It’s been hot and dry at Bira Circuit all week long while out on the track the pace has been sizzling as yesterday saw qualifying sessions take place for all the categories on the Thailand Super Series (TSS) programme. This morning the race action will get underway early and is set to continue until the late afternoon by which time everyone will have contested their first races of the weekend with a second round of races then remaining for tomorrow.

After the two trips to Buriram in May and July, this week the TSS headed for the historic ‘home of Thai motorsport’ pitching up in Pattaya for a week at a track that features utterly different characteristics. That’s been clearly demonstrated as the formbook has taken a very good shaking although at the top of the tree the Super Car GTM championship classification leader Sarun Sereethoranakul made it abundantly clear that he wants to win this title from the front by planting the Lamborghini Huracán onto pole. It wasn’t by much though as the two Ferraris chased him really hard and his advantage was just a whisker, 0.018 of a second in fact. That summed the day up really.

In Super Car GTC Vattana Motorsport are running two KTM X-Bow machines for the first time and that has already reaped dividends as this team looks to wrap up the title – there’s going to be an all ‘batmobile’ front row when the grid forms up this afternoon.

TCR Thailand saw the top three split by just three tenths of a second. Jack Lemvard, Narasak Ittritpong and Carlo Van Dam: three of the fastest drivers racing in Asia today with three very equally matched cars, they were all gunning for glory during qualifying and there was little between them. Three big reputations too, none of that trio is going to want to finish in second place, never mind third. Expect plenty more fireworks here.

In Super 2000 everyone was left wondering exactly who Pattarapol Vongprai is after the youngster imperiously nabbed pole on his debut in the category, now it remains to be seen what he can do during the two races this weekend. It was the same story through the supporting programme as the non stop qualifying action kept the paddock on its toes, through Super Pickup, Super Compact, Super Production and Super Eco – as well as our guest supporting series this weekend the Caterham Supersport Asia Championship.

Qualifying: Super Car GTM

The two Ferraris looked to be in superb shape during free practice, they were rarely out of the top three with Khun Kantasak Kusiri heading the timesheets as Singha Motorsport Team Thailand bounced back into contention after the two visits to Buriram that kicked off the season brought them scant rewards by their sky-high standards.

The nature of Bira Circuit suits the Ferrari 458 Challenge perfectly, their setup seemed to be excellent, they weren’t short of commitment and they lined up as the ones everyone was going to have to beat during the official 30-minute qualifying session when it kicked off in the late Friday afternoon heat.

With a sizzling 1:00.695 lap time around Bira Kantasak, the reigning Super Car GTM champion, who was on his ‘home’ track – one he really knows better than anyone else – was in impressive form. And just two tenths off that time, with a scintillating 1:00.885 lap, was his teammate Voravud Bhirombhakdi, the 2014 Super Car GTM champion.

Singha Motorsport Team Thailand seemed to be getting it all perfectly together as they squeezed out the lines – but you simply can’t count out the championship leader, Sarun Sereethoranakul, who had banged in an amazing 1:00.677 on just his third lap to plant himself at the summit of the classification and as the clock gradually ticked down no one could match that lap and finally as the counter moved round to zero he had pole position in the bag by the smallest possible margin, 0.018 of a second! It was another stunning drive from Sarun, with the car that is busy defining this Super Car racing year, the Lamborghini Huracán LP620-2 Super Trofeo, underneath him and he certainly means to win this championship from the front – there is no cruising to simply tot up points.

After a difficult season so far with scant rewards Aekarat Discharoen extracted the max from the #11 A-Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 Cup around this tight and twisty 2.4 km circuit during qualifying to post the fourth fastest time with a 1:01.469 lap, another highly impressive performance from this experienced driver.

And proving that the idiosyncratic Porsche works well here, Pitsanu Sirimongkolkasem made it a 4-5 for the ‘991’ with a zippy lap of 1:01.599, just a tenth and a half off Aekarat’s time. Pitsanu is returning here with his striking gold 991 rebuilt after a major crash during the opening round. The driver looks sharp and the car is in very good shape so a promising weekend beckons.

