The weather over the opening couple of days here has been unpredictable and evolving – and that’s really quite an accurate refection of the dramatic action unfolding on the racetrack.
In Super Car the story of Friday’s long and intensive afternoon of qualifying sessions was all about Reiter Vattana Motorsport. The big thinking team is thinking bigger than ever this week and they came with strength in numbers and a roster of top drivers.
The result was a sensational clean sweep of pole positions in Super Car Class 1-GT3, Class 2-GTM and Class 3-GTC. In the top two classes they even locked out the front row. There is a long way to go certainly, but Vattana has laid down its marker as the team everyone in Super Car has to beat when the first round of races in the big classes gets underway this afternoon.
Right at the top of the tree, Class 1-GT3, it was Khun Tomáš Enge, in the muscular Camaro GT3, who edged out the Lamborghini of his teammate Khun Chonsawat Asavahame as the team continue to hold sway in the big car class.
Vattana though took the hammer to Super Car Class 2-GTM for the first time and when the music stopped at the end of final qualifying session the team’s two Lamborghinis, driven by Khun Jack Lemvard and Khun Akihiro Asai, had locked out the front row of what is one of the most competitive racing grids in living memory. It was really as simple as that. But maybe not quite? Khun Kantasak Kusiri in the Ferrari 458 Challenge was next up to make the top three covered by little over a tenth of a second while there are several other drivers that are ready to pounce today, certainly watch out for the progress of the uber-powerful Holden V8 on the run down to Turn 1.
Khun Narasak Ittritpong, meanwhile, was fastest in Class 3-GTC to make it three Super Car poles from three for Vattana Motorsport while in Super 2000 Khun Munkong Khun Sathienthirakul claimed the pole position he has been threatening too bag for sometime.
Across the support classes there were many superb and close fought qualifying performances turned in yesterday while Super Pickup held its two races.
But that’s not all, the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia has returned to Thailand for the first time in ten years and that joining up of the dots of history proved very dramatic as the 28 ‘one make’ racecars and their drivers got to grips with the circuit. Judging by the action seen in the two practice sessions yesterday then the fans will be in for a lot of excitement when PCCA’s races get underway.
Qualifying: Super Car Class 1-GT3
The big boys were fast out of the blocks when the lights at the end of the long pitlane flickered to green and pierced the late afternoon’s quickly fading light. That was not just due to the pumped up nature of this event but that the overcast skies offered the chance of rain arriving while the changing track conditions meant getting an early lap in was vital.
There was a rush to set a banker lap and Khun Chonsawat, first out of the pitlane and onto a clear track, was also the first to top the timesheets, a position he held until his teammate Khun Tomáš improved a few laps later in the growling Camaro GT3.
The Czech driver eventually dipped below the 1:36 barrier with a lap in 1:35.751 and no one would match that time during the remaining minutes of the session. In the end Khun Chonsawat settled on a 1:37.190 and will line up on the front row as these two drivers from Reiter Vattana Motorsport make it a second first row lockout of the Class 1-GT3 year.
“I’m happy with my pole, I did my job as I should be doing it, we had pole in all three classes which is very good for the team,” said Khun Tomáš afterwards. “I’m very happy we have a clean sweep and the first row in Class 2 which is a new class for us where both cars are competitive and close together.”
The Camaro driver was also pleased with his teammate’s pace. “[Khun Chonsawat has] improved and is faster than qualifying last time,” he said. “He’s improving step by step, the recent Super GT race here helped him a lot.”
The team’s third driver, Khun Umar A. Rahman, claimed P3 on the grid after posting a best time of 1:40.006 in the #14 Lamborghini entry as Reiter Vattana Motorsport continue to tighten their grip on the top class. Khun Tomáš will certainly fancy giving the big Camaro its second win on this track after he claimed honours in the second race back in May while the champion, Khun Chonsawat, will equally want to shine and both drivers stand tied on championship points so a DNF could prove very costly.
Qualifying: Super Car Class 2-GTM
Khun Jack blasted his Lamborghini onto the track, put down his banker and then topped it off with a 1:38.859 and that was it game over, no one else could reach that time. That was pretty much the story of the qualifying in cutthroat Super Car Class 2-GTM.
Pensioning off the elderly Porsche 996 he’s driven on and off for a few years and trading into an overhauled ‘white’ Gallardo LP520 had tongues abuzz in the paddock. Questions were quickly answered, but qualifying is one thing, now Khun Jack has to translate that burst of speed into race distance pace. “I’m happy with pole,” he said afterwards. “But we put the extra weight on, an extra 50 kilos, so that’s one second really we lost, and it feels very understeery so we have really set it up now, but I was pushing for that time so I think it’s going to be quite fun in the race. I was running a 38 easily, a high 38, but the thing is the [Holden] V8 is going to blast past in the first corner, but we will try our best.”
