Thomas Raldorf

Thai/Danish National Kart Champion

Dacon Inspection Services

Deborah Services (Thailand)

Pizza Company Race Team:
Sandy N. Stuvik
Tony Percy
Paul Kenny
Thomas Raldorf

Thank you for a great year and all your support

I would like to thank all my sponsors for a great year, and all the support they have given me and my team over the year. Without their support none of the results I managed to get during 2006 would have been possible.

2006 was my first year in saloon car racing, and I knew that it would be a hard, with a very steep learning curve, as I basically knew nothing about the car, set up of the car or even the engine in the car.

On top of that I managed to blow up my new engine in March, and had to be content with a second hand engine purchased locally in Bangkok, which turned out to be very worn out, and it took a lot of repairs to get it back up to standard, which turned out to be costly, as the engine was still down on power in my first race.

As that was not enough I also managed to brake my foot falling down from a ladder, and could not practice the last 2 months before the first race, and mostly everybody, blamed it on my foot that I was not up to speed in the first race.

Before the second race I had the engine overhauled from top to toe, and it was running very well. I did a large number of practice laps before the race and felt very confident that I would get on one of the top 3 steps. Just before the race it began to rain, and as I like driving in the rain, I felt even more confident, and right from the start, I was on the tail of Jack, and on lap 5, I passed him, and lead the rest of the race and won my first ever race in only my second ever car race here in Thailand.

3rd race was in Phitsanulok on a very short and tight track, and here I struggled a bit to find the right set-up, and I also had problems driving this type of track, which was more like a Gymkhana Track than I racing track. I how ever still managed to qualify 5th fastest, and held that place all the way trough the race.

4th race was a bit similar but this track, has 2 long straights combined with 2 tight 180 degree corners, and then a tight inner section. Here I had learned a bit from the track in Phitsanulok, and from driving a Gymkhana Event in Bangkok, so I was fastest in the tight section, but still lacked speed around the 2 180 degree corners. A test showed me loosing over a full second in these 2 corners combined against the 2 other front runners.

I still managed to qualify 3rd fastest only 0.6 secs slower than number one. I had a great start (Fast), but was boxed in, and could do nothing except come of the gas and see everybody drive past me on the outside into the first corner, and as I came around the corner I had dropped from 3rd to 8th in the race, and then had to take the fight from there.

I managed to drive my self up to 6th, with a badly damaged car, and finished 6th overall in the race.

5th Race was again back at Bira, and determent to end the season with a good result, a large number of test laps were done, and the car was brought up to Three Crown Racing for a 4 point weight scale check and re-adjustment.

Doing the last week before the race I drove my fastest ever lap on Bira doing a 1.16.64 which was over half a second faster than I had ever driven before, so the confidence was high before the race.

On race day, the car suddenly developed an under steer, and we did everything we could to stop it from doing this, but nothing helped. For the race we then did some radical changes, and at first this looked like it helped, and I managed to qualify 3rd fastest.

I had a slow start, and dropped from 3rd to 4th in the first corner, and then suffered from this the next 10 laps. As I was much faster than the driver in 3rd, but just could not get past him. On Lap then the car then developed a sever under steer again, and it started to jump wildly around each corner, and was wobbling along the straight.

The rest of the race became a race for survival, and I drove the car as fast as possible, and sometimes, went so far that I almost came of in several corners, just to try and stay ahead of the 5th placed driver closing in on me very fast. I somehow managed to keep my 4th position, and this was enough to give me a 5th place overall in the championship.

Looking back, at the year, I have learned a number of valuable things over the year, and now hope to bring that to the table in 2007 where I will be racing the 2007 model Toyota Yaris in the B-class.

The competition in 2007 will for sure again be hard, and most likely harder than 2006, as we have moved up 1 division from C-class to B-class.

I how ever again in 2007 see my self having a number of good fights with Jack Lemvard, and believe that I can have a shoot at the title, if luck is with me this year. 

Thank you to our team sponsors:

Thomas moves up to 5th in the Championship with 1 round to go in November

On Saturday and Sunday the 9th and 10th of September, parts of the University of Khon Kaen, was closed off and turned into a temporary race track. The race track was the venue for the 4th round of the Thailand Championship in the Toyota Vios One Make Race series.

The track was a combination of short and sharp turned, followed by a very long straight, which ended in a very sharp almost full stop 180 degree turn. This hard breaking at the end of the straight would turn out to be very hard on the breaks, with several cars actually failing to break at the end, as the break pads had been worn totally down. The track was also very narrow in many places, and it was hard to overtake, without making contact with the back-markers if they did not leave room for passing them.

