There was no looking back thereafter. He never used the reverse gear.
He raced a Honda CB 50 JX bike at Katukurunda and won the novices race when he was 16.His father never liked his racing and he got a real beating after that victory. His hunger for success and be a World Champion drove him forward and wanted a thorough bred bike and Chandra De Costa had a YamahaTZ 350 cc bike which after a lot of persuasion from his sisters who were ardent fans of his.His father bought him for Rs 45,000/- With that bike he entered to race on the power bike category at Kurunegala and came third.
His thirst to become a World Champion compelled him to race outside Sri Lanka and applied to race in India. Alas the motor racing club in Sri Lanka refused permission repeatedly for 10 times, it was pure discrimination. This never say die guy applied to race in Madras and finally got the okay provided he bore all the cost. At last Dilantha Malgamuwa saw the light at the end of the tunnel and with two of his loyal friends got into a train from Kurunegala and went to Talaimannar and boated to Rameshwaram and took a train to Madras. After all the bother Dilantha got a rude shock when The President of The Madras Motor Sports Club said ‘Sorry son we cannot let you race” the reason being that if he permits him to ride The Ceylon Motor cycle club will not send any participants. Dilantha was flabbergasted and he broke down and cried, .S.A Amarasiri who was a Sri Lankan driver consoled him and said there was a possibility for him to ride in Calcutta provided he could pay his way there. He was stone broke and he had to sell his wristwatch and managed to take the cheapest train to Calcutta which took two agonising days.
Dilantha was the youngest and he had the oldest bike a 1973 bike which was 10 years old. He came a distant sixth in the race and a Japanese rider came up to him and chatted and Dilantha told him one day he wanted to be a world champion by going to America or Europe, then the Japanese rider advised him that Japan was the better option. Dilantha jokingly inquired whether he could help him if Dilantha came to Japan and he consented. He had to return to Sri Lanka but he was hell bent on getting to Japan and he sold his old car for Rs 10,000/= , The Air Fare to Japan was Rs 7,000/= he had Rs 1000/= with him and he ran away to Japan and he put up for a couple of days with a friend of his. Then he did some odd jobs and bought a van and started living in the van. When he was travelling back to Madras from Calcutta his pocket was picked and he had lost the address of that Japanese rider.Dilantha tried many a time to meet him in the circuit but his efforts were futile.
Dilantha had many accidents with bikes and decided to switch to cars.He had a BMW- M 3 and one day he took this car to a place where they were teaching racing drivers. He asked for a test drive and the instructor who has his own racing team obliged and was impressed by his driving and asked him to join his team.That was a golden opportunity for Dilantha and he went from strength to strength and in 1995 he became the first non-Japanese Asian to win a Japanese champion ship.Inspite of winning this race he still couldn’t break the ice with the top Japanese drivers who were Jealous of him.
He took all that sarcasm on his stride and from that day onwards he used to fly a large Sri Lankan flag in his cars. Then in 1997 he became the first non Japanese Asian to participate in the highest form of racing formula Nippon (F300) bridging the process to Formula1. He qualified to participate in the highest form of racing close to Formula 1,
The Japanese Prime minister felicitated him because he was the first non Japanese to participate.
The Prime Minister then related this storey to the media. Then NHK
National TV of Japan wanted to do a documentary.
He did not want because motor racing is a glamorous sport where only the rich gets in. In Dilantha’s case he had to work 22 hours a day at times to be the man for all seasons and there was not much glamour in his life.
They said THE DOCUMANTRY would inspire people to take to motor sport.It took 3 months to complete the documentary and they wanted Dilantha to have a look at the last shooting at Fuji circuit , and then” lo and behold” he was surprised to see that Japanese rider Matsu Moto Kenmi whom he met 17 years ago coming to him and embracing him.
To be continued.
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