The growing internationalism of Thailand Super Series (TSS) continued unabated during the last round at Bira Circuit as more driver names with global recognition arrived in the paddock. Leading those out was Malaysia’s former Formula 1 driver Khun Alex Yoong who arrived at the Pattaya circuit to help B-Quik Racing get further up to speed with their Audi R8 LMS Cup in the build up to race weekend.

There was another international name in the paddock too, Vin Diesel, and despite not being at the wheel of a racecar he immediately stopped everyone dead in their tracks. It wasn’t quite the superstar A-list actor of ‘Fast & Furious’ fame although ‘Vin’ certainly helped to spice up the show as he stopped off at Bira Circuit to take a look at the fastest and most furious drivers in Thailand engaging in race action while he was on his way to a longer appointment at Madame Tussauds in Bangkok.

Strength in depth is the secret of TSS, building a comprehensive programme that will not only keep the fans entertained throughout the day but also provide a seamless platform to allow drivers to progress their careers and fight for glory in individually challenging categories that have developed loyal followings and distinct identities in their own right.

Two highly competitive categories that tick all those boxes are Super Pickup and Super Production and they both enjoyed explosive encounters at Bira Circuit that kept the crowds enthralled.

Alex Yoong revs up B-Quik challenge

There was a new name lurking in the TSS paddock at Bira Circuit last month. And no ordinary name either, in fact it was a driver with global recognition, Malaysia’s former Formula 1 superstar Khun Alex Yoong.

His arrival at Bira Circuit actually joined up a few of the dots of history as Khun Alex became the first South East Asian driver to join F1 since Prince Bira himself raced with success in grands prix half a century earlier, when the Malaysian debuted at Monza for the Minardi team during the Italian F1 Grand Prix in 2001. After a late season programme with the little team from Faenza he again drove for them throughout most of the following year before going on to pursue his career in leading international racing series including Champ Car, A1 Grand Prix, GP3 Asia Series and Porsche Carrera Cup.

Today Khun Alex is one of the best-known drivers in Asia and is currently embedded with Audi. He’s the reigning champion of Audi’s ‘R8 Cup’ pan-Asian ‘one make’ series and is leading the points standings thus far this year. That deep Audi connection doesn’t stop there, this year for example he led out the first ever all-Asian entry in the legendary Nürburgring 24 Hours driving an Audi R8 LMS Cup and in fact the crew came home an impressive twelfth overall. So really there isn’t anyone who knows the car better or can get more out of it.

The connection that brought him to Bira Circuit was a pretty simple one too, as, while Khun Alex is a contracted Audi Sport factory driver, B-Quik Racing is an Audi Sport customer team, running the familiar ‘bumblebee’ black and yellow #26 Audi R8 LMS Cup in TSS for a second consecutive year driven by Khun Henk Kiks.

The link between the two parties was actually only made a few days before the TSS teams started pitching up at Bira Circuit in the final build up to the race weekend. “Henk was up in Malaysia at Sepang at the Audi Cup round which I race in and I think he was talking to Audi and Absolute Racing abut sorting out the car and they asked me and [factory engineer] Ruben [Silva] if we wanted to come down,” explained Khun Alex. “Of course we wanted to come down and have a go and I’m always very happy to help.”

There were more dots joined up as B-Quik Racing this year is running a car in Audi’s popular ‘R8 Cup’ one make race series for the first time, which is also organised by Absolute Racing. Khun Daniel Bilski, who is piloting B-Quik’s Porsche 997 GT3 Cup in Super Car Class 2-GTM this year, his debut season in TSS, is also driving the team’s debut entry in the Audi R8 Cup. In fact Khun Ingo Matter, Team Director of Absolute Racing, joined B-Quik as a guest for the weekend but his arrival in the garage didn’t quite overlap with Khun Alex’s time with the team.

