When Thailand’s premier motorsport category, Super Car GTM, pitched up at Buriram last weekend for the second round of the Thailand Super Series (TSS) season, it turned out to be about one team – Toyota Team Thailand, as the factory outfit dominated at the front with a ruthlessness that squeezed all of its rivals into the shade.

The opening round of the year back in May had been the preserve of the newly arrived Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo, with three wins out of three, but the return trip seven weeks later saw the tables turned as the signature red and white cars locked out the front row of the grid and won both races to bounce right back into contention in the championship. There have been some tough times in the wilderness for Toyota in recent seasons but they are right back in business with a bang.

Khun Nattapong Horthongkum claimed both pole positions and proceeded to win both races with ease while teammate Khun Nattavude Charoensukhawatana took a second and third place and that allowed Toyota to emerge from the weekend at the top of the Teams’ standings. They’re right in the title fights now – and clearly hungry.

Championship leader Khun Sarun Sereethoranakul emerged from the weekend with a second and third place finish which allowed him to retain his title lead – and keep his margin at the top intact – so it was excellent tactical play from the man they all have to beat if they want to win the title this year.

In the Amateur (AM) class Khun Paul Kanjanapas cemented his grip on the top of the championship standings with a victory in the second race to add to his four consecutive runners up spots while Khun Thamrong Mahadumrongkul claimed the other win last weekend with that comfortable victory coming on his debut in the class.

There were two new faces on the entry list, Khun Supachai Weeraborwornpong made a one off appearance in the Lamborghini Gallardo he raced in the brand’s Super Trofeo Asia last year while Khun Tosaphol slipped into the Nissan GTR as ‘Godzilla’ made its first competitive appearance of the year.

Super Car GTM: Qualifying

Toyota bounced right back into the game with a sensational – and a little unexpected – front row lockout as Khun Nattapong Horthongkum in the #38 Toyota 86 grabbed pole and Khun Nattavude Charoensukhawatana lined up alongside as both became the only drivers to turn in sub 1:38 minute laps.

There were mere fractions between the two Toyotas too as Khun Nattapong banged in a 1:37.883 while Khun Nattavude was just adrift with a best time of 1:37.919.

The third quickest time to lead out Row 2 was the Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo LP620-2 of Khun Sarun Sereethoranakul. After his imperious triple win here at the season opener the Italian sportscar has seen a BoP re-rating but it doesn’t seem to have shaved too much pace off and while Khun Sarun reported that the car felt heavier third place meant he was very well positioned to grab more points and maintain his championship advantage, in fact he was a only a little more than a tenth away from pole position.

Row 2 was completed by Khun Henk J. Kiks in the quicker of the two B-Quik Racing Audi LMS Cup machines, he had posted the fastest time in Free Practice the previous day but wasn’t able to replicate that pace although he sat astride of the timesheets early in the session. Fifth quickest was the first Ferrari, the #34 of Khun Kantasak Kusiri who is the reigning Super Car GTM champion.

The second Audi R8 LMS Cup, the #27 of Khun Daniel Bilski completed the third row to make it both B-Quik cars in the top six with the Australian also lugging a lot of success ballast after his triple podium finish at the last round.

The fourth row comprised of the second Singha Motorsport Team Thailand Ferrari 458 Challenge, the #89 of Khun Voravud Bhirombhakdi, and the #11 A Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 Cup of Khun Aekarat Discharoen while Khun Craig Corliss led out the fifth row as he got his first decent laps of the week in having suffered a software problem with the Holden Commodore during the untimed session and then an incident early in free practice which required some repairs to be made to the car.

Khun Thamrong Mahadumrongkul wrapped up the top ten on the timesheets but more crucially he banged his Ferrari onto Amateur (AM) class pole, an excellent performance on his return to the series having missed the season opener. His most recent race in the car was at the Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival last November and really this is the first time he’s got some decent testing time in the car and it seemed to have paid off.

The sixth row comprised of the two Painkiller Racing Porsches with Khun Naputt Assakul edging out his teammate Khun Paul Kanjanapas by a couple of tenths of a second, more importantly they took second and third place in AM.