His Japanese teammate, Khun Akihiro, made it a 1-2 lockout for Vattana Motorsport as he steadily improved his times through the session to wind up less than a tenth of a second behind. The gap between them in fact was 0.077 seconds, an impressive performance.
Then comes Khun Kantasak Kusiri; he was just 0.066 seconds behind the ‘red’ Lamborghini meaning the top three were covered by just 0.143 seconds. Khun Jack, Khun Akihiro and Khun Kantasak are amongst the fastest drivers racing in Super Car today – that’s going to be a really explosive mix when the lights go green this afternoon. And for Khun Kantasak it could have been more as he struggled with traffic on his flying laps so we didn’t really see the best he has to offer.
Joining Khun Kantasak on the second row will be the Audi R8 LMS Cup of Khun Henk J. Kiks. He was just over two tenths of a second back from the white Ferrari. The Audi has turned in plenty of testing laps over the last couple of days but B-Quik Racing actually started the week with a bit of a scare as a broken rear shock during the untimed practice on Wednesday left the team scrambling without a spare unit to hand. However a spare shock was sourced in Malaysia, removed and hand carried by plane to Bangkok. It arrived at the track in the early morning of Thursday and that meant the #27 Audi was back in action just in time for the first session of the day.
Khun Craig Corliss is next up in the Holden. The New Zealander won here last time out and is quietly confident. The big green machine should be very fast off the line this afternoon on the blast down to Turn 1, if the New Zealander hooks the start together perfectly he could be in P1 by the time the cars start chasing downhill towards the hairpin for the first time. Completing Row 3 will be the Porsche 991 GT3 Cup of Khun Pitsanu Sirimongkolkasem. He’s improving steadily in the new car and that performance, a lap of 1:40.012, has immediately elevated him to the status of fastest of the Porsche runners.
Behind him comes the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup of joint championship points leader Khun Aekarat Discharoen who didn’t get the car where he wanted it in the qualifying session and he’s joined on the fourth row by the fastest of the three factory Toyotas, the #39 of Khun Nattavude Charoensukhawatana, another driver who will be wanting to push up in the race. The top ten is competed by the sister #36 Toyota of stand-in Japanese driver Khun Kazuya Oshima, who was the star here last year in Super Car Class 1-GT3 but struggled to get the most out of his new machine yesterday, and the reigning Class 2-GTM champion Khun Voravud Bhirombhakdi who was higher up in the timesheets early on but saw the session move away from him.
In P11 was the other joint championship leader, Khun Sarun Sereethoranakul, who didn’t get himself where he wanted to be on the grid, while next up was the B-Quik Porsche of Khun Daniel Bilski. Then came the Ferrari of Khun Bhurit Bhirombhakdi, the Porsche of Khun Shuipang Kanjanapas, the Lamborghini of Khun Bhisanu Bhusitarnuntakul, the third factory Toyota of Khun Manat Kulapalanont and finally the Porsche of Khun Graeme Dowsett.
Qualifying: Super Car Class 3-GTC
After struggling to get the Vattana Motorsport Mitsubishi Evo running satisfactorily all week, Khun Narasak Ittritpong pulled out a few laps from the car during qualifying, banged in a 1:46.819 and planted it on pole position. That gave Vattana a stunning clean sweep of Super Car pole positions. The question now is how far Khun Narasak can take this car today; if reliability holds up he could well repeat his sensational Class 2-GTM win at Bira Circuit in 2013. “I’m very happy because with the car we have had a lot of problems, but I try my best and we also have a very short time to do our best lap,” he said after qualifying.
Alongside the Evo on the front row will line up the Ginetta G55 of Khun Naputt Assakul. He knows how to get the most out of this slightly underpowered little sportscar and steer it into the winners’ circle and he will be aiming to do the same this weekend.
The second row sees Khun Chayut Yangpichit lead out Khun Daychapon Toyingcharoen. The former has the Evo he drove here last November back again and he reported that the handling and setup has been improved. He scored a sensational, albeit a little bit of a lucky win, in the car then and he will be hoping to repeat that feat this weekend. In fifth comes the Mazda RX-8 of Khun Pete Thongchua, who has improved his pace considerably since the last race, and then it’s the Porsche of classification leader Khun Sontaya Kunplome and the Toyota of Khun Suttipong Smittachartch.
The grid is wrapped up by the Subaru BRZ of Khun Kraingkrai Woraratanatham, who was happy to have improved his laptimes since the first round as he gets more to grips with his new car, the Vattana Ferrari 430 Challenge of Khun Settasit Boonyakiat, who had car problems and coasted to a halt by the finishline before being able to set a representative time, thus bringing out the only red flags of qualifying meaning he will have to fight through the field as he did at the last round, but he’s more than capable of doing that, and finally the Subaru Impreza of Khun Pinet Piyaoui. The returning driver hasn’t had an easy few days; he’s been through two turbos, which has involved compromises and a turned down boost. However he’s been quick in practice and if he can find that form in the race then he could make good progress.
