1994 2nd in Cyprus National Race

1998 Thai National Champion

Hero or Zero at Bangsaen

Again this year, Bangsaen, was a fantastic event to join. I came into the event, knowing the I had no chance of winning the 2008 Championship, which was more or less same situation as in 2007, so I just wanted to get the best possible result at this great event in front of all my friends that had flown in from Denmark, and all the spectators that had showed up. I was how ever this year in 2nd place in the championship, and had to fight to keep my position, as several drivers could finish 2nd , 3rd, 4th and 5th in the championship, depending on the outcome of the 2 races.

I joined the Endurance race with Tony, to get as many laps done on the track as possible, although the car was very different from mine. Tony, did well in qualifying the car on 3rd place, but because the engine failed, and we had to make an engine, change we had to start from 29th and last place. Tony did very well, in the first stint where he brought the car up from 29th to 5th place, but when we changed in the pits, after the first 35 mins of driving, he told me that the car was having problems, with most likely the clutch, as it felt like the clutch was slipping in the tight corners. On my 2nd or 3rd lap, the left side CV joint broke, and I stopped out on track, and could not do anything except walk back to the pits.

In the 30 mins break we got the car back, and prepared all the parts required for the repair. When the new 2 hour session started, the mechanics went to work, and within short time, they had the car ready to go again. Tony went back out again, and did another great sting, and drove the car back up trough the field from 26th place to 9th before I went back into the car again. Tony, told me the car was good, and I started to push a little, and was just getting more and more comfortable in the car, when the brakes failed on me, and the brake pedal went straight to the floor, and I crashed into the barrier with about 100 Km/h or more, and that was it for us in the endurance race. I hoped I had experienced all the bad luck for the weekend, and now focused on the 2 main races in the championship.

Saturday’s race, was the first, and here I had to start 2nd on the front row, and since it was wet I felt confident that it I could just get trough the first corner without accidents I would be okay. The rain had stopped a hile before the race started, but it was still fairly wet, so I went for a full wet weather set up, and it worked well for me the first 4-5 laps. I took the start, and was leading the race for the first 6 laps, but then a Safety car sign was shown, and I slowed down, and lost the gap I had managed to build up, meanwhile the track was drying up, and I was getting in a worse and worse situation. On lap 7 there was still no sign of the safety car, and I started to think, where it could be, so I increased the speed a little to try and see if I could catch up to it, as it might be somewhere out in front waiting for me. On Lap 8 there was still no safety car, but also no green flags, so I took a chance, and went for it, and kept the lead the first lap, but the guys behind me, as all over the back of me, and instead of fighting with the A-class driver, and risking to go out, I decided to let them by one by one, if needed.

On the last lap, I was in 2nd place, but Jack was all over me, and I knew he was much faster, so I let him by after a quick calculation in my head, telling me that if he won both races, and I finished 2nd in both, I would still keep my second place in the championship. Down the straight towards the finish line, Turk, also managed to pass me, so I finished the race in 4th place, overall, but 2nd in my class, so that was a good start to the weekend’s 2 races.

Sunday’s race, where completely different. Because of a bad 2nd lap in the time trial I had to start in 12th place in the race on Sunday, but Jack had to start in 20th place, so I knew I had to push as hard as possible to get a gap, to him, and try and put as many cars between him and me as early as possible in the race.

I had a very good start, and came out of the first corner in 8th place, and pushed hard, and by the end of lap 3 I was in 7th place, and by the end of lap 5 I was in 6th place. I swapped places with Khun Kajohnsak, several times, for 5th and 6th place, but every time, I came out of the hairpin, corner I could not get the car into 2nd gear, and lost momentum, so he passed me back down the back straight. On lap 9, there was suddenly oil on the track, from Car Number 18, who had blown his engine, but there was not slippery surface flags showing the drivers to be aware of this, so this resulted in the 3rd placed driver, the 4th placed driver, the 5th placed driver, the 6th placed driver and the 7th placed driver crashed out, and left only 50% of the field running.

A disaster for me, as I know could only stand and watch, how many places I would loose in the championship, but to my great surprise, Jack was also no longer in the race, and as it turned out, he has only managed to do 1 lap, before he went out with mechanical problems. So it did not end up too bad, as I therefore still managed to finish 2nd in the championship for 2008, and 3rd in the Team Championship with Khun Supachai.

As the season end comes closer, its becoming more and more apparent who is the real contenders for the championship. Going into the 4th and second last round of the Honda Racing Fest Series, I was leading my class, with 5 points, and was 2nd in the overall standings, with a gap of 9.5 points to Grant Supong in 1st place.

I knew that if I had to keep my hopes alive for the overall championship, I would have to finish in front of Grant Supong, and I also knew that I had to gain minimum 9 points to secure a 1st of 2nd place in my class.

What a weekend it turned out to be……!!!!

We had been very busy at work lately, so I was finding it had to justify taking a day of on Friday, so I could go and practice with everybody. I knew that this would put me at a disadvantage most likely, because it was a new track, and everybody else would have 4 test sessions instead of 2 as I would have. How ever, I don’t make a living on racing, so I knew work had to come first, whether I liked it or not.

On Tuesday before the race weekend, I saw that there was a drivers meeting on Friday afternoon, so I sent a mail asking the organizer, if it would be okay, that I missed the meeting, as I had to work. For the next 2 days I had no reply from them, so on Thursday evening, I knew I had to make the final choice, so I asked them again, and still no reply, so I ended up calling them, and was told that since I already had informed them in writing, it should not be a problem.

Based on their reply, I therefore did not ask for the day of and kept on working during Friday, while everybody else was testing.

Friday evening I got a call from my mechanics saying that I had to start from the back of the grid, because I had not come to the meeting. I said no, impossible, I already asked them about this, and they said no problem. I called one of the persons from RAAT, and he confirmed that I had to start from them back, as that was the rules.

I did not sleep much that night, and left at 3 AM in the morning to drive up to Korat to be there for the first practice session on Saturday morning. All the way up there, I was trying to be constructive, and see if I was a fault in what had happened, but I really could not see what else I could have done. I knew that starting from the back, likely would mean that I lost any chance of the overall championship, and most likely I would also lose out big to my closest rival in the B-class Series.

When I arrived at the track, I walked around the track, taking in all the sights of this big, and nice Street circuit, and had a close look at all the bumps, and braking points etc.

About 30 mins before the first practice session, I met the organizers, who said that they were not a fault, as I should know the regulations, as I was the driver. I argued okay, so I should know the regulation, but what about the Organizer’s should they not also know the regulations, so when asked they can give the right answer…..?

It was agreed that both parties, might have had a part of the blame, but that rules are rules, and they need to be kept. I asked them, “what if” I explained my situation to all the other drivers in the Honda Pro Cup class, and they all signed a paper stating that they did not mind, me qualifying and racing as usual, would they then allow me to qualify, and to this they said “yes”.

I quickly got a signature from all drivers, and showed it to them, so they agreed to let me race and qualify as normal.

In first practice session I was able to do a 1.13.9, which was the fastest lap so far, in the second session I managed to improve to a 1.12.8, and was still the fastest on the track.

The car was perfect, in the way it handled, and the new brake system from Project Mu was totally awesome, and made the car so much more easy, to drive.

In the Time trial, I drove 1 fast lap, to make sure I at least got 1 fast lap, in before it started to rain, as the clouds were all over the track, but in the end not much rain fell.
The first fast lap I did was good enough for pole, with a time of 1.13.15.

In the evening, when I went back to the hotel, I was stopped, and informed that they had changed their minds, because 1 or more drivers had complained, so I would have to start from the back again, instead of the pole. I lost my temper, for a second, and asked them how they could keep changing their minds, but little did that help of course.

Sunday morning it was time for the 1st race, and I rolled out onto the grid in last place, and I was not a happy man. I decided to let everybody go first, and then drive a few fast laps, to ensure I got the fastest lap of the race, before I tried to make my way trough the field of C class drivers, and up to my class with the B class drivers.

All my idea’s might have worked well, if I had not crashed in the first corner……

I had a slow start, to try and avoid getting into combat with the C class drivers in the first tight corner, and little did that help, because they crashed, and blocked the road 100%, and I had no where to get, and slammed into the back of one of them, and broke the front of the car and the radiator, and then the race was over.

I was fuming, and would likely have gotten into a fight, had somebody said anything “smart”……I walked trough the pit, and stopped at out pit area, where I sat down and watched the rest of the race on the big screen TV’s they had put up for the event.

The only thing I could hope for now, was damage limitation, and hope that Khun Kajohnsak, got as little points as possible. Here I was lucky, as Khun Supachai, was flying, and was in a league of his own. Supachai took the win in our class, and Khun Bank, was most of the race in 2nd but in the end, had to accept 3rd as his was getting engine problems, which promoted Khun Kajohnsak to 2nd.

The verdict was in, I had now lost my lead, and was already 4 points behind Khun Kajohnsak in the championship.

My mechanics worked their heart out, and other mechanics from other teams chipped in, and our radiator disappeared from the track in the back of a pick-up truck, and reappeared after having been repaired, within 1 hour. I had given up hope, of racing the 2nd race, but suddenly I heard the nice of my engine being started up……

I quickly went over to have a look, and they somehow managed to put the car back together with whole load of gaffa tape, cable ties, and a lot of goodwill from everybody, and it was ready to race. We had no time to check the alignment, but decided that that was a minor detail, so I rolled over to the pit exit, and waiting for the start.

As the start whet, I was sitting in my car watching them, come past the pit one by one, and it felt like an eternity before they let me start……

The first cars, had already turned to the right at the end of the 800 Mtr long straight, so I knew that I was already about 1 Km behind the leaders, or almost ½ a lap. I floored it, and got my head down, and before the end of the straight, I was past the first C class car, and then took up the chase, and 1 lap later I got 2 more cars, I then spend 2 laps to catch the leading C class car and pass him.

I pushed so hard, that I started to make a few mistakes, and I was struggling with the handling of the car, as it was having a lot of under steer, every time I had to turn right, and with almost every corner being a right hand corner.

I now had a huge cloud of smoke in front of me, and saw that Hathai had blown his engine, so I slowed down in this yellow flag zone in each lap, to not risk, a accident in some oil on the track, but on the next lap, I was overtaken by Khun Suriya in that corner under a yellow flag, so I was livid, pointing the finger at the car, and trying to tell the marshall’s to open their eye’s and see what was going on, but knew that I was wasting my time.

I got my head down, and chased him down the straight, and out dragged his 1600 cc car, and braked so late that I almost lost it, but gained so much on Khun Kajohnsak, that I was almost alongside of him, going towards the next narrow chicane. It was a win or lose move, and I think I in most cases would have lifted, and left him take the corner and play it safe, but I was so fired up, that all logic went out the door, and I pushed hard to get the corner.

Luckily one of us, used the head, and he backed off, and I gain a place, and he played it safe, and took the place behind me. Had he not done, that I think, both of us, would have been sitting in the wall, and it would mainly have been my fault.

I now stated to chase down, Khun Ekpawat and Grant, who was about 100 Mtrs ahead, and in 2 laps, I was right with them, and was trying everything I knew to get past them.

My problem, was that the “standard” engine I was using was greatly underpowered down the straight, compared to their full race engines, and they would open up a gap down the straight that was too big to try any attach under braking, so I had to try other places, and the only 2 other places, had yellow flags out, so I was not able to get past them, and now only could hope for a mistake from either of them.

This of course did not happen, as they are both great drivers, with tons of experience, so I eventually had to settle in for 4th overall, and 2nd in my class.

Khun Supachai took the overall win, and the class win in our class, and although I wanted to win, it could not have happened to a nicer guy. They guy is 100% gold, and he is one of the guys I value as the nicest and most underrated drivers. This guys can drive, and had he not had some many problems with his car / engine, he would likely be a championship contender this year again.

I set the fastest lap of the race, with almost 1.3 seconds, and managed to get a 12 point score in the 2nd race, so I gained a little back on Khun Kajohnsak, but not enough.

I am now 2nd in the B- Class Championship 1 point behind Khun Kajohnsak, before going into the last race at our home track at Bira, so anything can happen.

In the overall standings, Grant Supong, is now, almost 100% sure that he will win, as he leads with 27 points over me in second place. I can maximum score 28 points if I win the time trial, and both races, so it would mean I need to do that, and he needs to be slower than the top 3 in qualifying, plus, not score a single point in any of the races, so I think that is more or less unlikely, and he can therefore already now call him self the overall Champion for 2008.

Second place is how ever still open, as there theoretically still is 7 drivers who could get 2nd place.