Row 3 this afternoon will be completed by Daniel Bilski who banged in no less than 27 laps during the session during a run was well worth the time in the heat as he posted his fastest time on the 27th lap, in 1:01.785, to jump up the leaderboard. The Australian grew with confidence and speed in the fastest of the three B-Quik Racing entries entered in the GTM category.

Nattapong Horthongkum in the #38 factory-run Toyota 86 will lead out the fourth row this afternoon after he posted a 1:01.791 during his 17 laps on track. The comfortable double race winner at the last round in Buriram wasn’t able to recapture that form though and will have a lot of work to do this afternoon. His teammate Nattavude Charoensukhawatana in the #39 car suffered a big crash earlier in the session, which caused a lengthy red flag period and had turned in 3 laps at that point so his best time was only good enough for eleventh place.

Alongside the Toyota will be the second B-Quik Audi R8 LMS Cup, this time the #26 of Henk J. Kiks who had a neat and tidy session to wrap up the fourth row. The top ten was competed by Suttiluck Buncharoen who is back in his Porsche 991 GT3 Cup which has been repaired after an engine problem kept him out of the last round and Craig Corliss in the Holden Commodore who was flinging the big green machine around with his usual gusto. The big New Zealander was using a spare 5-litre engine after a late problem with the car’s regular 6-litre unit so he’s going to lacking his usual compliment of horses throughout this weekend.

Then comes Nattavude who was out of the action early in the session after a massive crash into 100R which saw the 86 bouncing off the tyre wall and ending up stranded on its roof. The factory team, with all the spare parts to hand, set about rebuilding the car overnight, a major job which including fitting a new roof.

Next to the Toyota on the grid will be the fastest of the AM class drivers, Paul Kanjanapas in the #60 Painkiller Racing Porsche 991 GT3 Cup. He’s got a decent lead in the championship classification but isn’t holding back, his best time of 1:05.565 was enough to edge out the other ‘gentlemen’ although just 0.236 seconds cover the top three in AM with Saravut Sereethoranakul and Paul teammate Naputt Assakul next up. The final car to set a time during qualifying was the #44 Nissan GT-R of Tosaphol Phamyai. At the back of the grid will be Shaun Varney in the B-Quik Racing Porsche 997 GT3 Cup who was penalised after qualifying. The first race of the weekend for GTM will start this afternoon at 1525 and will be of 28 laps duration. (Note: GTM qualifying results remain provisional).

Qualifying: Super Car GTC

There was a lot of interest when the GTC runners rumbled out of the pitlane as there were a couple of exciting new cars on the 12-strong entry list. Vattana Motorsport, which is starting to squeeze the life out of the GTC title fight this year with the dazzling KTM X-Bow GT4 driven by Narasak Ittritpong, added a second example of the Reiter Engineering-built machine to its race weekend roster, the #44 X-Bow being in the hands of Jack Lemvard. They want to get the Drivers’ title nailed down here and upping the entry would clearly help with this aim while also allowing them to double up on Teams’ points.

The other car of note was pretty unmistakable. Rotary Revolution has expanded its Mazda RX-7 portfolio to three cars this weekend and the brand new addition to its stable has been finished in an eye-catching hue of yellow. An attractive car certainly but now it’s the job of its driver, James Runacres, to unlock its potential. The young Englishman has joined TSS for the first time this weekend and the RX-7 represents a brand new style of car as he’s been racing in single-seaters for the last few seasons so he has quite an adjustment to make. But once car and driver are up to speed it looks like it’s going to be a very potent package.

When qualifying shook up the Vattana drivers did exactly what was expected of them. Narasak planted the #59 KTM on pole with a blistering 1:03.580 lap, a sensational time that would in fact have placed him very well on the GTM grid! Right behind him Jack carried out the supporting role with aplomb; he knocked out an excellent 1:04.230 on only his second run in the car and his first with it fully setup to the series’ BoP requirements. It means that for the first time ever there will be an all ‘batmobile’ front row in TSS when Super Car GTC goes to green lights at 1415 this afternoon for its first 22 lap race of the weekend.

