The new Thailand Super Series (TSS) season, the third of the ‘New Era’, is starting to steadily build up towards the first races of the year, which are now a little under three months away. New cars, new drivers and new teams are set to join up, while existing drivers and teams are improving, upgrading or preparing.
The first visual sign that the New Year period is finally turning into the anticipated run up to the start of the season is the holding of the official ‘Drivers Meeting’ to outline changes and improvements to the programme.
And there will be plenty of new features in store for this season in the rules and regulations as TSS continues to grow quickly. The Drivers Meeting saw new features outlined for every class from Super Car all the way down to Super Eco. So expect a bigger, better and even more competitive and close-fought show this year.
B-Quik Racing is one of the highest profile teams in the paddock; its signature black and yellow cars run at the top and bottom of the track programme. Its dramatic Audi R8 LMS Cup is a pacesetter in Super Car Class 2-GTM while at the ‘grassroots’ end it also runs a pair of tiny Honda Brios in Super Eco.
Now the company is in the final stages of a highly ambitious new initiative that aims to link up those programs up over the next five years and take one or more drivers from Super Eco all the way to Super Car. B-Quik has just wrapped up the first phase of its ‘Search for a Star’, those future talents have been identified and chosen, now it’s time to let them loose in Super Eco this year and begin on the long road to the top.
The striking Knight Sports-built Mazda RX-8, fresh from running at the Macau Grand Prix, was one of the most interesting new additions to Super Car in Bangsaen last December. Nearly two months on the rotary-powered machine made its first appearance at Bira Circuit last weekend where it was one of the headline acts of the ‘Mazda Motorsport Day’.
It wasn’t just a ‘halo’ turnout though, the event gave the team, Innovation Motorsport, and the driver, Khun Michael Freeman, a very useful opportunity to learn more about their new car and get some testing kilometers done – and as it turned out there would be some night running too.
Last year Khun Poomee Phromatham and C-Four Motorsport rocked up in Super Eco and promptly ran away with the title. The champion is now heading for Super Production so that leaves the seat in the victorious Honda Brio available and it’s going to be filled by Khun Chanchanok Vejabhuti, who like Khun Poomee last year, is another budding future race driver. He’s also just enjoyed his first test in the car.
Thailand Super Series kicked off the year with the ‘Drivers Meeting 2015’ held at the upmarket Rama Gardens Hotel on Bangkok’s Vibhavadi Road where improvements to the regulations covering all the classes on the programme were announced and outlined.
Amongst a raft of changes befitting a championship that is clearly locked into a sharp growth curve, there was the announcement that Super Car Class 1-GT3 and Class 2-GTM will expand to nine races this year – up from the current number of eight races. That ‘extra’ race will take place at Bangsaen and it promises to make the iconic season-closing ‘Speed Festival’ even more special.
“It’s really due time to add an extra race as Super Car is now heading upwards,” explained TSS Vice President Preeda Tantemsapya during the event which was held in the hotel’s majestic Grand Ballroom. “We used to have ten races a year but the global recession saw that cut back as racing is very expensive. Now it’s time to pick the tempo back up and go from eight to nine races.
Khun Preeda also noted that the latest generation racecars that have swarmed into Super Car over the last two seasons are a very different breed to the traditional locally built machines that have now all but given way. “The GT3 cars don’t break down like say the Subarus or Mitsubishis of a few years ago did, the influx of new factory-built cars are very reliable and more than capable of managing three races in a weekend so I think it’s going to work better to have an extra race as Super Car is growing fast.”
Khun Preeda also reckons that inserting an extra race into the programme will also build up the tempo of the long Bangsaen weekend. “Holding a third race will also help to lift the crowds and get the momentum of the final weekend of the year really moving along.”
Having three races in Bangsaen will also challenge teams and drivers to raise their game further, in line with the growth of top-level motorsport here. “It will be how you play it with the strategy, the tactics, the maintenance and durability and also the fitness of the drivers will come into it, all these are factors as you in effect have 50% more races in the weekend,” he added. “With three races at Bangsaen to end the year then it is likely to make the headline event decisive in terms of the championship battles.”