Current point standings are

1) Grant Supong 80 Points
2) Thomas Raldorf 53 Points
3) Khajohnsak 45 Points
4) Ekpawat 41.5 Points
5) Haithai 39 Points
6) Jack Lemvard 34.5 Points
7) Supachai 31 Points
8) Suriya 27 Points

Hankook Racing Festival at Bira

Yesterday, I was invited to race for Freeway-Motorsport, in their 1.6 Ltr Honda Civic EG Type R at the Hankook race at Bira. I have to say a Big thank you to them, as I had a great day of racing at Bira.

In the practice session I already felt that the car was handing much better than last time, after the old worn parts had been changed in the suspension, and the new JBT brake disc’s had been put on the car. With the same radial tires that are used during the Honda Racing Fest, I managed to set a time of 1.12.0, which to me was surprising, as that would have been pole in the 2.0 Ltr class for the previous Honda Race fest that was held at Bira. I how ever put that down to the track maybe being faster, and the weather maybe being cooler.

For the time trial, I never got a clear lap on the Radial tires, and only managed to do a 1.13.28, which was still goo enough for pole. After the time trial I was told that I could join the race, but that I would not be able to get any trophy, because I was a B-class driver, and this class was only for C-class driver’s. I said, fine, no problem, let me join the 2.0 Ltr class in stead, but were also told that even though I drove with my 1.6 Ltr car, I would not be allowed to get a trophy in this class. We therefore decided to sit out the first race, and save the car for the last 2 races, which was the open un-limited class, and the “Big-team” race.

In the open unlimited class, I can qualified on 5th place, as something came lose on the suspension during the time trial and I never got a fast lap set. I managed to get up into 2nd place in the race, but never really had a “free” lap because I was having to block Khun Kajohnsak in his 2.0 Ltr Honda EF, as he was all over the back of my car. I managed to finish the race in 2nd place, just after Hathai in his 2.0 Ltr Civic EG Type R. Even though I was blocking I did consistent lap times of around 1.09.3 with the fastest being a 1.09.20, so I was confident that I would be able to set some faster lap times in the last race, if the track was free ahead of me.  

In the last race, I teamed up with Urs Schonnenberger, who was my team mate in Malaysia for the 12 hour race, and he had to start from 1st place in his BMW E36, as I again drew last place in the lottery, (if 1 driver starts 1st then other has to start last, so its even for everybody in each team). Since there was only 6 cars in the race, it was not too bad, and I felt sure that I would be able to be in the top 3 during the first 1. Next to me in 5th place was Khun Kajohnsak again, and I was looking forward to a close fight with him. We both got good starts, and by the second corner we were in 1st and 2nd with me right up behind him. We quickly opened a gap down to the rest of the field, and it became a game of cat and mouse. I drove as fast as I could, to try and make up for what I was loosing up the hill, and down the straights to his 2.0 Ltr car, and I managed to keep the gap the same for 7 laps, but in the end, realized that I would not be able to take him, unless he made a mistake, or his engine broke, so I coasted into 2nd place.

Urs had a good start, and drove very well, but eventually lost his 3rd place position, and finished 4th in the race. This meant that we finished 2nd overall in the race, after both positions has been counted. Looking at my lap times after the race, the Alfano, was showing that I was doing lap times, that was very consistent, and all of them, where in the 1.08 bracket.

1.08.95
1.08.5
1.08.44
1.08.5
1.08.5
1.08.42 (My fastest lap ever around Bira in a 1.6 Ltr car).

Since there is no record being kept of lap times around Bira, I can only assume. From what I have been able to see on all result lists, a time of 1.08.42, is the fast lap ever around Bira in a 1.6 Ltr car, so I would say this would be an un-official new lap record around Bira. To put it into perspective, and explain why I am so surprised about the pace, the fastest lap around Bira in a race in a 1.6 Ltr car in 2008, is 1.09.752, so my lap time was 1.33 seconds faster than the fastest lap in 2008 in this class. What worse, is that the lap time, is almost the same as what I am doing in my own 300 HP, 2.0 Ltr Honda Civic, which says a lot about how much time I am loosing on a bad set-up in my own car. I think that a 2.0 Ltr car, that is set up correct, should be at least 2 seconds faster, if not more, than a 1.6 Ltr car around Bira. I guess I have to get back to work on my own car now, so I can be competitive for the next season in 2009.

Hankook Festival Circuit day

I had a great weekend at Bira. I was invited to drive for G&G Racing in a Honda Civic Model EG with a 1600 cc engine. The car was very well prepared and I enjoyed to be able to just race for fun, and with no expectations to be met. I joined the Open Unlimited Class, which basically allows any type of car with any size and type of engine to join. This class is normally won by the powerful Mitsubishi Evolutions or the Subaru Imprezza’s with their 4-wheel drive and turbo power engine, with more than 300 BHP.

Saturday was the first race which was the Big Team event, where 2 drivers team up, and race together in 2 cars, and their results gets added up, and gives a position. This class gives some good options for new drivers, who might end up starting on pole, as the starting grid is decided by a lottery. If a team gets starting position 1, it means that one of its drivers will start first, and the other will start last, or if a team gets second, then the other drivers starts second last, this way it evens out for everybody.

We managed to get starting position No. 1, so my team mate Alex got the chance to start from Pole for his first time ever in a car race, which was good fun. I therefore had to start in the last place, which would also be good fun. As the race started I got a few drops of rain on the windscreen, and I suddenly realized that I actually had no idea how to start the window wipers, and that there was no markings telling me how or where to push……but fortunately it stayed relatively dry the whole race, so I never really needed them.

Alex got a really good start, but then in all the excitement of being on pole, he missed a gear, and lost momentum, as everybody cruised past him in the run down to the first corner. I was also a bit a sleep in the start…..Normally the lights comes on 1.2.3.4 and then 5, and when they go out we start, but while at the starting grid all 5 lights were on, so I was waiting for them to go out and then come on as normal 1.2.3.4.5……

When the lights went out, everybody took of, and a split second later when I realized what was happening I took of also. I kept the throttle down, and went around on the outside to take a lot of places, and I was in 3rd place after the first corner, but with a quite big gap up to 2nd and 1st place. I was a little careful in the first part of the race, which eventually, would mean that I did not win the race. I saw smoke coming from the leading car, and took a cautious approach thinking that here might be oil, on the track, or that he would blow up after 1 or 2 laps, but nothing happened.

I therefore started to push with a few laps left, and quickly moved into 2nd place, and now chased down Hathai in the leading car. On the last lap in the 2nd last corner I tried to make a move, but this was blocked well, so I had to brake hard to avoid a collision and I then tried again in the last corner coming out to the straight, and I got a really good run on him, and managed to pull up along side him, but still had about 20 cm to go when I passed the finish line, and saw the checkered flag. I got 2nd, and Alex managed to get back up into 6th, so we managed to get 3rd place overall in The Big Team event.

On Sunday, we had a time trial early in the morning and here I did a total of 4 laps, as I felt that I had done a good lap, and would rather save the car for the race. I was very surprised to see that I actually got pole in the Open Unlimited class with a time of 1.09.65 which would have been good enough for pole in the Super 1600 class in the Supercar Series….???

The race was in the afternoon, and I knew I had my work cut out for me, and that I would get passed by all he turbo’ed cars down to the first corner. I had a very good start, but even before I went into 2nd gear, I was passed liked I had pared my car, by the first couple of Evo’s, and before the first corner I was in 4th, and before the 2nd corner I was in 5th place.

I spend the next 4 laps trying to pass the Imprezza in front of me, before I actually managed to get passed and open op a gap that was big enough to keep it down the straight. I then put in a few fast laps, and I saw the Evo’s getting closer and closer and the team was on the wall cheering me on, so I gave it all I had, and went for it the last few laps. I managed to get the 3rd place Evo, and the  chassed down the 1st and 2nd placed cars.

On the last lap I saw the Evo in 2nd loosing grip in 100R, and I went for it, and managed to get the spot, but he out dragged me, I then tried again down to S2, but again had to brake, and let him go, as he out dragged me again, I then dove deep inside, and out braked him into the Honda corner, and saw him not getting well out of the corner, so I thought I would be able to get 2nd place, but as I came out onto the straight, the leading car slowed down, (Missed gear shift or turbo problems, not sure…) but I also flew passed him, and managed to win the race in my little 1600 cc car from G&G Racing.

Our team had a great weekend with Alex getting a 4th place in his class, and me getting the win in my class, plus our team getting a 3rd place in the Big Team event. I look forward to the next race meeting, which will be the Superclub Thailand event, where I will be driving for the G&G Racing team again. Up next though, is a very exiting experience that I will tell more about after I have tested it.

Race Report: So close and yet still so far

Thursday 28-08-2008: We arrived at the track early morning to get a look at the car and to get to know the mechanics. In the Pits, we met the other team from Australia that was racing in the sister car to us, who have been regulars with this team for a number of races. Their fastest driver was Clint Harvey, who has been Australian National Champion, and all 3 drivers had been in 4th place at the last 24 Hour race, when they race out of fuel, so we knew that they will likely be the bench mark to aim for.

We were told that there were 26 cars that had entered for the C class, which is for cars from 0 -1600 CC, but that only 18 would be allowed to race, so the 18 fastest cars would be allowed to stay, and the rest had to pack up and leave the track, after Friday’s qualifying sessions.

We were also told that the schedule had been changed, so instead of having 30 mins each driver, to get to know the track, we now only had 2 times 30 mins for all 3 drivers to share. We decided that one driver would go for 19 mins, and come into the pits, and then the second driver would do the remaining 6-7 mins, effectively giving him 1 out lap, and 2 “fast” laps. And in second session, the 3rd driver would get 19 mins, and the 2nd driver would again get 6-7 mins.

Urs’s best time in testing was 2.50.7, and considering that he had only done a total of 7 laps around the track, that was still pretty good.

Ryan’s best time was 2.45.1, as he knew the track from his Aston Martin test session’s

Thomas best time was a 2.43.6, and considering that he had only done a total of 6 laps around the track, he was pretty happy with that, especially because Clint Harvey in the sister car had done a 2.44.415 as his best time.

A night time session was arranged in the evening, where a total of 1 hours was given to all 104 cars, and its 312 drivers, so it was busy…!!! And this was the first time, we got the change to feel how it is to get passed by a Porsche 997 RSR at full speed down the straight…..its just not possible to explain, when you are doing 200 Km/h at the end of the straight, and a car flies by you with 275 Km/h with 40-50 cms between you and him, in the dark……..Unreal !!!!, and hair-raising.

Urs, managed to do a 2.49 in the dark, and Ryan managed to do a 2.46 in the dark, and Thomas did his best lap so far with a 2.42.2

In the evening when the results came out it was apparent that we would have a serious problem to qualify, because some of the fast Honda Civic’s were doing 2.35’s and 2.36’s, and we already knew that the fastest that this car had ever been around the track was in a 2.39.7 on softer tires in 2007. This had never before been a problem, because they had never before had such a small limit on the amount of cars in Group C.

We knew that if we managed to qualify, we would stand a good chance in the race, as we would be able to go at qualifying speed for the whole 12 hour period, and also felt that the Honda’s would not stand the distance, but first hurdle would be to qualify, and they way this was done, was an average of all 3 drivers best lap time.

Friday 29-08-2008: The pressure was on, and Thomas was the first driver to set a qualifying time.
Thomas more than doubled his laps around Sepang, in this 30 min session, and by the end he had now done a total of 24 laps around Sepang.

Thomas best lap time was a 2.41.261, which was set on the last lap.

Next driver to set a time was Urs, and the drivers in the team, were very nervous, and knew that Urs had to perform better than he had ever done, if we were to stand a chance to qualify. Urs, delivered, and improved on his previous best time with almost 7 seconds, setting a lap of 2.43.182, which was also to be the fastest lap for him around the track for the whole weekend.

Ryan, was now holding the ticket to race or to go home, and we knew we were far behind most of the other drivers, but that we were  about 0.4 seconds in front of the sister car from our time, based on their first 2 drivers. Ryan also delivered, and set his fastest lap around the track, for the whole weekend, doing a 2.42.428.

We knew we were having a better time than the sister car, but was not sure it was enough.

We waited for over 3 hours before the final results came out, and we managed to qualify 17th fastest, but were only 0.04 in front of the 18th fastest car, and 0.14 in front of the 19th placed car that did not make the cut. We jumped for joy, and were very excited that evening.

