Last weekend’s visit by Thailand Super Series (TSS) to Bira Circuit for the penultimate round of the year threw up two days worth of exciting racing that had the spectators on the edge of their seats and it didn’t get any more explosive than when Super 2000 took to the track as the touring car category really lived up to its reputation for providing some of the hardest fought race action in South East Asia. In Super Car’s newest category, Class 3-GTC, it was the same story too as the positions fluctuated lap by lap.

In Super 2000 there was a fairytale story as one of our brightest young ‘hopes for the future’, Khun Kantadhee Kusiri, jettisoned that weighty tag over just nine days to emerge as a genuine top Thai racing star. That path to much wider recognition actually started the weekend before TSS arrived at Bira Circuit when he had raced for the first time in a single-seater at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps Circuit and instantly made the international paddock sit up and take notice. The job was completed the next weekend as his team finally got their new Toyota 86 right on song and Khun Kantadhee went and demolished a highly touted Super 2000 field.

In fact he smashed his way to two wins from two races, his first ever victories in the top touring car category. The ‘star of the future’ tag has been dumped in spectacular style; unquestionably, he’s now one of the big stars of TSS and his career is in the ascendancy.

And in overall championship terms it was equally as nail biting. Khun Jack Lemvard came into the event seemingly on a cruise to the title but he collected just 10-points from the two races and Khun Pasarit Phromsombat, who knows exactly how to wring every last point out of a race, put himself into the thick of the action at the business end of the leaderboard in both races and tore 17-points out of Khun Jack’s advantage. The gap in the championship is down to just 10-points and all is now to play for on the streets of Bangsaen.

In Super Class 3-GTC Khun Grant Supaphong took two quite emphatic wins to swing what was a wide open title fight firmly in his direction as he finally blended reliability with his trademark pace and the destiny of the championship is now in his hands. It’s his to loose.

Behind him in both races there was frenetic activity for the runners up spot as Khun Grant’s teammate Khun Daychapon Toyingcharoen slugged it out with the fast developing Mazda RX-8 of Khun Thanapol Thongchua. Very evenly matched they took a second and a third place apiece from the two races and with title hopeful Khun Naputt Assakul struggling there is now an enthralling three-way fight in store for the runners up spot with just one round and two races remaining.

Super 2000, and now the quickly growing new Super Car Class 3-GTC category, always promise a lot for the fans and they both certainly lived up to that reputation at a hot and dry Bira Circuit. Two highly charged categories, four action-packed races, that’s a recipe for total excitement all the way.

Race Report: Super 2000, Saturday

Before the lights even went green Khun Kantadhee had already demonstrated his intent to chase victory during qualifying by slamming in a pole lap that was half a second quicker than anyone else could match. Now with a car that was finally honed to the winning pace he looked determined every time he got in the cockpit and when Super 2000’s first race of the weekend finally took off the young driver was quickly away into a lead that, as it turned out, he wouldn’t relinquish all afternoon.

Behind the brightly liveried #18 Team Eakie Toyota 86 Khun Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi slotted into second place while Khun Jack converted his third place on the grid into the same position as the pack thundered down to Turn 2 as, from the outside of Row 2, Khun Munkong Sathienthirakul retained fourth place. The principal winner at the business end of the action from the start though was Khun Kittipol Pramoj Na Ayudhya who made up a place at the expense of Khun Pasarit after coming right round the outside through Turn 2.

As the field headed up to the hairpin and thundered down through 100R for the first time it was Khun Kantadhee from Khun Naiyanobh, Khun Munkong who elbowed past Khun Jack’s ballast heavy BMW into P3, Khun Kittipol, Khun Pasarit and Khun Thanavud Bhirombhakdi. The biggest winner over the opening lap was probably Khun Poramin Meesamanyont who had started from the eighth row of the grid but was moving up fast; in fact he would muscle his way into the top ten within a few laps. He’s had a very tough first half of the year with a car that has been well out of sorts; finally he was showing the fast pace that he’s capable of.

