The anticipation of Super Car GTM’s annual appearance at Bira International Circuit last weekend had hung heavy in the air – and then a blisteringly hot weekend in the Pattaya countryside for Thailand Super Series (TSS) was equally matched by the sizzling action on track. But try as everyone might – and his rivals really pushed him hard over every single lap – Sarun Sereethoranakul relentlessly continued his strategy of chasing the title from the front.

Following a stunning qualifying performance Sarun claimed two superb and well judged victories in the race after turning in two inch perfect drives as the dazzling Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo LP620-2 proved just as adept around tight and twisty Bira Circuit as it had on the long power straights and fast flowing corners of Buriram. He dominated the weekend when others had been expected to take centre stage and in just 72 hours, Sarun, in only his third year competing in Super Car, went from being one of the fastest rising stars of Thai motorsport to one of our genuine top names, joining a handful of our best drivers that are guaranteed winning material. It was job superb done and easily the best drive of his career so far.

The title is almost won – almost. Sarun will go into the season closing triple-header in Bangsaen in two month’s time needing just 7 points – with a maximum of 60 points being available. Few would be prepared to bet against a new name appearing on the most prestigious trophy in Thai motorsport. But it’s not quite all over yet.

Singha Motorsport Team Thailand was back with a bang at Bira Circuit. The Ferrari 458 Challenge doesn’t suit the characteristics of Buriram too well and they generally had a pretty torrid time in the North East. But unleash the Prancing Horse cars around Bira and they’re immediately a force to be reckoned with. The led the practice sessions, missed pole by a few fractions and proceeded to chase the Lamborghini to the finishline in both races. A pair of 2-3 finishes for Kantasak Kusiri and Voravud Bhirombhakdi bounced the team right into contention in the Teams’ championship and come the season closer in Bangsaen in November they are very well placed to nab the title.

There were many giant performances throughout the field last weekend. The Porsche 991 GT3 Cup suited Bira Circuit well and that unleashed Aekarat Discharoen and Pitsanu Sirimongkolkasem. These two proven quantities were in the hunt for the podium positions in both races and their dueling provided non-stop standout action. Both enjoyed well-deserved trips to the rostrum during the weekend.

B-Quik Racing’s Daniel Bilski provided one of the comeback drives of the weekend, in Race 2 he fought his way from the back of the grid to the podium to get a decent reward for his efforts. The Toyotas though had a terrible time, a reversal of their dominant form during the last round in Buriram. They departed with no points to their name and slip from the summit of the Teams’ championship standings. But there is still all to play for in Bangsaen.

Bira always dishes up a thriller and certainly this year was no different, the fans were treated to two spectacular races in Super Car GTM with drama occurring on almost every lap. Now it’s onto the season finale on the streets of Bangsaen in two month’s time – it’s a triple-header too and as usual expect the season to wrap up in style.

Super Car GTM Race 1: Saturday (Race 6 of the year).

The tension was crackling in the air as the grid formed up for the mid afternoon start especially so as the top runners were very evenly matched after qualifying. The two Singha Motorsport Team Thailand Ferraris had stamped their mark during the free practice sessions but come last Friday’s official 30-minute qualifying run the sleek white Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo LP620-2 of championship leader Sarun Sereethoranakul had slammed in a perfect lap to edge the red cars out of P1 by fractions – it really was fractions too, the exact gap was 0.018 of a second! That lap, in 1:00.677, lowered the benchmark for GTM category cars and in fact the first three cars on the qualifying timesheet all went sub-1:01. There was everything to play for as the cars lined up in the heat.