Saturday 30-08-2008: Race day had arrived, and we were all very excited and so were the 2 other teams from Thailand also. Khun Kirakiert, Khun Sontaya, and Khun nattawude were driving a Porsche 996 GT3 Cup car, in class O, and Khun Piti, and Khun Vuttikorn, were sharing a Mitsubishi Evo with Mr. Desmond from Singapore, in class A where they had managed to put the car on pole in their class.

We had to start in 67th position, out of a total of 77 cars. This was equal to 17th in our class, but amazingly, all most half of the B class 1600-1900 CC cars were slower than us (We had 9 B class cars behind us, and 10 in front of us).

Thomas started the race, as the rules stated that the fastest driver in qualifying had to start the race. The start was a rolling start, and we decided to take it easy for a few laps, to avoid any accidents, as we were sure that there was a lot of “desperate” drivers, that would go for positions in the beginning of the race, so we lost a few places in the first lap. By the end of lap 3, the leading cars started to lap us, even though the track is 5.542 Km long.

The fastest lap during the race was set by Car No. 7, who later won the race, and they did a lap in 2.05.290, which is almost 40 seconds faster than us, so that should give you an idea of the speed difference of a Porsche 997 RSR to a 1600 CC Mitsubishi Mirage RS.

After a few laps of getting used to the traffic, Thomas started to push, and he started to overtake the cars in front of him one by one, and at the end of the first hour the car was up into 8th place in the class, and 48th place overall, setting his fastest lap of the race so far with a 2.41.996

Second driver in the car was Urs, and he also drove a long, and very consistent stint, doing lap times in the 2.43 and 2.44 bracket, and by the end of the 2nd hour we were now up into 4th place overall, and 36th overall.

Ryan, took the 3rd stint, and also drove some very good and consistent lap times in the 2.42 and 2.43 min bracket. 4th 5th stint was also driven by Urs and Ryan, but during Urs’s stint he was given a drive through penalty which he did not see, so when he was called in, he thought it was for a driver change, so he came in and stopped, and un-did all the seat belts, and when he realized what had happened it was a rush to get back out, and he did so, with out getting properly tied down with the seat belts. He therefore had to come back in again to get them seat belt done, properly, which meant we lost some valuable time.

At the end of the 6th hour we were back down in 7th place, and 44th overall.

Thomas now took his 2nd stint in the car, and pushed hard to gain some of the time that had been lost, and by mid session he was consistently doing 2.41’s while in traffic of faster cars, setting his fastest lap of the race, with a 2.41.279.

As darkness feel on the track, so the a number of the C and B class drivers, and some of the faster C class cars, had to slow down their pace, as we had expected. At the end of the 9th hour we were back up into 4th place, and 34th overall, and had un-lapped our self passing the leading C class car a couple of times.

Thomas now took his 3rd stint, and drove consistent laps in the 2.42 and 2.43 bracket, and un-lapped the car further, and brought the car up to within 26 seconds of the 3rd placed car. In the dark, a huge cloud of smoke at Turn 5 and 6, revealed that the Evo of Khun Piti and Khun Vuttikorn, had blown up, and they had to retire from the race, from a 3rd or 4th  placed position, as they had several problems earlier during the day. Also the Porsche of Khun Nattawude, had to retire from the race, as they had problems with a fuel pump, we were told.

This now left us as the only team remaining in the race with drivers from Thailand, and we were looking like we would be able to challenge for a podium position.

At the end of the 10th hour Ryan, were having some problems, with the car for the first time, and 30 mins later he lost the 3rd and 5th gear, and had to pit the car. We were devastated, as we thought that nothing could be done, but the mechanics did a fantastic job, 6 guys were all over the car ripping it apart, and within 25 mins a spare gearbox was produced, and the old one was taken out, and a new one was put back in, and Thomas now got in the car to drive the last 45 mins of the race, and after a total of 27 mins, including refueling the cars, changing front tires and a gear box, we were back on track.

We had lost a few places, and now had no change of a podium, unless all other cars in front of us broke down, but that chance still remained, so we kept charging although we were now in 8th place in class, and 41st overall.

Thomas, drove, hard and managed to come up into 7th place, and un-lapped the car 2 times, during the remaining 45 mins, but they were just to many laps in front of us, to challenge for anything, so after we took 7th we slowed down, and decided to just try and finish the race. As we started our second last lap of the race, with only 4 mins to go the cars started to huff and puff down the straight, and Thomas, knew that this was bad, but that he had no change to get help before he had driven the full 5.5 Km track, one more time, and it just got worse and worse, and the car rolled to a full stop at turn 4.

The team was out of it, and the officials asked Thomas, if he wanted to retire, but he said no, and kept pulling the wires, and checking for lose connections, after having checked that there was fuel on the car. With 1 min to go, the car was declared as a Non-Finisher (DNF), and all the efforts of the team, and its drivers had been for nothing.

After the race, we found out that a wire at the alternator had come lose and the battery had become flat, and as soon as we connected the new battery with a couple of jumper cables, the car started, and there was no problem, but little did that help us.

It was a great experience, and great fun to drive the F1 Circuit at Sepang in Malaysia, and a very well organized event. We will be back again in 2009, and try our luck once more, if we can find the sponsorship for 2009.

12 Hour Merdeka Millennium 2008 Endurance Race at Sepang in Malaysia

I have been very fortunate to be able to join with Mal Rose’s Australian Race team, for this year 12 Hour Merdeka Millennium 2008 Endurance race event at Sepang F1 Circuit in Malaysia. On Wednesday the 27th I am of to Malaysia, and already that same evening I will be doing my first ever laps in the car and on the track which will be in the dark, as this is a night test session. The car I will be driving is a Mitsubishi Mirage Mivec RS with a 1600 CC engine, which has been built in Japan by Ralliart.

My team mates for the race event will be Mr. Ryan Marsden from the UK, who normally resides in Australia,  Ryan is racing the Asian Austin Martin Cup Series, and Mr. Urs Schonnenberger, from Switzerland who normally races in the Thailand Supercar Class in  BMW E36. I will be driver 1, Mr. Urs with be Driver 2, and Ryan will be driver 3., and we will be racing and trying to qualify for the race in class C  All in all there are 26 teams that has signed up for Class C, but only 18 will be allowed to start, so already from the start, there is pressure on the team, and the drivers. The qualifying time is an average of the 3 drivers best times, so all 3 drivers MUST perform to be able to qualify for the race event. Best lap time was in 2006 2. Min 40.255 seconds in C class. Best lap time in 2007 was 2 Min 35.7, but this time does not count, as the car was disqualified after the race with some engine irregularities.

Mr. Harry Chai, has won the race 2 times in the C class, as far as I have been able to see on the Internet, and this gives me a little confidence. Harry Chai last week drove at Bira in an Identical car to mine, and here I had no problems matching his lap times, but might be different at Sepang where I have never before driven. Let’s hope for the best, and first goal will be to qualify with the 18 fastest teams in the C class, and then be re-think or goal for the race, based on the pace we will be able to set during testing and qualifying. More news to follow as soon as we have some.

A good weekend after all.

This weekend, was a weekend, where I had to get top points, if I were to keep the championship hopes a live. Thursdays practice started our well, with me being between the 3 fastest overall on the track, in each session, and 2nd fastest in my class. Fridays session was even better where I improved on my times, to be with in 0.1 of a second to the 2nd fastest driver. Friday’s time trial turned out to be a disaster, because as I drove out of the pits, the engine failed on me, and I never got a single lap in during the time trial, meaning that I would have to start both Saturdays race and Sundays race from 23rd and last position on the grid. We changed the engine, and the mechanics worked hard overnight to get everything ready. Saturday morning the car was ready, but the engine still needed to be run in, as it was brand new, with all new internal parts etc……. We spend the most of the morning running in the engine, in the pits, and felt we were as ready as we could be by the time of our first race of the weekend. We made a few changes to the set up of the car, and then we drove out on the track, to find our spot at the end of the grid.

WOW….starting in 23rd, is a LOOONGG way from the front of the grid, and even worse a long way from the starting lights. It was hard to see anything from where I was parked, so I would just have to do the best I could, and try and get as many points as possible to limit the points loss, but for sure the championship was now gone, I felt, and maybe also second and third place in the championship.

Race 1:
I had a great start, and shot up on the outside of everybody, and past a lot of cars, I continued to press on, and got a few more cars at the top of the hill, and then one more around the long 100R corner, and was right up behind one of the other cars coming up to S1. I knew I was faster coming up the hill, and when I saw that he braked early I shot up on the inside, to make an overtaking before S1. There was plenty of space, but it was a risky move. If I wanted to keep up with the front I had to do it, so I went through, and made it, but coming out to the straight, the race was red flagged, and I found out that my overtaking had caused a number of cars to crash behind me coming out of S1. I had moved from 23rd to 14 in the first lap, and was back in the game I felt. I apologized to the drivers, and said I did not feel that I did anything wrong, as there was not touching, and it was a clean pass, but that if they did not feel the same, I was very sorry, and would be more careful next time. The race had to be re-started, so I had to start from 23rd again, and did it all over one more time.

Race 1 Re-start:
I once again, had a great start, and shot up the outside again, but waiting for a lap to push, hard, and then started pushing, the car to the limit, and I kept moving up trough the field, and was soon up into 5th place, and 2nd in my class and were catching the cars in 1st , 2nd 3rd and 4th . With only 5 laps to go, I did not think I had enough laps to catch them, so I slowed down, and saved the engine, and drove a “safe” race the remaining 5 laps, and watched the over takings up front. Khun Preeda did some good over takings on Ton, and Ton, did some good moves back on Preeda, but in the end, Khun Jakthong, took the win, as he managed to slip past both, during one of their fights for the 1st place. Khun Preeda in the end, came out on top to take 2nd place, and Ton, had to be content with 3rd place, but 1st in his class. I kept my place and finished 4th overall and 2nd in my class, which was much more than what I had hoped for at the start of the race, so I was a happy man on the podium.

Race 2:
Sunday’s race, was again, going to be had work, but with the results from race 1, I was confident that I would be able to make another good top 8 finish, and a top 4 finish in my class. I got a good start, and was charging up trough the field, and by the end of lap 4, I was up to 6th place from 23rd, but then the race was stopped again, due to another accident. When a race is red flagged the organizer goes back 1 full lap, and sees which position everybody was in, and that will be where they start from, which meant that I had to do the re-start from 11th place, which a bit of a set back, but even worse was it that my engine, was overheating on the track, was there was no cooling on it, and this worried me.

I once again, got a good start, and made it up to 5th place quickly, and was again gaining on the drivers in 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th, but this time, I had plenty of laps left to try and make a charge on them, but a few laps later, when I got close to Khun Yai in the Toyota, the engine, was running so hot that I had to back off, if I wanted to make it to the finish line. I drove a few “slow” laps, and then saw a car approaching from the read, and he was getting closer and closer quite fast. I increased the speed, and set my fastest lap of the race, and caught up almost 20 Mtr in one lap on the Toyota of Khun Yai, but the car in the back, kept coming closer, and the engine, was red hot, so I had to back off, and let him pass. I was now back into 6th again, and not long after Khun Khajohnsak, came closer and closer, and I again tried to increase the speed, but the engine was not having it, and I had to let him pass.

As he passed me, I saw there was oil all over his engine hood, so I tried to stick with him, top see if I could keep enough pressure on him, so it would blow up on him, before the end of the race, but I still had to managed my own engine problem, so It was a balancing act. In the end he just passed the finishing line, and then his engine blew up, so he finished 6th and I finished 7th overall, and 4th in my class I therefore should have been happy, as I managed my goals before the start of the race, but it was with a very empty feel I stepped onto the podium, as I knew I was much faster, and could have done so much better, if that cooling problem, had not put and end to my charge towards the front. Some quick calculations also confirmed that Khun Manit (Ton) from the Toyota Team thailand team, had won the B-class for the 2008 season, so matter what happened at the Bangsan Race event in November, and that he also had taken the overall lead for the Super 2000 class. I have to say a big congratulation to their team and to Khun Ton, for a good stabile and fast result in every race this season, as that is what makes a champion. This is the second year running he wins the Thai National Championship, so he is truly a Champion.

Now I can only try and aim for 2nd place in the championship, which looks to be possible, as I have moved into 2nd place ahead of Jack, and even though he is the favorite to win in Bangsaen, I will try and give him a good run for his money, and hopefully, keep my 2nd place, or at least save 3rd place in the Championship. Now the next race event will be at Sepang in Malaysia, where I will race in the 12 hour Endurance race with a Team from Australia, and here the goal is to get a class win. I have never raced there before, but I think that if you can compete for the win around Bira, you must be able to compete for a win around Sepang, if the car holds together.

