Super 2000 has earned a big reputation as the most competitive and closely fought touring car category in South East Asia, it produces winners and the bumper grids denote its strength in depth; certainly it’s one of the biggest draws on the Thailand Super Series (TSS) programme. And judging by the frenetic track action seen during the two opening races of the year in Buriram – it looks like it’s going to be another ‘golden year’ for Super 2000.
When the dust had finally settled on a very hot Sunday evening in the North East of Thailand there were two wins out of two races for Khun Jack Lemvard in the ‘body in white’ #44 OMP Vattana Motorsport BMW E90. But that didn’t tell very much of the story, Khun Jack had to work hard for his trophies. However he’s a highly accomplished and ambitious Super 2000 driver with an equally accomplished and ambitious team right behind him and so at only the season’s quarter distance he’s already staked his claim out to be the man everyone has to beat if they want to win the championship this year.
Behind Khun Jack there were many, many impressive performances, so it’s hard to pick out just a few. Certainly though Khun Pasarit Phromsombat had a weekend to remember; the reigning Super Production champion has graduated to Super 2000 and he immediately started trading P1 with Khun Jack. He eventually headed home with a second- and third-place overall to his name, job well done and a very happy driver and team.
Khun Munkong Sathienthirakul started from the back of the grid in the first race and battled his way up the classification to snatch the final step on the overall podium, while in the second race he went three places better to nab the runners up spot; he walked away from Buriram with the championship lead in Class B in his grasp. Khun Munkong’s another who is going to fancy a shot at the title overall title too. Another driver to turn make a run from the back of the grid to the overall podium was Khun Kittipol Pramoj Na Ayudhya who did the business in Race 2 after blowing his engine in Race 1; he’s made another step forward as a driver and was locked into the overall lead battles during the weekend.
A highly experienced name, Khun Jakthong Navasoopanich, was as usual in the middle of the front running action all weekend; he rightfully claimed a double podium finish. Hong Kong driver Khun Rudolf Yu turned up here last year and impressed, he did the same again this time and clearly he’s another Class B driver who has higher ambitions.
These are just a few of the many names that stood out over the long, hot weekend in Buriram. Super 2000′s big – entirely justifiable – reputation means it’s a firm favourite with motorsport fans that know there is simply no better bumper-to-bumper racing to be found in Thailand. They can certainly be reassured that they have another enthralling year ahead.
Race 1 (Saturday)
At the green lights the front row sitters suffered a tardy getaway and instead it was Khun Pasarit and Khun Rudolf that went down the middle with the former leading the pack into Turn 1 while the latter went wide to defend P2 and that also pushed the BMW of Khun Jack, who was suffering clutch getaway problems, as well as the car’s additional ballast weight, out wide. On the inside Khun Thamrong Mahadumrongkul locked up the tight line behind the lurid red #14 DC5 while also fast starting was the #19 Honda DC5 of Khun Chayut Yangpichit, coming through the middle, and the #26 Civic FD of Khun Wijak Lertprasertpakorn which slotted in behind Khun Thamrong.
Behind them Khun Kittipol Pramoj Na Ayudhya and Khun Petcharak Ekprawat disputed position with Khun Supachai Weeraborwornpong in the visually unmissable #71 DC 5 and Khun Pure Hongsapan in the first of the factory-entered Toyota Altis cars. Meanwhile, Khun Pure’s Toyota teammate, Khun Chen Jian Hong, would have it all to do from the tail end of the grid.
However, right at the very back, and already several seconds adrift of the penultimate runner by the time the pack had thundered through Turn 1 was the brand new #18 Team Eakie Toyota 86 of Khun Kantadhee Kusiri. In a real race against time the car was still being finished in the paddock right up to the time the lights went green for the installation lap and so this race would turn into a real ‘shakedown’ in the spotlights for the pretty red, white and blue car.
Khun Pasarit defended his lead round the first lap with Khun Rudolf tucking in behind him while Khun Jack, after his slow getaway, was back up to P3 and swarming all over the back of Khun Rudolf as they took Turn 1 for the second time.