The second row of the grid will be led out by the fastest of the factory Toyota 86s, the #37 of Manat Kulapalanont; his best was a 1:04.317, which was only a tenth of a second behind Jack. Manat has carried the fight to the KTM so far this year and it looks like it’s going to be the same story this weekend for the red and white car.

The outside of Row 2 was the preserve of B-Quik Racing’s Thomas Raldorf who is making his delayed debut in the second of the team’s recently acquired Porsche 996 GT3 Cup machines. The Dane has looked very handy all weekend as he finally gets some decent laps in with the #25 car but he had an issue with locking rear brakes during the session although was happy to be in the car and to be well placed for the race.

The third row is an all Mazda affair as Pete Thongchua in the RX-8 leads out U-tain Pongprapas in the RX-7. Pete was the early championship leader after the first round of the year Buriram and will be looking to bounce back into form after a tough time at the second round while U-tain is steadily extracting more and more pace out of his new car; this is his third event in the Japanese machine and he will be looking to cement gains. Team Manager Titapon Phaojinda reported that a 1:06 bracket lap had been the clear target for U-tain if he was to get into the podium fight come the race and he had thus pushed the RX-7 hard nail it down.

Row 4 will comprise of Prateep Tumprasert in the NSports-built Mitsubishi Evo X and Attapot Sriprom in the second B-Quik Racing Porsche 996 GT3 Cup, the #99, while the top ten in qualifying was rounded out by GTC debutant James (Mazda RX-7) and the second factory run Toyota 86, this time the #19 of Suttipong Smittachartch. James was improving lap-by-lap whittling down from 1:12s to 1:07s by the end of qualifying as he adjusts to driving a GT car and learns Bira Circuit.

The final row will be made up of Narin Yensuk in Rotary Revolution’s ‘pink’ #13 Mazda RX-7 and Sontaya Kunplome (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup), the latter not starting the qualifying session. Narin was happy with his lap as it was a PB time around Bira for the Chiang Mai driver and so he was making steady progress forward.

Qualifying: TCR Thailand

The pace is hotting up in TCR Thailand and after the last round saw the competitors hook up with TCR International Series on its high profile visit to Buriram it’s a whole different ballgame this week as the touring car series rocks into Bira Circuit for the first time.

There were also some new cars to look out for as the first two examples of the SEAT Léon TCR MY2016 have just arrived here and both have swiftly joined the grid in Pattaya. One, still running in its ex-factory ‘body in white’ colours, is in the hands of Rattanin Leenutaphong who has stepped up a gear after previously having been seen in TSS racing a Kia Picanto in Super Eco. Paritat Bulbon, who has vacated the Léon Cup Racer that he’s driven so far this season, is utilising the other new example here this week.

The ‘MY2016’ version of the Léon offers a lot of detailed improvements all round, as the benchmark TCR racecar is refined much further. Notably it has a specific FIA fuel cell as well improvements to the suspension while visually it has a new aero kit with a restyled front spoiler and splitter, new sideskirts and a revised rear bumper.

The 30-minute qualifying session was held in intense early afternoon heat and saw a front row lockout for Vattana Motorsport as Jack Lemvard (SEAT) edged out his teammate Narasak Ittiritpong (Honda) by 0.165 of a second, the two ‘battleship grey’ cars topping the timesheets throughout the 30-minute session. Jack planted the #44 on pole with a 1:03.663 best lap, his fourteenth lap out on track, while Narasak weighed in with a 1:03.828, a hair’s breadth behind, on his sixteenth lap on track. He had a big spin onto the grass on the inside of the exit of 100R but was able to resume without any damage to the Civic TCR.

Third place went to championship classification leader Carlo Van Dam, and with his closest rival Grant Supaphong absent this weekend that further eases his advantage at the top. The Dutchman banged in a 1:03.888 that left him just a couple of thousands adrift of Narasak and meant the top two were covered by little more than two tenths – that bodes well for an exciting race when TCR Thailand takes to the grid for its first race of the weekend just after the lunch break today.