Meanwhile the big losers on the first lap were Khun Ekprawat Petcharak, who was tapped at the hairpin, spun and dropped right to the tail of the field, and Khun Vasu Saksirivetkul, who had an PU problem and he would circulate at the back for the first 15 laps as he nursed the wheezing car along before having to retire.

As the field came round the 2.4-km circuit for the second time Khun Kantadhee and Khun Naiyanobh had already pulled a couple of seconds clear of the rest of the pack with the latter working hard to hang onto the back of the Toyota, the Civic driver locking up the brakes into Turn 2 as he tried to apply pressure. Behind them things were really hotting up as Khun Munkong, Khun Jack and Khun Kittipol arrived into Turn 2 virtually three abreast with Khun Pasarit right behind, however Khun Munkong held the inside line and kept P3.

Just adrift of this quartet Khun Thanavud had got it all crossed up into Turn 2 but managed to keep his car on the road, Khun Poramin, running an electrifying race pace, didn’t wait to be invited and he dived down the inside into Turn 2 as Khun Thanavud struggled to correct the #15 Civic and into P7 although the positions would swiftly reverse a lap later on the same turn, this time Khun Thanavud getting the inside line into the sharp left hander.

A lap later and Khun Kantadhee had finally broken the challenge of Khun Naiyanobh and had pulled out a few car lengths. That would be the last anyone would see of him all afternoon as he started to pull away. After a bit of a tussle that lap the four car battle for P3 split up as Khun Munkong came through with Khun Jack on his tail while Khun Kittipol dropped a few cars lengths back and had the lurid metallic red Honda DC5 of Khun Pasarit all over the back of him. The Vattana driver would be the loser though as he soon received a Drive Through penalty and would then spend the rest of his afternoon battling back up the order.

Khun Jack’s departure from the front end action promoted Khun Kittipol into P4, Khun Pasarit into P5 and Khun Thanavud into P6. Behind them came Khun Poramin in P8 and then Khun Phatwit Phayakcso who had enjoyed a stunning couple of laps after starting from the back of the grid, thanks to a five place grid penalty, to move inside the top ten. Khun Nattachak Hanjitkasem in the #66 Civic wrapped up the top ten. Further back Khun Chayut Yangpichit, who had missed qualifying due to business commitments and thus had started at the back of the grid, was battling his way up and was by now into P13. Khun Ekprawat was also working his was back through the midfield after his spin and was up into P16 while Khun Jack, after his Drive Through penalty rejoined in P18 but he had a lot of work to do.

Khun Phatwit made up another place as he passed Khun Poramin under braking into Turn 2 and Khun Chayut continued to press forward but that would effectively be the state of play when the Safety Car was deployed on the sixth lap as Khun Jakthong’s race ended in billowing clouds of smoke on the run uphill to S1 and required a recovery truck to remove the #3 Altis from the track.

At the restart Khun Naiyanobh went down the inside of Khun Kantadhee into Turn 2 and straight off the track and into the barriers. His afternoon was over and the only driver to seriously attempt to get into the battle for P1 was gone. Although Khun Kantadhee’s lead had been cancelled out by the arrival of the Safety Car he simply picked up where he had left off when racing resumed on the twelfth lap, this was to be his afternoon and no one was going to get a look in.

At the restart Khun Jack had been fast to get away, passing several cars to quickly move into the top ten. The championship classification leader’s target was simple, to force his was into the top five before the end of the race as with the top five reverse grid format that would put him into a great position for Sunday’s final race.

While Khun Kantadhee pulled clear there was a real battle brewing for P2 as Khun Munkong, who had inherited the position when Khun Naiyanobh dropped out, had Khun Kittipol and Khun Pasarit for close company. Behind them Khun Chayut and Khun Jack were locked together as they battled up the order.

As the race headed into the closing stages Khun Thanavud dropped out on the fourteenth lap while Khun Poramin, after a great race, was gone on lap 16, the same lap his teammate Khun Vasu finally called it a day in the #10 Civic FD.