After a tardy start, thanks to his clutch slipping off the line, Khun Kittipol had a flying first lap and picked off three top runners, including his #24 Singha Cosmo TT Motorsport teammate Khun Thamrong, to move up to P4 and in fact the first four cars were already breaking clear of the next group which was led by Khun Chayut. Behind him came Khun Thamrong, he was starting to struggle with a less than perfect engine, Khun Phatwit, Khun Supachai, Khun Jakthong, who had an excellent first lap after making his way through the field, Khun Ekprawat and Khun Wijak. Meanwhile, after toiling his way round the first lap, Khun Kantadhee headed straight for the pitlane in the very rough sounding 86 and called it a day.
The second lap saw Khun Jack dispense with Khun Rudolf and lock right onto the back of Khun Pasarit as the leading cars swept into Turn 1, while, just a couple of car lengths back, Khun Kittipol nipped up the inside of his other teammate, Khun Rudolf, to depose the Hong Kong driver down two places in a matter of a lap.
Khun Chayut was fifth but he had already dropped back into ‘no mans land’ and was struggling with engine overheating problems that would send him out of the race before the end of the second lap, while Khun Thamrong had a couple of car lengths over Khun Jakthong and Khun Phatwit who were scrapping furiously together. Slightly further back the battle for P9 was intense as Khun Munkong Sathienthirakul had made his way from the back of the grid in rapid time, slicing through the field to get into the top ten within 3 laps and was now on the tail of his Sittipol Lipo K45 teammate Khun Ekprawat.
At the end of the second lap Khun Kittipol had reeled in the two front runners and he dived inside the BMW through the final turn and into P2, however the #14 DC5 in front closed down the line and that allowed Khun Jack to rebound back past the Civic as they thundered down the main straight.
Into the third lap now and Khun Jack went down the inside of Khun Pasarit into the hairpin (T3) with Khun Kittipol also taking a look as the top three were locked together, the Civic in fact getting a successful slingshot past its rivals. Albeit very briefly though, as Khun Kittipol explained. “I slipped in on the inside and managed to nose pass Jack until I saw a green flag, which made me assume I [had] overtaken during [a] yellow,” he said. “So [I] lifted off and both Jack and [Khun Pasarit] overtook me.”
Khun Rudolf had by now drifted a couple of seconds back from the trio up front while a few lengths behind him Khun Thamrong, Khun Jakthong and Khun Phatwit were locked together.
As far as P1 was concerned looked like it was game over as Khun Jack started to pull away from Khun Pasarit as the race went into the fourth lap while, just behind them, Khun Kittipol felt the engine tighten as he went down the main straight and he pulled off on the rundown to Turn 3 as it expired and that allowed Khun Rudolf back into P3. Khun Paritat Bulbon also pulled up on the outside at T2, retiring the #7 Speedbuster Ducati Chiang Mai VW Golf with electrical problems, and, with the Civic FD of Khun Nattachak Hanjitkasem also being abandoned there a couple of laps earlier, that runoff was quickly resembling something of a ‘parc ferme’ for abandoned racecars.
The Safety Car was swiftly called out and behind the top three came Khun Jakthong, Khun Phatwit, Khun Munkong, Khun Wijak, Khun Supachai and Khun Ekprawat next up before the two factory Toyotas came through together, Khun Chen getting the advantage over his young teammate Khun Pure.
When the Safety Car went back in there was a dash to the checkered flag but it was really all over in terms of P1 as Khun Jack controlled the pace at the front, despite the best efforts of Khun Pasarit who tried his hardest to regain the race lead.
It wasn’t to be and in truth Khun Jack was really driving within himself to preserve the heavy car and its tyres, though the gap between them when the flag was waved was only 1.179 seconds. It wasn’t an easy race for the BMW driver, even if Khun Jack tends to often make it look easy, and he said afterwards that it almost went all wrong right from the green lights. “I accelerated up like normal and then let go of the clutch like I normally do and it normally just goes but it just stopped and it almost stalled but I clutched it again and it went,” he said afterward.