Thomas was right of the “bat” very fast in the infield section which was very technical, but were having a lot of problems in the start and ends of the straight, which both were sharp 180 degree turns. A check would reveal that Thomas was loosing almost 1 sec in both ends to the fastest drivers, leaving him a full 2 secs of the pace of the front runners.

With some set-up work, he managed to get it down to 0.6 sec in both ends, and then increase the speed in the infield even more, which enabled him to set the fastest infields section, and 3rd fastest time overall in the time trial.

Fastest was Simon Yates with a 1 min 20.693, second was Jack Lemvard with a 1 min 21.032, and Thomas was third fastest with a 1 min 21.249, which was very good considering that he had lost 1.2 sec in the 180 degree corners of the track.

At the start of the race, it was obvious that the first corner with be total chaos, with 29 cars doing 150 km/h into a sharp tight 180 degree corner, so all the drivers were prepared for the worst. Simon Yates, was a bit slow of the grid, and with Thomas fast of the grid, caused a slow down of the field, with the exception of 4 drivers who decided to take the 3rd row, and pass on the outside into the first corner.

Both Jack and Thomas was hit from the back, and Jack was then also hit from both sides, and was passed by a lot of drivers, and came out of the corner as 12th.Thomas came out of the first corner in 8th place, and then charged hard to try and catch up to the front runners again, and on lap 3 he managed to set a personal best lap, and the fastest of the race with a 1 min 20.96. On lap 7 he caught up to the first of the back markers, and this caused major problems, as they were not given blue flags by the marshal’s. Thomas first passed Car No. 8 down the straight, only to be hit from the back in an out breaking attempt by the same back-marker. Thomas was spun around, and lost 2 places before he could get going again.

A few laps later Thomas was again back up into 6th place, and were trying to overtake another “back marker” this time Car No. 38, who tried hard to keep him behind her. This was again the mistakes of the Marshal’s who were not showing blue flags to her, so she did not know, that she was being lapped, and therefore tried hard to keep her place. In frustration, Thomas drove very tight up against her car, without touching it, which then made her back up a bit, and let him pass.

It was then time to pass Car No. 28 and another “Back marker” (Car No. 22). Again for the third time, no blue flags were being shown, so Car. No. 28 tried desperately to dive on the outside, and with Car. No. 22 trying to Block the attack, this left room, for Thomas to try and dive inside, and pass both cars at the same time.

Thomas almost pulled it of, had it not been for an unexpected reaction from the girl in Car. No. 22 (Khun Suphaksorn), as she came around the corner, she more than likely decided that she could not hold back car. No. 28, or saw that she was being lapped, and quickly, turned to the right away from Car. No. 28

(Khun Alongkorn). How ever Thomas was coming passed her on the inside, so she actually drove right in front of Thomas hitting him, and boxing him in against her car and the corner stones along the straight.

Thomas lost part of his front spoiler, and the left wheel now had a major toe-in, so the car could not drive straight, unless the wheel was turned 75 degrees to the left. Thomas kept driving, and could now hear a lot of noise from the left front of the car and could smell burnt glass fiber from the spoiler sitting up-against the front tire.

A few laps later he was in trouble again, he first spend 2 full laps, trying to overtake Car. No. 26 (Mr. Jeff), as he was also not being shown, blue flags, and then spend another 2 laps trying to pass Car. No. 27 (Mr. Motonori), so Thomas’s frustration was great when he had to pass Car. No. 88 ( Mr. John) as he was also not backing of, and was not being shown blue flags, by the Marshal’s. Thomas tried to overtake, where there was not really room for him, in the hopes that Car. No. 88 would realize that he was being lapped, but that did not happen, Thomas was instead cut of, right in the middle of the corner, and could not break in time, and hit Car. No. 88 in the side, and came to a full stop on the track.

The driver of Car No. 88 (Mr. John) was more than likely shocked, as he sat and stirred at Thomas, for several seconds, before he came around, and started moving the car. Thomas was now giving it all he had, as the front was getting further and further away, and on the next lap, his breaks failed in the in section, and caused him to miss the corner, and bounce of one of the cement pillars.

Thomas got it going again, and hoped that it had been a one time, failure, but in the next corner, he again, put the pedal right to the bottom of the floor with not result, and the car did not stop or even slow down, fortunately the speed of the car was not fast here in the in section, so he again, managed to get it around the corner, but was now away of the problem.