The midfield was starting to thin out and after 18 laps Khun Chayut’s blistering run came to an abrupt end as he pitted with an engine problem on the #19 DC5 and then unexpectedly Khun Munkong started to drift down the order from P2 with a driveshaft problem. That really shook the top order up promoted Khun Kittipol into P2 (and the Class B lead) and Khun Pasarit into P3. They would both keep those positions until the checkered flag was waved after 22 laps, while a flat out pace in the heavy BMW combined with the culling of so many top runners saw Khun Jack muscle his way up to P4 and onto the front row for the second race although the championship leader was over ten seconds adrift of the #14 DC5 in front.

Despite lugging a maximum load of ‘success’ ballast in the #44 BMW Khun Jack set the fastest lap of the race in 1:06.104 (on lap 5). That was a hugely impressive achievement and in fact that time was a staggering 1.4 seconds quicker than the next best race lap, which was posted by the race winner, Khun Kantadhee.

From the back of the grid Khun Phatwit had showed superb race pace to battle up through the midfield and into P5 by the end of the race and that was a great reward as it would hand him pole position for the next day’s race.

A full ten seconds behind the #69 Honda City came Khun Rudolf Yu who was locked in a big scrap with Khun Thamrong Mahadumrongkul, who has started from P14 and was another runner to have worked his was steadily up the order, over the closing lap. The Hong Kong driver held the position though to cross the line six tenths of a second ahead of Khun Thamrong. They also took second and third place respectively in Class B.

Khun Ekprawat recovered well after his first lap spin to battle up from the back and into P8 at the flag, he was just three hundredths of a second back from the #24 Civic in front and with the first factory Toyota Altis home, the #58 of Khun Chen Jian Hong, only a further second behind it meant that sixth to ninth places were covered by two seconds.

Khun Pure Hongsapan made it both Toyota Team Thailand entries in the top ten as he worked his way up the order in the #2 Altis, having started in P18, to take tenth place, five seconds back from his teammate, and more importantly nab Class 2 victory, the first of the Class C drivers home. Khun David Yupensak was next up to take second in Class 2 while the Class 2 championship leader, Khun Jetsada Yangpichit followed him home for third in class and that kept him in command of the standings overnight.

Then came early front-runner Khun Munkong who had dropped to the tail of the field with a driveshaft problem and struggled home in P13. That zero points score was a bitter blow to his overall title hopes as he trailed Khun Jack coming to this event and he now slipped a further ten points adrift of the BMW driver. However it wasn’t all gloom as he added 8 points to his comfortable lead in Class B and he still looked on course for that title.

The final finishers were Khun Issares Chirapongsananurak, who had a spin a few laps from home, and Khun Nattachak Hanjitkasem who was classified although he completed 14 laps and that gave him some useful extra points in Class B.

There was quite a DNF toll, as there always is when Super 2000 fuses with Bira Circuit as neither party gives an inch. Aside from Khun Jakthong, out after 5 laps, Khun Naiyanobh, 11 laps, Khun Thanavud, 13 laps, Khun Vasu who struggled around with his sick engine before calling it a day on the sixteenth lap, and Khun Chayut, 18 laps, the final non-finisher was one of the early pacesetters, Khun Poramin. “My engine is also overheating [and the] engine power started to drop for about 4 laps,” he explained afterwards. “So I decide to stop.”

Race Report: Super Car Class 3-GTC, Saturday
 
Later that afternoon at the green lights for the Class 3-GTC encounter the two Krating Daeng drivers converted their front row of the grid into the race lead and as the pack braked for the first left hander it was Khun Grant who led his teammate Khun Daychapon with the green and black Mazda RX-8 of Khun Thanapol next up, followed by the Toyota of Khun Suttipong Smittachartch, the Ginetta of Khun Naputt Assakul and the debuting pink Mazda RX-7 of Khun Narin Yensuk while the rear was brought up by Khun Pinet Piyaoui who was the big loser in the drag from the start as mechanical issues reared their head. He would quickly drop away from the pace in the A Motorsport Subaru Impreza.

Over the opening lap Khun Thanapol was applying pressure to Khun Daychapon and that would story would continue for many laps as the Mazda tried to find a way past the Nissan which covered the line and was faster out of the corners.

