Thailand Super Series (TSS) will make its second and final visit of the year to Buriram this week and the countdown into the last few days is now well underway. TSS kicked off the season at Chang International Circuit back in May and it proved to be an epic encounter – this coming week looks like it’s going to top that first visit with more new drivers and racecars joining the entry lists.
There are exciting new entries right across the Super Car classes and not least of these will be in Class 3-GTC where Khun Pinet Piyaoui will return to the action after a year out behind the wheel of A Motorsport’s third-generation Subaru Impreza. That car has been on the sidelines for a couple of years but it’s been rebuilt and adapted to suit Class 3-GTC and should be a strong podium prospect.
Khun Daniel Bilski has joined B-Quik Racing for a campaign in Super Car Class 2-GTM this year and he enjoyed a trip to podium on his first race with the team at the season opener. Now the Australian driver is raring to get back behind the wheel of B-Quik’s Porsche 997 GT3 Cup and with experience of the Buriram circuit now behind him he will be looking to make further progress.
The battle at the front of Class 2-GTM is set to further intensify as Toyota Team Thailand is pulling out the stops by drafting in the hero of last year’s visit to Buriram by TSS, Japanese hotshot Khun Kazuya Oshima. This time he will line up on one of the trio of Toyota 86s entered by the factory team.
Meanwhile Vattana Motorsport will enter a pair of Lamborghini Gallardo LP520s for Khun Jack Lemvard and Khun Akihiro Asai in Class 2-GTM and the two drivers shook down their Italian machines at Bira Circuit on Saturday afternoon.
While we’re counting down to the trip to Buriram this week, ‘TCR Thailand’ has started counting down to its inaugural season in 2016. Last week the international promoters met in Milan where Racing Spirit Managing Director Khun Paritat Bulbon represented TCR Thailand and he returned with plenty of exciting news.
He’s been out of racing for more than a year, the legacy of a crash at Bangsaen, but it’s pleasing to see that one of the popular and enduring names of the Super Car paddock, Khun Pinet Piyaoui, is returning and he’s set to be on the Class 3-GTC grid this coming weekend.
Previously, Khun Pinet has campaigned a Toyota Supra in Super Car, the machine run by A Motorsport, while for the first year of TSS in 2013 he drove a second-generation Subaru Impreza ‘GD’ in Class 2-GTM with consistently strong results, finishing in the championship points positions in almost every race.
However, for his anticipated return to racing he will drive the team’s unique third-generation Impreza hatchback, which has been sitting mostly idle ever since team leader Khun Aekarat Discharoen dropped the car and switched to a Porsche 997 GT3 Cup to contest Class 2-GTM for the 2013 season.
The Impreza was a quick proposition when it last took to the track in Super Car in late 2012, pacey enough certainly for Khun Aekarat to plant it on pole position. However, the competitive bar in Super Car has risen a long, long way in the last three years. Now, although the engine has been re-rated, it should still be able to turn in good performances in Class 3-GTC.
Khun Aekarat explains that the Super Car ‘entry level’ category, Class 3-GTC, which has been developed particularly to give traditional Thai racecars such as the Impreza, as well as Mitsubishi’s Evo and Nissan’s Skyline, a new lease of racing life, immediately resonated with the tuning company and with A Motorsport customer Khun Kraingkrai Woraratanatham already signing up for the 2015 season in Class 3-GTC with his BRZ, adding the Impreza to the line-up would give the Japanese brand strong representation.
“I set the car up about two months ago,” explains Khun Aekarat. “I made everything new, the engine, the gearbox, and the suspension setup and made everything for the Class 3 regulations.”
He’s confident that the revitalised Impreza will be a very good fit for Class 3-GTC and particularly that it can still mix it up at the front of the pack. “I think the car will run perfectly in Class 3 because there’s not too much horsepower used [but] I need to set up the suspension and the gear ratios and match everything for the horsepower,” he says. “If everything is perfect, car and driver, maybe this car can run on pole.”
Khun Pinet will be behind the wheel and he noted this week he was confident he is back to full fitness. He picked up the neck injury after a crash in the Bangsaen Endurance Race at the end of 2013. “I think it is better [now],” he says.
“I really want to join the races again, but for TSS Race 1 and 2 this year I was busy travelling abroad so when I got back I discussed with [Khun Aekarat], who wanted the Subaru to join the race, and of course I’m ready now and will do my best to comeback and race,” he added.