Damage Limitations

I yesterday participated in the 3rd round of the Honda Racing Fest Series, in the Honda Pro Cup class. Coming into this event I was leading the series both overall and in the B-Class, so I was looking to try and defend this position. The car had been up-graded with the latest modifications to the engine, and it had been on the Rolling road (Dyno), to try and optimize the power before the event. I was quietly confident that I would have a very good race weekend, if everything held together.

Friday I was working and was not able to test, so I only go 1 test session on Saturday. I was second fastest, but the car had a very bad under steer, so I knew I was loosing a lot of time, around the track. As expected Jack was the fastest driver on the track, but I was “only” 0.8 seconds slower than him, which I was happy with considering the handling problems I was having. A few changes to the set up, for the time trial, and then 15mins on track to try and get a good lap. I improved to a 1.11.5, and the pit wall guys signaled that I was in 1st place, so I stopped before the session finished, as I felt there was no need to keep going, and wear down the tires and equipment. Now I just had to wait and hope that I could stay there. On the last lap Khun Khajohnsak set the 2nd fastest lap, and Jack came in 3rd, and for the first time since my start 3 years ago in one of the Major Thai Car racing series I was on pole. I was ecstatic, and happy that we managed this knowing how badly the car still handled.

Warm-up:
A bit of confusion in the pit in the morning, as the mechanics came over 1.5 hour late, and nothing had been prepared, so I only managed to get 1 fast lap during warm up, but that was fastest and was a lap of 1.11.65, so I was still confident that I got a good start I would be able to get a good result.

Race 1:
A very good feeling to be parked in P1, but with the butterflies in the stomach, I was not nearly as calm and focused as I normally am, before a start. Initially I got a good start, but with the extra engine power and torque, I started to spin the wheels half way trough 1st gear, and lost some traction.  Coming into first corner I managed to stay in first, but the exit of the corner up hill, was not good, and Khun Khajohnsak, managed to go on the outside, and with his exceptional road grip actually managed to pass me on the outside as I was trying to block everybody behind me. Coming out of the corner I was in 2nd, but then Khun Khajohnsak lifted the accelerator slightly, so I also had to lift and he then waived to Grant Supong to pass him, (Most likely because he is A class and Khajohnsak is B-class), but this really spoiled my chances, as I lost momentum, as Hathai was coming up fast, and he managed to pass me, so I was now down in 4th place after just only 1 lap.

I had a number of very good laps fighting with Hathai, and in the end, I managed to get past him, and shortly thereafter his engine failed. I quickly caught up to Khun Khajohnsak. I now started to fight with him, and we changed places several times, and again had a real good, and very fair fight about the 2nd place. On Lap 8 I was in 2nd place and had managed to open a small gap to Khun Khajohnsak., but the engine, was getting hot, and loosing power, and it now started to sounds like it was also running on 3 cylinders. I lifted of the gas on the straight, and lost my 2nd place, and drove down the straight trying to decide to stop or keep going. At the end of the straight, my car suddenly skidded with the rear, which lead me to believe that engine oil was leaking out from the car, so I stopped quickly to see if the engine could be saved.

After the race, we checked everything, and with the exception of a strange sound from the exhaust, it looked to be fine, we checked the compression of each cylinder, we check the spark plugs, the injectors radiator, pipes, pumps etc… and nothing was wrong ? The only thing that was of use was the Motec EMS. The motec, also showed that the car was running okay, but the it was very hot (125 degrees C). We therefore put it together again, and hoped it would last the full 2nd race, as I now knew that I could try and keep going at lower speed which might mean that I could get some points. Jack had gained 6 points on me, by finishing 3rd in the 1st race, which was a good result considering that he was missing several gears.

Race 2:
For the 2nd race I had to start 3rd, as I was 0.1 sec slower than Grant Supong in the first race, and 0.04 second slower than Khun Khajohnsak., and Jack was down in 10th place, so I knew he would be charging hard up trough the field. For this start I was much more focused, and fired up, and got a good start, and managed to pass Khun Khajohnsak. into first corner, so I was in 2nd place, just after Grant. Hathai also passed Khun Khajohnsak., so I had Hathai right up behind me. On the next lap, I decided to let him, pass as he was A-class, and I was B-class, so I pulled out to the side, and waived him pass, but now Khun Khajohnsak. slipped inside, and took 2nd, and Hathai 3rd place, so I actually lost my lead in the B-class, which again got me fired up. On lap 2 I set the fastest lap of the race, and closed down the gap, to Hathai, and tried to pass him.  At the end of lap 2, the marshals were showing a yellow flag in S2, and I saw that Jack had crashed out, which, made me nervous, as that could mean that there was oil on the track, but now oil flags were being shown, so I was a little careful, coming into S2, which was good, as there were oil on the corner. I quickly caught up to Hathai under braking again, and it was like he was not driving on full power. Coming out to the straight to start Lap 3, his car again developed some engine problems, and was down on Power, so I could pass him easily on the straight. I was now alone, with 30-40 Meter up to Khajohnsak., but my engine was now very hot again (128 degrees C), so I decided to let them both go, and try and save some good points.

Calculations was going on in the head, and I quickly, found out that if I just finished the race, I would pull at least 1.5 points away from jack overall, but that I needed to try and stay in 2nd to keep my lead over Khun Khajohnsak. The remaining 12 laps became a quest for staying in the race, and getting some points. I slowed right down, and was doing laps in the 1.14’s, and the temp came down to about 115 degrees C. Khun Suriya, was now catching me, but as he was a Class C driver I was not worried, and decided to let him catch, me and loose one sport overall, but still keep my 2nd place in the B-class. After he passed me, I stuck to the back of him, and was surprised to see that I was able to keep up with him. I decided that I would try and stay with him, and maybe on the last lap, give it a go, and try an pass him, to get my overall place back, if it was possible to do safely. A Few laps later his car also developed problems, and I pass him on the straight, and was back in 3rd overall and 2nd in class, and now there was only 4 laps left. Khun “Bank”, was now closing in on me, but since he also was a C- class driver, I decided to let him pass me, if he got close enough. After 2 more laps, the distance was still the same, so I now started to concentrate on the sounds of the engine only, hoping that it would last the last few laps.

The last 2 laps seemed to take an eternity, but eventually the checkered flag came out, and I was very happy and relieved that I had managed to finish the race, and get at least 12 points in my class. Overall I have now shifted down to 2nd place, but I am still leading the B-class, with Khun Khajohnsak. now in 2nd place, and Jack Lemvard in 3rd place. With 2 rounds to go in the Series, its still open, for both the overall classification and the B-class who can win.

Next race, which will be round 4, will be held at Khorat on the 18th and 19th of October, so here the championship, might be decided or be cut down to a few contenders. Now we are working on full throttle to get the car dismantled to find out why the engine is overheating, after only 2 laps, as there is only 3 days until the first test sessions in the Supercar Series which will be on Thursday at Bira.

In the never ending quest for getting a fast and competitive car, I have now just received the latest items for my car.

Its frustrating when people drive past you down the straight, because then you know its not better driving skills, but more likely more money spend, of a fast engine, and suspension, and that combined with a good driver, will give you the edge.

We took a big step at the last race event, where we got a better final drive in the car, but a few people were still just passing me on the straight, so for this coming event we will have a newly rebuild engine with parts from overseas, a bigger throttle body 72 mm instead of 70 mm, and a new exhaust system, plus the car will have become another 10 Kgs lighter.

In addition to this, a new set of brakes with 300 MM discs will arrive, in a quest to cut down the brake distance, which currently is too long. The current set is 280 MM so it will be a big increase of almost 10% more brake surface. It will be interesting to see how much that helps.

We have also been playing around with longer 1st , 2nd and 3rd gears, as these were all too short after the new final drive was changed for last race meeting.

We are waiting for the last parts to arrive but as they are being manufactured they will not be here before October so these will be used for the Bangsaen event, hopefully giving me the last remaining power required to fight it out with the best of the best.

A weekend with mixed results

It was with great excitement that I went into this weekend, as I had finally gotten my new close ratio gearbox, with a new final drive ratio to fit around Bira. A new temporary air intake had also been installed, so I was looking forward to see what kind of lap times, we would be able to do, and to see if we would be competitive enough.

Right away in the warm-up session I did a few laps, and checked everything was okay, and posted a 1.08.7 lap, which was matching my best ever lap around the track, and I was not even pushing, so I was quietly confident of a top 5 result in the time trials.

I did a few fast laps in the time trail, and was stunned to see that I was doing 1.07 laps all the time. I did 3 laps in concession all in the 1.07.7 to 1.07.8 bracket. I came in to the pits quickly to save the tires and the car for the race. The time was good enough for 2nd place for whole session, only being 0.1 seconds of Jack’s time, and 4 tenth faster than the 3rd fastest driver, until the last lap, where Jack put in a lap that was the fastest he has ever done around Bira in a time of 1.07.29.

I got starting position in second place for both Saturdays race and Sundays race, which meant that the first 4 points of the weekend had been secured, so it was so far looking like a good weekend.

Race 1 (Round 3):

I got a good start, but still lost 1 place to “Turk” in his white Integra, as he was extremely fast of the grid, but half way around the track, he was having problems, and waived everybody by, so I was back into 2nd place. Grant Supong in 3rd now, pushed hard to get past, and I was having to take a defensive line, to keep him behind me, for several laps, but on the straight I had problems getting the car into 5th gear and lost momentum and was passed at the end of the straight.

Yai was now closing in fast, and I was now having to block him down the straight, and it was obvious the I was still down on power on the straights compared to the other cars in the class. Yai pushed hard and I kept blocking, and in S2 after a few laps he lost the car, and spun, and then got hit by a few other cars. I thought that the danger was over, but now Jakthong was charging, and he was closing the gap fast. On the straight and out of the corners he was much faster than me, and I was again having to block, after a few laps, he managed to get past me, going side by side into 100R, and I had to concede my place to him, or risk, damaging both our cars.

Now nobody was behind me, and I was finally free to drive my own racing line, and lap times dropped, and I was now catching Jakthong again, as I was faster trough 100R and trough S1 and S2. At the end of the straight I was trying to out brake him, when I suddenly had no grip, as there was oil on the track, I tried to downshift fast, but I could not get it in gear on time, and then tried to turn away, so I would not hit him, but the car was not turning fast enough because of the oil, and I ended up hitting him in the rear on the right side, sending my car into a spin, ending up in the tire wall, sending tires flying left and right.            

I got the car going again, and tried a few left and right hand turns, and tested the brakes, and when everything seemed to work, I took up the pursuit. I am not sure exactly where I was at that time, but am guessing that I was in 6th place. I now pushed harder than ever before, and was closing down the gap, setting a new personal best ever lap time around Bira in a time of 1.07.64.

2 laps before the end, I again had trouble getting the car into 5th gear, and was messing around, trying to get it in gear, when I by mistake, put it in 3rd gear instead, and that was it, as the engine, blew to pieces, so I never finished the race. I was furious at my self, and was even more furious when I found out that I had actually been in 4th place at the time, and because Jakthong also did not finish, I could have finished 3rd, and my championship chase would have been back on track.

Over night the engine was changed, and a standard engine was installed, and the race cams from the race engine, was moved over to the standard engine, so that I would have a little more power. The Motec engine management was tuned on Sunday morning, and the body work was repaired, so the car was good to go.

A rule about changing engines, forced me to start from the back of the grid, but since many cars had gone out, and could not be repaired on time the damage was minimized, to a starting position in 16th place.

Race 2 (Round 4):

I rolled up to the starting grid, and was looking for the starting lights, but could actually not seem then, as I was starting that far down the grid. I was 100% fired up, as I knew nothing but a Top 3 result in class would bring me back in contention for the championship in my class.

I had a great start, and flew past several cars in the straight and the first corner, and by the end of the 1st lap I was up in 11th place. I quickly got a few more places under braking at the end of the straight, and was now pushing to catch car no. 53, the team call “Red bull flying lap”. I was catching him with about a second a lap, and closed down the gap, little by little. I was lapping doing low 1.09’s all the time, and with a standard engine, that has 40 HP less than my race engine, I was quite happy. Again under braking I managed to pass him, but actually passed 2 cars under braking as he was trying to out brake another car at the same time.

10 laps into the race I was up into 6th place, and was being chased by Khun Preeda in Car No. 36, and since he was an A class driver and my position overall was quite bad, I decided to let him go, and concentrate on getting at least the 3rd place in my class I was holding at the time.

