Thailand Super Series (TSS) kicked off the new season in real style in Buriram last weekend and in the headlining ‘Super Car GTM’ category, which was enjoying a ‘triple header’ in the North East for the first time, racing history was written as Khun Sarun Sereethoranakul planted his new Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo LP620-2 onto pole for all three races, and led all three from green lights to checkered flag to take three strong victories and move into the provisional lead of the Drivers’ championship points standings while his team emerges at the top of the Teams’ classification. A clean sweep and job well done.
But there’s still more, Friday’s race was Khun Sarun’s first ever win in Super Car, coming just as he goes into his third season competing in the category. After switching from drifting he’s learnt the circuit racing ‘trade’ and he’s now ready and very well prepared to make a serious challenge for the Drivers’ title. He’s also highly ambitious and well prepared, checking off every box that needs checking off if you are going to consistently aim for the top step of the podium.
But the story didn’t end there as many teams took up the chase of the Lamborghini, notably Toyota Team Thailand and B-Quik Racing, both were back to top form. With major revisions to the Toyota 86, the factory-supported outfit was at the business end of the action and Khun Nattavude Charoensukhawatana nabbed an excellent third place and looked quick all weekend while B-Quik’s two Audis were right in amongst the front-runners every time the lights turned green.
Khun Daniel has swapped the Porsche he raced last year for an Audi R8 LMS Cup and the two second and one third place he scored have transformed his positioning in the running order and he now sits very handily in second place in the provisional Drivers’ classification.
With ‘30%’ of the season now completed no one else last weekend seemed to have too many answers to the pace of the striking white Lamborghini racecar, which clearly reveled on this racetrack – but it’s early days yet, there is a long way to go and the ground is likely to shift before the next round.
Then there was the ‘Amateur’ (AM) class, which is a new addition to the programme, and it hit the sweet spot the moment the ‘gentlemen’ (albeit fast and capable gentlemen) took to the track. Khun Pinet Piyaoui was a well-deserved winner of the first race on Friday and then on Saturday that ‘Sereethoranakul’ name rose to the fore once again, as, while Khun Sarun was wrapping up the overall race win in his Lamborghini, his brother Khun Saravut, claimed AM victory in his first ever Super Car race (on Friday his car had expired on the warm up lap pushing his debut back 24 hours) to give the ‘family’ a lockout of the top step of both Super Car podiums.
And then Khun Saravut repeated the feat again in Race 3 – that gave the Sereethoranakul family a hoard of five out of six winners’ trophies from the weekend (and in fact five wins from five starts). But the AM class was highly competitive and hard fought from start to finish. With three runners up spots claimed and after never being out of the fight for P1 all weekend long, Khun Paul Kanjanapas has raised his game this year and the Porsche driver departed from Buriram as the provisional AM points’ leader.
The weekend proved to be a superb way to start the new season for Super Car GTM and it was the best possible advert for what Thailand’s premier racing category has to offer. The competitive bar has gone up once again and everybody has responded to the challenge. Expect more of the same when Super Car GTM resumes here in July.
Super Car GTM Race 2 (Saturday 21 May)
After GTM’s first race had been squeezed in late on Friday afternoon it was onto the main programme of the weekend with Race 2 coming up on a hot and dry Saturday afternoon, although the closeness of the air and looming clouds implied that rain would arrive at some point.
The big beasts rolled out of their garages to line up for Race 2 and the top five on the grid was an exact carbon copy of the previous day with the Lamborghini of Khun Sarun Sereethoranakul again on pole, the Audi of Khun Daniel Bilski hunched up alongside, his B-Quik racing teammate Khun Henk J. Kiks next up and the Toyota of Khun Nattavude Charoensukhawatana completing Row 2. Khun Kantasak Kusiri in the quicker of the two Singha Motorsport Team Thailand Ferraris rounded out the top five.
On the formation lap one of the GTC cars, which were sharing the track with GTM for this year, pulled up abruptly and that caused an immediate red flag and the field formed back up on the grid as stricken car was winched onto a recovery truck.
