When the Thailand Super Series (TSS) season kicked off in Buriram there was a new brand name to add to the prestigious list of Super Car winners, Holden. ‘Australian V8’ machines have long been a presence in the series but for the first time ever the Holden name had bagged the top step of the podium.

That was down to Khun Craig Corliss and the car he’s raced for the last two seasons started its ‘Year 3’ in tip top shape following a total rebuild and upgrade by the car’s original builder, Triple Eight Engineering in Australia. It wasn’t just about the makeover of the car either as the driver had support staff in the garage from Triple Eight as well as the Australian engine builder, KRE Race Engines.

TSS is now laying the foundations in place to kick off the ambitious new ‘Racing Academy’ which will join all the dots up, allowing people to learn to race before they graduate through the series’ comprehensive ‘ladder’ that allows them to progress all the way from entry-level racing to Super Car Class 1-GT3, the top category in Thai motorsport.

Standards are really climbing in TSS and one driver who has sky-high ambitions for the future is Khun Sarun Sereethoranakul; he’s been to Fuji Speedway to hone his skills further and that tuition programme, under the guidance of Khun Keita Sawa, culminated in him driving a GT3 car for the first time.

During the season opener standards also went up in the truck category as the Krating Daeng Racing Team turned up with two brand new trucks, entering Super Pickup for the first time, and the immaculate machines were in the hands of two rookie drivers. Both team and drivers immediately marked themselves out as ones to watch in the future in the competitive world of truck racing.

Finally, the dates of the next rounds of TSS have been tweaked slightly, moving back one week to 31 July-2 August. Porsche Carrera Cup Asia will also join the race weekend programme.

The ‘V8′ bites back

There was a little bit of a surprise in Super Car Class 2-GTM during May’s season opener in Buriram when Khun Craig Corliss powered the big Holden Commodore VE across the finishline of Race 2 to take a well-controlled and, in the end, quite comfortable win.

The New Zealander is one of the enduring ‘fixtures’ of Super Car and while the talk has centered on the new breed of state of the art racecars piling into the series from Europe, he’s continued to stick with the big, brutal and quite raw ‘V8 Supercars’ that have brought him much success over the last half-decade.

Except that his success seemed to have been ebbing away. While Khun Craig is still a podium regular he’s been missing from the top step for quite a while; he very nearly won a race in Sepang a year ago during the 2014 season opener, but since then he’s not troubled P1. But this driver is a fighter and wants to win.

So to fight back against the ‘European’ cars he first of all considered joining them, but that just wasn’t in his DNA, so the next step was to send slightly creaky Holden that’s seen a few crash barriers and engine rebuilds in the two years it has been racing in TSS, back to it’s original builder, Triple Eight Engineering in Australia, for a total rebuild.

The car departed for Brisbane right after Bangsaen last December and it returned just in time for the season opener in Buriram in May, the shipping container being unloaded straight on the circuit’s concrete paddock apron after making a detour from the port via Bangkok where the car took part in the mandatory TSS pre season dyno test programme. From there it was straight to a fairytale ending to the weekend as the Holden – which had departed lurid orange and had returned lurid green – powered to victory in Race 2.

However it wasn’t just about a ground up rebuild at Triple Eight Engineering, home of Australian V8 Supercar hero Khun Jamie Whincup, as the new breed of racecars coming into TSS have brought a plethora of supporting engineers in their wake, so Khun Craig has followed trends and also brought in support.

Triple Eight Race Engineer Khun Andrew Simpson first arrived in the TSS paddock to assist the Kiwi Racing Team last November when the series made its inaugural visit to Buriram and he was back in May to oversee the rebuilt car taking to the track.

“We’ve replaced just about every nut and bolt on the car and given her a few updates on the suspension and she’s come up real nice,” the Australian explained about the work undertaken in Brisbane over the last few months. “There was a lot of stuff that needed doing on it, the gearbox, drivetrain was all a little bit so-so, it was on its last legs, so was well overdue for a freshen up.”

Khun Andrew said they were supporting the customer at the track and helping him extract all the potential from the overhauled car – and he was impressed at its competitiveness. “We’re just keeping an eye on it, as everything is so new, so we’re best coming over and making sure everything runs to plan,” he said.