I slowed down to save the tires, and engine, but still kept the contact to Khun Preeda and Jakthong in 5th and 6th place. With a few laps to go, I was suddenly gaining on Khun Preeda, and thought that he might have a problem, so I pushed a little, to close the gap, and to see if he would increase he speed, which he did not do. I therefore knew he was in trouble, and started to push even harder to try and get a 6th place overall, and maybe a few more points overall. I passed him down the straight, and it was clear that he had overheating problems, as the car was way down on power, and at the end of the straight his engine blew up. I was now back in 6th place, and on the next lap I saw a huge amount of smoke on the straight, and half way down the straight, I saw Jack jumping out of his car, and I knew that I was now up into 5th place, and 2nd overall.

I finished the race in 5th overall and 2nd in class, and most likely looked like the happiest man on the track, as I had not thought I would be able to get that far up the grid, with a standard engine. I have now moved into 3rd in my class in the championship, and have moved into 5th overall in the championship. I am looking forward to rounds 5 and 6 at Bira in August, where I hopefully will have my race engine repaired and hopefully will have my second and more power full race engine completed also.

Next race event will be at Bira on the 8th 9th and 10th of August for the Honda Racing Fest, where I have to try and defend the championship lead I have in the Series.

2 Podium finishes, a good stable result

Just finished the 2nd round of the Honda Racing Fest, which was held on a street circuit in Chiang Mai, at the Chiang Mai Night Safari area. The event was a great event, with a good organization, and a tribute should be given to the people from the Grand Prix Group, the RAAT and the officials involve, as they arrange a great event.

Sunday was race day, and 20.000 People turned up for the event, which was held in great sunny weather. Channel 7 was there taping the event which will be shown on the 1st of July. Apart from that there was a lot of interest from a number of media’s, and a number of the drivers including me, was interviewed for 4-5 different TV programs.

The car felt great, and I liked the layout of the track, and was more of less 2nd fastest in all Practice sessions, only beaten by Jack Lemvard. I kept improving on the set up, and eventually found a really good race set up.

There was a 30 Min time trial period, and this is likely the only thing that did not go too well. Since the track was so tight, it was very hard to overtake, and there was simply too many cars on the track at the same time to get an uninterrupted timed run, which was very frustrating, as the time trial likely was the most important event, and would likely play a big part in where you would finish the races also. I still managed to finish 3rd, which was not too bad, although I felt I had the speed for at least 2nd . This put me ahead of Hathai, who is leading the championship, and a long way ahead of any other B class drivers. I therefore decided to try and stick with 3rd, and let Jack and Grant, fight it out for 1st and 2nd .

Race 1:
I got a good start, and slotted into 3rd in the first corner, and basically stayed there, and drove fairly fast but stabile and safe times. At the front Jack and Grant pulled away a little, but on lap 5 the safety car came out and we were all back together again. 3 laps later the safety car pulled into the pits, and it was now a mad dash for the finishing line. I now pushed, as I wanted to get a good lap time, as the best time of the race, would count for the starting position for the 2nd race. I now kept right up with both Jack, and Grant, and we were swapping fastest laps each lap. I finished in 3rd place, 1.2 seconds after Jack who was the winner, and 0.6 seconds after Grant who came in second.

Race 2:
I again got a good start, but was not able to do anything else than to slot into third again.
Grant, got a Super start, which to me from where I was sitting looked like a Jump start, as all 5 red lights still were on when he took of. Jack, was looking at the lights, and did not move before they went out, and therefore lost his position to Grant. Jack chased him hard, and I just stayed close to try and put a little pressure on them, in the hopes that one of them, or both of them would make a mistake, that I could take advantage of, but they never did.     

I kept pushing, while calculations where going on in my head…… If Grant would be penalized, I would be second, and Jack first, so not a problem, as jack would only pull 3 more points away from me. If he was not penalized, I would be 3rd, and Jack would be 2nd, and he would also be pulling 3 points away from me, so did really not have anything to gain either way. I therefore just kept the pressure, but they did not buckle, so I again finished 3rd, but more importantly, the championship leader Hathai finished 7th, which meant that I was now the new Championship leader both overall and in class.

I found out, or rather got confirmed that my biggest problem right now, is straight line speed, and this is mainly because of a different Final drive ratio that I have in my gear box. The other fast drivers where on a 5.06 ratio, and I was on a 4.7 ratio, which meant that while they going flat out in 5th gear, I was still only in 4th doing 8000 RPM. Going out of the corners and down the straight both of them would open up a gap of 30-40 Meters each lap, which I would close again, in the tight, and twisty sections.

The new 5.06 ratio, should be here before Friday this week, so hopefully we will be able to test this before the time trials on Friday afternoon, and hopefully we can be competitive at Bira for the 3rd and 4th round of the Supercar Thailand events this coming week.

A big improvement...

We last week finished fitting the new Tein race suspension on the car, and finished all the repairs to the bodywork and had the car re-painted where required. I wanted to test the new suspension before going to Chiang Mai for the Honda Racing Fest, but Bira was busy every weekend, so I in the end decided to join the Hankook Race Festival, so I could get the suspension tested.

The new suspension is both lighter and softer and I must say that this, completely changed the way the car handled and gave me the confidence back in the car and its cornering abilities.

The over steer was now gone and the car was riding the curbs very nicely. Before I was fighting to get in to the 1 Min 10’s and now on my first lap out I was doing low 1.10’s, and second time out low 1.09’s and in the time trial I was doing 1.08’s consistently. Basically the car is at least 2 seconds faster now than before around Bira, if last weekend’s results is something to go by.

I had a great weekend, winning all 3 races I entered, but the best race of the year so far was the 3rd and last race, where I was racing with Hathai Chaiwan.  He started 4th and I started 8th as we had done a lottery about the starting positions. We both got good started and at the end of lap 1 he was up in 1st place and I was up in 2nd place chasing him, as he had opened a gap of about 80 Mtrs down to the rest of us.

I slowly gained on him, and by lap 3 I was right behind him, and challenging for the lead at every corner. I passed him down the straight several times, being in his slip stream and he then passed me back under braking, I then passed him up the him, but on the outside, so I could not get by him in the corner and one time we drove side by side trough 100R all the way and I in the end had to give way again, as I was on the outside.

Great fun, and clean racing. Now I really look forward to the next race I Chiang Mai next weekend. The car still is not a full race spec, but we are slowly getting there. The new exhaust system will be here this week, but due to noise restrictions it can not be used before the Supercar race at Bira.

Problem filled start to the season

It was with a great excitement that I showed up in Sa Kaeo, to race the first race on the season in the Super 2000 class, as all the best drivers in Thailand was competing in this class. I felt I was fairly well prepared, but was not sure where I was equipment wise, compared to all the other drivers.

It fairly quickly became apparent that a Top 3 position would be hard, as I simply, did, not have enough speed in the car to keep up with the front runners, and further more I had 100 Kg of overweight in the car, which made it even more difficult.

I was in the top 5 during practice, most of the time, and was confident that with a little more grip I the car from the new tires, I would be doing well in the time trials, but I was wrong. Everybody improved about 1.5 to 2 seconds on their lap times, after they put new tires on, but I developed so much grip in the car that it was jumping all over the place, and I was only able to match my best practice times, so I qualified 7th fastest for the 1st race on Saturday, and 6th fastest for the 2nd race on Sunday.

Now I always try to find the positive things, and looking at all the times, I would have been 2nd fastest if I would have managed to find 1.5 seconds in the new tires like everybody else, so I was still fairly confident of a good result in the first race on the season.

Race 1:
As Saturday came around, everything was checked, and the car started fine, and I drove out on my formation lap and stopped at the 7th place starting line. As the lights went out, I took of, and had a good start, but the engine, was stuttering all the time, and I lost a number of places into the first corner. Coming out of the first corner, we were all side by side, trying to squeeze into the next section of sweeping corners, were the is only room for 1 car, and everybody will have to be in a long string after each other.

I was now door to door with Khun Khajohnsak, but he was on the inside, and I knew I had to let him in, problem was how to do this. If I braked, many people right behind would get into trouble, as we were all going fault out, and I could not pull further to the right, as I was right up against the tires, so I eased of the accelerator, to try and give him room to come, in, but he kept pulling towards the right where I was, until we hit each other. Unfortunately I had now dropped back, so my front wheel was next to his rear wheel, and when we came together, his car spun, and there was nothing I could do, except to try and explain after the race and tell him that I was sorry.

The engine was still stuttering, and I was trying to change the fuel pump by pushing a button in the car, to see if that helped, which is hard, on the first lap, going trough a chicane, with about 20 cars right behind you. I lost a few places, but this did also not help, and at the end of the straight after 1 lap, the engine, just died, and it became very quiet in the car, as I rolled along, and frantically push every single button in the car I could think of, but nothing worked. Suddenly it came to life again, (still don’t know why), and I took up the chase, as I was now in last place, which at that time, must have been around 21st or 22nd place. I pushed hard, but found that the engine  was still stuttering, so I almost gave up, and wanted to drive into the pit, when I noticed that I was gaining on the drivers ahead of me.

I decided to give it a go, and hope that the engine would last all the way, as there was still some 18 laps to go. This was a good decision, as several people dropped out, during the race, and I managed to pass quite a number of cars, so I ended up 10th overall, and 7th in my class, scoring some very valuable points.

We checked the engine the whole evening, and in the end, found that both Cam sensors on the engine was broken, and that was why the engine, would not work properly above 6000 RPM, after we got them changed the engine, again, worked fine.

I have to add that the help I was getting for other Mechanics in other teams, and other competitor in my class, was absolutely amazing, everybody was more than helpful, and I even had the Editor of one of the Motorsport's magazines, calling me up, giving me pointers to what could be wrong with the engine. Thank you everybody, this is such a pleasure to be able to help each other, when needed.

Race 2:
On Sunday the engine was okay, and I was fired, up in the hopes that I could get a better result. When all the red lights came on, my car started to roll, and I had to brake, at the same time, as they went out, to try and avoid a jump start, so everybody flew past me, and I was down in 8th or 9th place after the first corner.

I quickly settled in, and moved up a few places, and then got stuck behind the Toyota Altis of Khun “Ton”. I was a lot faster than him, in a few places of the track, but he was a lot faster than me on all the straights, where he would pull away and open a gap of 20-30 meters each time, so I would not be close enough to out brake him.

I saw that up-front, the leading cars was fighting hard for positions, so I decided to settle in for some laps and just wait and see what happened up there. I no longer pushed, and managed to stay close behind “Ton” most of the time, but not close enough to do anything.

At one point, I saw that Hathai had spun, in the chicane, and we passed him moving up a few placed, and a few laps later he was all over the back of me, so I had to push, now. I managed to open a gap to him, but shortly there after “Ton” was holding me up again, so Hathai came closer and closer again.

On the second last lap, he was very close to me, and I was too close to “Ton”, so I had to go slower trough the chicane, than what I normally do, and knew that Hathai would be carrying more speed than me, and likely pass me down the straight, so I pulled out to the right to try and block him, but too late, as I pulled out and my rear touched his front sending me, slightly sideways with over 160 Km/h……….that woke me up !!

I let him pass, and he then out braked “Ton” also, into the hairpin at the end of the back straight,  I stuck right to the end of his car, and slipped passed “Ton” also, and passed the finish line in 4th overall and 2nd in my class.

All in all not a bad result, considering all the problems I had over the weekend, and the lack of straight line speed I apparently still have in the car. I am now 7th in the class overall, and 3rd on the “B” Class, with 6 races still to go, so anything can still happen.

Thomas at the 2008 Fast Forward Faster press conference

The 2008 Pizza Company Racing Campaign has been called the "2008 Fast Forward Faster" and clearly indicates the Pizza Company's resolve towards motorsport racing and its brand development world wide. With the resent signing of famous Thai 250cc World Championship motorbike racer Ratthapark Wilairot, the Pizza Company team is now represented in kart, touring car, Formula and motorbike racing world wide.

Thomas' resolve for 2008 is to take his new and already race winning car to tracks also outside Thailand and amongst other the world famous Macau Circuit, to test his skills against the worlds top drivers.

The 2008 season represents a unique challenge for Thomas as he now truly gets his international motorsport career really going, hopefully setting him up for an even larger challenge for next year...

A great and unexpected start to the season

After my problems during the 4 day testing period, which actually only turned out to be less that 1 full day of testing, I decided to Join the Honda Racing Fest to try and get a little more testing done before the first race in Sa Khaew in May. We decided to put in a standard engine, with race cams, and then just have some fun, and get to know the car, even though the engine, would not be fast enough.