At the second attempt the cars took the green lights but hardly had they accelerated down towards Turn 1 there were multiple contacts right in the middle of the pack with several cars hitting the wall. That resulted in the immediate departure from the race of Khun Voravud Bhirombhakdi’s Ferrari and the Porsches of Khun Pitsanu Sirimongkolkasem and Khun Pinet Piyaoui, all with damage and they requiring lifting away which saw the race immediately red flagged and the cars pulling up on the grid for the second time in just a few minutes.
After a delay to clear the track the surviving cars came around again to take the start with the race distance reduced to 13 laps now. This time the start was perfect and it was a very similar story to the first race as Khun Sarun led the snarling pack into Turn 1 while Khun Henk and his teammate Khun Daniel both got slightly tardy getaways and Khun Nattavude needed no invitation to muscle his was through and into P2 and straightaway on the downhill dash to Turn 3 the Toyota was all over the back of the Lamborghini. Further back Khun Craig was up into fifth place after a strong start.
As the white #55 Lamborghini came round to complete the first racing lap a few car lengths behind him was Khun Nattavude, who, just like the first race, already appeared to be managing his brakes, then Khun Daniel who had a bit of daylight between himself and his teammate, while the Dutchman had also pulled out more than a second on Khun Craig. Behind the big green Holden came Khun Kantasak in the surviving Ferrari and Khun Aekarat Discharoen in the #11 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup who rounded out the top-seven and was swarming all over the back of the Ferrari in front.
Into lap 2 and Khun Daniel had closed up on Khun Nattavude as a battle for second place emerged while Khun Kantasak closed in on Khun Craig but he still had Khun Aekarat on his tail so it was shaping up into a three-car battle for fifth place. That soon reordered itself as Khun Aekarat jumped Khun Kantasak and instead took his turn trying to find a way past the Holden, which, just like the day before’s race, had shown great pace at the start but then struggled to keep up with the leaders.
By the time the cars finished going round the track for the third time Khun Nattavude had whittled the gap to Khun Sarun down to 0.6 seconds, Khun Daniel was another 0.6 seconds further back and Khun Henk had also closed the deficit to his teammate to 0.6 seconds as the battle for P1 involved four cars. The fight for clear air at the front was exclusive to this quartet too; they had pulled almost 10 seconds away from Khun Craig as they set a ferocious pace.
The three-car battle for fifth place split up as Khun Kantasak swung into the pits at the end of the third lap and Khun Craig had broken the attentions of Khun Aekarat and pulled out an advantage of a few car lengths. Meanwhile in the AM class Khun Naputt Assakul had freed himself at the front and hauled out a five second advantage while Khun Saravut Sereethoranakul and Khun Paul Kanjanapas were squabbling over second place and were covered by just tenths.
Into lap 5 and the top four were still nose to tail, covered by just 1.8 seconds, but Khun Sarun, despite managing the extra ‘success ballast’ seemed to be in control, keeping the gap to Khun Nattavude reasonably steady at three to four car lengths, while Khun Henk was pressuring Daniel for third place and Khun Craig was now 16 seconds back down the road as he was dropping several seconds a lap to the front running pace. The AM class meanwhile turned on its head as Khun Naputt spun off the track and that put Khun Saravut into the lead – on his Super Car race debut.
By lap 6 as the shortened race approached half distance Khun Sarun eked out a few more tenths over the chasing Toyota as he eased to a 1.2 second lead. The two ‘bumblebees’ started to devote their attention to each other in the battle for P3 and that meant Khun Nattavude was able to stop looking so closely in his mirrors and instead focus on not letting the Lamborghini in front get away. Meanwhile Khun Craig continued to drop away, he was now 19 seconds off the top four, but was still keeping Aekarat behind him.
Over the next few laps the top four continued to keep each other company and as the race approached two thirds distance, on lap 9, Khun Nattavude had the gap to the back of the Lamborghini down to 0.7 seconds, although the Toyota driver was still having braking problems and, mindful that they caused him to retire in the first race, he was carefully managing the car. The Audis were tussling with each other again and Khun Henk got a great slingshot out of the hairpin, took a good look at his teammate on the run up to Turn 4 but wasn’t able to make a pass stick, it’s a corner where it’s always possible to muscle into contention but difficult to get the line to make a pass work.
