The countdown to the Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival 2015 is entering its final stages and the preparations are getting ever closer to being completed. The biggest development this year is the targeting for FIA Grade 3 status and this is seeing new changes and upgrades being implemented all around the 3.7-km street circuit.
The new permanent paddock for support categories is now complete as is the recreational waterfront ‘Pavilion’ and other changes include the addition of several new runoff areas as well as the addition of new access gates and new crash barriers. It’s really a case of big upgrades everywhere for the ninth edition of Thailand’s largest and most glamorous annual motorsport event.
While the circuit is certainly evolving, when the lights go green the action should be just as ferocious as usual and there will be an extra ‘name’ with a winning pedigree in the middle of the Super Car Class 2-GTM mix as B-Quik Racing has just announced a driver change for Bangsaen. Hong Kong pilot Khun Darryl O’Young will return to this street circuit to drive the team’s Porsche 997 GT3 Cup substituting for regular driver Khun Daniel Bilski.
The fight at the front of Super 2000 is expected to be equally as dramatic as in the Super Car classes as the ‘touring car’ category takes its massive reputation for close fought action onto Bangsaen’s streets once again.
The clear favourite for the title, Khun Jack Lemvard, had a very tough time of it during the last round at Bira Circuit and that let his season long rival Khun Pasarit Phromsombat right back into the picture. Khun Pasarit is a wily and experienced competitor and give him half a chance and he will for sure exploit it. So it’s going to be a no holds barred fight down to the wire between these two drivers during the season closer.
Super Eco is all about discovering and nurturing the Thai racing stars of the future and that theme has certainly continued into this year. In fact during the last round at Bira Circuit Super Eco threw up two new winners and they are both names that are likely to become much better known to the fans in the future, Khun Jakraphan Davee and Khun Kmik Karnasuta. Bira really marked their arrival.
Bangsaen getting set for FIA approval
The clock is rapidly ticking down the to 9th Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival and the village is rapidly evolving from its year round status as a tranquil beach resort and fishing port into a fully blown racetrack. This year though it’s a racetrack with quite a difference as for the first time the Bangsaen Street Circuit will be officially represented on the world stage with prestigious FIA Grade 3 homologation now just a couple of weeks away.
The ninth edition is thus the start of the ‘second generation’ of the Speed Festival as the event steps up from being Thailand’s biggest annual motorsport extravaganza to become an internationally acclaimed calendar addition.
With the competitors due to hit the track for the first time in just two weeks time – and FIA approval will be assessed the day before the lights turn green – preparations are continuing round the clock as Thailand Super Series Vice President Preeda Tantemsapya explains. “Everything is on schedule according to our planning timetable and [Track Designer] Simon [Gardini] is in Thailand to examine our preparations.”
To reach FIA Grade 3 status new features will be prominent; they focus on improving safety measures and include new access gates and runoff areas. “We have started work on the gates that can handle any impact and they are coming into shape now, Simon has made a few revisions to optimise them,” Khun Preeda says. “The run off areas have been done, they had to be implemented taking into consideration the weather, but now they have been settled. Traffic management has now been arranged in the new paddock.
“FIA approval won’t be granted until Monday 23rd [November] due to the fact we can’t close down the circuit and all the barriers until the event is ready to start,” he continues. ”That will occur overnight on the Sunday [22 November].”
There have also been training sessions for the safety crews involved in the event. “We have undertaken some pre event training,” says Khun Preeda. “We always have some new marshals coming into the team and we want the new trainees to see the actual situations. This is a first step for them to understand the event. Then they will observe the event as all the jobs are secured by our experts who also get refreshed and check revisions and any new updates from the sessions.”
Outside of the racetrack the striking Landmark Pavilion, dubbed the ‘Bangsaen Speed Club’, is back for a second edition after being very well received last year. The pavilion gets a new look this year, to further integrate into the setting and exude the event’s ‘racing’ feel.
“It will have a more racing style atmosphere with features such as tyres to indicate the Speed Festival better,” says Khun Preeda. “As usual we will have music and refreshments and it will be a hub to meet and greet drivers and teams and everyone involved. We expect it to again be center stage of the event during the evenings.” TSS sponsor Singha will provide well known bands while just further along the front, Toyota will as usual host its expansive and popular activity village.