With just hundredths of a second in hand Sarun assumed pole ahead of the 2015 Super Car GTM Drivers’ Champion Kantasak Kusiri; the youngster really knows this track better than anyone else and doesn’t want to be beaten here either. Pride is at stake. Then came Team Owner Voravud Bhirombhakdi, the 2014 Super Car GTM Drivers’ Champion, just 0.190 seconds adrift of his teammate and you really had an explosive cocktail when the lights went green for 28 laps of racing on a very hot and dry afternoon in the Pattaya countryside. The Ferraris, which had been thoroughly uncomfortable in Buriram during the opening two rounds of the year, looked blisteringly fast here, with a good setup and the two drivers attacked the circuit on every lap.

It all meant the top three on the grid were covered by just two tenths of a second – and the Ferraris, which had dominated the practice sessions but were pegged back when it counted, clearly intended to make a game of the weekend.

Then came the two Porsche 991 GT3 Cups of Aekarat Discharoen and Pitsanu Sirimongkolkasem, the German racecars looking much more at home here. Next up was the first B-Quik Racing Audi R8 LMS Cup, the #27 of Daniel Bilski, while his teammate Henk Kiks, in the sister #26 car, was two places further back in seventh. The Audi is a racecar that’s much suited to the smooth and fast characteristics of Buriram and looked less at ease here at Bira. The drivers though were hauling it round with aplomb and building their up confidence with every lap.

In between the black and yellow cars was the fastest of the two factory Toyotas, the #38 of Nattapong Horthongkum; he had been the double winner of the previous round in Buriram but wasn’t able to carry that scintillating form over to Bira. It was even worse for his teammate Nattavude Charoensukhawatana who had a major off at the treacherous Parabolica-aping ‘100R’ curve during qualifying. He ended up with the #39 car resting on its roof and then suffered a fire but would still line up eleventh on the grid after the Toyota mechanics had worked overnight to repair the battered car.

From the green lights the pack stayed pretty much in grid order as the cars headed downhill towards Turn 2 with Kantasak slotting in behind Sarun. Into Turn 3 the Lamborghini went a bit wide and the Ferrari took a quick look but there wasn’t enough space.

Sarun then demonstrated exactly why he’s leading the championship by a comfortable margin against the cream of the drivers racing in Thailand today as he turned in a lesson in cool, calm and collected racing. For 28 relentless laps he had a red Ferrari lodged large in his rear view mirrors, first the #34 of Kantasak and latterly the #89 of Voravud, and for 28 laps he didn’t put a foot wrong, even on occasion dealing calmly and capably with errant cars he was lapping that allowed the Ferraris to lock onto his rear bumper.

It was only at the very end of the race that the Ferraris stumbled while lapping a car and that allowed the Lamborghini to stroll away and cross the line with a 9 second cushion over Kantasak.

That hard fought win allowed Sarun to break through the 100-points barrier for the first time this year as he extended his advantage in the overnight points classification to 107 points with Kantasak moving up into second place with 62 points and level pegging with the zero points scoring Nattapong. Sarun also posted the fastest lap of the race in 1:01.838.

The Ferraris never gave up the chase though and all race the two red cars were locked onto the tail of the Lamborghini. From the start it was Kantasak who led the charge although later in the race the two teammates swapped places. It didn’t make any difference as it was the same story, they were always a couple of car lengths behind and unable to make a pass on this narrow track when such evenly matched drivers and cars were involved.

After struggling to make an impact during the opening two rounds of the year in Buriram the Porsches came back into their own at Bira, the rough and ready nature of this track better suiting the German racecars and the final steps of the podium were occupied by the two top 991 runners. Aekarat and Pitsanu were very evenly matched. They would trade places during the race with the ‘gold’ Porsche squeezing past but Aekarat didn’t give up the chase and he would eventually wrest the place back.

Before that though the Toyotas came into the mix. At the start the two Audis dropped back and that left the red and white cars locked onto the tail of the two Porsches. The fast starting Nattavude passed his teammate Nattapong and then picked off Aekarat after getting the inside line into Turn 2. However after then bridging the gap to Pitsanu he got the #39 Toyota crossed up into Turn 3, heading down the inside across the grass and coming out in front of Pitsanu before spinning on the exit. The Audis came round seconds later and Daniel, without anywhere to go, went straight into the side of the Toyota. Both eventually got away but were now right at the back.