With a lot of help from Khun Preeda, and a lot of extra late hours put in by my mechanics we managed to get the car clear for the race, during the morning scruteneering. This was also the first time we got the car on a weight, and we found that the car was 35-40 Kg over the limit, so we need to work a bit more on the weight before Sa Khaew.

The weight limit in the Honda Pro Cup Class was 1025 Kg and I weighed in at 1065 Kg, but in Sa Khaew the weight limit is 975 Kg, so I will be about 90 Kg over the limit, which will be a great Handicap.

The car had a very bad handling on the 30 Min test session before the time trial, and I was a lot slower than I had expected, and could feel how much time I was loosing around the track, because of all the under steer I had. Fortunately it rained for the qualifying session, and although I only had shaved tires, I knew I stood a better chance in the wet conditions than in the dry for a good starting position.

I went flat out in the wet, and the car was all over the place, but I wanted to get just 1 fast lap in, and if I spun out on all the other laps that did not matter much. I spun out 4 times in 7 laps in S2, but managed to get a few good laps in, and qualified 3rd fastest on the grid.

First race Sunday Morning was in the dry, and I had a reasonable start, and only last 1 place into the first corner. I was now in 4th right after Jack, who was pushing hard, to get past Khun Ekpawat in 2nd. Out in front Hatthai Chaiwan, took of and never looked back, and raced to a victory in the dry. After a few laps, Khun Ekpawat started to pull away from Jack, and I could see Jack’s car was handling very bad, and coming out of S1, he almost went of the track, and slowed right down, so I could get past him.

I drove fast for a few laps, but then settled in as I was not able to gain on Khun Ekpawat.
Suddenly I noticed Khun Grant Supong, catching me fast, and I had nothing I could do about it, except push as much as possible. Fortunately, Khun Khajohnsak was even faster and put Grant under pressure, so I was able to keep my place, as he now was defending instead of attacking. I finished my first ever 2.0 Ltr race in 3rd place, and winner of my class, which was a lot better than I had even hoped for.

My mechanic was sent out to get wet weather tires, as the race would likely be declared a wet weather race. The tires were installed, the car was set up for rain, and the rain tires was put on.

2nd Race was on a wet track, which suited me a lot better. I had been 5th fastest on the track in the first race, which also positively surprised me, so I had to start 5th on the grid in the 2nd race of the day.

I this time had a great start, and it seemed like everybody else had a bad start at the same time, as I managed to get from 5th into 1st before the crossover bridge. Khun Khajohnsak, who started 2nd was right behind me into the first corner and it was a bit slip and slide, but I kept it on the track, although it was a bit sideways.

Into the 2nd corner, I had to stay on the inside to defend my position, and Khun Khajohnsak, went on the outside, to try and pass me on the outside. I looked like I had made it around the corner, and kept my position, as I could not see anybody in the mirrors, so I pulled out to the left, and suddenly heard a noise of 2 cars hitting each other. Apparently Khun Khajohnsak., as been all the way on the outside, out of sigh in the mirrors, and somehow managed to get more corner speed than me, and has shot up on the outside, without me seeing it.

I lifted my hand in the car to say I was sorry, and then pushed hard to try and open a gap, and within 1 lap there was already a big gap down to 2nd place, and at the end of 2nd lap, and even bigger gap. On lap 3, I had a bit of a moment, and almost lost it in S2, but the rain set-up and the tires, this time, allowed me to save it, and I then slowed down the rest of the race, and just drove safely.

I was very surprised, to see how well the car handled in the wet, and how easy it was to drive. The last 2 laps, I drove very slowly, to make 100% sure that I would not make any mistakes, and when I crossed the line, as the overall winner and class winner of the race, I wanted to punch holes in the air of shear excitement, but there was only the little hole in the side window, so it ended up with me just sticking my fit out trough the hole, when I crossed the line, which was a bit of a funny feeling also.

After the race, I was so excited, that its had to explain, and I think I walked around the pit with the biggest smile on my face, you could imagine. A lot of people came and said that it was a great drive in the wet, and even Hatthai Chaiwan, who has been one, of my Thai Idols ( in the sense as I see him as one of the best in the class), came up to me and said, that it was a great drive in the wet, which really meant a lot to me.

I left the track, leading the class, and being 2nd overall, after only having wanted to join for practice. I was very impressed, by the effort that the organizers, had put into the event, and must confess that I right now, am debating, whether to race all the Honda Races, or all the Super 2000 races for the season, as I can not afford to race both Series.

I think it will all depend on how it goes in Sa Khaew in May on the 10th and 11th , so lets wait and see.   

The Honda Racing Fest Race from Bira Yesterday, will be shown on Thai National TV, Channel 7 on the 1st of May at 15.15, I have been told.

The first testing day finally arrived, and it was great to see the new car when it arrived on the back of a truck. It really looked like a real mean looking set of wheels.

But from then on it was an up-hill battle.

We had missed Saturdays Practice session, as the car was not yet 100% ready, and Sunday, the car did not arrive before 16.30 in the afternoon.

First the car would not start, and when we finally got it started, it was past 17.30, and time and light was running away from us. I then did a major mistake, by suiting up, and jumping in the car, in desperation for getting some testing done. I felt uncomfortable, as I has the steering wheel between my knees, and the legs very bend, and when I moved the seat back, most of it was workable, but the gear shifter was too far away. My mistake, was that I still went out testing instead of getting it all properly set up and adapted.

Car felt very unbalanced, and was not handling well, but the engine, was fast. I drove a few installation laps, but then the car died. We checked and found that the fuse box, had come lose, and the main power had been disconnected somehow. We fixed it and got it running again, and did a few more laps, just getting used to the car, setting a lap time of 1.10.8, which is not a bad time, for a first run, but still 3 seconds of the race pace.

I then wanted to do a few last laps before the track went completely dark, do I started to push a little, and at the end of the straight I shifted from 5th into 4th gear, but missed it, and put it straight into 2nd gear, and that was Bye, Bye for that nice engine.

Monday was then spend of taking the engine to bits, and checking if we could do any work with it, and then looking for a new engine, and having that installed.

Tuesday we were now back at the track for testing again, and this time with Khun Nattavude teaching me for the day. I had a visitor who passed by, and I agreed to just give him a few laps in the car before we started the test session. On the first lap just after having left the pit the engine hood flew up, and hit the window so it broke badly. I then limped back into the pits, and clear tape was put on the window both outside and inside, making it possible to drive with but a little hard to see the apex’s clearly.

We spend most of the day adjusting the seating position so I could reach both the gear shifter and the steering wheel and pedal’s comfortable, and then changing the ride height, rebound, and shock settings. We also had to change the camber at the rear, and the front, but in the end the car handled much better. I managed to get around 35 laps done during the day and set a best time of 1.11.6 with a completely standard engine, that had 80 HP less than my race engine.

I left the track, feeling bad that I only managed a total of 50 laps over the planned 4 day testing session, but also feeling good, that the car was handling much better now than when we started.

I will have to find 3 seconds somewhere, but think this is possible, when I get a set of brake disc’s and calipers that works properly, and when I get my race engine back in the car.

2nd round of the Thai National Karting Championship

The second round of the Thai National Karting Championship was held yesterday at Bira and I was there on Saturday during testing to help out Sten who had just purchased a 2007 slightly used Italkart, as he wanted to get back into racing again after having been away for the past 6 years.

Sten had a good Saturday practice and was setting consistent times in the high 56’s with the best time being a 56.80. The fastest driver was doing around 56.45 so it was not too much of the pace, so we were confident that he would be with in the top 10 in the race, if the weather held up.

Later in the day I meet up with Graham, who is also an Italkart driver, who offered me to use his kart and leopard engine, if I wanted to join I just had to put it together. I had a quick look at the kart and decided that I would join the race just for fun. I spent the evening and night with the mechanics setting the kart up for me and was ready on the track early in the morning for the warm-up session.

The engine would not start so we started to check the battery, which was okay. We then checked the wiring which seemed to be having problems. We then checked each individual wire, but had to stop for the drivers meeting. After the meeting we continued and missed the time trials, so I would now have to start No. 24 if I would ever get it started.

We could not find any faults on the wiring, and therefore started to check the starter motor, which turned out to be “dead”. We unscrewed a starter motor from the spare engine and put this in, but it still would not start. We then opened both starter motors and found that both of them had missing parts inside, which was why they would not start. I now had missed the first heat and would have to start 24th in the second heat.

Wrooommm….. finally, after lunch, we got it started and now had to guess a gearing. One of the other light weight drivers were on 84 sprocket, so I would guessed that I should be on an 85, but because it rained, we put an 86 sprocket on and made the kart as soft as possible and set it up for the rain.

I had a good start and drove past most of the drivers in the back into the first corner and moved up from 24th place to 16th place and then I was stuck, as I could not see a thing from the spray from the kart in front of me. As the race went along a few karts spun and I ended up in 14th place in the 2nd heat.

I now had to start 19th out of 24 in the final and the track was starting to dry up a few places, but it was still declared a wet-race so I went for the intermediate setting with rain tires which seemed to work. We also changed to an 88 sprocket, from the 86, because I wanted to have the advantage out of the corners to pass the Rotax engines.

This worked well in the start, but as the race track dried up and they could get more grip they ran away down the straight, as I now had a sprocket on which was far too big for the drying conditions.

I had a good start again and moved into 12th place in the first corner and then during the race moved up into 9th place behind Eric, Jukka, and Simon. I had a great fight with Eric and passed him on several occasions only to be passed back down the straight due to the speed difference caused by the big sprocket I had on. On one of the last laps I hit Eric very hard in the back in a slow corner pushing him of his line, because I misjudged the grip/power I had compared to the Rotax and therefore went past him. I knew this was wrong, so I quickly stopped and let him pass me back and then took up the chase again. There was no way past him, so I ended up in 9th which all things considering was not a bad result, but more importantly I had a great day in the end and that’s what really counts.

Sten also had some problem, with the sparkplug failing in the first lap during the time trials, so he had to start in the 23rd place in the first heat. He also had a good race weekend, with  some good fights with several drivers and in the final with David, but the experience of David held Sten back, so he finished in 14th place overall out of the 24 drivers.

Now looking forward to the next weekend where my new race car will be ready for testing hopefully, as this is the last chance to test before the first race in May.

1st Runner up in 2007

Last forth night, Toyota TRD held their Annual Champions day event in Bangkok, where all the top placed drivers from both the Vigo, Vios, Lady cup and the Yaris class were assembled.

I finished 2nd overall for the 2007 Championship in the Toyota Yaris One Make Race Series, after having a slow start to the season, with many small problems. Right from the first day, I knew that we had the speed to fight for the championship, as we were fastest in the practice sessions in Chiang Mai…….However the weather was not on our side.

Later on in the year, mechanical problems with the car dropped me to the end of the pack, from a 100% certain pole position in the wet at Phuket…….before the last race of the season, I found out that special TRD bushings and engine mounts had been allowed all year and so had small light weight dry batteries…..Straight out of the box my car lost 10 Kg and handled so much better and for the first time I was driving with the same equipment as everybody else, in the front chasing the championship.

I was fastest in all test sessions in Bangsaen, but again in the time trails I was slowed down on my fastest laps by slower cars getting in the way at just the wrong time, so again I was not lucky, but in the race all that turned and for once luck was on my side, where the leading car of Trai, had a come together with Chariya’s car and both went of the track.

I feel that I could have won the season and so do a lot of the other drivers, but the fact is that although Yai was not the fastest in any of the races, he was always among the top 5 drivers and was always scoring good points and with several podium finishes over the year his consistency brought him a well earned Championship, so from me to him, must sound a well earned “congratulations” !!.

I just learned that Yai is now a part of the Toyota Team Thailand Factory race Team and I will be racing against him again this year in the Super 2000 Class, so look forward to some more good a close racing with him and he is a true sportsman.

The first test is getting closer & closer

Today’s visit at Mard Body, which is the Bangkok based workshop preparing the car, showed that the car will be ready soon. Khun Mard, see in the picture with the car, has so far done a great job and the only things outstanding on the car’s body work is now the color that has to go onto all the Carbon fiber parts.

The old brake system has now come of and a new JBT racing brake system has been installed with Bigger front disc’s. The Tein N1 shock absorbers have been checked and given an overhaul and the next thing going in is the wiring which has been completely changed out to minimize weight and optimize the quality.

The engine is also coming along well and “Daeng sticker” is putting the final touch to the 2008 sticker kit. The goal is to have the car ready for its first short test run on the 31st of March.

AA Insurance Brokers Driving Experience Day

AA Insurance Brokers the past week had a special event for their customers/clients, where they offered them a day at the race track in their own cars, with some tutoring by Dr. Iain Corness and my self. AA Insurance Brokers, is a very dynamic company, with some great idea’s and advise and event’s for their client’s.