Fourth in AM was Khun Saravut Sereethoranakul in the #77 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup. He missed the practice sessions with brake, engine and power steering problems and thus went straight into qualifying with minimal track time so for Khun Saravut, who was a double AM class winner here last time out, setting the fourth fastest time was a pretty decent result in his compromised circumstances.

The final cars in GTM were both Super Car debutants, Khun Tosaphol Phamyai who was easing himself into the NSports-built Nissan GTR R35 on his debut in the big Japanese machine and finally Khun Supachai Weeraborwornpong in the Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo LP560-2 that he raced in the Lamborghini Trofeo Asia last year, the former Super 2000 driver using the week’s Super Car action to ‘warm up’ for the arrival of the Italian one make series here in a fortnight’s time. He spun on his first lap and clipped a barrier. The car was okay to start the race but he hadn’t had too much track time to get used to the Gallardo here or work on setup.

Super Car GTM: Race 1 (Saturday)

The Toyotas didn’t put a foot wrong away from the line when the lights turned green to surge into the lead, harried by the Lamborghini of Khun Sarun who was the best of the rest but at Turn 1 Khun Nattavude ran wide and the sleek white Italian sportscar nipped through and was quickly followed by the Ferrari of Khun Kantasak as the leaders streamed into Turn 3.

Already within a few turns Khun Nattapong was pulling away and this driver, who hasn’t bagged a pole position for a few years, was quietly determined to convert his advantage into a race win and it would turn out that he was never headed all the way to the checkered flag. He quickly pulled out a manageable cushion over his teammate who worked his way back to second place and Khun Nattapong eased away as the race ran into the closing stages. It was a superb afternoon’s work from Khun Nattapong and at a stroke it ended the three race-winning streak from the Huracán.

In the end Khun Nattapong had a very useful 2.569 seconds cushion at the front while he also wrapped up the fastest lap of the race in 1:37.59, the only driver to drop into the 1:37 bracket all afternoon.

Khun Nattavude after dropping places at the first turn was never going to be in a position to challenge for victory. He passed Khun Kantasak to move back up to third on the first lap and then closed down the Lamborghini ahead. Three laps later when Khun Sarun ran wide at the last turn Khun Nattavude was gifted the position but he spent the rest of the race watching his mirrors as the menacing Lamborghini kept station incase any opportunity should arise.

Khun Sarun eventually finished two seconds adrift of the #39 Toyota but he was almost fourteen seconds clear of the final two podium finishers, Khun Kantasak and the #26 Audi R8 LMS Cup of Khun Henk J. Kiks. After letting the reigning champion nip ahead of him at the start, the Dutchman spent the rest of the afternoon regretting that as Khun Kantasak drove an inch perfect race to keep the Audi at bay and try as he might Khun Henk couldn’t force a mistake out of the Ferrari. The pair were locked together for lap after lap and both certainly deserved a trip to the podium for their efforts.

A further 12 seconds down the road came Khun Daniel Bilski in the second B-Quik Racing Audi. He suffered a poor start and spent the rest of the race making up places, fighting his way through the mid order cars including Khun Voravud Bhirombhakdi (Ferrari), Khun Craig Corliss (Holden) and Khun Aekarat Discharoen (Porsche). That battling included some real tussling with the Holden, the positions swapping round a few times before that fight was finally settled in the Audi’s favour.

Khun Craig had to settle for seventh at the end of a week that had seen him on the backfoot and turning in virtually no laps before qualifying got underway to setup the car. Khun Aekarat got the better of Khun Voravud in the end as the pair took eighth and ninth places.

Tenth place went to Khun Thamrong on his first appearance since Bangsaen last November. But more than that he bagged Amateur (AM) class honours at the first time of asking after a smooth and tidy drive that saw him finishing almost 10 seconds clear of the next ‘gentleman’ driver.

That was Khun Paul Kanjanapas, the AM points leader coming into this race, and finishing runner up did his title hopes no harm at all as Khun Thamrong had started the race with a zero points score. Once again Khun Paul and his Painkiller Racing teammate, Khun Naputt Assakul, jousted with each other for almost all the race with the final advantage eventually going to the #60 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup.