“It’s fast as well and think it’s going to be pretty pacy,” he continued as the team personnel made the final preparations for the last race of the weekend. “Craig set his personal best in her on Friday and we went quicker again in the first race so I think we’ve got good pace and if we can keep her on the road we will be right up there.” Indeed he was correct as the New Zealander was in terrific form in Race 2.

There were in fact two Australian engineers in the garage as the Kiwi Racing Team also had support from the engine builder. Shipping the car back to Triple Eight had seen the frontline ‘V8 Supercar’ team’s regular engine builder drafted in to rebuild the powerplant.

That meant Khun Ken McNamara, owner of Brisbane-based KRE Race Engines, was also in Buriram to optimise the big V8 motor. “We do the engines for Triple Eight back in Australia, we’ve been doing the engines for [V8] Supercars for 16 years and we’ve come over this weekend as we rebuilt the motors for Craig in the off season, we just tidy up everything, make them strong and reliable,” he said.

“So we’ve come over to tune them in the different weather conditions and different brands of fuel they run here, just make sure everything is good for the rest of the season, that we get a good baseline for him so he can go racing and not change too much,” he added.

Khun Ken reckons the powerful ‘V8 Supercar’ engine can play to its strengths on Chang International Circuit. “An engine like that works well on a track like this with a number of straights, [whereas] on a short track, it’s a heavy car and so is probably not going to get the advantage, but here the straights are quite long, top speed is 260km/h, so it helps when we’re racing the smaller cylinder turbo cars.”

The driver was also happy with his sparkling ‘new’ machine. “It’s the same car, the same chassis, but it’s had no money spent on it for three years, so we did a total rebuild, we did all the shocks, we took every nut and bolt off the car and put it back together,” said Khun Craig.

“The engine was just rebuilt, it’s the same engine as last year, we changed the engine builder and we’ve ended up with less horsepower but more torque which suits this competition,” he continued. “As it’s about getting out of the corner, the straight-line speed is the nature of the 8-cylinder but getting out of the corners keeps me in the game otherwise I would have all sorts of problems in the infield.”

All in all a very successful weekend and one that puts the Kiwi into the title fight as, despite enduring problems, crucially, he still collected 3 points from Race 1 and that puts him onto 23 points after Round 1 of the year and into third place in the standings, just 4 points off the joint championship leaders in front.

Never the shy and retiring type, Khun Craig reckoned that they had clearly demonstrated they have front running pace and so the Kiwi Racing Team will be pressing hard for the title. “We’re very serious contenders for the championship,” he said.

Successful shakedown for ‘Racing Academy’ cars

TSS isn’t just the biggest and most professional racing series in Thailand, the aim is to develop the ‘product’ in every direction, to fill in all the blanks and to cater for racing drivers at every stage of their career by creating a joined up pathway all the way from just a desire to race right to the top of the tree in Thailand, Super Car Class 1-GT3.

The lowest competitive blank was filled in a couple of seasons ago with the arrival of Super Eco, the exciting ‘entry level’ category that allows novice drivers to race in a strictly cost controlled and safety conscious environment, pitting themselves against pilots at a similar career development level.

The plan now is to fill out another ‘entry level’ gap by providing comprehensive driver tuition that will not only prepare budding racers for Super Eco but also hone and compliment skills all the way up the ladder, ensuring that drivers who join any aspect of the TSS programme will do so well prepared and safe to both themselves and other drivers.

To that end TSS is gearing up to initiate a new ‘Racing Academy’, which will check off these multiple boxes. The complete strategy is currently being developed and the official launch is still some way off; however the first step was taken a week ago at Pathum Thani Speedway when the initial batch of Racing Academy cars were given their shakedown and were thoroughly checked over by the TSS technical team.

Leading the team was TSS Vice President Khun Preeda Tantemsapya, who brings strengths both as a former racer and as a race-driving instructor. He was pleased with the way the test worked out. “The cars were fine, I had no complaints at all,” he said. “There are a few things that we now need to do to evolve them into driver training cars, such changes to the rearview mirrors and the handbrakes, tweaks that are needed for instruction.

