Sri Lankan Dilantha Malagamuwa raced in a Lamborghini to a third place finish in Formula One Super Trofeo World Final 2017 held in Imola, Italy, on Sunday.
Starting 15th due to a penalty on the previous day Dilantha finished behind Italian Massimo Mantovani and Swiss driver Cyril Leimer, earning a landmark international win for the 54-year-old Sri Lankan.
Dilantha Ranjula Bandara Malagamuwa is quite well known in the world for well over 30 years and has been racing for Lamborghini since 2009. Before that, he had burned rubber in a variety of racing fiends like BMWs, Porches, Dodge Vipers and Aston Martins. He raced to victory in Spain at the Circuit de Catalunya racing circuit just last month.
In 2009 he founded Dilango Racing, the first International motor racing team in Sri Lanka. Before that he had been racing as an individual riding the wave of international success.
Speaking to Italian TV after last Sunday’s victory, he pointed towards the hoards of Sri Lankans fans, who are living in Italy cheering him waving the island’s national flag, saying “I am the proudest driver alive today.”
Dilantha, who looks a bit like a young Aravinda de Silva and always his face adorned with a cheerful smile, has come a long way in his cricket-mad native country which owns just two Lamborghinis with almost zero interest in international motor racing.
He was born in Kurunegala and studied at Annes’ College and Trinity College Kandy and used to drive his family car, a Ford Capri, without the knowledge of his father.
After winning a motorcycle race at the age of 16, in 1983 he took part in his first International race in Kolkata, India, finishing 6th. The trip to West Bengal was hard. He had sailed to Rameshwaram from Sri Lanka with his motorcycle and then taken a train ride to Kolkata.
After that race he met Matsumoto Kenmei, a Japanese motorbike racer, who persuaded him to come to Japan to expand his racing career, changing from motorcycles to Formula cars. In 1985 he went to Japan and 12 years later became the first non-Japanese Asian to win the top level Formula Nippon. In the same year, then Prime minister of Japan, Keizo Obuchi, felicitated him for becoming the first Asian to achieve this feat.
Lamborghini team approached him after a win in Macao in 2009 inviting him to join them. He says now the company is helping him with cars in addition to valuable factory help and support.
“Some people ask me whether the Sri Lankan government helps me in my quest to conquer world titles, as motor racing is a very expensive occupation. Nobody helps me. People think that racing car drivers earn a lot of money but in reality it is not true except in a few cases. Many of them, like me, depend on sponsorships for finances,” he said in an interview adding, he appreciated government help to import several duty-free cars.
The highest speed he has touched so far in 317 km and the track he loves most is the one in Macao which is challenging and more dangerous than the others, he said in an interview. The second most popular game in the world is Formula One racing after soccer, he says adding that world’s richest people are avid fans of the sport.
He spends his free time in Sri Lanka supporting charities. He took part in a walk in the island to raise funds for a new four-storey ultra modern complex for Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital in Colombo. A part of his racing earnings goes to the Rs. 200 million project.
Many drivers working for Lamborghini are much younger than him, Dilantha says, adding that he hopes to race till he is 65, hoping Sri Lanka will groom another racer of his calibre by that time.
He has five International championships, first runner up positions in five other International championships, over 100 international podiums and over 200 wins Including races in Sri Lanka to his credit.
Dilantha, who is married to a Japanese woman and has two kids, holds permanent residency there. Currently living in Malaysia with his family, he runs the racing school at the Sepang International Racing circuit.
