Meet the Racing Bros A family of Racers Making Sri Lanka Proud

Last week we were able to do a video interview of the record breaking motorcycle racers of Sri Lanka, Jayden and Aaron Gunewardana, sons of racing legend Shane Gunewardana and their cousin Jacques Gunewardana also known as the “Racing Bros”.

Having started racing at a very young age due to the influence of their fathers, all 3 brothers claim that racing is the one thing they love above all else, it’s their passion. They claim the secret behind their success has undoubtedly been their fathers and the continuous support they have shown them over the years, spending both their time and money to ensure that the brothers would be successful. They also credit racing great Ruwan Pieris for all his support extended towards moulding them to be better racers. “We have also had unmeasurable support from our sponsors from a really young age AMW, EZY Racing, Melwa, Mihin Lanka, The Sports Ministry of Sri Lanka to name a few” pitched in Aaron. 

“By the time I was 8 I was representing the country racing against riders in their 20s & 30s, it didn’t stop there- me and my brother continued to represent the country in races in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Qatar, Spain, etc winning several races and even a championship” says Jayden.

Currently at home due to the Covid 19 pandemic the brothers are eager to commence training and participate in both local and international events in order to bring further glory to their country and bring more popularity towards the sport within Sri Lanka. 

When asked what they hope to do to bring more attention towards the sport and help up and coming riders they all pitched in some interesting ideas. “The way I see it, in order to make the sport more popular there are three main categories of people that need to pitch in. The Riders, the spectators and the sponsors. To be brief, the riders are the entertainment who attract the spectators and the sponsors are the main people behind making the event happen since racing is a costly sport and would be nearly impossible to run without sponsors. Therefore in order to  create popularity it’s important to pay attention to the links. In order to attract more sponsors there must be more spectators and media coverage to make their investments worthwhile and to achieve this all the riders should promote the sport and encourage spectators” said Jayden. 

Racing is an amazing sport, it’s as great as you would imagine it to be the speeds, the adrenaline rushes, the competition, it’s all really great, but it’s a dangerous sport and safety is important.

“When there are more sponsors funding the sport you can look forward to seeing more competitive racing from the riders as they would have the funds to invest in their motorbikes, practise more, etc. Furthermore there would be better media coverage as it would be worthwhile for broadcasting companies to use better equipment” added Jacques. He also claimed that while Racing is the second most watched sport by live spectators in Sri Lanka next to cricket, what they mainly lack is media coverage. 

“In a nutshell there is a lot that can be done to improve racing in Sri Lanka, on the surface it may seem like we have improved over the past couple of decades but the truth be told we haven’t come that far over the past couple of decades compared to other countries like Nepal and Singapore. There is so much potential for the sport in Sri Lanka” pitched in Aaron. 
Their advice for the young hopeful racers  was that “Racing is an amazing sport, it’s as great as you would imagine it to be the speeds, the adrenaline rushes, the competition, it’s all really great, but it’s a dangerous sport and safety is important. We’ve been riding for the past 17 years and haven’t suffered any serious injuries because we’ve always taken the necessary precautions and wore our safety gear.

By the time I was 8 I was representing the country racing against riders in their 20s & 30s, it didn’t stop there- me and my brother continued to represent the country in races in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Qatar, Spain

It’s another sport in Sri Lanka without anybody to guide you so we recommend you speak to someone who really knows the sport. We are always here to help anyone who wants to get into the sport because we are all about helping the sport grow so feel free to DM us on Instagram or Facebook”. 

Log into our Life.lk page to find out more interesting facts about these young racers.