Thailand Super Series’ newest initiative to make motorsport accessible to everyone has kicked off in style as the ‘TSS Racing Academy’ roared into life at a very hot and dry Pathum Thani Speedway. The Academy’s aim is to fully prepare drivers for the racetrack and already interest in the three-day duration courses is sky high.

Now we are quickly entering the final countdown to the second event on the 2015 TSS calendar and it’s promises to be even more action-packed than usual as exactly ten years after last visiting Thailand, one of Asia’s biggest, most enduring and most professional racing championships is returning here.

That’s because the striking and sophisticated racecars, as well as the skilled mix of professional and fast amateur drivers, that make up the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia will be in action at Chang International Circuit at the end of this month running alongside the TSS competitors in the busy programme.

One of the new racecars that attracted a lot of attention on the bumper Super Car grid for the season opener, which also took place in Buriram back in May, was the A Motorsport-run Subaru BRZ driven by Khun Kraingkrai Woraratanatham; car and driver were in fact both making their debut in TSS.

It turned into a very promising weekend with two championship points scoring finishes for the pretty Japanese sports coupe, which still needs a lot of development work over the rest of the season in order to unlock its full potential.

Finally, the Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival is growing fast in both national and international stature and the event is certainly not standing still. TSS Vice President Preeda Tantemsapya explains some of the new changes and improvements for this year, apart from FIA homologation, which include a comprehensive overhaul of the ‘Beach Road’ paddock layout, the event’s first permanent administrative facility buildings and a consolidation of the spectator-focused activity zones.

TRA hits the ground running

TSS’s latest initiative to complete the motorsport circle kicked off in style last weekend as the brand new ‘TSS Racing Academy’ (TRA) roared into life at a very hot and dry Pathum Thani Speedway.

The launch of TRA completes a ‘ladder’ that will take people who have never even sat in a racecar before and prepare them to start an upwards journey within the TSS programme. It will teach them the basics of racecraft and ready them to extract the most out of our popular beginner racing platform, Super Eco, the first step on a journey that can take them (in Thailand) as far as Super Car Class 1-GT3 or the forthcoming ‘TCR’ touring car series; in fact the comprehensive TSS structure will allow drivers to get ready to launch themselves into an international career if they so desire.

Thus the arrival of TRA completes a platform that emphasises the ambitions of TSS. In fact stretching from the new ‘grassroots’ racing academy all the way through to FIA GT3 or TCR level means that TSS now boasts the most comprehensive and integrated racing structure in South East Asia.

TSS organiser’ Racing Spirit launched the ‘New Era’ of motorsport in 2013 and one of the key objectives handed down by TSS President Sontaya Kunplome was to turn motorsport away from its position as a niche sport and built towards mainstream appeal. Not just in terms of developing a fan base but also to make racing accessible to everyone.

Building that accessibility for everyone is one of the core values behind the TRA initiative. We were the first series here to recognise the potential of the new breed of ‘eco’ racecars to provide a starter point on the racing ladder and we are the only organiser to exclusively reserve the category for ‘Class C’ level drivers only.

With racing being the driving passion of TSS, the decision was taken to step into a void and open up an innovative new platform that will allow anyone to learn to race. A lot of planning and determination to produce a winning concept culminated in the first course, which took place last weekend. Designed as a ‘soft launch’ to iron the bugs out and optimise the format, it in fact went without any big hitches – or small ones really – as TSS Vice President Khun Preeda Tantemsapya explained. “Our first class went very well, we are testing our processes and it worked out well and overall the students were happy with what they achieved over the three days,” he said.

Khun Preeda, who has a long racing background and is in fact also a former race school instructor, was also on the roster of tutors for the weekend and he was quick to point out that the format allows drivers with different skill levels to be accommodated and to be pulled forward at different speeds. Importantly, the least experienced drivers were able to make big all-round gains and that meant everyone was able to achieve the targets that the course set.

“We could see the gaps on the first day were almost ten seconds from the fastest to the slowest driver but while the fastest drivers improved all the way through the slowest drivers were able to really make big improvements in just a short time and by the end the gaps were around two and a half seconds,” says Khun Preeda. “That was very pleasing as it shows our course can produce results for everyone which is what we want, to be all things to all prospective racers. Some of them hadn’t driven a stick shift before and they picked that up very quickly and became faster with each session.”

