoeuvre on pole sitter Nazim Azman ensured Eshan secure 1st starting position for the pre-final which he went on to dominate from start to finish.
Although it was a rainy day at the Sepang track, the sun came back with a vengeance and dried up the track fast just before the Final. Once again, the clear leader from the start, Eshan made it impossible for the rest to catch up and the closest was Nik Zamir, but the gap was just too wide for him to take the lead. Nik Zamir finished 2nd and Manav Sharma, finished 3rd.
Yuki Mishima, a new Japanese driver, finished 4th in his DD2 debut. Coming in 5th was 2017 overall DD2 champion Prassetyo Hardja who faced technical issues the whole weekend and was forced to pulled out in the Prefinal. However, in the Final he made a brilliant start and climbed up to 6th and worked his way up to 5th place.
Presently an undergraduate at the Monash University in Malaysia, Eshan represents the RL Karting Team from Malaysia. This is the first Rotax race of the season before the Asia Max Challenge 2018 Round 1 set to start start in March.