Standing on the edge of glory
It’s not over until the fat lady sings, so the well used expression goes. And that expression can very usually be applied to Super 2000. It certainly did look like it could have very well been almost over when the touring car competitors arrived at Bira Circuit in September. Khun Jack Lemvard, arguably Thailand’s fastest driver of this generation, was back in business driving a BMW E90 for Vattana Motorsport, a combination that’s had unbeatable written all over it so far this year.
Coming into September’s penultimate Super 2000 round of the year at Bira Circuit Khun Jack had notched up three wins and a fourth place to his name from the four races that had been held so far, that fourth place being the result of an extra dose of ‘success’ ballast he had been lumbered with.
That had given the Vattana driver very healthy 21-point lead in the Drivers’ standings over Khun Munkong Sathienthirakul (Honda Civic FD) as well as an even more comfortable 27-point lead over Khun Pasarit Phromsombat (Honda DC5).
Then the script went out of the window and Khun Jack only picked up 10-points all weekend, a fourth place in the first race at the Pattaya track being followed by a DNF as he suffered a wheel bearing failure. However while Khun Munkong was unable to capitalise on his rival’s misfortune and suffered a zero overall score, Khun Pasarit was the big winner as a battling P2 and P3 allowed him to tear 17-points out of the Vattana driver’s cushion and the gap is down to just 10-points with one round and two races remaining.
With a maximum score of 40-points being on offer in Bangsaen in a couple of week’s time Khun Pasarit has blown the title race wide open. However Khun Jack will finally get rid of a decent chunk of the ‘success’ weight he’s built up and that’s going to give him an early advantage; he’s quick to point that out while also saying the team is busy getting ready for the races.
“For the Super 2000 car we have two mechanics from abroad and our main engineer is from Thailand so we are fully prepared for this race,” he says. “We have also taken out weight of the car because of the fourth place in the last races as only first to third get weight penalties and fourth gets weight off. Now we have weight off from the two previous races so it’s about around 60kg less than before.
“We are fully preparing and our car which is totally overhauled from [Bira] for [Bangsaen],” Khun Jack continues. “Because we have less weight handicap for Bangsaen due to bearing axle failure in Bira that should suit the BMW a lot going up the hill at Turn 2. The BMW is also rear wheel drive so through the long left and right handers toward the end of the race we should have the advantage because the front wheel [cars] normally start to fade of quite early. We will try to win both races of course and get one more title under my name and for the team OMP Vattana Motorsport.”
But he will have to keep a very close eye on his mirrors around the streets of Bangsaen. Khun Pasarit is the reigning Super Production champion, he’s willy, crafty and knows exactly how to pick up points in a car that’s inferior to Khun Jack’s BMW and he will be out to try to make a bit of motorsport history on the streets of the fishing resort. He’s scored in every race this year and don’t expect that trend not to continue. Super 2000 seasons rarely end in a whimper either, especially when they are racing in a narrow gap between steel and concrete barriers.
Two trips to the podium at Bira Circuit have closed the gap up and Khun Pasarit is delighted with that performance. “It was a very good race for the team,” he says. “We qualified fifth and there were lots of things going on in the [first] race but we managed to finish third in the race and [then finish] second in the other race.
“From our accomplishment at Bira, our total score moves from third place to second and that gives us hope to be the first if we still do well in Bangsaen,” he adds. “Anyway we cannot underestimate many others teams that also showed good performances at this circuit.”
Khun Pasarit is fully focused on bridging the gap. “Right now the team has started planning for Bangsaen,” he says. “We are probably concentrating on practicing and improving the driving, however, we will not do any improvements to the car.”
Then there is the outsider. Thanks to his two wins at Bira Khun Kantadhee Kusiri has jumped up the unofficial classification into third place, he has 56-points and is mathematically still in the title race. While that’s highly unlikely he’s going to fancy a stab at the runners up spot – but crucially he could also take points away from other drivers so he’s a real variable in the mix. The 22-year-old struggled over the first half of the year with a brand new car that wasn’t fully developed, but once the team gave him a machine at the Bira Circuit round that was capable of fighting to win then he needed no second invitation and he simply stormed his way to victory. He’s also been racing in single-seaters in the last three rounds of International GT Open where he’s immediately impressed and so his confidence will be sky high.
While his Team Eakie Toyota 86 proved useful round Bira Circuit, Bangsaen might show up its lack of top end power and Khun Jack’s BMW should very well suit the street circuit so that surge in form might be tough to hold onto. But Khun Kantadhee is fast and even if the title fight is out of his reach he’s going to aim for nothing less than two more wins.