Khun Pinet had his first test of the rebuilt Impreza at Bira Circuit a month ago and was clearly satisfied that this car is an improvement on the second-generation Impreza sedan he raced in Super Car during 2013. “When I tried it at Bira its control and maneuvering is better than my old car,” he said.
He’s cautious though about how quick it can run in Class 3-GTC as the Impreza has been rerated to suit the regulations. “The horsepower has to decrease down but the weight is still the same, so I’m not sure yet how we will do,” Khun Pinet says. “But the car should be good to finish the race and grab a podium for the team.”
Thai motorsport fans will be pleased to learn that car and driver will be also back for the final two events of the year after Buriram, at Bira Circuit in September and Bangsaen in November. “I will join for the whole of the season and I hope to get enough points,” Khun Pinet confirms.
A Motorsport has also been working to improve Khun Kraingkrai’s BRZ, most notably dumping the production specification automatic transmission it ran at the season opener as the more racetrack focused replacement was late arriving. “Now we change the transmission to a manual gearbox and adjust the suspension and the engine,” reports Khun Aekarat.
With two Subaru entries in Super Car for the first time in three years, A Motorsport, Thailand’s leading specialist focused on the Japanese brand, is flexing its muscles again. Khun Aekarat admits that being involved in racing resonates with customers – and he notes that seeing the racecars feeds down to customers who looking for high performance ‘race bred’ tuning as they become more and more engaged with track day style events.
“I think [Super Car participation] is good for our company because we have a lot of Subaru customers looking at the racecars and they try to make everything the best [with their cars] for running on the track,” explains Khun Aekarat.
“Because now a lot of my customers try to run on the racetrack, during track days or some club races and they would like to make their car [into] a track day car,” he concluded. “So the two cars, the BRZ and the Impreza, are good to show to the customer.”
TCR Thailand is starting to build towards its inaugural year in 2016 and anticipation is growing fast, while the racecars are now being ordered. The whole TCR concept has called for a new global blueprint and starting off from scratch with this fresh approach has meant every action in the chain can be optimised.
Racing Spirit Co. Ltd., which has been appointed the promoter for TCR Thailand, is busy putting into place a structure that will nurture and support the series here and integrate with the international operations to reduce costs and time as well as to improve convenience for Thai drivers and teams.
To that end Racing Spirit is pleased to be able to announce that it has reached agreement with two of the licenced racecar tuners, Italy’s J.A.S. Motorsport, builders of the Honda Civic TCR, and Spain’s SEAT Sport, which supplies the SEAT TCR, to exclusively sell these cars in Thailand as separate items and to facilitate support for the supply of spare parts and components depending on certain benchmarks. SEAT will make available an upgraded MY2016 version of their TCR racer for ordering next February. Racing Spirit will manage the sales of the cars in Thailand and will undertake the import process, including the cars in the current bonding process if it’s required.
Last week TCR held its second Promoters Meeting in Milan. Promoters from the eleven countries that have already joined the new touring car racing concept attended. As well as TCR Thailand, which was represented by Racing Spirit Managing Director Khun Paritat Bulbon, also present were representatives from Asia, Benelux, Central America, China, The Dominican Republic, Germany, Portugal, Russia, Spain and the USA.
The number of automotive brands that will be represented in TCR is growing quickly with several new models being confirmed during the meeting, including the Alfa Romeo Giulietta QV. Importantly for prospective entrants here, Top Run, which has been granted the licence to build Subaru’s Impreza WRX STi to TCR specification, will debut its new car in Singapore round of TCR International Series in September and that means the new car will then be shipped to here to take part in the Buriram round a month later adding another option for prospective Thai drivers to examine.
Khun Paritat also noted that VLM [Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring] and the Nürburgring 24 Hour organisers’ will directly accommodate TCR cars in their regulations and that could potentially offer Thai teams an extra future dimension.
With the 2016 calendar also being verbally agreed during the meeting, which will again include F1 support races, that means TCR International Series and TCR Asia Series will return to Chang International Circuit for the second year of what is currently an initial two-year contract.