Also pushing hard over the first lap was the Ginetta G55 as Khun Naputt tried to find a way past the #19 Toyota 86 in front. However at the end of the lap Khun Naputt pitted after his engine cover came loose and he lost nearly a lap and was forced to grittily fight his way back into contention along every straight and through corner over the remaining 21 laps of the race.

At the front Khun Grant started to pull away in the #10 Mitsubishi Evo X and he was comfortably able to control the race pace. With the weather cooling by the time the Class 3-GTC runners took to the grid thanks to being the last race on the day’s busy programme, starting at 1630, that played into the hands of the ‘Evo’, which struggles to dissipate the massive heat its powerful engine generates.

In the end he was able to back off to finish just in front of his teammate’s Nissan and collect a maximum score of championship points that moved him to the top of the championship classification overnight. Khun Grant also bagged the fastest lap of the race in 1:06.433, the only driver to lap sub-1:07.

Behind him Khun Daychapon and Khun Thanapol traded places for a while, although the Skyline R32 driver was eventually able to regain the runners up spot, exert his grip on it and keep the position to the checkered flag. Khun Daychapon eventually eased out a cushion of three and a half seconds over the #17 Mazda RX-8 as Khun Thanapol focused on preserving his car to the finish especially with another race still to come.

For the Rotary Revolution team Khun Thanapol’s P3 was a hugely satisfying result as they draw more potential out of this car, that was their third straight podium in Class 3-GTC. “When the cars took off I did pretty good and get in second place and pass [Khun Daychapon] and I decide to save the car, keep the car in good shape as we have 22 laps,” said Khun Thanapol. “I didn’t want to push the car too much. We had a good gentlemanly fight with [Khun Daychapon] but I lost to him when we sprint out of the turns as his car sprints better. I’m pretty happy that we are on the podium but there is a lot more to come from the car yet, compared to last season to be on the podium in this race really is a gift.”

While the top three were covered by just four seconds there was a wait of almost 50 seconds before Khun Suttipong brought the #19 Toyota home in P4, he had differential issues during the race but still made the podium.

The final step on the podium went to Khun Narin Yensuk who has swapped his usual #13 Nissan Skyline R32 for a drive in Rotary Revolution’s new Mazda RX-7. This stunning racecar, dubbed ‘Pink Sakura’ is in the early stages of development and this event was its Super Car debut. Khun Narin meanwhile broke is arm two months ago and was signed off by the doctors to race just days before.

That meant Khun Narin’s fitness was still lacking but he drove a very steady race, conserving the car and his stamina and when it all shook out he had nabbed a trophy. That was the first for this exciting new breed of racecar and on its debut in TSS. Great work by the Rotary Revolution team and it didn’t stop there, it was the first time they had ever entered Super Car with two cars and both had finished on the podium.

Khun Naputt, who was certainly very unlucky, led out the DNFs. He had worked hard all race to make up for his first lap pit visit and he came within a few metres of grabbing P4 in the end, but it went all horribly wrong for the Ginetta driver as he pressurised the #19 Toyota through the middle of the double apex, as he explained afterwards. “On the first formation lap, I knew the hood wasn’t locked properly so I had to come in for a quick fix and that put me firmly in last position,” he said. “So I drove the wheels out of my little Ginetta and finally on the last corner of the last lap, I was about to take fourth position, but I spun and as I tried to finished the race my drive shaft bolt snap and ended my race.”

There was a very early exit for the Subaru Impreza of Khun Pinet; he dropped out on the second lap with turbo problems. “On the formation lap I noticed that the speed up was not smooth and the problem came since the started of race,” he said afterwards. “The mechanics found that the turbo bearing was broken so they changed a new one ready for Sunday’s race.”
 
Race Report: Super 2000, Sunday
 
Thanks to his fight up the order to finish in P5 the previous day Khun Phatwit planted the white #69 City onto pole position on the grid thanks to the top five reverse grid format with Khun Jack lining up alongside while Khun Pasarit and Khun Kittipol made up the second row of the grid. The third row saw the first race winner Khun Kantadhee with the Civic FD of Khun Rudolf alongside.