Fourth fastest time went to Chariya Nuya who has stepped into the Eakie BBR Kaiten Civic that Kantadhee Kusiri debuted with an impressive showing during the last round in Buriram. Fifth quickest was Rattanin who is steadily getting used to his new SEAT on his debut in the car; he posted a best time of 1:06.051 to open out Row 3. Then comes the other SEAT TCR MY2016, the #7 of Paritat who turned in a 1:06.335. The final qualifier was Nattachak Hanjitkasem who had a problematic session after the intercooler pipe detached and a quick fix didn’t work in time, he reported afterwards that the TBN MK IHere Civic TCR wasn’t able to rev above 5,000 rpm and thus couldn’t post a representative laptime before the clock ticked away to zero.

Qualifying: Super 2000

There have been a lot of people scratching their heads in the paddock so far this week and wondering exactly who is Pattarapol Vongprai. The 20-year-old is making his Super 2000 debut at this round in the Honda Civic FD that was formerly raced by Chairat Sangtong in Super 2000 back in 2012 and 2013 and then by Pitsanu Sirimongkolkasem in 2014 so it’s a well-proven winning machine even if it’s been sitting idle for sometime.

The driver is a little bit of an unknown quantity, although he’s already started to make his mark in racing. Last year in another series he bagged a class championship title to signal his intent and this year he joined TSS during the opening round in Super Production before switching to Super Compact for the second round where he was in the thick of the action.

Now comes the big leap into Super 2000 and he really stirred the hornet’s nest up by banging in a string of impressive and consistent times during the practice sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. That proved to be no flash in the pan either as come the official qualifying run he thumped in a 1:07.2014 on just his third lap to claim pole in no uncertain fashion – a clear second ahead of the next fastest driver. It’s been a while since a driver has made such a mark on his debut in Super 2000. But this is one of the toughest categories on the programme and no quarter is given so Pattarapol’s next task is to turn that pole into the race lead when the lights go green at 1120 this morning for Super 2000’s first race of the weekend and then to keep the snarling pack behind him. It’s going to be a tough learning curve.

Alongside the grey Civic FD on the grid will be one of the most experienced Super 2000 veterans, Chayut Yangpichit; his best lap in the TT Motorsport Honda DC 5 was a 1:08.268. He bagged a win at the season opener in Buriram back in May but had a torrid weekend when the series returned their in July so he’s going to be looking to make up for this over the next 48 hours and on a track he knows inside out. Chayut is good to go with just a scheduled radiator change last night.

Pushed onto the second row by a matter of a few thousandths of a second was Munkong Sathienthirakul, his fastest time being a 1:08.289 although his session was curtailed early after a spin. Meanwhile making it an all-Civic FD second row was Kittipol Pramoj Na Ayudhya, the championship leader having a tough qualifying session as he lugs around plenty of additional ballast thanks to his winning streak. He will be looking for points this weekend as he homes in on the title and dropping ‘success’ weight off the #25 Civic would prove handy with Bangsaen next up on the calendar – in fact he won both races on the streets last year and will fancy another shot at glory.

Kittipol’s teammate Thanavud Bhirombhakdi will lead out the third row with a 1:09.562, although the two red, white and black Singha Motorsport cars are eight tenths of a second apart while the factory Toyota 86 of Manat Kulapalanont completes the row.

The fourth row was nailed down by Ekprawat Petcharak, who found real pace at the last round in Buriram with his unique Civic ‘FB’ that finally seemed to have been sorted although that pace hasn’t translated so far this week, and then the factory run Toyota Altis of Thanakorn Buttawong who leads out the ‘Class 2’ runners. The top ten on the grid this morning will be wrapped up by the #69 Honda City of Phatwit Phayakcso and the #24 Civic FD of Thamrong Mahadumrongkul. Meanwhile the second factory-run Altis, the #2 entry of Pure Hongsapan, is knocking on the door of the top ten after setting the eleventh quickest time.