In the lead up to the weekend Khun Alex joined the team at Bira on the Wednesday and Thursday, especially useful timing as the team was bedding in a new suspension system. “For me mostly it’s just been working with the engineers to make sure what we need to have on the car is actually on the car, and try out a few little setup things with the new dampers which give the team more scope to have adjustments for the future and a lot more flexibility to adjust the car for the conditions and also a bit of driver coaching,” said Khun Alex.

For a driver that has raced pretty intensively across Asia over a long and successful career he hasn’t been on the grid at Bira Circuit before – although he did enjoy a few laps of the track more than twenty years ago. “I’ve never raced here, I’ve only ever driven here once, I think in 1993 or 1994,” he says. “I can’t remember what car it was, I had come to have a look at a race and they let me go around for a few laps and to be honest I don’t remember anything of the track.” Google isn’t helpful about this brief visit either.

However Khun Alex, who has raced on most of the world’s leading racetracks, such as Silverstone, Indianapolis, Interlagos, Suzuka, Monaco and Long Beach, professed to have enjoyed the tight and twisty confines of Bira Circuit as his two-day test workload wound up on the Thursday afternoon – although he admitted that he wasn’t pushing too hard and his priority was to take good care of the Audi.

“When I went round yesterday this track is quite interesting, it’s a very tricky track to drive it’s actually quite fun, there are nice elevation changes,” he said. “But it’s very unforgiving so we’ve been super careful because [if] you make a small mistake you can write off the car in the wall.”

Khun Alex also reckons that Audi’s R8 LMS Cup, which was originally built for ‘one make’ level racing, suits the demanding nature of Bira Circuit, which plays to its inherent strengths. “It’s very good, if you look at Audi’s history it’s very good, it always wins Macau, it does well at the Nürburgring and especially in the wet,” he says.

“It’s the fastest GT3 car I’ve ever driven in the wet and that’s because this car produces a lot of mechanical grip, so for these sort of conditions when it’s very bumpy and a lot of undulations this car produces a lot of grip and I can go as fast as I want over the kerbs and it doesn’t really throw it,” he added.

B-Quik Racing spent the two days of pre-race testing mainly focused around fitting a new MCS-built suspension and then setting up the racecar to suit, while Khun Alex also gave tuition to Khun Henk to further understanding the characteristics of the ‘R8’ and extract more of its potential.

Although this was just a short two day test session for Khun Alex in his capacity as an Audi factory driver there is however the possibility that in the future that he could well become the second former Formula 1 driver to race in TSS and that’s really a development which would be welcomed by the fans and could really shake up the Super Car order.

Bira Race Report: Super Pickup

Khun Aekaluck Nakkerd lined up on pole for the first Super Pickup race of the Bira weekend with Khun Jaras Jaengkamolkulchai alongside but when the lights flickered to green and the trucks thundered away on the run down to Turn 1 it was the veteran campaigner that needed no invitation to move ahead and into the race lead as he seized the initiative and powered his way round the outside of the polesitter through Turn 2.

It would be a lead he wouldn’t relinquish for the next 22 laps, Khun Jaras successfully leading the pack all the way to the checkered flag. After two runners up spots and a third place from the first four races of the year the former champion was back on the top step of the podium in his regular Chevrolet Colorado after an emphatic performance.

In fact at the finish Khun Jaras had a 7.017 second cushion over his teammate Khun Songsak Kornsirisuepsakun (Isuzu D-Max) who had fought his way up to the runners up spot from fifth place as the trucks went darting through the opening turns on lap 1. He lost his front spoiler early on but that didn’t seem to hinder him very much as he picked off the front-runners. Khun Songsak couldn’t bridge the gap to his teammate out front but the 15 points he collected for second place allowed him to extend his title advantage overnight.

Third place overall went to Khun Phisit Netdechathanasit who also won Class B after a neat and tidy race. The Mazda BT-50 driver finished just three seconds away from Khun Songsak in front and five second ahead of Khun Pheerawat Pajeeyachart (Mitsubishi Triton) who won Class B to extend his lead in the category championship classification.