It doesn’t stop there either for Super Car as in Class 1-GT3 a robust regulatory platform is now being slotted in place so that FIA GT3 homologated racecars can run at parity with Super GT’s JAF GT300 machines. The arrival in TSS of the dramatic new Toyota M101-86 last year meant that this has become a priority issue to resolve. “GT300 is now having its BoP [Balance of Performance] established so the cars can run together with GT3 cars evenly,” Khun Preeda says. “That will make it much easier for us as we can fit them together as we will not have to devise the BoP.”
Focus on leveling racecar performance will be applied across the three Super Car classes, he continues, and for Class 2-GTM they have a new strategy, here drawing on the great expertise of TSS’s strategic partner, Motorsport Asia. “We will use BoP that is similar to used by GT Asia Series where they have restrictors and weight to compete as fairly as possible,” says Khun Preeda. “Other cars that don’t race in GT Asia will have to cooperate with us to have their weight and restrictors devised around this system. We will flexibly add weight during the season if any cars have too great a performance differential.”
For Class 3-GTC, meanwhile, achieving performance parity is going to be a more straightforward task. Super Car’s budding ‘entry level’ category will mostly require evolutionary tweaks as it heads into its second season. “The BoP from last year will continue as I think it worked quite well,” Khun Preeda comments. “Certainly we saw at Bangsaen that in a straight-line at least the cars, such as the Ferrari, Ginetta and Toyota ran very competitively together. We are going to be getting more cars coming in this year so this class will continue to grow.”
Super Pickup is going to see its first major change in engine rules for some years. Up to now the category has been focused around 2.5-litre commonrail turbodiesel engines but the recent shift by manufacturers away from this traditional displacement to both smaller capacity and more efficient power units as well as larger and more powerful, while equally efficient engines, has shifted the dynamic of the pickup market.
“We will change the rules away from the current 2.5 litre engines as the market has moved drastically in the last few years and only one manufacturer, Isuzu, still sells a 2.5 litre engine in Thailand, all the others have changed their engine sizes,” Khun Preeda says.
That rule change will allow all the current engines sold on this market, which effectively range from 2.2 to 3.2 litres in capacity, to be accommodated with parity achieved through the use of restrictors and minimum weights.
“We have gone with a 46mm restrictor positioned in front of the turbo,” Khun Preeda says. “You can have two turbos, but the restrictor size will be divided. The cars will be weighted so the 2.2 engine pickup will be lightest, the 2.5 will be 50 kg lighter than last year and the 3.2 will be weighed the heaviest. That should allow the different engine sizes to be incorporated.”
Keeping focused on emerging trends, which has seen the ‘production’ truck market here adhering ever closer to environmentally responsible values, Khun Preeda also notes that Super Pickup will run with zero smoke this year – which will have additional benefits.
“We will run the trucks smoke free, there will be no more smoke,” he confirms. “This will in particular benefit the drivers as penalties cannot be evenly applied as the stewards are often unsighted by the smoke, especially at the start. Also manufacturers don’t support pickup racing now as the smoke makes the trucks irrelevant to their marketing, their production models run without smoke and they don’t want to see their pickups billowing black smoke just like it was the way twenty years ago. We need the competition to be run in an environmentally friendly way.”
The biggest change affecting Super 2000 this year will be to adjust the performance advantage enjoyed by the superior BMW E90 and bring it into line with other leading cars, although it is still very likely to be the pacesetter.
“We will apply BoP to the BMW as this car is becoming superior to the others which are mostly made in Thailand,” Khun Preeda affirms. The BMW will get an extra 80 kg [of ballast] but it will still be competitive as we saw last year that even with 100 kg of success ballast it can still be on pole.”
This year will also see an awaited ‘reunification’ of touring car racing in Thailand meaning Super 2000 will further cement its position as one of the most important prizes in motorsport here. “We have also got back the Thailand Touring Car Championship trophy, so that is an extra bonus for Super 2000 this year,” Khun Preeda confirms.