Lining up at the back of the grid was Khun Narasak Ittritpong in Vattana Motorsport’s #13 Civic FD. Having missed the qualifying session as well as the first race with engine problems the venerable white racecar was finally back in action for Sunday’s encounter although it was still quite out of sorts and it was going to require all the talent of this top Thai race driver if it was going to threaten the midfield order during the 22 lap race. Even so, Khun Narasak is always one to look out for whatever he drives.

As the lights turned green the race sensationally saw its first casualty as Khun Jack struggled to get the BMW away. In fact he would struggle round the first lap, dropping to the back of the field as he suffered terminal wheel bearing problems before running very wide out of Turn 11 and then cutting across sharply to enter the pitlane. He would go no further and having picked up just 10 championship points from the first race it was game on for his rivals to claw back some of his big advantage.

As the pack streamed out of Turn 2 for the first time and up the hill it was Khun Phatwit who had successfully converted his pole into the race lead, with Khun Pasarit, Khun Kittipol and Khun Kantadhee hot on his heels. Such was the pace of this quartet that there were already a couple of car lengths back to Khun Thamrong and then a couple more to the main midfield pack which was led out by Khun Ekprawat with Khun Rudolf, a fast starting Khun Munkong, Khun Chen, Khun David and Khun Pure bunched up behind the unique Civic EB.

As they went into 100R Khun Ekprawat hit a patch of oil, spun round and went half onto the grass on the inside and as he recovered Khun David ran wide onto the grass on the outside and lost some places while Khun Chen also had to clip the verge. A few hundred metres further on Khun Thanavud had a big spin through S1 but kept the car together although he dropped down the order.

The start of the second lap saw the top four still locked together while behind them Khun Thamrong led Khun Munkong and the two factory Toyotas, but that order wouldn’t last for very long as Khun Kittipol was out by the hairpin and the top four shook up in dramatic fashion.

Further back Khun Chen started to pressure Khun Rudolf for P7 while notably Khun Naiyanobh was moving up from his back of the grid start, as was Khun Narasak.

With Khun Kittipol gone it was down to a three car fight for the lead and that running order dramatically reversed as they came out of 100R with Khun Pasarit taking the inside line and leaving Khun Phatwit stuck on the outside which allowed Khun Kantadhee to follow the metallic red DC5 through. The trio went side by side under the bridge and up to Turn 1 but Khun Phatwit had lost the momentum and tumbled two places. Meanwhile behind them Khun Munkong had passed Khun Thamrong.

The top four was now splitting up but Khun Naiyanobh had picked his way through and was now challenging Khun Munkong for fourth place. He got past and then overtook Khun Phatwit. He was now the driver on the biggest charge.

Meanwhile with a car that lacked power and clearly was quite a handful to steer, Khun Narasak was also pushing and using all his skill to edge past cars that had more power and then working hard to close down the line and stay in front of them. He was now inside the top ten after passing the Toyota of Khun Pure. Just behind him Khun Thanavud and Khun Ekprawat were also on a charge. Further back Khun Vasu, who had been fighting his way with aplomb through the midfield, had a tyre problem and suffered a big moment through 100R and another as he came out of S1, the car crossing up as the drama continued to unfold, before it eventually finished with the Civic positioned backwards on the runoff at Turn 11. He successfully returned to the track but with a damaged tyre he would have to nurse the car all the way to the checkered flag.

Khun Thanavud’s challenging afternoon culminated in a spin going into 100R and with the #15 Civic FD stranded sideways across the track Khun Pure came racing into the high speed sweeper and T-boned him. There was debris everywhere and the Toyota ended up beached in the gravel trap, which meant the Safety Car was immediately deployed. With little chance of clearing the wreckage before the scheduled distance of 22 laps was completed, the race was red flagged after 17 laps, which allowed full points to be awarded.