Without a point to his name at Bira Khun Munkong remains on 49 points and drops to fourth place and although he is also still technically in the title race it’s a very remote possibility. However, like Khun Kantadhee, he could upset the destiny of the title by scooping away big helpings of points. Last year Khun Munkong proved to be fast in Bangsaen although luck just wasn’t with him, he’s certainly going to want the glory of victory and has a fast car under him. He’s also coming off the back of a debut win in TCR Asia Series at Buriram late last month so that will give him a shot of extra confidence.
Then come Khun Rudolf Yu (29 points), Khun Chayut Yangpichit (27 points) and Khun Phatwit Phayakcso (24 points); they’re not in the fight for the top places but will certainly be looking to get as far into the mix as they can, all three are good bets for the podium steps if they have untroubled races.
In Super Class B Khun Munkong’s efforts to get to the finish line with a stuttering car in the first race netted him 8 invaluable points to move him up to 83 points in the classification. However Khun Rudolf added 27 points in Class B over the weekend to climb to 70 points and he’s thus narrowed the gap to 13 points so it’s still all to play for here.
In Class C the top two drivers both scored plenty of points at Bira Circuit to cancel each other out and it remains the same as when they arrived, Khun Jetsada Yangpichit with 85 points and Khun Issares Chirapongsananurak with 64 points. However with a win and runner up spot in Class 2 at the Pattaya weekend, Khun David Yupensuk climbs a couple of places up the classification and into third place.
Khun David has 60 points and while he does have a very outside change of the title, the runners up spot is now going to be a straight fight in Bangsaen between his Toyota Altezza and the Honda Civic FD of Khun Issares.
Darryl O’Young set to return to Bangsaen
B-Quik Racing has announced a driver change for Bangsaen. Hong Kong pilot Khun Darryl O’Young will return to drive the team’s Porsche 997 GT3 Cup in Bangsaen alongside the #26 Audi R8 LMS Cup of Khun Henk J. Kiks, substituting for regular driver Khun Daniel Bilski who has a clashing engagement.
Khun Daniel, who has driven the #27 Porsche during the first three rounds of the TSS season, has also enjoyed a terrific year with B-Quik Racing during the team’s debut in the pan-Asian ‘Audi R8 Cup’ one make series, clinching the prestigious ‘R8 Cup Amateur’ title at the final round of the season, which took place at the beginning of this month. That success though means he will instead be representing B-Quik Racing at Audi Sport’s glamorous end of year gala awards event in Germany, which clashes with Bangsaen.
Substituting for Khun Daniel will be Khun Darryl. He looks like a perfect ‘fit’ for the team as he drove its Porsche 997 GT3 Cup last year in Bangsaen, his first visit to the street circuit, and he came away with a double victory in Super Car Class 2-GTM. With plenty of knowledge of the B-Quik team, car and circuit Khun Darryl is clearly the best choice to replace Khun Daniel.
Khun Darryl will come into the event in superb form, as he was recently crowned 2015 GT Asia Series Drivers’ Champion. The weekend before Bangsaen he will also be competing in the FIA GT World Cup in Macau with his regular team Craft-Bamboo, meaning it will be back-to-back street races for the Canadian born driver.
TSS Round 5 & 6 Bira Circuit: Super Eco Race Report
The clear objective of Super Eco is to be a breeding ground for the Thai stars of the future in low cost and equalised cars – and that’s already proving to be the case. The first year’s champion Khun Daychapon Toyingcharoen used Super Eco to turn a highly successful drift career into the start of a circuit racing chapter and he’s moved on from the 2013 title to become a podium regular in Super Car Class 3-GTC while last year’s champion, Khun Poomee Phromatham, has clambered up the ladder a step and is now making waves in Super Production.
That theme has continued into this year and during the last round at Bira Circuit Super Eco threw up two new winners and they are both names that are likely to become much more well known to the fans in the future, Khun Jakraphan Davee and Khun Kmik Karnasuta. Both have a story to tell too.