The main change for Super 1500 this year will be to drop restrictors that limit wider use of the cars and thus help competitors save costs. “We will no longer have a cap on compression ratio,” Khun Preeda says. “Last year we went with a 11:1 ratio but with many other series having their compression rates open then teams have a lot of work to do to if they are to run competitively in several series. We will open this back up again to be more even for everyone taking part.”
Finally, as Super Eco prepares to enter its third season as part of the TSS programme it’s really come of age as a racing category and that means close attention has to be paid to that cars’ performances to balance out the growing number of cars that, while conforming to the Thai government’s ‘Eco Car’ 1.2-litre requirements, have individual engine variables that need to be harmonised.
“Due to the many different manufacturers in the series last year we allowed the use of the throttle body that was the biggest from all the manufacturers,” explains Khun Preeda. “But during this year we expect to receive yet more cars so by using a restrictor we make it easier for everyone.
“We plan to use a 20mm restrictor but potentially this is very small so we will test on the dyno before deciding,” he continues. “Scientifically we expect it should come out at around 90 hp, so it will also depend in practice once we set a restrictor size on how the airflow is managed, the mechanics will have to use their ideas. But if the horsepower isn’t enough when we test it out we will use a bigger restrictor. By choosing this method it won’t matter what cars come in this year, we will be able to make them all equally competitive.”
The newest addition to the Super Car paddock is the striking Knight Sports Mazda RX-8, which was only shipped to Thailand immediately after appearing at the Macau Grand Prix last November to feature for the first time at Bangsaen.
It turned into a real race against time and the car finally arrived in the Laem Chabang workshops of Innovation Motorsport once Bangsaen had actually kicked off. A new gearbox was fitted as the existing unit had caused major issues in Macau before the RX-8 was thrown straight into the Super Car Class 2-GTM action, albeit very much as a toe dipping exercise for both team and driver.
For the driver, Khun Michael Freeman, the primary focus of the event was to secure third place in Super Production’s final championship standings, which he successfully did. However, his debut in Super Car was also quite a rewarding experience. The rotary-powered RX-8 was detuned for the event and so his main target was to race against himself, which the Australian duly did, knocking chunks out of his laptimes with each session he took part in. There was a slightly early exit though as he clipped the unforgiving barriers out of Turn 2 but team and driver had already learned plenty and were happy with what had been achieved.
Fast-forward six weeks and the RX-8 was repaired and back on the racetrack last Saturday. This time though it was primarily as a showstopper for the ‘Mazda Motorsport Day’ at Bira Circuit, but that occasion would provide a useful test session for Khun Michael and Innovation Motorsport as they continue their learning curve and acclimatise to the car.
The RX-8’s installation laps were run in the very early morning, in fact mist still hung over the Pattaya racetrack as it rolled out of the garage, and everything checked out perfectly, as Khun Michael explained. “I made a small mistake at Bangsaen so we needed some work doing to the car as well as routine fitting of the spare engine which came along with the car from Macau,” he said.
“The team from Knight Sports flew in earlier this week and they spent three days fitting the new engine, some front suspension [components] and a new crossmember, the car was just finished yesterday,” he continued. “We ran the car this morning at 7am and everything ran perfectly as you would expect from the Knight Sports guys.”
Khun Michael admitted that blooding a brand new racecar during Bangsaen along with what was a Super Car debut for both team and driver probably wasn’t the most ideal scenario, although they learnt a lot and have that invaluable experience under their belts now. “This is where we should have started really, rather than rushing off to Bangsaen last year and learning [about] the car while I was trying to race the Mazda2 and secure third in the championship,” he said.
“I felt a lot more relaxed today, I felt really at home in the car and I look forward to racing it this year,” Khun Michael added. Car and driver certainly hooked together quickly and looked at home on Bira Circuit. He reckoned the RX-8 was well suited the historic 2.4-km racetrack. “Before I drove the car I imagined it would be fantastic at Bangsaen but after doing a few laps in it this morning I think the car will be fantastic at Bira,” he said.