The result was declared at 16 laps on a count back of 1 lap from the red flag and that gave Khun Kantadhee his second win of the weekend. Once again it was by a comfortable 6-second margin. It was a superb two days work by the youngster who exactly a week before had been making his single-seater debut at Belgium’s legendary Spa-Francorchamps Circuit. For Team Eakie it was real vindication of their decision to develop their Toyota 86 project from scratch and it gave the pretty Japanese sports coupé its first win in Super 2000. Two wins out of two, it couldn’t get much better.

Khun Pasarit took the runners up spot and when added to his P3 in the day before’s race that gave him a 27-point haul from the weekend. With the runaway championship classification leader Khun Jack picking up just 10 points at Bira the RMI driver ripped 17 points out of his lead, leapfrogged into second place in the overall standings and whittled the gap down to just 10 points. There is all to play for going into Bangsaen and the title race, seemingly on its way to being a formality for Khun Jack is now wide open again.

“It’s a very good race for the team,” said Khun Pasarit afterwards. “We qualified in the fifth and there were lots of things going on in the race but we managed to finished third in the round five and second in round six. From our accomplishment at Bira, our total score moves from third place to second and that gave us hope to be the first if we still do well in Bangsaen, but anyway we cannot underestimate many others team that also showed good performances in this circuit.”

Sixth tenths of a second behind Khun Pasarit came Khun Naiyanobh who battled up to take a fine third place overall as well as first in Class B and cap a weekend that saw him look pacey throughout but which unfortunately saw him ending up in the tyre barriers during the first race.

Fourth place went to Khun Phatwit who had started from pole thanks to the top five reverse grid format and had mixed it up in the top positions all race, that was his second trip to the podium from the two races, a good weekend for this experienced driver.

The final step of the overall podium went to Khun Thamrong who was also second in Class B. This driver is certainly very quick and highly talented but he’s had a long unlucky streak, let down by his machinery. His trip to the podium was well deserved and it came on an afternoon where he would later make his Super Car debut in a Ferrari 458 Challenge, albeit something of a test and acclimatisation run in full race conditions. He’s proven to be fast and effective in Super 2000 so expect Khun Thamrong to smoothly adjust to the style to demands required by Super Car.

Then came Khun Rudolf for his second sixth place overall of the weekend and that also added up to third in Class B, while, after one of the hardest drives of the afternoon, Khun Narasak finally hauled the Vattana Civic FD all the way to the finishline and into P7. He struggled to make it up the leaderboard picking off the midfield cars place by place after starting from the back of the grid and that gritty performance, albeit almost unnoticed, was really one of the drives of the race. He’s a proven star name that urgently needs a capable racecar to unlock his talents. Hopefully that car is on the horizon.

The top ten was completed by Khun Ekprawat, who recovered well from his lap 1 excursion at 100R to climb back finish P8, Khun Wijak Lertprasertpakorn, who also took fourth in Class B and Khun David, who also did superbly to win Class 2 in his Toyota Altezza after losing time early on. The classified finishers were wrapped up by Khun Jetsada (P11 and second in Class 2), Khun Issares (P12 and third in Class 2), who was the final unlapped runner, Khun Vasu (P13 and fifth in Class B) who completed 13 laps and finally Khun Nattachak who completed 11 laps but was still classified in P14.

In fact Khun Vasu had suffered his second tough race of the weekend. After engine problems in the first race his mechanics had to fit a standard unit overnight but he dug deep and set about fighting up the order, pushing his way into the top ten before a left hand front tyre problem, which he was very lucky to control, sent him to the back for the rest of the afternoon. “A bit wobbly but I went slowly,” he said with a laugh afterwards.

The DNF list kicked off with Khun Jakthong who was out with terminal engine problems on the first lap with the opening tour of the race also accounting for championship leader Khun Jack. Khun Kittipol was gone on the third lap while lap 8 accounted for Khun Poramin, who after showing a fast pace in the first race, was out on the spot when a front left hand suspension component broke leaving him with a road wheel that was pointing in the wrong direction.

Despite changing his engine overnight Khun Chayut was sidelined after 11 laps with a sensor failure while Khun Chen parked up on lap 14, a lap before the dramatic accident that accounted for his Super 2000 rookie teammate Khun Pure and Khun Thanavud. Finally Khun Munkong was excluded after the race when his car failed a scrutineering check and that effectively ended his slim hopes of the title although mathematically he isn’t out of the picture yet.