“The first corner was a bit hectic, I think I fell down to fifth or sixth; it was four wide so I have to go on the turf,” Khun Jack continued. “I just took everyone on the outside, I braked really late, tried to get back to position as quickly as possible. I think I was third then I got up to second and just followed as I have the rear wheel drive and had the front wheel and would go soon. Had a really good fight with [Khun Pasarit], he did a really good job blocking so it was quite hard to get past him. I got past him [at] the end of the straight and braked really late and made sure he couldn’t get the exit as if he got the exit he would have got me back because I had tried that on the last corner so I just tried it somewhere else. Now we have to put another 30 kilos on and start fifth so hopefully I will get a better start tomorrow.”
It was also very impressive drive from the 2014 Super Production champion on his full graduation to Super 2000. Khun Pasarit in fact turned up briefly last year with a Nissan Silvia but that car didn’t prove at all suited to the category and now armed with the RMI team’s well-sorted DC5 he was in impressive form. More so as he had to bounce back from a Thursday afternoon crash that ripped off the front end while he also had to manage the engine during the race. “During the practice our car got an accident because of the rain,” he explained afterwards. “But we managed to find new parts for the car that night. In the race the car had [over] heating [issues] but we still ended up second.”
P3 went to Khun Rudolf, he was just over a couple of seconds back from the battle in front but he was only able to watch that tussle unfold. However the Hong Kong driver, who actually finished a very impressive third overall here on his TSS debut last year, not only repeated that feat but also won Class B.
Another impressive drive was put in by Khun Jakthong and after battling with Khun Phatwit and Khun Munkong for long periods he emerged on top to take P4 while the final overall podium position went to Khun Munkong who also scooped up second place in Class B, a very decent performance as he had blown the engine in qualifying and was forced to start from the back of the grid.
Khun Phatwit claimed sixth place before there was a long gap until the Day-Glo #71 DC 5 appeared. Khun Supachai was running with a spare engine fitted under the bonnet and was very happy that his P7 equated to third place in Class B. He was a couple of seconds ahead of Khun Wijak, who took the penultimate step on the Class B podium, while the top ten was wrapped up by Khun Ekprawat and Khun Bhisanu Bhusitarnuntakul, the later grabbing hold of the final Class B podium position.
The first finisher outside the top ten was Khun Jetsada Yangpichit in the #17 TT Motorsport Civic FD2, but most significantly that gave him Class C victory, in fact his winning margin was more than 16 seconds ahead of the #4 PTT Performa RPM Singha Civic of Khun Issares Chirapongsananurak who finished thirteenth overall.
In between them was the #8 Singha Racing Team by Todd Honda DC 5 of Khun Poramin Meesamanyont who was having a tough debut in a car that was quite a long way from being race ready while the final classified finisher was Khun Poramin’s teammate, Khun Tanupat Lerttaweevit, who also bagged P3 in Class C.
In the intense heat of Buriram the list of non-classified finishers was quite lengthy and that kicked off with the two factory Toyotas as neither Khun Pure nor Khun Chen reached the checkered flag, completing 9 and 7 laps respectively. Khun Arthit Masathirakul also dropped out after 6 laps while the rest of the DNFs were made up of Khun Paritat, Khun Kittipol, Khun Thamrong, Khun Nattachak and Khun Kantadhee.
Race 2 (Sunday)
On pole for Sunday’s second race would be Khun Munkong, thanks to the top-five reverse grid from the first race, while alongside him would the Altis of Khun Jakthong. Row 2 would comprise of Khun Rudolf and Khun Pasarit with the winner of Race 1, Khun Jack, leading out the third row.
Khun Phatwit joined the Vattana BMW on the outside of Row 3 thanks to his P6 the previous day while Khun Supachai was next up. That was a heck of a lot of firepower scrambled up at the front of the grid for the final race of the weekend as the big pack snaked round the formation lap to line up for the standing start.
With a second day of racing being held in the intense Buriram heat, tyre management would again be an issue while reliability in these extreme conditions would also be critical, especially as the racecars already had one race under the sun here behind them.
At the green lights Khun Jakthong dumped the clutch, smoked the tyres and moved up the inside of Khun Munkong to lead the pack into Turn 1 with Khun Pasarit swiftly swinging across to nip into P3 while behind him it was three abreast as Khun Phatwit dived up the inside of Khun Rudolf who had a slower start and Khun Jack went to the outside to avoid any unnecessary contact.