“It’s probably not going to be that fantastic at Buriram as it’s 100 horsepower down on the cars around it, but around here where you are only at 100% throttle about 60% of the time, the car was great through 100R and the chicanes and I felt really at home in the car compared to Bangsaen where I didn’t really feel comfortable,” he added. “But here I was comfortable and the car is very well suited to this type of circuit.”
The striking red, black and silver machine, with its high-visibility ‘Skyactiv Technology’ marketing decals, was one of the unquestioned highlights of the ‘Mazda Motorsport Day’ which brought dozens of the brand’s owners together and culminated in ‘battle run’ demonstration action between this RX-8 and the RZ Racing-developed example driven by Khun Pete Thongchua. Also demonstrated on the track were the two Mazda2 racecars piloted in Super Production last year by the same two drivers.
B-Quik Racing is one of the fastest growing and most ambitious teams in TSS. Currently the team enters racecars at each end of the spectrum, in Super Car it runs an Audi R8 LMS Cup and Porsche 997 GT3 Cup while all the way down in Super Eco it turns out a brace of Honda Brios.
Now the plan is to begin join up the dots in between, as the Super Eco programme will evolve into a springboard this year to take prospective future drivers all the way up to Super Car.
That’s all because B-Quik Racing has launched an exciting ‘Search for a Star’ programme. The first stage of sifting through hundreds of potential candidates and identifying a handful of budding stars of the future that can be thrust onto the racing ladder and nurtured on a path to the top, has just been completed – as Team Owner Khun Henk J. Kiks explains.
“B-Quik has been running cars in Supercar and in the Super Eco class,” says the Dutchman. “Super Eco has been intended from the start as a feeder program for future new drivers in Super Car. During the past year B-Quik embarked on a program to find new drivers out of the pool of its employees.
“The company employs 2,000 people in Thailand and after initial selection rounds 200 people [were chosen] to start the program,” he continues. “The first rounds in karts took place regionally, in the North, South Central East and West. That resulted in finding the 50 quickest go-kart drivers.”
That shortlist was whittled down through two final ‘knockout’ stages. “A further selection process with ten participants from each region in a two day event at RCA Easy Kart was held and then after that were the finals at Bali Hai for the twenty best and most improved drivers,” says Khun Henk. “That left ten.”
That brought the ‘Search for a Star’ up to the final sessions, a two-day affair, the first day taking place in the classroom and the second day on the racetrack. “This last group had their final training and selection with a build up of one day of theoretical knowledge of racing and one day at Thailand Circuit driving the two Brios and the Vios of B-Quik Racing. The final training and selection was done by and in the hands of Thailand’s highest rated driver Nattavude [Charoensukhawatana] and his people.”
Indeed, early last week after a full day of tuition and theory testing behind the desks at B-Quik’s Head Office in Nonthaburi, the team pitched up at Thailand Circuit in Nakhon Pathom Province, about 100 km east of Bangkok, for the final day of the knockout process to be held on the racetrack. The year long selection process was finally coming to a conclusion.
Khun Nattavude is one of the top Thai drivers, with a win rate at Super Car level that exceeds anyone else, while he’s also been a racing driver instructor for more than fifteen years, so he’s well placed to cast a close eye over B-Quik’s hopefuls. “Yesterday we had the examination for the new racers and today is the exercise examination,” explained Khun Nattavude as the young drivers took to the track three at a time.
Observing from his perch on top of the paddock he was able to watch and analyse the drivers as they scuttled round the track, in between discussing and coaching them together as a group. “We think about how they can become good racers, so it’s not easy, but we have to test for everything,” the Toyota factory driver said. “The first test is the attitude, if they have a good attitude it means they can learn more easy. For the exercise test they must have every skill.
“We let them all drive and I have a look what is right and what is wrong,” he added. “The basics of how to drive is very important, how to control the brake, how to drive at the correct speed and how to control the car.”