Lap 10 and Khun Naputt had another spin – he was quite comfortably winning the battle for the most spins in GTM during the weekend! By now the GTM cars were busy lapping the GTC cars (which were sharing the track in this race) but no one was able to take any advantage of the traffic to pull off passing moves.
Into lap 11 and Khun Daniel finally got a great run and powered past Khun Nattavude into second place but the Toyota driver didn’t give up his track position easily, even if he had an imperfect car, and the red and white Toyota reclaimed the place back up into Turn 4. The Australian was having nothing of it though; he was really on fire and hustled the #27 Audi down the inside to claim the position as the cars raced through the back section.
While these two were scrapping hard for second place, Khun Henk had dropped a second back, but then a lap later, the twelfth time around, the Dutchman closed right up, it was now a red and white Toyota tightly squeezed into the middle of a black and yellow bumblebee sandwich.
As the front runners continued with their blistering pace, Khun Craig was now 27 seconds back down the road and but had pulled out half a dozen car lengths on Khun Aekarat, so the battle for the final podium step seemed to have been settled down, while in front of the three car battle for second place Khun Sarun was taking full advantage of their squabbling to ease out his lead to just a few tenths short of the two second mark.
Into the final lap and Khun Henk made a last ditch attempt to grab third as the B-Quik cars were now showing the pace of the race; it was side by side between the #26 Audi and the #9 Toyota, they traded paint into Turn 4, the two cars bouncing as they made contact, but the Toyota kept the door shut and that was it for the afternoon as Khun Nattavude eased across the line with four tenths of a second in hand over Khun Henk. Thrilling stuff.
Almost half a minute down the road came Khun Craig to nail the final step of the podium while four seconds further back Khun Aekarat wrapped up the top six. Khun Kantasak, after his visit to the pitlane, came seventh before the AM class runners made their mark – and there was history in the making as Khun Saravut claimed the victory on his Super Car debut and it didn’t stop there as, with his brother winning the race overall, it was a family lock out of the top steps of the podium, another ‘first’ for TSS and another first also for Super Car.
An excellent drive, Khun Saravut capitalised as the Painkiller Racing duo, Khun Paul and Khun Naputt, scrapped with each other. Khun Paul also drove an excellent race, he kept it steady when it all became a bit fraught and nabbed his second consecutive runners up spot of the weekend, it could so easily have been victory too. That moved him into the provisional lead of the inaugural AM championship overnight – with still one race to go.
Khun Naputt however recovered from his spins after holding a very comfortable AM class lead early on to claim the third step of the podium and collect points. Khun Pinet, who had won the class the day before suffered cruel luck when he was caught up in the startline incident and, through no fault of his own, his weekend was over and he would be scoring no more points.
Super Car GTM Race 3 (Sunday 22 May)
The final race of the opening weekend proved to be the race of the Safety Car, which was out in front as much as the #55 Lamborghini. And that really was the story of the race. But in between its appearance there was some really blistering racing.
At the green lights Khun Sarun powered away once more and wasn’t troubled into Turn 1 but behind him Khun Nattavude, starting from fourth in between the two Audis of Khun Daniel and Khun Henk, got a great start, went down the middle of the B-Quik cars and tucked into second place ahead of Khun Craig who had one of his trademark fast starts and moved up to third as the slow starting Audis dropped down to fourth and fifth places. Behind the two Audis it was Khun Aekarat from Khun Nattapong and Khun Kantasak with Khun Naputt next up also taking the early lead in the AM class.
Into Turn 5 and Khun Nattavude’s Toyota started spewing smoke, it billowed as he went uphill through the high speed esses before he slowed up out of Turn 7 and the pack poured past him. That had allowed Khun Sarun to get a big jump away at the front and now the two Audis were locked onto the tail of the Holden in the battle for second place.
Into the second lap and Khun Nattapong passed Khun Aekarat into fifth place while out of Turn 7 Khun Daniel got a slingshot on Khun Craig and into second place. His teammate wasn’t hanging around either and Khun Henk muscled his way past Holden with an audacious move banging his way down the inside of Turn 10, not a traditional passing point, after Khun Craig had shown him a chink of daylight. That put the Holden off the racing line and Khun Nattapong also got through as the field powered uphill on the exit of Turn 11. From second place Khun Craig was down to fifth in less than a third of a lap.