Khun Jakraphan was one of the Thai finalists in the ‘Nissan GT Academy’ simulator racing game and that saw him heading to Silverstone in the UK for training – a chain of events that ignited his racing career at the age of 28 years old. This year he’s started his first serious season of racing and quickly marked himself out as one to watch out for. In the first four races of the year he banged in a trio of third places and one DNF and coming to Bira he stepped that up with pole position for Race 1 and then commanding the race to take his first Super Eco win on his rookie year. He followed that up with a podium in the second race to haul himself into the chase for the title.
The second race was won by Khun Kmik and it’s really a victory that been coming for sometime. He’s still just 15 years old, his next birthday comes up in December, but this youngster has set Thai racing alight. He has a special dispensation to race and it’s very clear to paddock onlookers that Khun Kmik is destined to be a big Thai star of the future, following in a family tradition, as his father is a former national champion. If – surely when – he goes on to great things it in fact all started at around nine-thirty on a September Sunday morning at Bira Circuit when just a few hardy fans were around to see him take the checkered flag on his first important career win.
But it wasn’t just about those two upcoming star drivers and when the lights went green there were plenty of hard fought battles up and down the field in both enthralling races.
On Saturday morning as the first of the weekend’s two Super Eco races got underway Khun Jakraphan converted his first ever pole position into the into the lead and over the opening laps the yellow and black #33 Honda Brio Amaze withstood pressure applied by the #46 Brio of Khun Naruchit Kiatmaneesri who moved into P2 at the start and was his closest challenger over the opening laps.
In fact within a few turns those two were clear at the front and pulling away as Khun Petch Sathawarawong in P3 started to hold up the cars behind him. Khun Nuttapon Kaewkanjanasat squeezed past Khun Petch on the inside into Turn 2 the second time around to assume P3 and Khun Chayapon Yotha demoted Khun Petch another position a lap later and left him falling into the clutches of championship hopeful Khun Konpichit Toyingcharoen as well as his team mate Khun Kmik.
Khun Rattanin Leenutaphong then bounced off backwards into the tyrewall but kept the unique Kia Picanto going and returned to the race although he would continue down at the tail end of the field.
Khun Kmik finally got past Khun Konpichit, who started to drop backwards, and then the youngster closed in on his team mate Khun Petch before picking him off to move into the podium positions before closing in on Khun Chayapon in P4 and harrying him over the final couple of laps without finding a way through. That said with Khun Kmik having only a very outside chance of the title, coming home P5 would give him pole for the second race and he would have been acutely aware of this. The pressure to notch up his first win in Super Eco has been mounting on his young shoulders and that result set him up perfectly for a real stab at victory in the next day.
While the midfield was tussling away Khun Jakraphan had been able to control the race from the front; over the opening laps he had Khun Naruchit company but he soon broke the challenge of the Team Donut driver and by the time the checkered flag was waved after 10 laps and 13 minutes of racing Khun Jakraphan had opened out a 5.784 second cushion over his rival to bag his first Super eco win. Not only his first win but Khun Jakraphan has done it in dominant fashion with skill and determination, no one else had got a look in.
Third place went to Khun Nuttapon who was just half a second off Khun Naruchit and had pushed him to the line, trying hard to find a way past over the closing laps. Khun Nuttapon also claimed the fastest lap of the race in 1:17.762. That was his first podium of the year and marked an uptick in form. There was a three second gap back to Khun Chayapon who also recorded his best result of the year while the final step of the podium was secured by Khun Kmik and – crucially – that would give the youngster pole position for Sunday’s second race.
Title hopeful Khun Konpichit had a tough afternoon, dropping back as the race went into the closing stages and coming home in eighth place which meant he collected just three championship points. However with the championship classification leader coming into Bira absent from the entry lists that allowed Khun Konpichit to close the gap to the top of the standings down to just two points but he would need a better run in the final race if he was to move to the premier position and open out an advantage going into Bangsaen. He was also the first Suzuki Swift home as Honda’s Brio nabbed the top seven places and in fact eleven of the first thirteen finishers were Brio mounted.
Sunday’s second race would see the top five of the grid reversed and that put Khun Kmik on pole with Khun Chayapon alongside while the second row comprised of Khun Nuttapon and Khun Naruchit. Row 3 would see Khun Jakraphan line up ahead of Khun Petch who had finished in P6 on Saturday.
Khun Kmik made a tidy start to keep the race lead while Khun Nuttapon got the inside line through Turn 2 to elbow his way past Khun Nuttapon into P2 while Khun Jakraphan also got clean away and moved into P4 as Khun Naruchit was slow off the line and lost places.