It’s also worth mentioning Jetsada Yangpichit in the #17 TT Motorsport Honda Civic who had a big impact into the wall here during unofficial testing on Wednesday. The stricken car was taken back to Bangkok and delivered straight to the state-of-the-art body repair workshops of team sponsor, Mercedes-Benz dealer Star Flag, where the entire front end was removed and a replacement section welded into place. The car is now back in action for the weekend although the finishing touches were still being put to it late on Friday as it was having its final alignment checks.

Qualifying: Super Pickup

It really doesn’t get any closer than yesterday’s qualifying session for Super Pickup, which was held in the mid afternoon heat and split up the sessions for Super Car GTC and GTM. When the dust settled it was Yuth Jhannet (Chevrolet) and Tanawat Suwannarat (Isuzu) who came out on top and will start this afternoon’s first race of the weekend from the front row with the former nabbing pole by just 0.003 of a second! Yuth’s best lap in 1:13.786 was good enough to put him at the top of the classification – but only just!

Waris Onyarab (Isuzu) leads out the second round and in fact he was only three tenths of a second shy of pole so it looks like the truck category will be pretty tight. Samrit U-songham, who claimed Class C pole position, completes Row 2 while Krating Daeng’s Philip Massoud and Sanya Phonyiam will share the third row. All these drivers are behind the wheel of the Isuzu D-Max.

Then come Ruechai Nempiboon (Isuzu), second in Class C and Phisit Netdechathanasit (Mazda) while the top ten overall is wrapped up by Nuthaporn Namjuk and Chaleampon Phonlookin, both also in Isuzu’s D-Max.

You have to look a fair way down the timesheets this weekend to find the new Toyota Revo trucks, reigning Super Pickup champion Jaras Jaengkamolkulchai was twelfth fastest in the qualifying session while his teammate Songsak Kornsirisuepsakun was two places further back. Nineteen trucks posted a time during qualifying.

The first race of the weekend for Super Pickup will wrap up today’s programme when it goes to green lights at 1635 and is scheduled for 22 laps.

Qualifying: Super Compact

Battle resumed in Super Compact between the two titans of the class, Pasarit Phromsombat and Kajornsak Na Songkhla. They arrived at Bira Circuit split by just 5 points so with only a double header in Bangsaen to go after this round neither can afford not to be winning this weekend. The Ford Fiesta driver arrived with the best form though, three straight wins. But this circuit is a totally different proposition from Buriram and it was the first time here for the Honda CR-Z while Kajornsak knows his car inside out on this track.

As so often in qualifying, Pasarit was able to get the job done and claim pole position; his best lap, was a 1:11.835 which edged Kajornsak (1:12.114) out by just under three tenths of a second. That was the Honda driver’s second lap and he would only do four laps in total, but it was enough to secure pole. This pair will as usual occupy the front row between them and expect fireworks when they head for Turn 1 when the first Super Compact race goes to green lights at the very early time of 0850 this morning.

The Innovation Motorsport team will be pretty happy with yesterday’s performance as they locked out Row 2 of the grid with Michael Freeman edging out his young teammate by less than a tenth of a second; the Australian posted a best lap 1:13:322 while Tachapan Vijittranon weighed in with a 1:13:425. The latter also claimed Class C pole by a comfortable margin.

Super Compact is all about equalising performance through a tailored BoP programme and it’s really paying off for the factory supported Mazda team which last year switched to run the new generation turbodiesel Mazda2. That chopped three seconds out of Michael’s laptime. “Best lap here by a mile,” he said afterwards. He is confident that those times can be replicated into race pace and the former Super Pickup racer put the gains down to “a big improvement in the chassis balance and front aero.” This team is right back in the game now and it seems there’s more to come, “we will have a power increase for Bangsaen,” he added.

Kittitat Vongprai who is finding his pace quickly will lead out Row 3 and was just two tenths off the #44 Mazda, his best was a 1:13.622 while he also claimed Class B pole. Then came Phongthep Wachirarungruang who was almost nine tenths of a second further back but nabbed second position in Class C.