Khun Jakthong led the pack down the high speed section to Turn 3 but behind him Khun Pasarit was already all over Khun Munkong and went all the way round outside of the Civic into the big hairpin to line himself up on the racing line for Turn 4. Behind them Khun Jack had dispensed with Khun Rudolf and Khun Phatwit on the rundown to Turn 3, thanks to a spot of late braking, and was all over the back the lurid-red DC 5 in front. Khun Pasarit dispensed with Khun Munkong into Turn 4 and a bit more late braking from Khun Jack also saw him squeeze past the #11 Civic.
Khun Jack certainly wasn’t hanging around and into Turn 5 he spotted a chance and moved up the inside of Khun Pasarit. Both locked up the brakes and smoked the tyres but the BMW was through, however as Khun Pasarit ran wide Khun Munkong then took full advantage to reclaim P3 and lock onto the back of the BMW as the cars swept through the uphill ‘esses’. Right behind them the battle for P5 between Khun Phatwit and Khun Rudolf abruptly ended into Turn 8 as the Civic driver dived up the inside, the pair made contact and were both out of the race, Khun Phatwit’s Honda City wedged in the gravel trap while Khun Rudolf coasted to a halt with his left hand front wheel broken away.
Into the final turn and out onto the main straight to complete lap 1 and Khun Jakthong had capitalised on all the scrapping behind as he pulled out five car lengths, then it was Khun Jack, Khun Munkong and Khun Pasarit locked together in a fight for P3 with the BMW driver pulling every trick to hold onto his position down the long straight as he struggled for horsepower.
One of the biggest winners of the first time round the circuit was Khun Kittipol who started way down in P18 and turned in a sensational opening lap, flying past cars to move into the top ten within a few turns and was in fact up to P7 by the time the pack streamed across the finishline to complete lap 1.
Khun Jack held his cool through Turn 1 and on the rundown to Turn 3 instead it was Khun Pasarit who got a run on Khun Munkong – for the second consecutive lap – this time though he didn’t need to wait until Turn 4, rather Khun Munkong left space and he went inside the Civic into Turn 3 to retake P3.
Khun Jack, with a clear track ahead, immediately broke free of the cars behind and started to hunt down the gap to Khun Jakthong while Khun Munkong dived down the inside of Khun Pasarit into Turn 9 as this battle showed no signs of slowing down; the pair were still locked together in the run through the final corners of the lap.
However as the cars streamed out of the last corner the flags waved and the Safety Car was deployed to remove the stricken cars of Khun Phatwit and Khun Rudolf. As the cars bunched up the big loser was Khun Jakthong in P1, who saw the advantage he had built up swept away, while the big winner was Kun Kittipol who had picked off Khun Supachai on the second lap to move into P6 but had a big gap to jump to get onto the tail of the top five who had broken away from the main pack after a blistering first two laps.
When the Safety Car went back in Khun Jakthong made full use of his power to keep the lead and pull out a couple of car lengths while behind him Khun Jack was busy fending off Khun Munkong who came down the outside through Turn 2. Khun Jack tenaciously held the line as they braked for the hairpin, the pair were thus slow through Turn 3 and that pushed Khun Pasarit, locked onto their rear, out wide, allowing Khun Wijak, who has been running one of his best races in Super 2000, to nip through and into P4.
The top six had quickly broken away and now wanting a slice of the front running action was the hard charging Khun Kittipol; he squeezed up the inside of Khun Pasarit into Turn 5 as the DC 5 driver lost two positions on two consecutive corners and the #25 Civic driver wasn’t finished there, as he went down the inside of Khun Wijak into Turn 8, the former held his line – and his nerve – as the Honda sedans made brief contact.
Into the final turn Khun Wijak, Khun Kittipol and Khun Pasarit were locked together but down the main straight the former grittily held onto his place, Khun Kittipol was unsighted, ran wide out of Turn 1, and Khun Pasarit took full advantage reclaim P5 before going up the inside of Khun Wijak through the hairpin, but was unable to make it stick as the blue and white #26 Civic FD clung to the line to keep the position through Turn 4.