To provide the best possible convenience of accessibility for potential racers, as well as the ideal level of infrastructure (including a large apron that can host multiple course layouts as well as garages for the cars and classrooms) meant the decision was taken to base the ‘Academy’ at Pathum Thani Speedway. That already seems to have been a good choice. “We are happy with Pathum Thani, it’s a good location and it’s got the facilities that we want for the courses,” notes Khun Preeda.

The mandate of TSS is to bring motorsport to a much wider audience, to draw in people who have never considered visiting a racetrack before. Therefore Khun Preeda was pleased to report that there was a distinct ‘family’ atmosphere at the TRA opening weekend. “A lot of them brought family members along so it was really a family affair we even had father and son racing together,” he said.

Khun Preeda went on to give a brief outline of what the three-day course entailed. “On Friday we started in the classroom, going through the rules and regulations about how to behave on the track, the technical aspects of race driving and the components that we wanted to work through during the course,” he said.

“We want drivers to be gain knowledge of all aspects of racing [from the TRA course] and to be able to manage themselves at the track so we discussed scrutineering and regulations, obtaining a race licence, what driver briefings at the races entail and many more so they will be fully prepared,” he continued. “The drivers also walked the track and got a taste of the cars.”

The result of the first day was to smoothly slot drivers into the objectives of TRA, put the foundations in place to bring their mental thinking and outlook in terms of their driving right into the direction of the course.

“Saturday, the second day, saw the students being schooled in the individual techniques of racing, such as braking, slalom, cornering techniques and particularly to learn to use their own judgment and imagination to choose cornering speeds, the angles, their position at every point on the track, to be able to draw a line in their minds while they’re driving,” Khun Preeda continued.

“On the final day, Sunday, we brought all this together so the drivers could compete on the full course and slot their learning into the bigger picture, improving their skills with the knowledge to transfer the weight of the car from left to right and to be able to angle up the car.

“We introduced starting and following cars with the instructors out on the course for students to follow and to watch them and once they do a decent time they allow the driver to make their own laps and drive on their own but also to slot back in and correct where required.” Khun Preeda concluded, “We wanted to introduce a lot of flexibility to allow tutoring of the students while giving them room to progress and to take the initiative but also to be able to smoothly guide them when needed.”

TRA enjoyed an excellent early seal of approval, as one of the participants in the first course was Dr. Patima Jeerapaet, a former President of Thailand Automotive Institute (TAI), who in that capacity is noted for writing the groundbreaking Automotive Master Plan (2012-2016) that focused on technology, research, development, increased performance from human resources and the strength of operators as the way to take the industry here forward.

“I’m here today with my son who was the Thailand champion in kart club racing four or five years ago,” he explained. “I want him to have proper training by professional racers, that’s why we spoke to TSS and we got a very kind arrangement to allow my son and another five of my friends and me to come along.”

Indeed his son, Khun Patiphat, has a very good grounding in motorsport already, he won the Rok Cup Senior at the ASEAN Karting Open Championship 2010 and the same year was also the Thailand Champion in the Senior Rok Class, organised by the Karting Association of Thailand. Then he was just 11, despite running in the senior class, now he’s 16 and looking to progress to cars – and TRA fits the bill.

Dr Patima, as TAI President, not only had big visions for the automotive industry’s future, but introduced new detail ideas, and that’s a thought trend that’s continued as he quickly perceives TRA as being able to play a broader role for everyone. “I think it’s very important for everyone to have proper knowledge about driving,” he said.

“I know everyone can drive but you need to know the way to drive properly and safely as when you drive in the street you can’t predict any accident that might happen so if you have proper training then it’s very good as you can control the car, you can control the brakes properly and you will also save money from car repairing.”

He reckons the course is applicable to everyone and points out that it will bring people fully up to speed on new developments of the automobile. “Even though I drive cars for thirty years, also sometimes you need proper training and sometimes you also need to learn how to use new technologies for the brake system and for the wheels, that’s important,” he added.