“These identical Honda Jazz cars have been prepared by Khun Suchart Thewet-udom from Driver Motorsport and are all up to the standard we require,” Khun Preeda continued. “We will have six more cars coming and that will put us in an ideal position to start the Racing Academy, which will be focused on the beginner class first of all.”
 
So why pick the Pathum Thani Speedway? “We chose this track as it’s a good facility for testing and for beginner level learning so we will base here to start with,” Khun Preeda says. “It’s also close to Bangkok and so convenient for students to attend the courses.

“As the school progresses we will switch the location for the intermediate course to a race circuit as Pathum Thani doesn’t have high speed sections and as it’s 1.2 km that’s too short, although that length is being expanded,” he notes. “But it’s perfect to cope with the demands of the beginner class and has garages and facilities so the cars will be easy to maintain and look after.”

Pathum Thani with its high profile standing in the ‘Drift’ world also resonates as circuit racing here continues to rapidly grow in stature. TSS has already seen some of Thailand’s top drift stars try their hand at full track racing with much success. Khun Sarun Sereethoranakul and Khun Daychapon Toyingcharoen are two famous Thai drifters that have both made an immediate impact in Super Car.

“A few drift drivers are interested to turn to circuit racing, so it’s another way to promote the Racing Academy,” says Khun Preeda with a smile. “We can showcase the Academy at Pathum Thani, while at Bira Circuit there isn’t really any audience passing by, but here people can also come also and see what we are doing and understand the concept.”

The actual course hasn’t been finalised yet, however Khun Preeda confirms it will be an intensive three-day schedule and, as it’s targeted at new drivers, running it over weekends will maximise convenience. “We will have a three day class for the beginner level, starting on Friday with people walking the track first of all,” he says. “We will certainly get underway very early on Saturday and Sunday, so it will be a busy programme and we will have a roster of experienced racing instructors.”

The new Racing Academy will slot smoothly into the TSS structure. Khun Preeda emphasises that TSS is focused on developing the ‘grassroots’ of motorsport and has a total commitment to creating an environment where drivers learn to drive a racecar, have all the tools they need to develop at hand, to unlock that potential and to prosper and to be able to move up the ladder.

TSS is the only race series organiser in Thailand to fully understand and adopt future motorsport trends and it was the first to introduce a category entirely reserved for the new generation of low cost ‘Super Eco’ cars.

And – unlike any other organiser – TSS has adhered to the concept by realising that an entry level category needs to be exactly this, thus reserving it for Class C licenced drivers only while making it accessible to everyone by waiving the entry fees and keeping running costs to the minimum. Khun Preeda also confirms that the free entry to Super Eco will continue throughout this year.

Up to the next level

Khun Sarun Sereethoranakul made an instant impact when he arrived in Super Car last year and by the time the season ended he was a podium regular in Class 2-GTM. In short it was a very successful debut year for the circuit racing rookie.

One of Thailand’s top ‘drift’ racing stars Khun Sarun needed to hone his skills for an entirely different challenge – and as he looked to master the art of circuit racing he turned to Japanese superstar Khun Keita Sawa to coach him. That appeared to be an excellent game plan as Khun Sarun made rapid progress with Khun Keita becoming a regular face in the TSS paddock as he not only guided his new charge from the garage and pitwall but also jumped into the cockpit of the #55 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup to provide back-to-back comparisons.

Clearly Khun Sarun is ambitious and he isn’t going to be stopping at Class 2-GTM and so for this year, his second in circuit racing, he wanted to take the learning process another step forward.

Crucially, that also involved him getting his first seat time in a pukka GT3 car, as he explained. “After Bangsaen I stop racing for four months and I want to refresh and learn so I discuss with Sawa-san to arrange some training at Fuji Speedway as he’s opened a racing school there so he knows everyone and can rent the racing cars for me,” said Khun Sarun during the TSS season opener at Buriram in May.

Khun Keita reckoned that it was time for Khun Sarun to take a step forward, to drive on a world-class circuit and to test a more powerful racecar than his usual 997 ‘Cup’. “I invited him to come to Japan for training as I think now he’s coming to a good point of driver skills but he needs more opportunities to drive other cars and in Japan there are so many opportunities to drive other cars,” he said.