The next lap, saw Thomas slow down, considerably, as he now had problems with both turning right, driving straight, and no breaks, but he still managed to do a time of 1 min 28 seconds on that lap. Car No. 12 (Khun Suteerapong) was gaining fast on Thomas, and he knew that he had to finish before Khun Suteerapong, if he were to have a chance to get 4th of 5th in the Championship.

Thomas, now started to push, hard, and were very hard on the down shifting, which helped, and bit more, and with the assistance of the hand break from time to Time, he managed to get down to 1 min 25 on the next lap, but Car. No. 12, was still doing very fast laps, and was still gaining, and with 3 more laps to go, Thomas had to give it all he had, the next 2 laps saw Thomas doing 1 min 24 seconds per lap, and on the last lap, the rear view mirror of Thomas, was full of Car. No. 12, but Thomas pulled of another even faster lap with a 1 min 23 seconds. And managed to limp into a 6th place, which in many ways were disappointing But as most of the other drivers in front of Thomas in the Championship, had finished even worse, or not at all, he still managed to move up into 5th place in the Championship with a total of 22 Points.

Jack Lemvard now leads the Championship with 54 Points, and Mr. Sunit, is 2nd with 40 Points, and Khun Trai is 3rd with 37 points, 4th it Khun Peat with 23 points, and Thomas is 5th with 22 Points. The 1st place will most likely be taken by Jack Lemvard in the last race meeting, as he only needs to get 8 more points to be 100% sure of the Championship, which equals a 5th place or better, and as Jack’s favorite Track is Bira, were the last race will be held, the chance of him being in top 5 is high.

2nd place and 3rd place looks to be between Sunit and Trai but with a very slim, and theoretical chance of either Peat, Thomas, Simon Yates, or Suteerapong sweeping in front the side, and taking it, if both Sunit, and Trai does not get in the points, and either of the above drivers winning the race.

4th and 5th place is wide open, as there are 14 drivers with a theoretical chance of winning it.

The book makers have their money on these names though, Thomas, Chariya, Simon, Peat, Alongkorn, and Car. No. 31, with Martin Stuvik, being an outsider, as he has shown he is very fast at this track, when the set up is right.

The last race will be on the 4th and 5th of November at Bira, which is where the Championship positions will be decided for 2006.

Thomas is now preparing for the 4th round of the Toyota Vios One Make Race Series which will be held in Khon Kaen on the 9th and 10th of September.

Last week Thomas Joined the Max speed festival in Bangkok at BRC (Bangkok Racing Circuit) in the Gymkhana Events. The event was a mix of Drifting, Drag Racing and Gymkhana Racing, and Thomas felt that it would be a good practice for him. In handling the Vios in slow tight corners shifting from 1st  to 2nd gear and then back down into 1st again time after time, as this was his biggest problem in Phitsanulok in the 3rd round of the Vios race Seies.

The Track was laid out on the back part of the huge Go-kart track in Bangkok (the whole track can be up to 1.8 km in total). Cones were put out, so the drivers has to drive slalom between them, and extra cones were put out to confuse the drivers, after the tight slalom section, it was then a short straight into a 90 degree into the tight go-kart section, which Thomas knew very well from his year of karting in Thailand.

Thomas was first signed up in the beginners class, as this was his first ever time to drive a Gymkhana Event. The beginners class does not have any restriction on the cars or engine sizes used, so there were everything from Morris Mini Coopers to Subaru Impressa STi Turbo’s there. As Thomas was the only foreigner racing in the event, this created quite a bit of interest.

After the first of 2 run’s Thomas was in first place 0.5 sec faster than number 2, after his 2nd of two runs, his was still in second place but was now 1.5 seconds in front of number 2 in the class. Thomas was therefore declared the winner of the beginners class, and could move on.

Thomas then signed up in the experienced class for cars with engines from 0-1600 cc, all modifications and turbo’s allowed, and here it was looking like a very hard job, as most of them had been faster than Thomas was in his Second and fastest run so far.

Thomas now knew the course a bit better, and could try an push a bit more, and after the first run he had improved on his time, and was 3rd fastest in the class. In the second run, most drivers improved, and Thomas was now back down in 7th place before his second run. Thomas now pushed even harder than before and had the car flying up over the small cement cubs, and managed to improve even further and was now back up to 3rd place, where he finished in this class for the experienced drivers.

The last class of the day was the “open” class with no regulation, on cars, engines, or tires, so several of the drivers put on slick tires, and Thomas knew that he would not have a chance here, but for the experience, he still signed up, and try as hard as he could to keep up with the faster cars in his little Toyota Vios with a standard 1.5 ltr engine in it.      