Behind them Khun Saravut Sereethoranakul (Porsche) struggled during the race after losing fifth gear and suffering from sticking shifts, however he did well to collect points by finishing fourth in AM while the final classified finisher was Khun Tosaphol Phamyai in the Nissan GTR R35.

The Super Car debutant eventually came home two laps down but he was embarking on a huge learning curve as he steps up to the top class and he kept it all neat and tidy and on the road to bag the final step on the AM podium for his efforts.

An early race retirement was the debuting Lamborghini Gallardo of Khun Supachai; he suffered a broken trackrod, a delayed knock on from a clunk with the barriers he had suffered during qualifying. The car spun and that was his race over. However it looked to be a relatively minor issue to repair and he would reappear for Sunday’s race.

Super Car GTM: Race 2 (Sunday)

Starting from pole for the second race in succession Khun Nattapong again got a very clean run down to Turn 1 and led the pack through while Khun Sarun tried his best to squeeze down the inside of Khun Nattavude but this time the Toyota firmly kept hold of the line. Behind them Khun Kantasak, Khun Henk and Khun Daniel maintained their fourth, fifth and sixth starting positions as the top runners all made clean starts to cancel each other out.

But then, once again, Khun Nattavude had a first lap wide moment and Khun Kantasak took full advantage of it to jump Khun Sarun and they both went through and deposed the Toyota to fourth place as second to fourth reshuffled themselves.

At the end of the lap Khun Sarun out dragged the Ferrari down to Turn 1, grabbed the inside line and moved into second place. Over the kerbs Khun Kantasak stumbled and Khun Nattavude needed no second invitation as he nipped through into third place, the #34 Ferrari demoted from second to fourth in a matter of a couple of corners, while in his mirrors Khun Kantasak now had the two Audis looming large and with Khun Henk locked onto his tail in it looked like this race could very well become a repeat of the previous day.

Khun Henk pushed his way through at the last turn and kept on the line through the first corner but the Ferrari got a better slingshot and on the subsequent run down the hill he reclaimed fourth place. Khun Craig meanwhile jumped Khun Daniel to put himself in the middle of the two Audis and it really was looking like a repeat of the previous day’s race throughout the field.

Within three laps there were two retirements, first Khun Supachai had dropped out early after getting briefly stuck into the battle for AM class podium positions. After he suffered a broken trackrod the previous day the team didn’t have a spare part available and so a local company was drafted in to fabricate a replacement; however that part didn’t prove up to the job and he was out of the race.

The ‘gentleman’ class then lost another runner after three laps when Khun Saravut, who had swapped his gearbox overnight for a spare unit, continued to be plagued by transmission issues and was forced to pit to retire. He reported later that the team is ordering a new gearbox and he will be looking to bounce back after an unrewarding weekend where he couldn’t build on the flying start he made during the season opener back in May.

As the laps unfolded a multi car battle emerged for fourth place as Khun Henk was once again stuck behind the Ferrari of Khun Kantasak while he had Khun Craig, Khun Daniel, Khun Aekarat and Khun Voravud for company.

As the race approached half distance it appeared to have settled down at the front with Khun Nattapong easing his way out to a 4.117 second lead over Khun Sarun who was however now closing in very slowly and he edged the gap down to 3.301 seconds on lap 8.

Khun Nattavude had by then drifted almost 10 seconds off the leaders while in fourth and fifth place it was turning into a replay of Race 1 as Khun Henk hassled Khun Kantasak while Khun Craig closed in on them. The Audi went a bit wide on the eighth lap and that allowed the New Zealander to close up and he then made a pass stick to move up into the podium positions. The Dutchman now had his teammate Khun Daniel right on his tail as he tried to reclaim the place and then on the eleventh lap the two B-Quik racing Audis swapped places.

Meanwhile in AM the two Painkiller Racing Porsches were embroiled in a tussle for the class lead with Khun Paul eventually getting ahead of his teammate and opening out a cushion aided by a spin from Khun Naputt. The previous day’s winner, Khun Thamrong, started off well but warning alarms on his Ferrari came on and he backed off before making a short pitstop to allow his mechanics to check the car before resuming. After that he carefully plodded round to towards the finish.