Structural improvements on the way for Bangsaen

The Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival is growing in stature very quickly and, crucially, last year the motorsports extravaganza made a big international breakthrough. Recognition across Asia and globally grew significantly and the event has now made its way on the ‘to do’ list for many overseas drivers and teams. We certainly expect that international ‘flavour’ to continue to accelerate this year.

Already, comfortably, the Speed Festival is the biggest motorsports event in Thailand, in every aspect – the number of competitors and teams taking part as well as the numbers of visitors while national media recognition and coverage tops any other racing event. But the plan isn’t to stand still, rather last year’s edition was seen as the start of the ‘second generation’ of the Speed Festival and with more improvements and planning that process will gain ground this year.

Foremost for the ‘2015 edition’ is completing FIA ‘Grade 3’ homologation, which will cement the status of the Speed Festival on the international motorsport map and allow professional overseas series to join the event in the future. That’s right on track, according to TSS Vice President Preeda Tantemsapya. “There will be some upgrades made so we can achieve FIA Grade 3 level, which we will undertake so we can pass in time for this year,” he says.

But the biggest ‘physical’ change will be the arrival of the Speed Festival’s first permanent infrastructure, clearly demonstrating that the event is here to stay – and grow. All the world’s major street races that have developed long term places on the motorsport calendar – such as Monaco and Macau – have put in place permanent facilities, and now Bangsaen will step up to that level.

That new direction will mean a sweeping change in the layout of the paddock on Bangsaen’s Beach Road, optimising the area for everyone involved, as well as having the knock on effect of freeing up a much larger stretch of the Beach Road to the greater convenience of local traffic, as Khun Preeda explains.

“The main change in the layout this year will centre around the pit and paddock,” he says. “Recently we have used a long stretch of Beach Road, but this year we will only use about half of that so the pits will be over two areas, one will be the same area along Beach Road, but it will be much more compact as that area will be reserved only for Super Car and Super 2000.
 
“The second area is in front of the bungalows space behind the dummy grid,” Khun Preeda continues. “We will build a permanent facility there to house the control tower, the VIP area and the Press area, as well as the Administrative Offices and then we will pave with asphalt, as now it’s a dirt area, on the north side as there is plenty of space and we will put down a big tented section and set it up as a pit for the rest of the cars other than Super Car and Super 2000, so everyone else will be in that area.”

The new infrastructure will greatly optimise the event’s organisation, particularly as Race Control will switch from the Bangsaen Villa, where it was previously situated in the hotel’s conference room – and where it was relatively isolated. Now Race Control, and its associated functions such as the Stewards and RAAT Offices, will be absorbed into the paddock, thus allowing for much improved integration and reduced time processes.

Aside from the organsational aspect there will also be a consolidation of the Activity Zone, which has in recent editions spread out over two separate areas, its traditional placement at Laem Taen and a new area adjoining the end of the Beach Road paddock.

The success of the new ‘Landmark Pavilion’ at Laem Taen last December means this initiative will be continued – and expanded – for this year and so consolidating all activities in this area is a logical step forward to make.

Khun Preeda explains the new format for the Activity Zone. “The reason for the change is that last year we had two separate main attraction areas, one was located on Beach Road, the other was at Laem Taen,” he says.

“On Laem Taen we launched what we called the ‘Bangsaen Speed Club’, which proved to be a very popular place with visitors last year. We don’t want to compete with two places against each other, so we will move everything to the Bangsaen Speed Club and everything will be bigger, there will be more tables, more entertainment and all the budget will be concentrated in one area so everyone can join the same area.”

That means with expanded recreational facilities, including catering and entertainments, the addition of the sponsor booths to the area, as well as showcars, will add up to create a zone where visitors can spend greater relaxation time while still being plugged into the race action. Just like last year, the ‘Landmark Pavilion’ will kick into life ahead of the event and provide a useful promotional aspect to educate visitors to the resort about the forthcoming Speed Festival.

With the new end of November dates this year moving the Speed Festival well away from the Christmas and New Year holiday periods, the organisers’ expect visitor numbers and recognition to grow further. Khun Preeda promises that Bangsaen will be bigger and better than ever before and will also provide a perfect lead up to the tenth anniversary edition which will arrive in 2016.