Daniel then performed a superb fightback up the field, which included reprising his efforts to get past the Holden of Craig Corliss in Buriram once more, he had to push very hard to find space to move up, eventually getting a run past the big green machine through Turn 1 and making it stick at Turn 2 where he had to jink inside a slower AM class Porsche which was being lapped.

Meanwhile, on his eighteenth lap, Nattapong, who had battled past Pitsanu and into the podium positions crashed out at the 100R turn in an almost exact reprise of his teammate’s accident in qualifying the day before. This time though it wasn’t so severe, the car remaining upright albeit lodged up against the tyre barrier.

As the race went into the dying stages the running order settled down but there was still a big sting in the tail to come right at the very end as the leading group – the two Ferraris were continuing to harry the Lamborghini – when it all went pear-shaped through the S2 chicane as Voravud, in second place, got caught up lapping a car and spun and that left his teammate Kantasak scrambling across the grass on the inside followed by the lapped Toyota of Nattavude while on the outside a pair of AM class Porsche drivers, Saravut Sereethoranakul and Paul Kanjanapas, went the other way with the latter spinning but recovering.

While that mêlée was unfolding behind him Sarun was able to canter to the flag with 9 seconds in hand over Kantasak who regained second place as his teammate Voravud spun and took much more time to recover; the gap between the two Ferraris was 10 seconds at the line. Voravud had the Porsches on his tail as Aekarat and Pitsanu locked down the final two podium steps.

Sixth place went to Suttiluck, a decent finish on his return to the series after engine problems with his #78 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup kept him out of the last round.

The black and yellow Audis came home in seventh and eighth places with the Henk edging out his teammate Daniel who had to fight through from the back. The Australian, although regretting having been faced with a Toyota sideways on out of Turn 3 at the start of the race, was however satisfied with the pace he had unlocked from the car over the 28 lapper. “It was a little disappointing as I was caught up in someone else’s accident, with nowhere to go,” Daniel said. “I lost a lot of time getting going again, but was really pleased to set the second fastest race lap, only 0.14 seconds behind the crazy-fast Lamborghini. I was happy with how I recovered from the incident and, after dropping to last place, finishing in P8 was a decent result.”

In the AM class Naputt Assakul finally claimed his first win of the year having threatened to do so for quite a few races. He turned in a polished performance and jettisoned his usual rough edges and customary spins. Taking the lead very early on Naputt streaked away from his rivals. His Painkiller Racing teammate Paul started on pole but slipped behind Naputt and then Saravut to however come home in third place but still collect useful points to consolidate his lead in the AM championship standings. Saravut, on his first race at Bira Circuit, had a decent run to finish second in class.

Finally Tosaphol Phamyai in the Morseng Racing Team by N-Sports Nissan had another busy learning weekend as he got to grips with the big GT-R around Bira Circuit. He had a spin at Turn 11 during the race and eventually completed 24 laps, which left him just outside the classified finishers.

Super Car GTM Race 2: Sunday (Race 7 of the year).

The grid had a very familiar feel as Sarun parked up the menacing Lamborghini on pole position, with Kantasak’s Ferrari alongside. Then came Voravud, Aekarat, Nattapong, Pitsanu and Daniel.

At the green lights and into Turn 2 for the first time the Lamborghini held the advantage with Voravud getting a better run to slot into second ahead of Kantasak and Nattapong, the Toyota getting ahead of Aekarat, followed by Pitsanu, the two Audis of Daniel and Henk and then Suttiluck and Craig and the second Toyota of Nattavude.