Qualifying: Super Production

It’s proving very difficult for anyone to stop Hideharu Kuroki this season; he has four wins out of four for the season so far and his rivals need to stop him this weekend if they are to have any chance at the title. It’s imperative that he’s pegged back over the next 48 hours – but already it’s not looking that likely as the Japanese driver banged his Honda Jazz onto pole position with a best lap of 1:12.312.

However the driver looking best placed to hustle Hideharu is Thomas Raldorf, who posted a 1:12.596 to lay claim to the outside berth of the front row, just under three tenths of a second back. The highly experienced Dane, who is also racing in Super Car GTC this weekend and is a previous winner in Super Car here, looks in good form.

The second row has two fast drivers, TT Motorsport’s Anon Rodprasert (he has a win to his name already this year in Buriram) who also claimed Class B pole and Yotsarun Sansuk, the form driver of last year who has however had a much less rewarding 2016 and will be looking to pull in a good result as the season goes into the second half. These two are right in the game as they were only four and five tenths away from pole respectively.

Then come another two podium contenders, Anusorn Asiralertsiri and Sirisak Manthugumphol, on the third row. Seventh fastest time went to Tony Percy. The English veteran was fastest in Thursday’s Free Practice session and although he matched that time in qualifying the others pulled ahead. However he had a race against time to make the race as a replacement engine had required major work, so he’s good to go and solidly on the fourth row of the grid. Quick lady driver Nattanid Leewattanavaragul completed Row 4, she’s the reigning Class C champion and looking to push further towards the front. In Class C, pole went to Thanawat Wongnapachant who also rounded out the top ten overall. In the end 20 cars posted a qualifying time.

Qualifying: Super Eco

The long day of qualifying yesterday actually kicked off at 0900 with a 30-minute session for the Super Eco runners. The day started hot and dry and the formbook was very quickly shaken up as there were many drivers that are less familiar names to Eco watchers raising their game and posting fast times. But this category is all about breeding the stars of tomorrow and the latest new face popping up on show is exactly what everyone should be looking out for.

When it all shook out there was a wholly familiar name at the top of the timesheets, Suphong Khamtonwong who banged in a best lap in 1:16.883 and no one could match that. He’s seemingly on his way to the title. However another championship hopeful, Jakraphan Davee, was only 0.289 seconds further back to claim the outside of Row 1 and he’s going to be looking to win tomorrow on a track he always goes well at.

The second row of the grid see the reigning Super Eco champion Konpichit Toyingcharoen starting alongside the fast emerging Sittron Phromsombat who is actually the younger brother of reigning Super 2000 champion Pasarit. Fastest time in the ‘Plus’ junior category went to Surachai Luiprasert with a 1:19.032 and he edged out Thanawit Aphiphunya by almost seven tenths of a second.

Qualifying: Caterham Supersport Asia Championship

New guest series at Bira this weekend is the Caterham Supersport Asia Championship, which has travelled up from its usual home base at Sepang to join the TSS programme. Reserved for the long running British ‘kit’ style racecars, the series is divided into two classes with the ‘420R’ cars having an extra power advantage over the ‘Supersport’ version.

Pole position went to Marcus Chyne in the #9 420R with a best lap in 1:08.835 that edged out the next quickest driver, Arnaud Dupuis, by a comfortable 1.1 seconds. Marcus however had a big hit into the tyre wall on the run towards the S1 chicane so his car will need work undertaking before it’s ready for when the Caterham runners go to the grid this morning for their first action of the weekend; their race starts at 1030. Third quickest time went to Tan Pye Sen, he was three tenths further back, while the second row was rounded out by Rocky Siow.

In the Supersport class B-Quik Racing’s Shaun Varney is making a guest appearance this weekend. It’s the first time at Bira Circuit for the New Zealander so the Caterham series is giving him some useful additional track learning time. The Super Car GTM driver posted a best lap of 1:13.031, which put him on the front row of Supersport alongside class pole winner Halim Muazzam, the final gap between the two being seven tenths of a second.

The Caterham drivers reported that they were enjoying their first ever trip to Bira with the tighter nature of the circuit suiting the agile ability of these unique little racecars.