Porsche invasion

Exactly ten years after last visiting Thailand, one of Asia’s biggest, most enduring and most professional racing championships is finally returning here. That’s because the striking and sophisticated racecars, as well as the skilled mix of professional and fast amateur drivers, that make up the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia (PCCA) will be in action at Chang International Circuit at the end of this month.

The long-awaited return of PCCA to Thailand will see the pan-Asian ‘one make’ series joining the TSS programme in Buriram. The TSS season in fact kicked off at this track back in May and is now gearing up for a return visit in just a couple of weeks time.

The popular Porsche championship, which is into its second year using the new-generation ‘991’ GT3 Cup racecar, kicked off the new season in Shanghai in mid April before visiting Korea a month later and then Japan’s Fuji Speedway early last month.

This will therefore be the fourth of seven rounds scheduled for PCCA this year with a return visit to Sepang Circuit still to come as well as a prestigious date supporting the Singapore F1 Grand Prix before finally a trip to China’s Shanghai Circuit. That means every other round on the calendar apart from Buriram is either a current or former Formula 1 hosting circuit.

It’s a series that only makes the most prestigious calls on its calendar to match its professionalism so for PCCA to join the TSS programme is a real boost for Thailand’s premier series, which is in fact only entering its third year.

Since the beginning of the year TSS President Sontaya Kunplome has been contesting PCCA and the senior management team has supported him at the races. It meant that when paying a visit to Thailand’s new world-class circuit in Buriram looked to be a winning choice, the dots very quickly joined up.

The brand-new Chang International Circuit has FIA Grade 1 status, so that ticked more boxes with PCCA, while TSS is more than capable of accommodating the Porsches into the next round’s programme, especially as the three Super Car classes are merged into one race in Buriram, thus allowing more space to open up in the timetable.

Meanwhile, the additional new row of pit boxes the circuit has just built and which officially opened in time for last month’s visit of Super GT to Buriram, means that the Porsche teams won’t disrupt the allocation of garages to the teams competing in TSS.

Having PCCA join the TSS programme is a win-win situation, TSS management believes, as all involved in Thai motorsport will rub shoulders with drivers and teams that achieve the sky-high standards that the Porsche run series exudes. That will open everyone up to an extra level of competitiveness.

There is another twist in the story too – and it’s one that puts the ‘icing on the cake’ as Thai motorsports’ fans will have no less than three of its best-known ‘local’ heroes to cheer on when the massed Porsche ranks take to the track in Buriram.

That’s because this year PCCA has seen Thai drivers finally retuning to the action, Khun Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak, Khun Suttiluck Buncharoen and Khun Sontaya Kunplome have joined the series and they are all in fighting form so race fans will see them mixing it up with some of the best sportscar drivers around. It’s the perfect moment for Thais to return to PCCA just as the series finally returns here.

Expect a real fight from this trio. They will go up against some of the best sportscar racers around. One PCCA front runner, Porsche factory driver Khun Martin Ragginger, is already acquainted with the TSS paddock as he coached our own superstar, Khun ‘Kiki’ Sak Nana, when he raced a Porsche 997 GT3-R in Super Car last year.

Another name to look out for is Khun Craig Baird; he’s been dubbed the most winning Porsche driver in the world. He’s won his native New Zealand Porsche GT3 Championship no less than six times and the Australian Carrera Cup Championship an impressive five times, while he also has victory at the Bathurst 12 Hours to his name.

There will also be a string of well-known Asian drivers on the full grid, including Macau’s Rodolfo Ávila, Singapore’s Khun Yeuy Tan and Khun Ringo Chong and China’s Khun Ho-Pin Tung, the latter who became that nation’s first ever driver in Indycar.

The PCCA programme will see the Porches take to the track for the first time on the Friday for two free practice sessions of 45 minutes each which will give them ample time to learn the track. Qualifying will take place on Saturday morning before Race 1 is contested in the afternoon. Race 2 will take place on Sunday. The containers bearing the cars will arrive the previous Friday.

Finally, the long hand of motorsport history will be adding a few more footnotes with the return of PCCA. It’s exactly a decade since the series last raced in Thailand, in those days though Bira International Circuit was the venue.