That battle continued until the sweeping complex of Turns 9-11 where Khun Wijak ran wide onto the runoff allowing Khun Pasarit and Khun Kittipol to pass him.
By the end of the lap Khun Jack had shaken off Khun Munkong, albeit the gap was only a couple of cars lengths, and he was now locked onto the back of the race leader. The BMW driver left it late into the hairpin and went up the inside, although the Altis had the line as they raced back uphill. However Khun Jack was later onto the brakes into Turn 4 and went round the inside, albeit Khun Jakthong looked like he was making it a bit easier for Khun Jack. Khun Munkong, still locked on the back of them, didn’t want to loose ground and took a look up the inside of the Altis into Turn 8 and finally made the pass stick into the final turn of the lap. Meanwhile down at the back Khun Kantadhee, having a second tough race of the weekend in the new Toyota 86 had an off track moment but collected the car and rejoined.
With clear air ahead Khun Jack needed no invitation and started to pull out an advantage over Khun Munkong who was having to keep an eye out for Khun Jakthong. Behind them Khun Pasarit had managed to get a few car lengths over Khun Kittipol in the battle for P4 as the top order finally started to space out.
Further back there were plenty of battles, notable the #66 Civic of Khun Nattachak who got past the #24 of Khun Thamrong, the latter struggling with his car all weekend.
Khun Jack controlled the race pace from the front to the checkered flag and the final gap back to second placed Khun Munkong, who had a very tidy race, at the line, was 3.519 seconds. With all the additional ballast from winning the day before Khun Jack was struggling with a heck of a lot of weight on the BMW, but had still got the job done.
All in all a superb weekend’s work and clearly the OMP Vattana driver is going to be very tough to beat this year. “We had an extra 30 kilos [for winning Race 1] so I knew I was going to have to make a good start, not like yesterday’s race,” said Khun Jack afterwards. “I got away quite good actually and everyone dived for the inside and I just took the outside to make it safe and then after that I just picked off cars.
“I knew I had to get past [Khun Pasarit] quite quickly as he was going to be quite hard to get past and on the first or second lap he made a small mistake and I just went for it and took a chance and that was it basically,” he continued. “I had a bit of problem with the brakes, which is why I went off on a few corners, but other than that it was a smooth run.
“But now I have an extra 20 kilos [for Round 2] so that’s full ballast, I think it’s 150 kilos extra in the car, but it’s weird the car is handling this well, I’m quite surprised,” he noted.
So does he think he can make a run at the title? “For sure,” agrees Khun Jack. “With the wins it couldn’t have started any better. I have to thank Khun Chonsawat [Asavahame] for giving me the chance to driver the car again. It just works, it doesn’t have high horsepower, we just have a good set up, but yeah I’m really happy.”
Over the closing laps Khun Jakthong started to fall back into the clutches of Khun Pasarit and with the Altis starting to struggle the DC 5 was being presented with a lot of space. Finally Khun Pasarit took advantage as Khun Jakthong went wide into the final turn and powered his was alongside as the pair ran down to Turn 1. However Khun Jakthong successfully held the line and this squabble allowed Khun Kittipol to close up and instead he took Khun Pasarit on the inside through Turn 3, albeit he had to take care as neither of the drivers ahead was in the Class B battle.
As the three-car battle approached the final turn on the penultimate lap, Khun Kittipol was swarming all over Khun Jakthong, but he tapped him and that sent the #25 Civic wide Khun Pasarit took advantage. In fact Khun Kittipol’s car had sustained damage and as he powered down the straight smoke was billowing from the front wheel where damaged bodywork was rubbing on it – he would have to back off over the final lap and take advantage of the big gap to the car behind.
Over the final lap Khun Pasarit was swarming all over the back of Khun Jakthong, but the Altis driver dug really deep and did his best to fend off the DC5. They sprinted almost side-by-side out of Turn 12 and towards the line.