Qualifying: Super 2000
Khun Munkong Sathienthirakul has been threatening to plant himself in P1 for a while now and he delivered the goods yesterday afternoon with a best laptime of 1:51.236 that no one was able to match before the clocks stopped at zero.
Championship leader and double race winner of the first round, Khun Jack Lemvard did his best to challenge the red and black #11 Honda Civic but he ended up seven tenths of a second back after the quickest he could manage was a 1:51.944. However the Vattana driver now has his BMW E90 weighed down with a full complement of ballast and so that was a very robust time for him to record. Khun Jack was pushing hard and that’s a decent deficit so the BMW driver may have to settle for P2.
An impressive third was the TT Motorsport Honda DC5 of Khun Chayut Yangpichit who went very well here on the first visit by Super 2000 last November but struggled with a down on power engine at the season opener. He looks like he’s back to that form.
Fourth went to Khun Carlo Van Dam, the Dutch professional driver deputising in the Honda Civic FD normally driven by Khun Pramoj Na Ayudhya, who will only arrive early on Sunday to take part in Race 2. That means the car is vacant for Saturday’s race and Khun Carlo was in the garage, ready and available. The dots quickly joined up.
The third row this afternoon will be occupied by Khun Ekprawat Petcharak who has his unique Civic ‘FB’ much more sorted now and he was knocking on the top end of the timesheets for much of the session. It also means that with Khun Munkong on pole both Sittipol Lipo K45 entries are in the top five overall, a very decent start to the weekend for this team.
Making a huge step forward from the last race was Khun Kantadhee Kusiri in Team Eakie’s brand new Toyota 86. Back in May the car stuttered around the track on what was its debut but the highly rated youngster’s fastest lap of 1:53.083 puts him just 1.8 seconds away from the pole time and by the next race he should have the one lap pace to challenge for the front row. Come the race this afternoon and fully expect to see Khun Kantadhee make more progress in the stylish new machine.
The fourth row has two more drivers that can challenge for the higher podium steps, Khun Jakthong Navasoopanich and Khun Pasarit Phromsombat, and both should in fact be higher up the timesheets. These are two more drivers that will be looking to move up the order in the races. The top ten was competed by the Civic FD’s of Khun Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi and Khun Rudolf Yu.
Further down there are a couple of newcomers of note starting with Khun Narasak Ittritpong who is driving Vattana Motorsport’s Civic FD, the car last used by Khun Jack a couple of seasons ago. The car barely turned a wheel in practice and required an engine change, which was only completed with just minutes before qualifying. With the car completely unsorted he completed a handful of laps to take P17. If the team can sort out the problems with car then he should be very quickly in amongst the front-runners, albeit more so on Sunday when the extra ballast he has to carry due to the late entry in the series will be shed from the car. Also making a late appearance is the Toyota Altezza of Khun David Yupensak, he was two places further back from Khun Narasak.
Qualifying & Races: Super Pickup
The bumper programme has seen the trucks moving to a double raceday on Friday for this event and they dished up their usual dramatic fare of racing thrills and spills.
The team to beat this year it seems is YSS Racing Shock-Singha-Project M-Peakpower and championship leader coming into this weekend, Khun Songsak Kornsirisuepsakun won both races to make it three out of four for the year and extend his championship advantage. Already, at the halfway point in the season for the trucks, Khun Songsak is looking like he’s going to be very hard to beat.
He had to work hard for the wins though and in the first race he came home with a 2.892 second margin over his teammate Khun Jaras Jaengkamolkulchai while in the second race he had a 3.921 seconds in hand over Khun Aekaluck who also wrapped up the Class B honours in both races. Khun Aekaluck in fact came into the weekend as the joint Class B points leader but with Khun Phisit Netdechathanasit out on lap 3 of the first race and missing the final race, Khun Aekaluck now opens out a comfortable advantage at the top of the class point standings.
In Class C Khun Phillip Massoud bagged his first win of his new truck racing career in just his second event and claiming the runners up spot in the second race moves him up the championship standings. In fact the Krating Daeng Racing Team enjoyed an excellent race as Khun Songkran Yamamura made up for being excluded in Race 1 to win the second race. It means that the team, in its truck racing debut year, has won three out of four Class C races so far and the last three on the trot.
Qualifying: Super 1500
Khun Kajornsak Na Songkhla is something of an almost unstoppable force in his Ford Fiesta, he’s previously bagged the Super Production title in the car and has switched to Super 1500 this year. His debut in the category back in May reaped instant rewards as he emerged as the championship leader with a useful 11-point cushion and he looks like he could well be set to cement that advantage further here as he swept to pole position yesterday with a best lap of 2:00.445 that was unmatched by his rivals.