Meanwhile from seventh on the grid Khun Sittiron Phromsombat, younger brother of Super 2000 front running Khun Pasarit Phromombat, had enjoyed a good start to make up two places over the first few hundred metres to move into P5 but that didn’t last long as the Super Eco rookie spun off in the run uphill to Turn 3 and clouted the retaining wall with his left hand from corner but was very lucky the damage wasn’t enough to put him out and impressively he finished in P8 at the end of the race.
Over the first lap Khun Kmik had Khun Nuttapon, Khun Chayapon and Khun Jakraphan locked onto the back of him and into the hairpin second time around Khun Nuttapon ran wide as he tried to find a way past Khun Kmik and that allowed Khun Chayapon into P2. In fact it got worse for Khun Nuttapon as he tried to drag his way past Khun Chayapon and back into P2 down the start finish straight at the end of the lap and that left him on the outside into Turn 2 as the cars went into the third lap and Khun Jakraphan hovering behind needed no invitation to squeeze through into P3 demoting Khun Nuttapon to P4. With Khun Naruchit and Konpichit locked onto the tail of Khun Nuttapon the top runners were in a very tight train.
That scrapping for position allowed Khun Kmik to open up a small gap at the front, after three laps he had 1.8 seconds in hand and he took a couple more tenths on the next lap as the youngster cemented his lead.
Proceedings however were interrupted when there was a melee through the double apex on the fifth lap as a tussle between Khun Rattanin in the Kia and Khun Boonyarit Supasiri (Brio) saw the pair spinning, the latter bounced across the grass return to the race, albeit well down, although the former was out.
Also off the track and out that lap was Khun Attapot Sriprom in the #25 B-Quik Racing Brio and stuck in an unsafe position the Safety Car was deployed.
For Khun Kmik that was the worst possible news as his hard fought cushion evaporated. As the Safety Car collected the pack it was Khun Kmik who led the field with Khun Chayapon, Khun Jakraphan, Khun Nuttapon, Khun Konpichit who had got past Khun Naruchit behind him.
When the Safety Car went in Khun Kmik wasn’t rattled and helped by the four cars behind him fighting amongst themselves he kept the lead and started to build up a gap which would climb to 1.5 seconds by the time the checkered flag fell.
While Khun Kmik edged out a small gap at the front the battle for P2 over the final couple of laps was ferocious with Khun Nuttapon who had quickly re-passed Khun Jakraphan very anxious to also get past Khun Chayapon and into second place while Khun Konpichit and Khun Jakraphan were right behind him. On the final lap through the final corner Khun Chayapon fended off his three rivals as he clung onto P2 but as they quartet came out of the last turn and onto the run down to the checkered flag Khun Nuttapon got a great slingshot down the main straight down the inside.
Despite Khun Chayapon tenaciously holding his line and forcing Khun Nuttapon to take a tight line on the inside, the latter drew alongside to grab P2 at the finishline by fractions of a second – literally – the width of his Brio’s not-so-considerable front bumper.
Second to fourth were in fact covered by six tenths of a second after a finish that really rewarded the early rising spectators in the main grandstand. However Khun Nuttapon’s lunge for the line proved to be futile as the dust settled due to the #99 Brio failing a post race technical check and that gave Khun Chayapon the runners up spot with Khun Konpichit claiming P3 and benefitting from the extra points as he moved into the championship lead while Khun Jakraphan and Khun Naruchit wrapped up the podium steps.
For Khun Konpichit the 12 points he scored for P3 were crucially important for his title aspirations and added to the meager 3 points he gained from the first race it was enough to see him move into the championship lead with 71 points and open out a 5 point advantage with two races remaining to be contested in Bangsaen.
The biggest winner was Khun Jakraphan who collected 30 points after his win and fourth place from the two races and he moves up to 66 points and is now a serious contender for the title. Erstwhile championship leader Khun Supong Khamtonwong wasn’t in action at Bira and that means he slips to third place on 61 points.
Khun Kmik picked up 28 points from his weekend’s work to move up to fourth in the classification and Bira was also rewarding to Khun Naruchit who totted up 23 points from the two races to move up to 49 points. While the latter two are now only mathematical outsiders for the title there are 40 points in total on offer in Bangsaen next month and the tough streets of the season closer have turned many title run ins on their head so no one can be written off just yet.