Racing Spirit has now reached agreement that TCR Thailand will join this event and that means that as well as four rounds (eight races) within the 2016 TSS programme, the TCR Thailand calendar will enjoy an additional two races as part of TCR International Series/TCR Asia Series thus bringing the inaugural TCR Thailand season to 10 races (over 5 rounds). This will also offer Thai drivers an unrivalled opportunity to race on ‘home’ soil on a track they know well against the some of the best ‘touring car’ drivers in Asia and the world, in cars that have identically homologated specification and levels of preparation. It’s represents an amazing chance for our drivers to benchmark themselves that will be completely unique for Thai motorsport.
Just about everyone seems to be looking forward to the resumption of TSS next weekend in Buriram – and certainly one of those is B-Quik Racing’s Khun Daniel Bilski, who has joined the premier Thai racing series for the first time this year where he’s undertaking a full season campaign in Super Car Class 2-GTM.
The Australian driver took part in his first TSS race at the season opener back in May; that was in fact his first ever race in Thailand and thus it also meant it was his first time at the new Chang International Circuit. So a lot of work for him to do to get up to speed, although he’s well acquainted with B-Quik Racing, having first raced for the team in the MMER Sepang 12 Hours last year, while he’s been driving Porsche’s ubiquitous ‘997 GT3 Cup’ on and off for many years, so that’s a racecar he’s already very familiar with.
Khun Daniel made a great start to TSS, nabbing the last step on the podium in Race 1, while his shockingly bright racesuit which was resplendent in B-Quik’s yellow and black colours did also somewhat help to announce his arrival on the TSS winners’ rostrum.
Now the Hong Kong based driver is raring to get back in the car later week. “It’s been a long gap between the first and second TSS race weekends,” he says. “I can’t wait to get back to Buriram and get back into the 997. We made a decent start to the campaign with a P5 in race 1, but our early retirement in Race 2 meant we didn’t get to put our strategy to the test or to improve on my lap times.”
However, with his first trophy in the bag, he’s ready to take his gameplan forward next weekend. “In a way the long gap has been extremely useful, as the car needed repairs,” says Khun Daniel. “We may have been away from the track, but the team has been working hard through the break to get both our cars ready for next week. I also feel quite ‘race-fit’ after the triple race weekend with Audi in Taiwan only a couple weeks ago, so I’m super keen to get back in the car and improve my lap times from the first TSS weekend.”
It’s a busy year for Khun Daniel as he’s racing for B-Quik not only in TSS but in Audi’s pan-Asian ‘R8 Cup’ one make race as well as in the Asia Classic Car Challenge – and that hectic programme hasn’t just helped him maintain his fitness levels, but a string of excellent results means that his confidence levels are also right up.
“I’m still on a bit of a high after the recent Audi R8 LMS Cup races in Taiwan,” he continued. “Two podiums from three races, including a win, have given me a nice confidence boost. I’m super excited to get back in the car in Thailand. Having raced in Taiwan with high humidity and 67-degree temperatures in the car, it was good conditioning for the in-car conditions we expect in Buriram.”
Khun Daniel is also looking forward to sharing the paddock with the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia (PCCA) as it will be something of a ‘social occasion’ for the Australian.
He’s made sporadic appearances in Porsche’s long running one make series over the last half decade, mostly as a stand in or reserve driver, entering two races in Shanghai in 2011, a couple more races in Zhuhai in the PCCA ‘VIP’ car two years later as well as undertaking the Macau Grand Prix weekend in Earl Bamber’s car during the ‘60th Anniversary Invitational Race’ while last year he took in the first round of the year in the then brand new ‘991 Cup’ machine.
“It will be exciting to share the weekend with the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and I’m looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces in the paddock,” he adds. “The whole B-Quik Racing team will be pushing for big results on the weekend in Super Car and I’ll be doing my best to bring home maximum points.”
Toyota Team Thailand has sprung a big surprise for Super Car Class 2-GTM as it has announced that Khun Kazuya Oshima will deputise for Khun Nattapong Horthongkum next weekend in Buriram in the #38 factory-run Toyota 86 entry.
The rapid Japanese driver throws a real new variable into the Class 2-GTM mix. He’s a full factory Toyota driver and has already raced in Buriram so knows the track. In fact he debuted at Chang International Circuit behind the wheel of Toyota Team Thailand’s dazzling new Toyota M101-86 in Class 1-GT3 last November and promptly won both races after two hard fought performances.