The day started of in the class room, with some basic information on how the handling of a car is affected when turning, and braking at the same time, and how to correct the car safely in situations where it is required to swerve at speeds to avoid having accidents.

From the class room, we then went out on the track with the private cars belonging to the clients, with the owner of the car in the passenger seat showing them how to drive the track. Once they felt confident, we then switched places with the owner, watching him / her driving around the track and giving hints and pointers to them as we went along. Around lunch time, Pizza’s from our main sponsor The Pizza Company was served and for a short while the silence at the track, as all were eating and enjoying their owen fresh Pizza’s at the track.
 
At the end of the day it was time to have some fun and Dr. Iain Corness and my self took turns taking them around the track in the Toyota Yaris, which I raced in 2007. This would not have been possible had it not been for the new owners Mr. Tony Percy’s corporation, who will also be my new Team Mate in our team for 2008.

The Clients were one by one strapped into the extra race seat in the car using a proper Certified 4 point H-pattern seat belt and off we went with spinning wheels and full throttle……. First facial expression they showed was a surprise at how fast this little street worthy Toyota Yaris accelerated and how it handled it the first couple of corners compared to their own car. Second facial expression varied a lot from person to person. On Some persons it went from a split second of pure fear, that tuned into a big smile as the rush of going trough the corners of R100 and S1 and S2 at full race speed became a reality and that they then developed a full trust in the ability of the car and driver. Other simply had a big grin on their face from the second they left the pit until several mins. after getting out of the car.

Preparations

The start of the season is getting closer and closer with the first race now only 2 months away. Since I have never been driving in this Super 2000 Class before, there is a lot of testing that needs to be done, before the first race event.

Unfortunately I was told yesterday that the 1st and 2nd round of the series, will no longer be held at Sepang F1 circuit in Malaysia. No reason was given, so my guess will be as good as anybody else.

I went to Bangkok yesterday for a meeting, and during lunch, I managed to pass by Mard Body, which is the body shop that is preparing my car for the season.

The car is a Honda Civic EP3 Type R, and the engine is a K20A engine, which of the shelf comes with around 200 HP on the wheels, so once it has been modified to race spec it should have around 280-290 HP at the wheels. 

For most people these pictures which are shown here would not say much, but knowing where I started and where I am now, I an quite happy with the result so far.

The body work modifications are now finished, and the car now needs to be painted, and assembled. I am currently working on the sticker design with my sponsors, as the car will have a new livery in 2008.

Once the car is finished, it will be time to have a closer look at the brake system, the suspension and the engine, but all one step at a time. Once the car is finished we need to work on the weight distribution in the car to get the best handling.

Its hard to be sitting a watching while the other drivers are testing, but preparation of the car is everything, and it must take the time it takes, so I have a proper car and equipment to work with the whole year. The only thing I can do is to try and get fit. I am currently now down to 94 Kg.

1st round of the Thai National Kart Championship

The past weekend, turned out to be quite a good weekend in may ways. On Saturday, I went to Bira to see Sandy practice in his new go-kart, and while I was there I saw Jack Lemvard testing his new Honda Integra which he will use in the Super 2000 class.

I went over to the track, to have a closer look at the car, which I must say looked like a lot of TLC (Tender, Love & care) had gone into it. It had a B20 DOHC engine in it, and was sounding very mean.

The car was fitted with the Bridgestone Radial tires, that is used in the Honda Racing Fest Series. Jack took it out for a spin, and after a quick installation lap, he started to push that car, and few laps he did in low 1.10’s which would have given him pole in the last race, and then he started doing 1.09’s breaking the current track record for 2.0 Ltr cars with these types of radial tires.

It was not a surprise to me at all, but more a confirmation of what I had expected, and It was easy to see that he was having to work a lot with the handling to get it to do what he wanted, so when that gets sorted out he will surely be doing 1.08’s or maybe even 1.07’s.

A line of mechanic’s had lined up along the pit wall, to watch him take it around, and all of them seemed to be in total awe at the lap times there were seeing. Back over at the Kart Track, Sandy was doing well and was the fastest on the track in his class doing high 47’s.

On Sunday I took my Mountain bike to Bira again, in the morning and here I met up with Wes, who asked me if I was not driving, to which I replied, no, I need to save my money for the car. Wes offered me to drive one of his karts for free which was more or less ready to drive, and I therefore said yes, and borrowed a car to quickly go home, to get my race suit and helmet etc….

I just managed to get back to the track 10 mins before the time trials, and quickly changed my clothes, and signed up for the race, and jumped into the kart as everybody was going out on track. The set up was very bad, and I was struggling with the handling, and the engine had not bottom end power at all, since it was a Rotax Max engine. After the time trial’s I went onto the weight, and it showed a staggering 192 KG with the kart !!!!

I managed to get 17th fastest time out of 23 karts, but was 1.5 seconds of the pace of the front runner. We did a few adjustments on the kart before the 1st heat, and then just hoped for the best.

I had a good start, and because of a major crash in the start, I managed to slip on the inside, and gained a number of places. The handling was much better now, but it was still “dead” in the slow corners, and I was fighting with one of the drivers from the “Sten team”, to try and get past him. I will gain on him for 2/3 of the lap, and out brake him 5 laps in a row, but then he would just pass me back coming out of the corner, so I never got past him, but I moved up from 17th to 9th in the first heat, and got down to 48.7, so I was now only 0.7 after the front runners.

We did a few more adjustments to the kart, and then went out for the 2nd heat. I again had a good start, and got up to 6th place, and was just settling in, when the chain came of and that was it for me in the 2nd heat, as it was impossible to get back on again.

We changed the sprockets, front and rear, to get a smaller sprocket on in the rear, to avoid it hitting the ground again. For the Final I was again in 17th place, and all the work in the first heat, seemed to have been for no avail, but then the rain came, and I got very excited, as I feel that I normally am quite fast in the rain.

NOT IN A ROTAX WITH 192 KG !!!!

I held back in the start, as the spray from the karts in the front blocked any view I had. I felt confident that I would be able to advance, so I did not really feel worried at that time…..but then when I came around the first corner, the engine, was even more dead than normal, as we of course where carrying less RPM’s on it, and in the next corner, I tried to ride the kart around, controlling it on the throttle, like I normally do, but this was impossible, the more a blipped the throttle, the more the carburetor just flooded, and the slower it went.

Coming into fast but sharp corners I normally blip the brake, to get the direction, and then blip the accelerator, but here nothing happened, so it all went wrong. On the faster parts of the track, where the RPM’s were already high, I was getting the feedback I wanted, so I was able to catch up on everybody, but then, lost it all again, on the slower parts of the track. After 16 laps, I crossed the line, in 9th place, up from 17th, and 7th in my class.

I was very disappointed after the race, but knew the reason, behind it, and knew that if I had just had a different type of engine on the kart the result would surely have been different.

The kart I drove was a “Wildkart”, and I must say I was surprised about how well it handled, once it was set up properly. Thank you to Wes for letting me borrow his equipment, as I all in all had a great day, even though the result does not reflect the fun I had.    

After a quick change of clothes it was up on the mountain bike again, and 18 km back to my house. (This makes it 95 KM on Saturday, and 36 KM on Sunday).

The Race

During Saturday morning we finally got the kart checked properly, and sure enough, a broken gasket was found, in the carburetor, so this was changed, and during the morning warm up, we were again competitive.

At 12.00 the race started, with all the drivers standing on one side of the track, running to their karts, which was on the other side of the track (Le mans style), and of we went. We started from 5th position, which would be good enough to get away from most of the bumping, we thought.

The first few rounds looked mostly like “an organized, single direction, bumper car event”, I mean 9-10 cars racing along side each other, bumping and crashing into each other, pushing each other, etc etc…….all struggling to get up front. During this we fell from 5th to 11th position, but with Jack at the wheel, he managed to fight his way back, and within a few laps, we were back up to 3rd position, and chasing hard, to catch the leaders. By the end of the first hour, we were leading the event, and everything was looking good. Second driver out, was Pasin, and he also drove brilliantly, keeping our fast lap times, but during the driver change, we fell from 1st to 3rd place, as our change was slower than the other front runners.

By the end of the 2nd hour, rain clouds kept moving in, and both Jonathan and my self, got ready, as we did not know, if it was going to stay dry, of if it would rain. A few mins later, the sky opened up, and the rain came down hard, so I therefore signed in to be the 3rd driver out. Pasin was doing very well in the rough conditions, but it was very hard to see anything, and when he came up behind one of the drivers, that was being lapped, he could not see anything all, and therefore did not see the team’s signboard, calling him in for a driver change and refueling. He missed the sign 2 laps, and only saw it on the 3rd lap after he had passed the slower driver, he signaled to come in, and everybody got ready in the pits.

I suddenly saw his kart slow down, about 30 Mtrs before the pit entrance, which was about 150 Mtrs from where the drivers change in the pits were. He quickly jumped out of the kart, and tried to start it, but could not get it started, he looked around for the Official’s push kart, but this was busy another place on the track, so he started pushing the kart into the pits, and all the way through the pit area. I then took over and pushed the kart to the refueling station, at the end of the pit. The tank was filled up, and I jumped in, while they were trying to start it, but it would not start, and they pulling and pulling. After about 20 pull’s, it started, but it was not running well. I left the pit’s, but the engine was “huffing and puffing”, and the kart was not really picking up any speed, for the first half lap. Eventually it got going, and I started to press hard, but there was simply too much water, I was not getting any grip at all, no matter what line I took, and I am normally quite fast in the rain. I was struggling, to keep up, and we had lost about 4 laps because of the fuel problem, and during the next 25 mins, I lost one more lap to the front runners. When the rain stopped, and the water level on then track came down, and I was able to find a line, I got quicker and quicker, but I was still only about the 6th or 7th fastest, on the track, and the front runners, was among the fastest. I was very disappointed, when I came into the pit, and Yong took over, as I felt, that I had not been able to give, the speed to the team, which was required of me. Yong did a brilliant job, while he was out, and matched the speed of the other drivers, so we did not lose any more time, but we were at this point, in 10th place over all.

We now spend the next few hours, trying to catch up, and by the 6th hour, we were back up in 7th place, when I went out again, and this time, the track was damp and slippery in many places, so I was able to push harder, as this is just the conditions I prefer. I gave it all I had, and managed to match the times of the drivers in front of us, with the exception of the 3 first teams, which were about 0.5 to 1 second faster than me, on every lap. I lost 1 additional lap to them, while I was out, but we kept our 7th place, and then Jonathan took over, and set a blistering pace as the track has dried out, and drove like this, the whole session.

For the next 8 Hours Jack, Jonathan and Pasin took turns behind the wheel, and slowly but surely brought us back up into 5th place, and closer to the 4th placed team.

At 3 AM, I again took over for a short stint, and was determined to do a good job, for the team, and I pushed hard, and was doing consistent times, of 1.11.8 and 1.11.9, which was equal to my fastest times, set in the 4 hour practice, while in daylight on fresh tires, during Thursdays practice session. I was still about 1 second slower, than the fastest drivers on track, but this was faster than originally estimated, so I was very pleased, as I knew, I was about 35-40 kgs heavier, than them.

At 3.30 Jack took over, with a full new set of tires on the kart, and again set some of the fastest times of the team. After Jack it was again Jonathan in the kart and he set the team’s fastest lap, of the whole 24 hour race, during his session, where he constantly, was between the 3 fastest, on the track.

At 8.30AM, we were back on the same lap as the 4th placed team, and Jack and Jonathan took turns to catch them. At 9.30 Am, we passed them, and continued to pull away from them. At 10 Am, Pasin took over and set some of his fastest times, of the event, and we kept pulling way from them, and we were slowly gaining, on the 3rd placed team, when disaster again struck our team.

During the night, and the hard drive from the team, to try and catch up, we had been cutting a lot of curbs, and the chain tension unit, had slowly but surely bend, and the chain had become loser and loser over the night. A driver from another team which was 23 laps behind us, decided to try and do a total kamikaze try of an overtaking, and dove past 3 karts into the corner, and then hit our kart, sending our kart up over a curb, and as a result we lost the chain. Once again, we were stuck on the track, and once again it was pure Pasin, who was not at fault, and how had been doing such a great job the whole evening and night. Eventually we got pushed back into the pits, and changed driver and got a spare kart. The laps ticked by and sure enough we lost a total of 5 laps before we got going again, and all the nights hard work, was to no avail, as we were back in 10th place again.