Henk though had a terrible opening lap. Hit by another car from behind into Turn 2 he suffered electrical problems after that and the Audi switched into limp mode out of the S2 chicane which allowed Suttiluck and Craig to go straight up the inside of the Audi into Turn 11. In the cockpit the Dutchman had to reset the electronics and that allowed the rest of the runners to power past the trundling #26 Audi. However that reboot did the trick and he was back in the race and immediately playing catch up. Henk would spend the rest of the race fighting his way back up the order and was eventually rewarded with sixth place for his efforts.

Behind the PRO-AM runners Paul had assumed the AM lead from pole ahead of his teammate Naputt and Saravut although on the run uphill into the S1 chicane on the next lap the two Painkiller Porsches would swap places.

On the third lap Nattapong pulled up on the outside between Turn 3 and Turn 4, his race was over and that was his second DNF of the weekend, a zero points score from the trip to Pattaya. After his double win in Buriram Nattapong had hauled himself into second place in the Drivers’ classification and placed himself as the best of the chasers still trying to challenge Sarun for the title. However within little more than 5 km of Sunday’s race completed his title ambitions were well and truly buried.

Pitsanu elbowed his way past Aekarat as the Porsche drivers once again dueled over fourth place. The big incident that would impact the race and would lead to knock on consequences was unfolding a few turns further back as Craig and Suttiluck disputed seventh place. The Porsche came though on the short run down from S1 to S2 but the Holden driver ended up with nowhere to go apart from onto the kerbs and straight across the gravel on the inside of the second chicane. He bounced through the trap and rejoined the track, albeit minus chunks of front bodywork.

Tosaphol had a sideways moment through 100R, bouncing the front of the Nissan sideways across the kerbs on the inside, but successfully collected the car and rejoined.

Just after one third race distance, on the eleventh lap, Nattavude slowed up with a broken steering rod and pitted. That was both Toyotas out of the running for a second day. After their clean sweep of wins at the last round it was back down to earth for the factory team with a zero score from the weekend. Buriram’s dominance had elevated Toyota to the top of the Teams’ classification but the retirements in Bira would cost them dear as they would slide down to third spot in the standings thanks to strong points finishes for Racing Spirit PSC Motorsport and Singha Motorsport Team Thailand.

The biggest battle of Sunday’s race was between Pitsanu and Aekarat for fourth place – there was simply nothing between them as the A Motorsport driver’ piled on the pressure for lap after lap. Daniel in the #27 Audi had a ringside view as he reeled them in and eventually locked onto the tail of Aekarat.

Craig’s trip through the gravel trap had ripped away part of his front spoiler and splitter and the resulting damage saw him spring a fluid leak through 100R curve on the nineteenth lap which ended in oil spinning the car around 360-degrees into S1 and leaving him lodged on the grass on the inside of the chicane’s exit.

The big looser was Pitsanu who hit the fluid and lost grip through 100R, bouncing into the tyre barriers hard on the outside. It was a bitter blow for this driver, who is in his second year in GTM, and was only returning to the action after his Porsche had suffered extensive damage during the season opener. On both occasions the driver was blameless. This time there was damage all down the left hand side of the car although the driver reported that the team is aiming to repair the damage in time for the season closer in Bangsaen. Daniel also had a moment on the oil and was lucky to escape unscathed.

With oil over several hundred metres of the track the red flags were swiftly waved and the race stopped. The cars pulled up in line astern on the grid to await the restart. The white Lamborghini headed the train of cars just as it had done right from the green lights at the start of the previous day. Behind Sarun lined up the two Ferraris, Voravud and Kantasak, and then the came the Porsche of Aekarat and the two Audis of Daniel and Henk and the Porsche of Suttiluck. The AM class order meanwhile was Naputt leading Paul and Saravut.

The race was restarted and shortened with two formation laps before the green flag waved again to signal a dash for the flag. The pack made a clean start and Sarun seemed to have the race well under control as he swiftly pulled out three or four cars lengths by the time the cars streamed through Turn 3.