Choosing Khun Kazuya was a logical step to make, explains Toyota Team Thailand Team Manager Khun Suttipong Smittachartch. “Toyota has to use factory drivers so in Thailand that’s Nattavude [Charoensukhawatana], Nattapong and Manat [Kulapalanont]. Oshima drives for Gazoo Racing, which is our partner team and we have a driver exchange programme as we always run the [Bangsaen] Endurance Race together.
“For the car we need an experienced driver and so we ask for Oshima,” continues Khun Suttipong. Indeed, this is a highly experienced racing driver even if he’s still only 28-years-old. Khun Kazuya has raced in Japan Super GT since 2006 and picked up plenty of wins along the way, he’s a former winner of the highly competitive All-Japan F3 Championship and has also raced in Formula Nippon as well as in F3 in Europe.
Khun Suttipong points out that Khun Kazuya has previously driven the team’s Class 2-GTM Toyota 86 during a test day at Bira Circuit last year, so he already has useful experience of the car to draw on, extra handy as track time is always limited during race weekends.
That combination of factors should put Khun Kazuya on course to shake up the ultra-competitive Class 2-GTM field, although whether he can reprise his electrifying TSS debut last November still remains to be seen. “I expect him to be on the podium,” Khun Suttipong says. “He knows our car, he’s a Toyota driver so knows the engine and gearbox, and it’s easy for him to drive the car.” A trip to the podium if the 86 runs reliably should be a dead cert, the question is how far he can climb up the steps.
Vattana Motorsport is thinking big than ever this year. While the outfit’s primary focus is on retaining it’s Drivers’ and Teams’ titles in Super Car Class 1-GTM it’s applying its big hammer right across the three Super Car categories. In Class 3-GTC it will have Khun Narasak Ittritpong (Mitsubishi) and Khun Settasit Boonyakiat (Ferrari) back in action next weekend and they have to be both amongst the top favourites to win.
However Vattana Motorsport will also be pulling out all the stops in Class 2-GTM in the search for outright victory. It will have a potent double lineup as Khun Jack Lemvard and Khun Akihiro Asai will both have Lamborghini power behind them and should be amongst the favourites for victory in what is shaping up to be the most competitive racing category in the history of Thai motorsport.
On Saturday afternoon Vattana Motorsport held a test session at Bira Circuit to shakedown its two Class 2-GTM Gallardo LP520s just ahead of the trip to Buriram next week, Khun Akihiro getting back behind the wheel of the ‘red’ example that he raced for the first time during the season opener back in May while Khun Jack now has a ‘white’ version that has been updated with the striking ‘FL2’ aero kit that’s normally associated with the full FIA GT3 version.
Khun Jack’s car hasn’t been in race action for some time and has seen a lot of work undertaken to get it to be ‘race ready’ so the laps at Bira were really little more than a ‘shakedown’. “The test was just to make sure the car running normally for TSS next week,” the driver confirmed.
“I wasn’t pushing at all and still did a 1:03 so [I was] quite surprised how much easier and forgiving it is than the classic Porsche 996,” Khun Jack continued. “If I had to get a 1:03 [in the 996] I would have to push the [life] out of it but with the Lamborghini I was in cruise mode [and] I did the same time. It’s already four seconds faster in practice that when it was used in qualifying in Buriram.”
Khun Jack only turns up to win races, he’s never show a lot of inclination to settle for a P2 and it’s seems like it’s going to be the same story with his new Gallardo LP520. So can he win in Buriram in the hugely competitive Class 2-GTM? “It’s faster than pole position last race so I’m gunning for the win,” he says with a laugh.
No change in outlook then from this irrepressible driver. Clearly Khun Jack is satisfied with the way the test shook out and he’s raring to have a car that can take him into the fight at the front of the Class 2-GTM pack next weekend. “We still need a bit more setup with the car but already I’m really happy with how it’s going,” he added.
It was very much the same story from the Japanese driver, the reigning Class 3-GTC champion, who was also in upbeat mood after his runs. “I was happy with the test,” said Khun Akihiro. “After having a suffering race last time where the car didn’t run properly with some engine issues, I’m looking forward to having a car hopefully set up in good shape [and] also having strong two car team with Jack a super teammate. I’m pretty sure after Vattana team’s super hard work we can have good results.”