“So last time he come I arranged for him the sportscar for the first day and then on the second day the GT3 spec car,” Khun Keita continued. “Also Fuji Speedway is one of the most famous international circuits in the world and it’s much safer and much more fun than other circuits, so ideal [to learn].”

That plan came together quickly. “I was there for two days, the first day to get familiar with the track, so I drove a [Toyota] FD-86 racecar,” recalls Khun Sarun. “I did quite good as it’s an automatic car and I did 2.06 minutes. The organisers were quite surprised as during the first time gentlemen drivers are around 2.08 seconds. I get the lines for the first day and get to know the track.”

With the opening day, which included time in the simulator, going well, Khun Keita was happy to let his ‘pupil’ step up to a more powerful car, as that had been the Japanese driver’s main aim – to push Khun Sarun to a higher level. “There is a big difference between the GT3 car and the Cup car, the Cup car is just sporting but [Khun Sarun] needs to drive with [sequential] shifting and ABS,” he said. “The GT3 car has much higher performance and has ABS, Traction Control and paddle shift [gearchange].”

“On the second day I drove the [BMW] Z4 GT3 car, which I rent for one day and we have about three sections of half an hour each to practice,” said Khun Sarun. “I was very impressed by the GT3 car, it was very easy to drive with high downforce so I learned a lot how to brake with a high downforce car and the car has many computer things to control the car, control the ABS and the automatic stabiliser.”

A successful test, reckoned Khun Keita. “I think he drove well because I rented the cars from the organisers for the two days and they were also surprised as he came to Fuji first time but he drove well and drove only one and a half hour each day and still was two seconds off my time.”

It seemed to have paid off too as Khun Sarun was one of the pacesetters in Class 2-GTM over the opening weekend in Buriram. “I hope this experience will help his race situation and this weekend seems to be better than previous and I think he will be better for this training,” added Khun Keita.

And indeed the signs were there of progression as Khun Sarun left the season opener as the joint championship leader having bagged a second and a third place from the two races – that’s a big change from the season opener last year when his ‘drift’ techniques around Sepang Circuit offered him few rewards.

Krating Daeng makes a big splash in truck racing

For most fans in Buriram at the season opener there was something of a surprise in store when the pitlane lights went green and the racing trucks surged onto the track for the first time this year as, amongst their ranks, were two brand new pickups in a colour scheme that is a very familiar sight on the Thai racing circuits – black with a split red and yellow logo.

That’s because one of Thailand’s top motorsport outfits, the Krating Daeng Racing Team, has rocked into Super Pickup for the first time, adding a pair of Isuzu D-Max racing trucks to the pair of little Honda Brios it already runs in Super Eco and the muscular Mitsubishi Evo X and Nissan Skyline R32 that it turns out in Super Car Class 3-GTC.

This is a big team with sky-high standards that understands all about winning and has an ambition to match its success rate. That it has decided to jump into Super Pickup is a ringing endorsement of one of Thailand’s popular racing categories and the levels of preparation and expertise that Krating Daeng brings with it means it could well already be said that truck racing will never be the same again.

As befits the Krating Daeng Racing Team the two D-Max trucks were brand new and immaculate, bringing a level of finish and presentation not seen in this category before. And typically of this team there was a real twist in the story as the two drivers behind the wheel were real rookies – neither have ever raced before.

Controlling a pukka racing truck, a machine that was never designed with the race track in mind, takes real skill and ability, seeing the top pickup stars wrestling their big machines around the circuits of Thailand is one of the reasons that this discipline has become so popular with fans.

Team Manager Khun ‘Kiki’ Sak Nana, arguably Thailand’s most famous racing driver, is a man who always challenges convention and loves a new challenge, so it’s little wonder he decided to take this ambitious new route, as he explained in the pitlane at Buriram while his two new trucks took to the track for the first time. “I’m very happy with TSS and we want to do more variety, we have never done pickup [racing] before and we want to try a new challenge so we want to try racing this car,” he said.

The opening weekend of the year was really just being used as the starting point of this new programme, admitted Khun Kiki, although with a team of this stature there were expectations. “The pickup truck is long term planning,” he said. “This is the first race, there is a lot of development and learning of the car to do.”