The final gap was exactly two hundredths of a second, on freeze frame photos of the finishline it was only the thickness of a bumper – the DC 5’s bumper in fact as Khun Pasarit had done just enough to edge it. It was certainly the closest finish in recent memory. “On the reverse grid we started off in fourth place which made me have to try harder to overcome the others,” explained Khun Pasarit. “Then in the final lap, the final corner, I have to step up the game and I ended up in third place. My team and me were very proud.”
On his ‘graduation’ the reigning Super Production champion was delighted with how the weekend had shaped out, second in Race 1 and third in Race 2 was well above expectations. “I’m so happy in the past week,” said Khun Pasarit. “Me and my team were working very hard [and we are] very pleased result, it’s beyond our goal.”
Khun Kittipol staggered his way round the final lap with smoke pouring from the front tyre, he dropped more than ten seconds in fact but still retained a cushion of just over a second ahead the next car as he made it to the finishline to claim P5 and the final step on the overall podium – as well as P2 in Class B. That gave him a well-deserved double trip to the rostrum in the late afternoon heat.
He was very happy to have bounced back in real style after his early exit the day before. “I started eighteenth due to my DNF on Saturday,” recalled Khun Kittipol. “I worked my way up the pack to seventh on the second lap. I still had engine heating problems a few laps before the end but managed to work my way up to fourth. Then made a mistake just before the final lap, I locked up during braking and hit the back of Khun Jakthong. That damaged my radiator and bodywork was rubbing on the front wheel so I had to take the last lap easy and settled for fifth overall.” This is a driver who is really coming of age now, improving significantly every season. Expect to see him put in a serious challenge for the Class B title this year while it can’t be too long before an outright win comes his way.
Behind Khun Kittipol came Khun Wijak, who claimed third in Class B. Then came Khun Ekprawat who was satisfied to record his second top ten of the weekend a car that was down on power. “I had some problem with my new ECU which made me lose a lot of power,” explained the Civic FB driver. “You could see everyone pull away from me on all of the straights; anyway I think we found out what was wrong with it and it can be corrected. I finished ninth and seventh with this problem, not too bad, but [for] next event it must be better.”
Eighth overall, as well as fourth in Class B was Khun Supachai. He was another driver who didn’t have the horsepower he wanted available, but was still pleased to make his second trip of the weekend to the Class B podium. “It went surprisingly okay as my main engine wasn’t ready and I have the spare as my only engine for the weekend,” he explained. “The transmission maxed out before the end of back straight so lost some speed there and on Sunday the fourth gear just won’t engage.”
Khun Bhisanu was next up to record his second top ten finish of the weekend, as well as bagging the final step on the Class B podium for the second consecutive day, ahead of Khun Nattachak. Then came Khun Poramin, who was struggling with the DC 5 again but still successfully plodded to the flag. He had a catalogue of issues over the weekend including difficult handling into the turns, a fuel leak and the car overheating in both races after just a couple of laps so the engine control switched it into safe mode and the car wouldn’t not run over 7,700 rpm. However he promises that the teething problems will be resolved in time for the next round so expect him to be chasing up the order then.
Khun Kantadhee came home in P12 and at least the youngster made it to the finish in Team Eakie’s raw new Toyota 86 having completed just one lap the previous day. Clearly there’s a lot of work to do to hone this pretty racecar into a winner but the team had collected a race distance’s worth of useful data.
P13 went to Khun Paritat in the #7 turbodiesel VW Golf; he turned in a solid race to make up for the early DNF in Race 1. Next up was Khun Chayut who, after his overheating problems the previous day, had swapped to a standard PU and, without the necessary power to compete with the other runners, was left to circulate, but still made it to the flag.
Khun Jetsada was next up in P15, but much more significantly than that, he won Class C for the second day in a row to hit the ground running in his challenge for the title this year. The final two finishers, Khun Tanupat and Khun Pure, took second and third in Class C, the #2 Toyota still classified although it finished two laps down.
The DNFs kicked off with Khun Thamrong, who finished up a torrid weekend when his engine expired two laps from home, Khun Chen who dropped out for the second race in a row in the #58 factory Altis, this time on lap 10, Khun Issares, who was gone at half distance in the #4 Civic, and finally Khun Rudolf and Khun Phatwit who had tangled on the first lap.