Next up, in fifth place overall, was Khun Nuthaporn Namjuk (Isuzu) who was also second in Class B followed by Khun Philip Massoud (Isuzu), the Krating Daeng driver neatly nabbing second place in Class C. Notable retirements included Akasit Kriengkomol (Isuzu) who took the fight to Khun Songsak for the front running positions mid race but dropped out after 14 laps and Khun Aekaluck who went off and retired three laps later dealing a big blow to his overall title hopes. Meanwhile after looking all set for a podium finish Khun Waris Onyarab’s Isuzu failed a post-race technical check and was excluded.

The final race of the weekend was action packed from start to finish but when the dust settled the top two finishers were exactly the same as the day before with Khun Jaras beating his teammate Khun Songsak to the win, again by a reasonably comfortable margin, this time 4.3-seconds.

It actually hadn’t started so promisingly for Khun Jaras who took to the grass with two wheels on the outside of the track as he tried to make up places at the green lights thanks to the top five reverse grid for the second race putting him down onto the third row. He had a real door banging moment with Khun Phisit who was squeezed between Khun Songsak’s Isuzu on the other side but after a big wobble the Innovation Motorsport driver kept his Mazda on the track but lost a few places. Khun Phisit’s truck was damaged though and his pace immediately dropped and eventually late in the race he retired.

Khun Philip spun on lap 1 as a leak from the transmission dropped fluid onto the rear wheels and that put him out of the reckoning in Class C. The Australian immediately pitted and eventually rejoined the action 6 laps later after the Krating Daeng mechanics had fixed the problem.

The Australian though would have a lonely race running well off the back of the pack to the checkered flag. However coming home 6 laps down kept him inside the required distance to score championship points in Class C and so it would be a worthwhile afternoon’s work.

The opening laps were quite frantic and one front-runner, Khun Akasit, pulled off at Turn 2 on the second lap and was out while the Toyota Vigo of Khun Ekasit Namsaengpa had a spin on the opening lap but kept going.

Meanwhile, thanks to the reversed top five on the grid from the previous day, Khun Nuthaporn had started the race from pole and he led the pack round the first lap but was immediately under intense pressure from Khun Jaras and Khun Songsak, the two front runners pushing through and into the lead within a few turns as did Khun Peerawat and Khun Nuthaporn’s teammate Khun Aekaluck. Just behind him Khun Waris picked off the struggling Khun Phisit and then started to pressurise Khun Nuthaporn, eventually passing him on the fourth lap.

However after Khun Jaras registered the win in the first race his teammate Khun Songsak simply wasn’t hanging about but he would drop away before mounting a fightback during the remainder of the race.

With 6 laps completed Khun Jaras had hauled out a 2.5 second advantage at the front while Khun Pheerawat was now being forced to defend from Khun Waris who was swarming all over the back of his truck.

By lap 7, and already someway behind the front runners, Khun Phisit was struggling with his damaged truck and was backing the pack up as he had Khun Worawut, Khun Aekaluck and Khun Wuttichai stacked up behind him.

On the tenth lap the Safety Car was deployed and that temporarily halted the action as the pack regrouped. Khun Nuthaporn was off on uphill between Turns 2 and 3.

Four laps later the race went back to green flag conditions and the big battle was centered on Khun Phisit who had Khun Worawut Suthumpong (Isuzu) all over him over the closing laps. Meanwhile Khun Waris overcooked it into Turn 2 on the twentieth lap and spun, bouncing back over the grass and onto the track but not loosing any places as the field was mostly spreading out.

Khun Songsak was now right back in the game and engaged in a frantic battle for the runners up spot with Khun Aekaluck while on lap 20 Khun Phisit’s Mazda finally cried enough and he pulled off the track and parked up.