Barely had the leaders crossed the line to complete two laps than the Safety Car was deployed to clear up the oil dropped by Khun Nattavude’s Toyota. That slippery surface was clearly demonstrated by Khun Henk spinning the Audi as he came through the esses under the yellow flag conditions.
As the pack formed up behind the Safety Car it was Khun Sarun from Khun Daniel, Khun Nattapong, Khun Craig, Khun Aekarat and then the two Singha Motorsport Team Thailand Ferraris who were followed by the AM class leader, Khun Naputt. Khun Henk was then given a by to resume his position.
It took three laps to clean the track and with 10 laps remaining the green lights came on. As he had done all weekend so far Khun Sarun controlled the pack into Turn 1 while behind him Khun Nattapong took a look down the inside of Khun Daniel, it was very close between the two, but the Audi kept the line and the position.
The pack was spread out in the run down to Turn 3 and through the hairpin Khun Craig and Khun Henk both ran wide and off the track, as did Khun Aekarat, Khun Henk dropping right back as he went well onto the runoff while Khun Craig and Khun Aekarat lost two places as the Ferraris of Khun Voravud and Khun Kantasak dived through.
Khun Naputt was busy capitalising on the jumble up front and he got ahead of the Holden but the ‘V8 Supercar’ put the hammer down and reclaimed the line as the pair headed up the hill and into the left-hander. Out of Turn 4 Khun Craig discovered a patch of oil on the track, had a massive wobble as he tried to correct the car to no avail and as he spun round he clipped the Porsche of Khun Naputt who had moved to the inside to give the Holden room into the turn and couldn’t avoid the spinning green car. Khun Craig went across the grass and into the barriers on the inside while Khun Naputt spun onto the runoff on the outside and immediately Khun Aekarat and Khun Paul went very wide round the outside of the #6 Porsche with Khun Aekarat spinning as he put the power back down.
Khun Naputt and Khun Aekarat were able to get away although the former would pit to have a bent wheel rim changed; Khun Naputt had also suffered damage to the suspension geometry from the contact and that meant the Porsche didn’t want to run in a straight line so he would have to survive to the finish of the race at a reduced speed.
Khun Craig’s stricken Holden meant the Safety Car was deployed for a second time and as the survivors formed up it was Khun Sarun from Khun Daniel, Khun Nattapong, Khun Voravud, Khun Kantasak, Khun Henk, Khun Saravut and Khun Paul. The Holden was winched way and Khun Craig later reported that the damage was superficial and limited to the radiator, oil cooler, front bar and splitter. After hitting a lot of problems earlier in the weekend his practice running had been strictly limited but the New Zealander was very happy with the pace of the recently overhauled car and he’s ready to bounce back at the next round.
At the restart Khun Sarun was once again cleanly away but Khun Daniel was slower and Khun Nattapong came down the middle forcing the Audi in very tight on the inside and as this pair went side by side and held each other up Khun Voravud, with the power down out of Turn 1, needed no invitation to come round the outside and into second place.
It was short-lived though as two turns later Khun Daniel grabbed the inside line into Turn 5 and was back into second. Khun Nattapong then lined the Ferrari up in his sights and went up the inside through the final turn, the Toyota clattering over the kerbs as he made the pass stick. Khun Henk, on the tail of the pair, tried to follow the Toyota through but couldn’t make it work and Khun Voravud held onto fourth place for the moment.
However over the first sector of the next lap Khun Henk got past both the Ferrari and the Toyota and into third place and immediately set about chasing down his teammate. Khun Voravud who was going backwards fast now quickly had to fend off the attentions of his teammate Khun Kantasak.
With three laps to go Khun Henk had closed down the two and a half second gap to his teammate while behind him Khun Nattapong fell away and in turn the two Ferraris also dropped back from the Toyota, the gaps were opening up now even if Khun Voravud and Khun Kantasak were running nose to tail.