A long hot afternoon in Nakhon Pathom saw the three yellow and black racecars pounding the circuit as all the drivers were put through their paces. At the end of the day everyone was happy that progress had been made and the new drivers are prepared to join the Super Eco grid. “The result is that B-Quik is now ready to field the Brios in TSS this year with our most qualified employees as drivers,” says Khun Henk. “Let’s see what this will bring.”
The B-Quik CEO will in fact be starting his second season at the wheel of he team’s Audi R8 LMS Cup in Super Car Class 2-GTM and that push to the top permeates through the team’s strategy, certainly this new programme is founded on very high hopes. “The long term vision is to develop motorsport and more importantly to create opportunities for ambitious people within B-Quik to develop themselves into top notch racing drivers,” Khun Henk says.
And it really is an ambitious concept as these six raw new drivers will be slotted into a programme that aims to take them to the top of the Thai sportscar tree, via touring cars – the Brio programme this year is really just the first ‘baby step’ on that upward path. “When results are satisfactory B-Quik will roll out the program further to bring the drivers into the new TCR class and in the future into Super Car,” Khun Henk adds. “B-Quik’s aim is very simple, within five years we want home bred B-Quik racing drivers to fight for the Thailand and Asian podiums in Touring cars.”
Last year Khun Poomee Phromatham and C-Four Motorsport rocked up in Super Eco. Ambitious new kids on the block, they promptly taught everyone else a racing lesson and romped away with the title. Attention to detail, a lot of intelligent learning and analysis – as well as plenty of talent, were the keys to that success.
Khun Poomee is ambitious so he’s not hanging around to defend his title in Super Eco, he’s immediately graduating to Super Production. That though left a vacant seat in the most successful ‘Eco’ car in Thai racing last year, the #18 Honda Brio.
That seat didn’t stayed vacant for very long and in the true spirit of the ‘Super Eco’ category the new name behind the wheel of the pale blue little car this year, Khun Chanchanok Vejabhuti, is another budding future race driver.
It seems he will fit the team’s mould too, as Khun Poomee explained. “We didn’t pick the driver, instead the driver himself picked us,” he says with a laugh. “The connection was made through friends as usual. What we usually look for in the driver is purely based on determination like I once had.”
Khun Chanchanok will have a steep learning curve ahead this year, as he hasn’t raced a car before. “He does have some basic karting experience which is totally different as he was self-educated,” notes Khun Poomee.
That steep learning curve commenced last week at Bira Circuit as Khun Chanchanok enjoyed his first laps behind the wheel of the Brio and his laptimes clearly showed he can handle a racecar, even if there is still someway to go.
The car itself isn’t in perfect condition at present either. A long, tough season that included a highly spectacular roll through Bira’s daunting 100R turn as well as a big front side impact in the rain at Buriram have left the machine looking very battered and bruised and the team will have a lot of work to do to return it to tip top shape for the new season.
The new driver is certainly relishing his new challenge, both of competing in Thailand’s most prestigious competition reserved for ‘Eco’ racecars and to drive for a proven winning team. “I am thrilled and it is a great opportunity to be participating in such a reputable racing league in Thailand like TSS,” says Khun Chanchanok. “Even though I am in the learning stage, I will strive to be the best in Super Eco one day, just like my predecessor.”
C-Four Racing, which is likely to have a name tweak this year as it forges strategic new alliances in the paddock, will give Khun Chanchanok full support and certainly Khun Poomee, with quite limited racing experience, ran away with the title last year.
“We will provide him whatever we can on basics of circuit racing and we will surely do our best to train him, the rest is up to him on how much he can gather from us,’ Khun Poomee says. “The most important thing is experience on the circuit, which we cannot teach, we have to leave it for him to earn it on every lap that he runs.”
However this is an ambitious team and one that is after just one year very well used to being in P1 when the checkered flag is waved. Clearly they want to keep that grip on that title. “Our expectation of course will be to retain what we have achieved before even though that will be really difficult, but we are willing to work hard for it,” says Khun Poomee. Certainly Khun Chanchanok is going to be one Super Eco name to look out for this year.