That was the action over and Khun Jaras led the pack home after 21 laps with a 4.381-second advantage over Khun Songsak who had successfully held back Khun Aekaluck, the latter harrying the former over the closing laps of the race. Khun Waris and Khun Peerawat completed the top five finishers with the latter claiming the Class C victory, his second of the weekend.

In the championship standings Khun Songsak’s two runners up spots move him up to 105 points and he looks a dead cert for the title. Two wins for Khun Jaras gave him the maximum available score for the weekend, but he now has 82 points and is 23 points adrift of the top of the classification with two more point scoring races remaining. Khun Aekaluck (69 points) and Khun Nuthaporn (48 points) are third and fourth on the overall standings. In Class B meanwhile Khun Aekaluck (95 points) leads Khun Nuthaporn (69 points) and Khun Phisit (55 pits).

In Class C Khun Pheerawat took two wins from the two races to virtually assure himself of the class title, he’s totted up 97 points now, with Khun Philip (64 points), Khun Wuttichai (58 points) and Khun Songkran (48 points) next up.

Bira race Report: Super Production

There was really one name to watch out for in Super Production as the weekend kicked off. Khun Yotsarun Sansuk arrived at Bira Circuit carrying very impressive form with him from the last round in Buriram and all eyes were on whether he could maintain that momentum. Bira is a different story to Buriram and it’s the one track every driver on the grid knows the best. As it was his form didn’t slip an inch. He grasped hold of the races in no uncertain terms, winning both and bagging a maximum haul of points that puts him into a slender lead in the championship classification with just one round and two races remaining to be contested, at Bangsaen in November.

In Saturday’s first race, pole sitter Khun Anusorn Asiralertsiri’s poor season continued and he was absent even before the grid lined up. Instead it was Khun Chattraphol Jiemvijid who made a great start from the front row to get the better of a side by side with Khun Yotsarun on the first lap to lead the pack over the line for the first time as the cars surged onto lap two.

Khun Poomee Phromatham, who looks to be getting more and more to grips with his new Honda Jazz during his rookie year in Super Production, took third while into fourth place went Khun Tony Percy, who had an improved car for this race, albeit still some way from where he wants it to be but he capitalised on a tardy start for Khun Nattanid Leewattanavaragul to move past her.

Khun Yotsarun was pressing Khun Chattraphol very hard for P1 but out of Turn 2 he got two wheels off the track and despite a wobble he kept the power down and squeezed out the race leader into the hairpin to move into the lead. Super stuff! Khun Poomee and Khun Tony took full advantage of the RMI Jazz running wide at the hairpin to both dive through and demote Khun Chattraphol to P4.

Khun Poomee now pressurised the race leader but the recovering Khun Nattanid audaciously worked her way up to P2 while Khun Tony dropped back as his handling went off.

Khun Pong Trakulthong had earlier ran wide and lost a lot of places while the RMI Jazz of Khun Thanawat Wongnapachant went off into the gravel at the hairpin on the twelfth lap and that saw the Safety Car being deployed.

Behind the Safety Car the top ten was made up of Khun Yotsarun, Khun Nattanid, Khun Poomee, Khun Chattraphol, Khun Sirisak, Khun Tony, Khun Anon, Khun Settasit, Khun Nattachak and Khun Ray.

At the restart, with just a lap to go, Khun Yotsarun got cleanly away although he had to soak up a bit of pressure from Khun Nattanid through the first few turns and he made a mistake, running a little wide out of the hairpin and putting two wheels just over the kerbs and onto the grass, but in reality he retained full control of the race and guided the field round the final flying lap to take his second win in three races.

Behind the #86 Honda City came Khun Nattanid, another very highly impressive performance from the young lady driver who, along with the winner, Khun Yotsarun, is proving to be the revelation of the Super Production season. She kept her cool after a slow getaway at the green lights and fought her way back into contention. That was also her third straight Class C victory. In fact Khun Nattanid came into the event with a slender 3-point lead in the Class C classification over Khun Thanawat and with the latter retiring from the race after 11 laps she opened up a 28-ponit lead in the provisional championship standings overnight.