And that last visit in 2005 saw Khun Sontaya and Khun Vutthikorn in action, the pair superbly flying the flag for Thailand. Ten years on and these two highly experienced sportscar racers, who have gone on to achieve much with their respective careers in the meantime, will both be back to carry the Thai standard once again, joined this time by Khun Suttiluck. It’s a very appropriate joining up of the long dots of history and it means that it promises to be a weekend to really remember.

Finally, don’t expect PCCA to be the last major international series to join the TSS programme, rather this is likely to be the first. Already several big championships are hovering in the wings.

The ‘BRZ’ has landed

One of the new racecars that attracted a lot of attention on the bumper Super Car grid for the season opener in Buriram back in May was the A Motorsport-run Subaru BRZ driven by Khun Kraingkrai Woraratanatham; car and driver were in fact both making their debut in TSS.

The sleek coupé ticked quite a few boxes, the Subaru name is unquestionably popular with Thai motorsport fans and there is extra resonance from the ‘BRZ’ tag as it’s the latest sportscar model from the Japanese brand, but one that is still very rarely seen on the Thai roads, never mind on the racetrack. Certainly, this is the first ‘full race spec’ BRZ in Thailand and as it was making its debut in Super Car there was clearly going to be a lot of interest focused in its direction.

It’s actually a brand new project. This BRZ is still at the ‘raw’ phase, A Motorsport having to rush to get the car ready to meet the regulations in time for its first race. Meanwhile, the competitive bar in Super Car Class 3-GTC has already been set high, but despite all that the BRZ didn’t disappoint.

A Motorsport targeted a relatively smooth and problem-free debut for the BRZ, which was still running with a lot of ‘road’ parts under the skin, including the transmission, and they got just that with two top-seven finishes that exceeded everyone’s expectations.

It was a doubly steep learning curve too as the driver was also making his debut in TSS, Khun Kraingkrai explaining, just after he successfully got to the finish of Race 1, why he had decided to introduce the evocative BRZ name to Super Car.

“First of all it’s my dream, I want to become a racing driver and now I have an opportunity with this team,” he said. “[A Motorsport] is the best Subaru workshop in Thailand and I have my own car, which is a BRZ, that’s why I talk with them. [So] the project started from there. We start to build this car, but it’s from the showroom, it’s not a racecar that’s why we have to change many things to become a racecar and fit TSS Class 3 [regulations] and we only started two months ago.”

The team plans to develop the car all year and have it up to its optimum specification by the time the season ends in Bangsaen in late November. The driver is new to racing the BRZ too, he needs to gain experience of the car as well as the Buriram circuit, so pushing to make the grid for the season opener was a big priority, even if the car was a long way from where everyone wanted it to be.

Come the first raceday and there was a very respectable result awaiting for car and driver as Khun Kraingkrai brought the BRZ home seventh, to bag his first finish in Super Car – and collect his first championship points. That came after he had to carefully manage a machine that wasn’t quite ready for the intense heat in Buriram throughout the race.

“Today we had a lot of heat from the gearbox, because we still use an automatic gearbox and just use an oil cooler on it because the [race] gearbox we ordered hasn’t come on time so we have had to use the original gearbox so we could get in the race,” he explained.

But it shook out pretty well for Khun Kraingkrai. “We started from ninth and at the end of the race we get seventh, that’s okay, that’s a good result as it’s the first time in my life I get into Thailand Super Series,” he said. “We will keep working on it now, the car will be more perfect and faster than it was today at the next event.”
 
After just one race, team and driver reckoned there is clearly a lot of potential to be extracted from the BRZ, even if it was only able to show flashes of that potential over the opening laps before temperatures climbed. “It handles well, but after four laps the tyres were gone, the handling is gone, the heat is going up so I keep going carefully,” said Khun Kraingkrai.

Making his debut in Super Car when all three classes were on track together made his afternoon a bit more demanding as he admitted he had to spend a lot of time watching out for the faster Class 1-GT3 and Class 2-GTM cars. “I did have to keep an eye on the mirrors,” he said afterwards.

Khun Kraingkrai went one better in Race 2 as he brought the ‘Subaru blue’ car home in P6, to make it two strong finishes from the two races as well as two helpings of championship points; a decent debut for both car and driver. The team went home with plenty of data to look at and with further race parts due to arrive during the two month gap between the opening and second rounds, laptimes should certainly improve further when the BRZ takes to Buriram again at the end of this month.