While Sarun disappeared into the distance and had 4.982 seconds in hand when the checkered flag waved after 27 laps, there was a five car train chasing second place: Voravud, Kantasak, Aekarat, Daniel and Henk. Aekarat pushed the Ferrari in front very hard but wasn’t able to make a pass stick and the quintet crossed the finishline nose to tail. Three and a half seconds further back Suttiluck came home in seventh place.

In the AM class battle Naputt took his second win of the weekend to haul himself into the title fight. He started second on the AM grid but took the class lead from Paul into the S2 chicane on the second lap. These results represented his breakthrough wins in AM after a run of one second and three third places from the opening five races. During both races he had been in command and in the final race he eased out a six second cushion after the race restarted following the red flag period.

“I’m over the moon after I finished Race 6, but very scared coming to Race 7 because it was too good to be true,” Naputt said afterward. “So I was expecting something bad to happen and so I drove even more carefully and took little to no risk at all. I ended the weekend with a double win and [it’s the] first time in my racing career that I haven’t spun once for the entire weekend.”

Paul took second place to add to his third the day before, fending off the attentions of Saravut for almost the entire race. With the attrition rate of the race the trio of AM drivers also squeezed into the top ten finishing in eighth, ninth and tenth place respectively.

What a winner though! This was a big, big weekend when Sarun and his team came to tricky and difficult Bira Circuit with a points advantage to defend. He didn’t just sit back and collect points, which would have been the easy option on a track that has destroyed many ambitions in its history. Instead he took the event by the scruff of the neck, planted the Lamborghini on pole position and proceeded to win both races from the front. He fought off relentless pressure and marked himself out as a true champion.

The winner was delighted – and so he should have been. “To race in Bira circuit with supercar is quite special,” Sarun said. “Our team did a very hard job to adjust car for Bira circuit, we did testing and learnt a lot. To win this I have to do everything perfectly with a good car, a matched car setup and perfect driving in extremely the competitive races in Thailand Super Series. That was my best racing weekend.”

Sarun has usefully now done the heavy lifting in the Drivers’ championship ahead of November’s demanding triple-header finale in Bangsaen. He’s banged in an incredible five wins from seven races so far this year and that moves him up to 127 points. His closest rival is Kantasak with 74 points and that means even if the Ferrari driver wins all three GTM races in Bangsaen Sarun needs to collect just 7 points to be sure of sealing the title – out of the maximum of 60 points on offer at the seaside races.

There is a big fight brewing for second place though as Kantasak (74 points), Daniel (67 points) and Nattapong (62 points) are all pretty close together in the classification. And with a triple helping of points on offer, Aekarat (47 points), Voravud (46 points), Nattavude (39 points) and Henk (36 points) will all be looking to move up the leaderboard.

In the AM class Paul has consolidated his lead with a second and third place and that puts him onto 107 points. However a maximum score of 40 points for his teammate Naputt moves him up to 91 points and within striking distance. The title is still Paul’s to loose though – he will have to knuckle down and grind out the results in Bangsaen, a place that’s always tough to come to. Saravut moves up to 77 points thanks to his second and third places last weekend.

In the Team’s championship Sarun’s double win returns Racing Spirit PSC Motorsport to the top spot, it’s now on 135 points, after it slipped behind Toyota in the rankings following the last round in Buriram. However Singha Motorsport Team Thailand is the big winner in the Teams’ standings from the trip to Bira Circuit and it moves up to second place with 120 points. The Ferrari team is now only 15 points adrift of the top and fielding two front running cars versus one from Racing Spirit PSC Motorsport and that means with three points scoring races to come in Bangsaen the defending champion team is very well positioned to retain the title.

Without any points from last weekend Toyota slips to third place in the classification as it remains on 101 points, but it’s also not quite out of the running for the title although it’s an unlikely prospect, while B-Quik Racing drops one place to fourth in the classification as it has 78 points. A Motorsport, with 49 points, rounds out the top five in the Teams’ rankings.