On lap 12 Khun Henk grabbed the position back but then they all tripped over each other and that allowed Khun Daniel to nip into fifth and put the green Holden into the middle of a black and yellow sandwich. Khun Craig tried to get the place back off Khun Daniel on the thirteenth lap but ran wide at Turn 3 and that allowed Henk to get through and the two B-Quik cars were away, locked together as the race went into the final couple of laps.

With two laps to go Khun Sarun had edged the gap at the front down to 2.964 seconds but the Toyota seemed to have it all comfortably in hand while in third place Khun Nattavude was now a further 10 seconds back.

Khun Nattapong duly took the checkered flag at the end of 15 laps to make it two wins from two races while Khun Sarun did his championship chances a power of good with second place. The Lamborghini driver also set the fastest lap of the race. Nearly a quarter of a minute back from the top two Khun Nattavude made it a 1-3 for Toyota to cap a fantastic weekend for team as they took the Teams’ trophy for a second consecutive day.

Khun Kantasak came home in fourth place, his second podium of the weekend, while Khun Daniel claimed the last step on the podium. Sixth place almost went to the Khun Henk but a very late spin cost him two places.

That allowed Khun Craig, the corner of his rear bumper still trailing, to claim sixth place ahead of Khun Aekarat and Khun Voravud who were separated by less than two seconds before Khun Henk came home 10 seconds adrift in ninth place.

Khun Paul nailed down the final spot in the top ten and did his championship chances no harm at all by sweeping to a very comfortable AM victory in the end. After four runners up spots from the first four races, he finally bagged his first win in the fifth race to extend his championship advantage with four more races still to go this year. This driver has really shone this year, improving his laptimes and he’s combined that with the consistency needed to make a serious title run so he’s the one that his rivals now have to chase down if they are to have designs on the inaugural AM crown.

Second in AM went to Khun Naputt who has also shown a big improvement in speed this year, some of this laptimes over the weekend made people sit up and take notice, and if he can end his record of spinning in every race this year and achieve better consistency he can still turn in a strong bid for the title. Khun Paul and Khun Paul were locked together and swapped places continually over the two days, the two teammates very evenly matched in terms of talent.

Khun Thamrong, after his early warning alarm issues, carefully drove his way to third place in the AM class to cap an impressive weekend and with Khun Tosaphol coming home fourth, it meant both the class debutants were on the podium for the second consecutive day.

In the PRO-AM Drivers’ championship standings Khun Sarun extends his lead to 87 points thanks to his second and third places while his advantage over his next rival has also grown, it’s up to 25 points, but now it’s Khun Nattapong who moves into the runner up spot thanks to the 40 points he collected for his double victory; the Toyota driver has 62 points in total.

Khun Daniel drops back to third place, the 14 points he picked up in Buriram moving him onto 56 points while Khun Kantasak also slips a place to fourth but his 20 points last weekend put him on 47 points. Both Toyotas have rocketed up the classification as Khun Nattavude is up from ninth to fifth thanks to his second and third place finishes; he’s now on 39 points. Then come Khun Aekarat (27), Khun Henk (26), Khun Craig (24) and Khun Voravud (19).

In the AM class Drivers’ standings Khun Paul extends his advantage to 80 points after he took his first win of the year last Sunday to add to a trio of runners up spots. He has a very healthy 29 point cushion over his teammate Khun Naputt who recorded a second and third place in the North East to climb from third to second place in the classification, edging out Khun Saravut by just a single point. A win and a third place on his 2016 debut have handily allowed Khun Thamrong to assume fourth place in the championship standings with 30 points.

In the Teams’ classification Racing Spirit PSC Motorsport has been deposed from the top of the rankings by Toyota Team Thailand which had a terrific weekend to rocket up from fourth to first place after totting up 67 points from the two races (35 in Race 1 and 32 in Race 2) to rest on 101 points.

Racing Spirit PSC Motorsport moves onto 94 points thanks to Khun Sarun’s second and third place finishes and slips to second place in the classification while B-Quik Racing loses a place to third and Singha Motorsport Team Thailand also drop one position to fourth, these two teams have 78 and 65 points respectively.