He it was pretty close though as Khun Nuttapong Lertlumprasertkul and Khun Komkrit Lertlumprasertkul are just one- and two-tenths of a second respectively behind, while they lead out Class B in their Honda Civic hatchbacks.
With the top-three in qualifying covered by just two tenths of a second, and with Khun Kajornsak and Khun Nuttapong taking a win each last time out, it looks like there will be another very even battle from the green lights to the checkered flag, just like at the season opener.
The Class C timesheets were led out by Khun Teerasak Sakphaet who took a double win here back in May and will be looking to cement his championship advantage this weekend. He was also six-tenths of a second quicker than the next Class C car so it’s looking like he has the pace to pitch for the win.
Qualifying: Super Production
He had a bit of an up and down return to Super Production back in May but Khun Thomas Raldorf threw down his marker in no uncertain terms yesterday with a pole position time of 2:01.124. That was 1.4 seconds clear of the next driver and in Super Production terms, a category that’s regarded as one of the closest in Thai racing, that gap is as wide as an ocean.
The Danish driver’s time in fact was an impressive 2.8 seconds quicker than he managed here back in May and he puts that big improvement down to getting to grips with the new control tyres that have been introduced this year in Super Production and the analysis his team was able to make after using them for the first time. “[We] had no info on the tyres and therefore no setup knowledge,” Khun Thomas explained after qualifying yesterday. “Now we have had a lot of time to work on that [and the] car is setup really good.”
The second fastest time went to Khun Yotsarun Sansuk, he’s joined the Tein Racing Team this year with a Honda City and he impressed instantly. His second fastest time more importantly gave him Class B pole with a more than one second cushion over his closest rival, his teammate Khun Thanasit Bhunyatharanonth.
After a tough season opener where he was one of the hot favourites but only picked up 12 points to leave sixth in the classification Khun Anusorn Asiralertsiri was in scintillating form yesterday, streaking to Class C pole as well as third overall with a best lap of 2:02.720.
Khun Nattanid is proving to be one of the discoveries of the season, with the strength of the RMI Racing Team behind her and a brand new build Honda Jazz she’s really excelling. On the podium in the last race she whacked in a 2:03.637 best lap for P2 in Class C, just seven-hundredths away from pole and in fact that was good enough for P5 overall. Watch out for her this morning when the lights go green at 0945 for Super Production’s first race.
Behind her in P6 and P7 are two drivers that would have been expected to be much higher up the running order, Khun Settasit Boonyakiat (OMP Vattana Motorsport) and Khun Chattraphol Jiemvijid (RMI Racing Team). It’s safe to say that both these drivers will be higher up the finishing order if they don’t suffer mishaps today.
The top ten is rounded out by Khun Tony Percy who was a very promising fourth in Class B, his return to Super Production this year is going very well, Khun Sirisak Manthugumphol, who has raised his pace this year and will be pushing hard to make up places today and Khun Thanawat Wongnapachant, who has joined Super Production this year and is showing excellent form in his rookie year, his time was good enough to put him P3 in Class C.
Then comes Khun Anon Rodprasert who is making steady gains in the TT Motorsport Honda City and reigning Super Eco champion Khun Poomee Phromatham who should be much closer to the chase for victory but is suffering ongoing issues getting his new car fully sorted.
Qualifying: Super Eco
He won here at the season opener back in May and yesterday Khun Suphong Khamtonwong demonstrated in no uncertain terms that he plans to do so again this weekend as he banged in pole position in 2:11.317 and that gave him a huge 1.2 second cushion over the next driver on the timesheets. While Khun Suphong won the first race last time out the Suzuki Swift driver only picked up 1 point for P10 in the second race and that leaves him 14 points off the top of the points classification, a gap that he needs to start working down this weekend. Judging by his qualifying performance he’s going to start going about that.
Khun Nuttapon Kaewkanjanasat posted the second quickest time of the qualifying session, which kicked off the afternoon’s action, in the fastest of the numerically superior Honda Brios, but he was just over a tenth of a second in front of the Brio of 15-year-old hotshot Khun Kmik Karnasuta. He nearly won here in May and the youngster’s first win isn’t far away.
Just two tenths further back was Khun Jakraphan Davee who has joined Super Eco this year and in fact kicked off with a podium at the season opener. He’s improving quickly and should be good for more podiums this week.
Making second to fifth covered by just half a second was Khun Konpichit Toyingcharoen. The Krating Daeng Swift driver collected a first and second place at the opening round to sit at the top of the points classification coming into this race and he will be anxious to collect two more high points scores. 23 drivers qualified in Super Eco yesterday.