“The drivers have no experience of racing but of course they love racing and come to the races with me many times,” he continued. “But this is the first time they drive on this track, so it’s very interesting.” Indeed, it is interesting to say the least, few drivers step into the cockpit of a racing truck for their first competitive track outing.

Khun Kiki reckons that apart from talent both drivers have the mental and physical attributes needed to become successful drivers. “Philip [Massoud] was my Team Manager in my drift team for a long time,” explains Khun Kiki. “He has a lot of discipline, everything with him is very efficient. Both of them are very efficient persons.”

Thailand’s superstar driver races with passion above everything else, few people love this sport more and indeed have given more to it than Khun Kiki, and clearly he wants his new protégées to feel the same buzz, to be moulded in his style. “They have followed racing all their life so I think it’s time for me to put them behind the steering wheel and start to feel what it’s like to become a racing driver and start to become professional drivers and start pushing hard and start to feel my stress and start to feel the butterflies and churning stomach when you go out there, we want them to feel that,” he says.

Khun Kiki also demands fitness from his drivers and they certainly exude that. “Basically I knew Kiki from drifting and became good friends with him and I’ve been supporting his drifting team and supporting his Porsche and I was interested to drive and he gave me the opportunity to drive if I wanted to in the pickup,” said Khun Philip as he got to grips with his new mount. “So I took it.”

He’s a raw recruit, certainly, but he settled in quickly and was soon posting times in Class C, the category that is reserved for novice truck racing drivers, culminating in P2 in qualifying. Khun Philip was only beaten by his teammate in the qualifying session and that gave the team a 1-2 in class on their truck racing debut. “It’s my first time racing and my first time in a pickup so I’m happy, I think it’s a good achievement and it motivates me to push harder and harder,” he said.

Racing trucks have a reputation for being difficult to extract the full potential from their unique handling and driveability characteristics, so what was it like for Khun Phillip behind the wheel of his new D-Max? “It understeers a lot when you push it, it also tends to oversteer at the rear as there is no weight there so you have to find an optimal balance which is very difficult,” the Australian explained.

“As you are running leaf springs in the rear with a shock absorber, you don’t have a coil so you can’t really do corner balancing so it’s a difficult car,” he continued. “You’ve got to gain confidence as you go and find your braking point and turn-in point and not to find the throttle too early as then the tail will come back out, so very tippy toe.”

Khun Phillip’s teammate, Khun Songkran Yamamura, has also been eyeing up a racing career for quite a while. “I’ve known Kiki for over 15 years now,” he said in the pit garage. “We met in the UK, and since then I’ve been looking at his driving, looking at his cars, looking at his motorsport life and been dreaming of getting into motorsport events, but I’ve never had a chance to join the racing circuit. This year we had a talk and I was asked to join as one of the truck drivers.”

Khun Kiki is known for his demanding standards, few cars look more pristine than the Krating Daeng-liveried machines and he demands a very high level of fitness and skill from both himself and his drivers, so like his teammate, Khun Songkran admitted that there was more to come even though he was happy to have posted the fastest time in Class C during qualifying and set himself up on pole position for his first race.

“That’s still not good enough, the car is about 80% ready, it’s not 100%,” said the Japanese driver. “Myself, I’m not ready yet, I have to tune my driving style to a car racing style, so that’s going to be the difficult part for me to get together. If the car is 100% ready I think I can do better than this but myself I’m not good enough yet.”

Come the first race and despite being in the thick of the front running action in Class C Khun Phillip and Khun Songkran ended up empty handed. However, valuable learning experience had been gained, their first race was now behind them and, crucially, they both clearly looked like they can make an impression in truck racing. In the second race though the rookies came through superbly to record a double podium finish. Khun Songkran impressively won Class C outright while Khun Phillip made an excellent recovery from an issue during the race to nail down the last step on the podium, a rewarding end to their first racing weekend.

Date Change

TSS has announced that the next round of the series, which makes up Rounds 3 & 4 of the year, has been rescheduled back one week and the race weekend will now run from Friday 31 July to Sunday 2 August. Porsche Carrera Cup Asia (PCCA) will also join the TSS race weekend programme.