With a couple of laps to go Khun Aekarat locked onto Khun Kantasak who had now dropped a few lengths away from his teammate and this was the last gasp battle for the final podium step. However further forward it was all going off as Khun Henk squeezed past Khun Daniel and set about reeling in the white Lamborghini.
For the first time all weekend Khun Sarun was under real pressure and Khun Henk closed right in, the margin as the flag was waved was just 0.728 of a second. It was a sensational finish – at least in terms of track position – as Khun Henk was then slapped with a 60-second penalty for a flag infringement and that dropped him down to ninth place.
So in the end Khun Sarun had an 8.475 second cushion over Khun Daniel who came home runner up, his third top-three finishing position of the weekend. For his second GTM season the Australian has switched to an Audi and it’s reaped instant dividends as he was on the front running pace all through the three races, leading the chase to the seemingly invincible Lamborghini at the front.
For Khun Sarun it was a case of job well done, he didn’t put a foot wrong all week. He first arrived in Super Car two years ago and promptly began to learn his new trade. He drafted in a very experienced team manager Khun Somboon Kittitanagorn to head up the operation and has been coached by Japanese pro star Khun Keita Sawa, taking that learning process out of Thailand and onto tracks such as Fuji Speedway were he’s tested multiple cars while he also competed in a one off race in the Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific earlier this season. Both Khun Sarun and his team are highly ambitious, thoroughly prepared and really want to win. The final piece in the jigsaw was to acquire a Huracán, currently the benchmark ‘Cup’ level car – and so all the ingredients were in place to make the step from podium regular to race winner. And he also swatted away the old adage that nice guys don’t come first. He has an advantage leaving Buriram; the question now is can he defend that lead for the rest of the season?
Khun Nattapong upheld Toyota’s honour after his teammate retired early on with a battling drive to fourth place, certainly he worked hard for that, while, having been forced to ship in a replacement car after his major crash the previous day, Khun Voravud had a very decent reward for all the team’s efforts with a trip to the podium in fourth place and his teammate Khun Kantasak followed him home, three seconds back, to make it both Ferraris on the rostrum.
Then came Khun Aekarat while behind him there was a half-minute gap before Khun Saravut came through to win the AM class for the second day in a row. That was also his second straight win – and in fact only his second ever race in Super Car as he missed the start of Friday’s race – and with his brother winning overall that was a second consecutive day that the family locked out the top step of both Super Car podiums.
Khun Paul was runner up in AM, his third runners up slot of the weekend and in all three races he had chased the winner across the line. Race 3 was no different and the gap was just half a second. He moves into the lead of the AM championship standings thanks to that impressive form. Third in AM went to Khun Paul’s teammate Khun Naputt who visited the pits after his tangle with Khun Craig and eventually came home two laps down with a ill handling car, but, most importantly for his efforts he was still classified as a finisher and collected points.
In the overall (PRO-AM) Drivers’ championship (provisional) after one round and three races Khun Sarun streaks into the classification lead with 60 points, the highest score possible from the weekend. Khun Daniel is second with 42 points and then comes Khun Kantasak with 27 points. Then it’s Khun Nattapong (22), Khun Aekarat (20), Khun Henk (16), Khun Voravud and Khun Craig (14), Khun Nattavude (12) and Khun Pitsanu (3).
Meanwhile in the AM class (provisional standings) with three runners up spots Khun Paul leads the way in the table with 45 points followed by Khun Saravut (40), thanks to his double win, Khun Naputt (24) and Khun Pinet (20) for his Race 1 victory.
In the Teams’ championship (provisional) Racing Spirit PSC Motorsport has 67 points, thanks to that sensational triple overall win by Khun Sarun plus the efforts of Khun Saravut in mopping up additional points while B-Quik Racing, with four podiums from the weekend, is next up with 54 points ahead of Singha Motorsport Team Thailand (41) which did well in damage limitation mode from a very tough weekend. Then comes Toyota Team Thailand (34) which bagged three podium finishes, A Motorsport (22), Yokohama Kiwi Racing (14), Painkiller Racing (7) and GFPT H-Drive (3) complete the points scorers.