Incredibly Thomas Again managed to Improve on his time, and was now almost 3 seconds faster than his first run of the day, and was feeling very confident in the car, and with a bit of bad luck from some of the faster drivers, after the first Run , he was still in first place.

Thomas was very happy, and the commentator, was talking about that this had to be the Fastest Pizza delivery service in Thailand (Thomas car is covered in stickers from his main Sponsor “The Pizza Company”).

In the second run reality set in, as Thomas was again pushing even harder to improve, and he started to make mistakes, and overdid it, hitting a cone in the slalom course, and putting two wheels on the grass, before missing a gear shift. With all these mistakes, the time was still the second fastest he had done during the day, and only 0.6 sec slower than the best lap he had set.

After all the cars had done the 2nd lap, Thomas has demoted to 6th place in the open class, as result that he was quite happy with considering that there were 20 cars in the class, and that he was greatly underpowered, and were on normal radial tires compared to the slick tires of some of the other cars.

A great day of Practice, and good fun, and Thomas said that this would be something he would like to try again another day. The engine and is now being taken apart and checked, to try and find the problem, with the air leaking out from Cylinder 4 when its under

Pressure, and the team found that the clutch had been worn down considerably, so it was decided to renew the clutch before the next race Event next month.

On the 1st and 2nd of July, Thomas was invited to Join the 24 hour Go-kart race and race with Team Swiss.

Team Swiss Joined the race, to try and run in the top 5-8 team, but knew it was going to be difficult because the organizers did not set a minimum weight for the kart/drivers.

The drivers in Team Swiss was:
Mr. Urs (Swiss National)
Mr. Thomas Luscher (Swiss National)
Mr. Peter (Swiss National)
Mr. Fred (German National)
Mr. Jussi (Finnish National)
Mr. Thomas Raldorf (Danish National)

During Thursday Practice sessions, it became apparent that they had a hopeless task ahead of them, unless they could come up with a better strategy that everybody else, and then were able to run without any problems during the whole race.

They choose the 2 fastest drivers in the dry to try and get a good lap time, in the time trial, and still only managed to get 14th fastest time out of 23 teams. This was the first time any of them had ever done a 24 hour race, so there was plenty of idea’s but nobody really knew which was the best strategy. They therefore decided that if they put all the idea’s into an excel sheet and then calculated which why they would gain most, they would then stick to that strategy.

They all agreed that most teams would put their fastest driver out for the first stint, and that none of them would be able to go flat out because they were fighting for positions, so If they put out one of their slower drivers, this would enable him to go flat out and not be slowed down, as everybody else would be even faster. Another point they all agreed on was that most likely, all teams would be out for the maximum amount of time, being 55-57 Mins, which would mean that everybody had to change driver at the same time, which also would slow them, down, as only one driver at a time was allowed in the changing area.

Team Swiss therefore decided that if their slower driver was out for 30 Mins first and then the fastest driver was out for 57 Mins, they would then skip all the problems in the pit/changing area, and after 2 stints they would come in before everybody else to do the refilling, which would also save them time.

It all looked good on paper and sounded like the right plan.

At 13.30 the start to the race went and Peter took the first stint, improving on his personal best lap from the practice sessions, so he was really giving it all, unfortunately, the speed up front was extremely fast, and within the 30 Mins, the team was already lapped with 1.5 lap. And was now down in 23rd a last position. Next person out was young Finnish super bike driver Jussi, and he was fired up, when he got into the kart and took of setting a blistering pace, 2.5 sec faster than Mr. Peter had been driving, and slowly started to pick up the back markers. Up-front the pace was even faster and a new track record was set with a 1.08.668, which meant that even though Jussi was driving his fastest time so far during the weekend, he was still 1.5 sec slower than the front runners as was now being lapped again, so that Team Swiss was down with 2 laps.

The most of the afternoon continued like this, with both Mr. Urs, and Mr. Thomas Luscher putting in some good a fast runs, bringing the team back up to 17th place. Just before dark. It became Thomas Raldorf’s turn to drive, and he had expected to be able to put in a number of very fast laps also, but the weight was simply to much for the small engines, and he had to change his driving style to suit the low powered 4-stroke engines, and try to drive as smooth as possible. This worked to some extend, and he improved his best lap with 0.5 sec, but was still only ding 1.11.45 in the dry, which was about the 17th fastest time, Just as he was coming in to change over to Mr. Peter, the accelerator cable fell of, and he was stuck for a few seconds, until he realized what had happened, and then drove into the pit with hand operated gas.