Race Report: Super Car Class 3-GTC, Sunday

With an emphatic victory under his belt in the first race Khun Grant led the Class 3-GTC runners out onto the grid, lining up on pole position. There was though one car missing though as A Motorsport withdrew the #21 Subaru. Khun Pinet explained, “[In the] morning I started the car and heard some little noises from the engine, so I think the engine should not be used to race,” he said.

At the green lights Khun Grant converted his pole into the race lead and he was very comfortably ahead of the main pack after just a few turns. For the second day running the Mitsubishi driver would command proceedings from the front.

Behind him Khun Thanapol from the outside of the front row made a quick start to slot into second place, the big loser though was Khun Daychapon who slipped behind the fast starting Khun Suttipong while Khun Naputt, Khun Narin and Khun Sontaya, the championship leader going into this weekend but having missed the first race, were next up.

Khun Grant streaked away over the opening laps with Khun Thanapol hanging on a couple of seconds back as the top two pulled away from the midfield runners. However the green and black Mazda then started to drop away as the black Evo X began to romp into the distance on its own.

Khun Daychapon quickly got back the place he lost to Khun Suttipong at the start but then after two laps the Toyota dropped out with differential problems, a reoccurrence of the issues that had slowed the factory-run car during the first race.

Khun Narin, who had come back to the cockpit in record time after breaking his arm, was starting to suffer from that lack of full fitness during the second race and he was coming under increasing pressure from Khun Sontaya. On the sixth lap the bright pink #13 Mazda RX-7 suffered a left hand front suspension problem out of Turn 11 and Khun Narin quickly pulled off the track.

The Safety Car was deployed to remove the Mazda and that bunched up the pack, which had become spread out, the main action at that point having seen Khun Naputt trying to find a way to get past Khun Daychapon, albeit without much success.

The race settled down after the Safety Car went back in although Khun Daychapon tried hard to close down the gap to Khun Thanapol in front while behind him Khun Naputt continued to apply pressure to the Skyline. The little Ginetta though was hampered in its task by its usual lack of grunt.

At the end of the 22 laps Khun Grant powered the #10 Mitsubishi over the line for his second win of the weekend, his fourth from the six races this year and, crucially, a win that puts him into full control in the championship standings.

Khun Thanapol wrapped up a superb weekend for the Rotary Revolution team with the runners up spot to make it four podiums from the last four races for the #17 RX-8. Khun Daychapon finished third while Khun Naputt and Khun Sontaya wrapped up the podium positions.

After his late DNF in the first race the Ginetta driver was pleased to bag his first points of the weekend, albeit he saw his title chances taking a big dent. “All went well,” said Khun Naputt afterwards. “But as the yellow flags came out I was too cautious and put too much distance between me and the Skyline so I couldn’t catch up with him. My best lap time was 1:06 which was 1 second faster than my best practice time.”

In terms of the championship Khun Grant has put himself into a commanding position with a maximum score of 40 points from the weekend. That catapults him into the lead of the championship with 80 points thanks to four wins and in fact with his rivals cancelling each other out he has a 19 point lead in the championship going into the final round in Bangsaen. It’s his title to lose now.

The unofficial points standings read Khun Grant (80), Khun Daychapon (61) and then Khun Thanapol and Khun Naputt are on 58 apiece. That means just 3 points separate three drivers from the runners up spot with a maximum of 40-points still on offer. There is sure to be an almighty squabble for the championship’s second spot in Bangsaen. Behind them Khun Sontaya isn’t out of the battle for second, he has 51 points, while Khun Suttipong, who has 36 points, completes the top six in the standings.

The Krating Daeng Racing Team had a superb weekend at Bira as not only did Khun Grant move up from second to first in the standings after his double win and Khun Daychapon climbed from fourth in the standings, thanks to his P2 and P3, to second spot, but these high scoring results mean that not only does the team now enjoy a lockout at the top of the Drivers’ rankings but the Teams’ trophy is firmly in the bag.