Third place went to Khun Poomee who is improving steadily in his debut year in Super Production and that was his best result to date, building on his fourth place at the previous round in Buriram.

Fourth went to Khun Chattraphol and with joint championship leader Khun Thanasit failing to score that meant the RMI driver moved into the provisional championship lead overnight. Fifth place, meanwhile, went to Khun Sirisak – and that crucially would give him pole position for Sunday’s race.

Next up was Khun Tony who dropped away as the race progressed and ended up in a frantic last lap battle with Khun Anon and Khun Settasit for P6. Khun Anon bounced all over the runoff on the exit of S1 but somehow kept it together although Khun Settasit tried to take advantage down the inside of the #18 Honda City through Turn 11 although he was rebuffed. Khun Anon however would be docked 30 seconds after the race for having passed earlier under a yellow flag and that dropped him to the back of the classification, which gave the OMP Vattana driver P7.

Khun Ray MacDonald had a tidy race after finally debuting his newly built Jazz GK and he was next up, the actor-racer more importantly also claiming the runners up spot in Class C, while Khun Rungravi Thirakon and Khun Nattachak Hanjitkasem wrapped up the top ten overall.

In eleventh place was Khun Moh Tze Yang who took third in class C while twelfth and thirteenth places went to the two factory-supported Innovation Motorsport Mazda2 machines of Khun Michael Freeman and Khun Tachapan Vijittranon. The tight confines of Bira Circuit suited these turbodiesel racecars much more than Buriram had and they looked a lot closer to the race pace. The cars’ steep development curve relentlessly continues but the team did have a small reward as Khun Tachanan’s P13 overall was good enough to get her onto the penultimate step of the Class C podium to pick up a trophy for a hard afternoon’s work.

Onto Sunday’s second and final Super Production race. After the top five of the grid was reversed as usual Khun Yotsarun pushed through at the green lights from the third row to swiftly stamp his mark on the race while Khun Settasit also enjoyed good opening laps to move up a few places.

Polesitter Khun Sirisak dropped back and had to go round the outside of Khun Chattraphol but successfully held onto P2 while further back there was also a scrap between Khun Ray and Khun Pong with Khun Thanasit locked onto the back of them.

In second place Khun Sirisak quickly started to bunch the field up and after Khun Yotsarun had passed him earlier the fast starting OMP Vattana Motorsport Jazz of Khun Settasit also squeezed through.

There were some notable scraps over the opening laps as Khun Chattraphol and Khun Anon battled, as did Khun Thanawat and Khun Ray, while Khun Poomee and Khun Tony were also fighting with Khun Nattanid.

Khun Pong went off at Turn 10 while Khun Chattraphol and Khun Anon closed onto the back of Khun Sirisak who was having to work hard to defend third place. Khun Anon, making a great pace throughout the race, got past Khun Chattraphol at S2 after the RMI driver went wide and put his wheels onto the grass. Khun Tony meanwhile had a big slide at Turn 10 and Khun Thanasit had to go off to avoid but did well to recover.

At the front Khun Yotsarun kept easing out the gap and after 18 laps of racing he took the victory with a handy five-second cushion over Khun Settasit. The OMP Vattana driver had a quiet race and after getting into second place he was able to pull away from Khun Sirisak but unable to close down the gap to the leader.

Khun Sirisak came third after a race when he was forced to defend his position for the full distance. He did so superbly and had sixth tenths over Khun Anon who superbly made up for a disappointing first race. Khun Anon had half a second over Khun Chattraphol who he eventually passed with the latter coming home in fifth place to grab more championship points, the pair closing out the final two steps of the overall podium.

Sixth place went to Khun Poomee and seventh to Khun Tony while in eighth came Khun Rungravi, the first lady driver home. Ninth place went to Khun Nattanid and that was job well done as it more importantly equated to her second Class C win of the weekend and she extended her lead in the classification, as her main rival Khun Thanawat, who scored had no points the day before, finished third in class and dropped a further 8-points to Khun Nattanid.