Mr. Peter changed the kart out with the spare kart, but lost almost 2 Mins in the process, and according to the rules, when the original kart had been repaired, he had to go back in and change karts again, leading to another loss of 2 Mins. After Peter’s run, the team was now back in 21st place again. Luckily it started to rain, and now there was a much better chance to gain time, as all drivers in the team, was either good and very good in the wet, and the extra weight would not slow them down as much, with the loss of grip, as no rain tires was allowed on the karts.

Thomas Raldorf took the first stint in the wet, and quickly set the pace, being among the 3-4 fastest on the track, Jussi then took over, and was the fastest on the track for a while, and kept being among the 3-4 fastest drivers. At midnight the team was up into 13th place, and everything was looking good, because they were faster than most of the team in front of them.

23.50 the race was stopped, due to very heavy rain, and the organizers no longer found it safe to race in these conditions.

The race was stopped until 05.00, when it resumed, but at that time, the rain had stopped, and this made it hard work for the team to gain any further places, the track was how every still wet, so it was a matter of gaining as much ground as possible, before the track dried out. Jussi was out in the first stint, completing his run from just before midnight, and then Thomas Raldorf took over again. Doing Thomas’s run it started to rain again, and Thomas started to push very hard again, and was again among the 5 fastest drivers in the wet, and by 9.20 the team was now up in 10th position.

At 10.20 the team had to come in for a combined Driver/Tire change/fuel refilling, but the organizers did not allow this, and the team had to pit 2 times in a row, and still had no extra fuel onboard because fuel refilling was not allowed during the tire change. When Jussi came in, he told the other drivers that no fuel had been put in, and a quick calculation told them that it might be better to pull in the kart for a extra stop and get it refueled. A signed was shown to Thomas Luscher on track to check the fuel, and a miscommunication lead the pit to believe the there was enough for the rest of his stint.

15 Mins later Team Swiss had stopped out on the track, with an empty gas tank, and had to be pushed into the pit area for refueling and lost another 8 Mins again. The team was now back into 16th position, and Jussi took charge together with Mr. Urs, and Thomas Luscher, and at 12.35 the team was back up into 15th position with 55 Mins to go and 59sec up to the 14th placed go-kart. As the track was a little damp, and a small showed just pulled in over the track it was decided to put Thomas Raldorf out again for the last stint of the 24 hour race.

Thomas started out being about 1 sec faster per lap then Team BFG staff in 14th place, but as the track started to dry out, Team BFG staff became faster and faster, and before long they were now, pulling in 1 sec a lap on Thomas in Team Swiss’s kart. Thomas realized that he would not be able to catch up to them, and was now focused on not being lapped. 10 laps later Team BFG staff was all the way right behind Thomas, and Thomas was now defending his position with everything he had learned over the past 26 years of racing. Every time they came out on the straight, they just pulled out, and drove up along side Thomas, as their driver was more than 30 kg lighter, but each time, Thomas did not give him an inch, and closed the door at the end of the straight.

After 6 laps like this Team BFG became more aggressive, and did not back off at the end of the straight, but neither did Thomas, so they both went into the corner side by side, and some how manage to get out side by side. Thomas was determined, not to give up his place, and kept the foot down all the way round the next corner also side by side, and then out breaking Team BFG into the 3rd tight corner. A few laps later this happened again, and this time Team BFG had gotten a better run on Thomas, and even though they went into the corner at the end of the straight side by side, they managed to come out a little on front of Thomas, so he had to back of, and go in behind them. With extreme late breaking in the 3rd order he again managed to out break them, and took back his place.

Eventually Team BFG staff managed to get past him, and then pulled away, as they were much faster, Thomas kept driving, as fast has he could had lap after lap, put in times that was matching his fastest laps 24 hours earlier.

At 13.30 on the 2nd of July, Thomas crossed the line in 15th position in his and the Teams first ever 24 hour race.

Everybody was happy that they finished the 24 hour race, and knew that if they had not made the mistake with the Gasoline, they would most likely have been in 13th position at the end of the race.

The smallest driver was reportedly weighing in at 35 kg, and the biggest was drivers was reportedly weighing in at 98 kg, which was Thomas, Fred and Peter…… so to finish up in 15th place with all the problems, and having the 3 biggest and heaviest drivers in the field they were quite happy.

Rumors about a new 24 hour race in Feb 2007 is already going around, and some of the drivers in Team Swiss are already planning on attending this race also, and hopefully improve in their result from this year.