That was in fact her fourth straight Class C win and she extends her advantage to 98-points and opens out a massive 31-point advantage over Khun Thanawat, who has 67-points while a very consistent season sees Khun Ray move up to 60-points. It means that with two races remaining to be contested in Bangsaen, where a maximum of 40-points will be on offer, Khun Nattanid needs just 9-points to seal the title and is virtually assured of the Class C championship crown.

Khun Thanasit, meanwhile, wrapped up the top ten overall. Khun Pong, Khun Thanawat and Khun Ray, in P11, P12 and P13 overall respectively, usefully bagged second and third in Class C and all made a trip to the podium. Khun Nattachak was next up ahead of Khun Moh, who locked out the final step of the Class C podium, while the two Mazdas of Khun Michael and Khun Tachapan completed the classified finishers.

In terms of the Overall championship (Class A & B) Khun Yotsarun vaults into the lead of the classification, he now has 75 points, but that’s only 8 points ahead of Khun Chattraphol while Khun Settasit moves into third place with 62 points. The 2015 champion is almost certainly going to come from amongst these three very fast drivers. In fourth in the classification comes Khun Sirisak (51 points) while hot on his heels are Khun Anon and Khun Thanasit, they’re jointly on 49 points.

A superb weekend for Khun Yotsarun means that he also jumps into the Class B championship lead with 75 points, although he’s just one point ahead of Khun Chattraphol setting up yet another showdown for the streets of Bangsaen next month.

A-Lister turns up at Bira

There was a surprise special guest at the last TSS round at Bira Circuit – top Hollywood superstar actor ‘Vin Diesel’. They simply don’t get anymore A-list than this actor who is synonymous with the action paced ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise and his appearance on the grid at Bira stopped everyone dead in their tracks. That was until onlookers did a double take and realised ‘Vin’ was actually a strikingly realistic waxwork dummy fresh from Madame Tussauds in Bangkok.

‘Vin’ is actually the latest addition to the Madame Tusssauds lineup and the dummy’s appearance on the grid on Sunday afternoon was to help promote its arrival at the leading leisure attraction. And there is simply no better place to hook ‘Vin’ up with than the genuine ‘Fast & Furious’ of Thailand – the competitors and their racecars of Thailand Super Series.

‘Vin’ made a whistle-stop ‘tour’ of the pit garages before going onto the grid where he was surrounded by throngs of excited people at all points, proving himself to be a very popular addition to the TSS Sunday programme.

“Thanks to Madame Tussauds for bringing him,” said TSS Vice President Khun Preeda Tantemsapya. “It was nice to see Vin in an action setting, people were certainly very interested in him and at first many thought he was real.
 
“I think people, especially those watching on TV, thought he was real, it look a few minutes for everyone to realise,” added Khun Preeda with a laugh. “He certainly looked real, every bit the movie star. Everyone watching on TV immediately wanted to be at Bira and take their photo with him.”

‘Vin’ also attracted a couple of Thailand’s leading celebrities, actresses Khun Mai Sukhontrava and Khun Airin Yoogthatat. The arrival of these ladies alongside the Fast & Furious star making it something of a ‘red carpet’ moment on the grid just as the fastest and most furious racecars in Thailand lined up for the day’s headlining Super Car Class 2-GTM race.

‘Bangsaen Press Conference’ announced

TSS has announced that the annual Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival Press Conference will take place this year as usual at The Tide Resort on Beach Road, Bangsaen, on 21 October. The biggest event on the Thai motorsport calendar, the glamorous ‘Speed Festival’ is growing fast and this year will be the ninth edition of the prestigious street race. The Press Conference will announce and outline this year’s event in detail and it promises to be bigger, better and brighter and with significant new changes and improvements being applied to the track and paddock as well as off track activities.