Jack pushed hard, but there was something wrong it the engine on the spare kart, as it would go and then not go and suddenly go again…… Jack was doing lap times ranging from 1.12 to 1.19 and we were losing a lot of time again. After about 25 mins like this, the spare kart was ready, and Jack came in to charge over the kart. Once back on track, Jack started the chase up to the 8th placed team, as we were still on the same lap as them, but 49 seconds behind them. Jack was again in the 1.10 times, and was gaining over a second a lap on them, but it was looking more and more unlikely that we would reach them unless they would have to do and additional pit stop. 5 Mins before the end of the race we still had some 20 seconds up to them, and we knew we had to settle for 9th place.

At 12.00 Noon Sunday we crossed the line as the 9th placed team in the 3rd edition of the Thailand 24 Hour Kart race. To say that we were disappointed with the result would be a big understatement, but we were very happy with the team effort put in all the way.
  
I was very pleased with the teams planning and execution of it, and the constant re-thinking from the 3 team leaders Vassili, Hugues and Yong, and all the drivers did an excellent job during all the 24 hours. I was the heavy driver, and therefore of course the slowest driver, but that was part of the plan from the beginning.

I had a lot of time during the race to see what the other teams were doing, and the biggest thing I learnt was that their in laps and out laps were much faster than ours. A typical in lap was 1.17 to 1.19 and ours were 1.22 to 1.25, and a typical out lap with no refueling from them were 1.20 to 1.22 and ours were 1.25 to 1.28, and an out lap with refueling from them were 1.54 to 2.00 and ours were 2.05 to 2.15. By adding all this up, considering that they did a total of 21 stops including 10 refueling stops I found out, that we in the pits along lost 4.3 Mins which is equivalent to almost 4 laps, and if I then add the 4 laps and the 5 laps we lost during the 2 incidents, I come to a total of 13 laps, and I think we 11 laps behind the winning team, when we finished the race, so We were 100% sure very competitive, and certainly have a chance to win this event next year if luck is on our side.

A Big ”Thank you” to Mr. Vassili for inviting me to join his team for this years event and to the team’s main sponsor “Naraya”, who paid for it all and who provided race suits and team clothing and a great atmosphere during the whole event. I hope that I will get a chance to join again next year, and if I get to be about 12 Kgs lighter by then, I might actually be competitive, even as the heavy guy in the team.

The next event I will join will be the 1st and 2nd round of the “Supercar Thailand” touring car championship, which will be in May on the 9th and 10th in Sepang

Thomas Raldorf

Testing went well, but the qualification not as well...

I was invited to join one of the best Thai teams in the 24 Hour Endurance kart racing, along with Jack Lemvard, Jonathan, Pasin and Thai driver Yong.

With the new regulations each team will have to meat a minimum required average weight. Our Team therefore decided that if we had 4 relatively light drivers and 1 heavy driver, we would be able to gain a little but letting the lighter drivers drive the most and the heavy driver drive the least. I guess that people who know me, already knows that I was invited as the heavy driver in the team.

Testing went well, and our kart for once had a relatively good handling, with a good turn in. I know from experience in these low powered 4-stroke karts that keeping the momentum going is a must to get a good time, and when the kart under steers you can do what ever you want, but you will struggle to get a good time.

Most on the karts had a lot of under steer coming onto the straight, which lost them a little speed, so when we were right up behind them, we were able to pull out and the end and pass them. This gave a lot of problems, eventually, as talks up-and down the pit lane were that “Their engine was a lot faster” which ended in a team filing a protest against out kart / engine.

We ended the 4 hour test session on top with a time of 1.10.114, which was 0.2 secs faster than number 2, and 0.3 faster than number 3, and 0.4 faster than number 4.5.6.7….so I would say that we were not really that much faster than them, considering that out driver only weighed some 60 kgs, and was almost 40 kgs lighter than me…… Never then less the protest was filed.

The qualifying session was being driven on a slightly damp track, which was drying out fast. We chose Jack to drive the first session as he is by far the best driver in the wet, and was only 0.1 slower than Jonathan. Jack is known in thailand for being the best in the wet, and one of the fastest if not the fastest in a kart. We were there very surprised to see him slipping down the leader board. He ended the session over 2 seconds slower than the times set during testing, while all other teams were only 1 second slower than their qualifying times. Jack was being out driven by several other drivers that is normally a long way behind him.

Jack came in and said that the engine, was no longer as fast on the straight, as if the engine topped out / flattened out, or as if the accelerator no longer was fully opened. This of course quickly brought the thoughts to mind that because of the complaints someone had adjusted the speed to be a little slower. Tempers flared, but it was decided to wait with any complaints until Jonathan had driven his session. Jonathan, had the same problem, but in the end he managed to put in a single fast lap that brought us up from 8th to 5th overall. Jonathan was 1.3 seconds slower than his fastest time in the practice session, while most other karts were 0.5 – 0.7 slower than their practice times. Tempers now really flared as a lot of time, money and energy had been put into this, and we did not choose our kart, but drew it at a lucky draw like everybody else.

The organizers guaranteed that they had not touched it, and showed our team manager that nobody else would have been able to touch it, as the restrictions put in place, made this impossible. We tried to explain that there then must been something wrong with our kart, as our drivers not suddenly become that much slower on a track which is their home track. One of the organizers argued that we should be happy as we finished well and we were in 5th place, and we tried to explain that we were not unhappy about the 5th place as such, but we were unhappy about the fact that our kart now suddenly seemed to be much slower, and we needed to find the fault before the 24 hour race started on Saturday (Tomorrow), but this did not seem to “compute” with them.

It was a very upset team that left the track on Thursday afternoon, but knowing the persons in the team, they will all come back fighting tomorrow. Let’s see what happens over the weekend, as 24 hour is a long time and if the rain falls anything can happen - even if we are in a slower kart.

Thomas Raldorf

The first race of the 2008 season

The first race of the 2008 season, was a 6 hour race, with 2 hours night time driving included, so naturally this was an event that I wanted to enter. I have always wanted to try and driver a 12 Hour or a 24 Hour endurance car race, so this was a step in the right direction.

I knew from our 4 hour race last year that speed is not the most essential thing, but more consistency and reliability, and as few, and short pit stops as possible. I therefore decided to enter my Toyota Yaris for the event, as it over the year had proven fairly fast and very reliable.

The next step was the drivers, as we had to be 3 drivers in the team. From our 2007 Endurance race, I knew that Tony Percy was a very fast driver, and since he has agreed to purchase the car after the 6 hour event, and race it in 2008 in the Super 1500, I thought that this would be a great opportunity for him to get to know the car, and when asked he jumped at it right away.

My 2007 Team mate Martin, had already sold his car, and was preparing to focus on his son Sandy’s season, as he is looking to break trough internationally. In 2008, which will be very costly and take a lot of time. I therefore looked around, for a 3rd driver, and since Urs, was Tony’s team mate in the 2007 event, I Knew that they got along well, and also knew that he was a good stabile driver with a lot of “Endurance” experience. When asked Urs also jumped in right away.

Now all I needed was a Team Manager, and here Bobby Brooks was the perfect choice, as he has already done it in 2007, and was a former Indy car Team Owner, so he had a lot of experience to pull on.

We did a little testing before the event, just so that all drivers got a feel for the car, and then sent it of to Urs’s garage for stripping down, so we got down to the bare minimum weight allowed which was 1030 Kg including the driver. We decided to start the race on a new set of tires, as we then should be able to race the whole event on the same set, as we did not think a set of shaved tires would last the whole race event.

On race day, I met Mr. Mal Rose from Australia, who was driving in the other car from the Team, and this was a nice surprise, not only was he a good and experienced driver, but he was also a very pleasant guy to be around for a race weekend.

Mal Rose who have won both at Bathurst and at several International Endurance race events, drives race cars regularly, almost on a daily basis, as his company “The Mal Rose Driving Experience”, owns 7 Super V8 race cars, and 9 Mitsubishi Mirage cars. Along with his instructors/race drivers he takes people around the race tracks.

I was therefore very interested in seeing if I could keep up with a driver of his caliper. I knew that I had an advantage in knowing the track, but that he would be about 1 sec faster than me, as he was in a Vios and I was in the Yaris, but this should equal each other out, so on lap times, we should be equally fast hopefully.

Qualifying:
We agreed that there was not much help in qualifying as 3rd, 4th ,5th, 6th ,7th, 8th , 9th or 10th in our class, so instead of pushing, we just drive a few fairly fast, but safe laps. We set a time of 1.18.812, which was enough for 6th in our class

Hours 1 & 2:
I started of in the car, and drove the first 47 mins in the car, which was a bit boring as I could not push too much. We had agreed to try and hold an average lap time at 1.20 to 1.21, but I was being held up by other teams, which apparently was doing 1.22 and 1.23 in their strategies…..

The best thing was when I got Mal Rose up behind me in his car, and he had a few rounds with very close driving. He was pushing hard to get past me, and it was easy to see that he was just a little bit faster, as I was having to do a lot of blocking. Coming out to the straight on one of the laps, he managed to get a little more exit speed than me, and drove past me on the straight, but I was not about to give up, so with VERY late braking i managed to sneak up on the inside and keep my place, but eventually I had to concede my position to him, and try to stick to the agreed lap times.

Second driver in the car was Tony Percy, and there was not much to say about this, except that he drove very consistently, and managed to gain a few positions in our class, and he was getting faster and faster as his session went past. It was now time for our first fuel stop, and we were lying in 8th position overall and 4th in our class, when Tony came in to the pits.

The refueling, felt like it was taking ages and ages, and other teams pitted and went out again, and when we rejoined with Urs behind the wheel, we had dropped to 15th overall and 12th in our class. And we were already 2 laps down on the leading car in our class.

Mal had been storming up trough the field, and had been in 2nd place in our class and 5th overall when he pitted the first time, so our sister car was looking like a possible winner at this stage, but during Paul’s stint, he lost 3rd gear, and had to come into the pits, for the team to decide what to do. Since the car was still running, it was decided to continue without 3rd gear, and just try to finish the race.

When Urs came into the pits, we noticed that big lumps of rubber was falling of the front left tire, because of overheating most likely, but after a quick inspection it was decided to just keep going and keep an eye on it, as a tire change would put us out of contention most likely as this would put us back 2-3 laps. I drove a few slow laps, just to get a feel for the tire situation, and when I was confident that it was Okay, I stated to push a little again, and kept the laps times at the 1.19 area….

Hour 3 & 4:
We were slowly moving up the grid, as several of the other cars started to experience small problems. All the 2.0 Ltr car had been out in the pits with problems and there were no longer leading the race, and by the end of the 4th hour we were up into 3rd place overall. As Tony came into the pits, we had to refuel, which we knew was going to be a long a slow stop,, but on top of that, the front tire was now in such a bad state, that we did not want to risk a blow-out, for the safety of the driver, and therefore opted to also change the tire. Since the rules stated that no work could be done on the car, while refueling, we had to wait before we could get the tire changed.

Hour 5 &  6:
We lost a lot of time, and rejoined in 6th place several laps down on the leading team, and 1 lap behind the car in 4th and 5th and 2 laps behind the car in 3rd . Urs was in the car, and was setting some of his personal best lap times, but it just was’t enough, if we were to climb up the grid, so we were hoping for some of the team to be slow in the dark. Tony took the first stint in the dark, and was now driving as fast as possible in the dark, and we were gaining on the other cars. When Tony came in, we had moved up to 4th place in our class, and 4th overall, but there was 2 laps up to the car in 3rd place. I then took the last stint, and everything called taking it easy was forgotten….We agreed that 4th was a good position, but we had come for a top 3 spot, so we might as well go for it all out, and hope that one of the other teams developed some problems.

I started out doing lap at 1.20 in the dark, but quickly got into the 1.19’s as was one of the fastest cars on the track. I kept pushing, and when I passed the car in 3rd place to un lap us the first time, I started to push even harder, as I saw that they were doing laps which was considerably slower than us, and a pit board was showing me that we were about 3-4 secs than them per lap. I now started doing laps in the 1.18’s which was daylight qualifying pace, keeping in mind that we did not push during the qualifying session. We were now almost 5 secs faster per lap, and I passed them again for the second time, and also passed the leading car, and we were now the fastest car on the track in the dark, with the exception of 2 of the 2.0 ltr cars, which had got going again.

In the end it was still not enough, as the other teams did not have any problems, and managed to keep their position for the last 10 mins.

We therefore ended up in 4th overall and 4th in our class. All things considered a good start to the season.

Next event I will join is the 24 Hour Go-kart race at Bira Go-kart circuit on the 9th and 10th of February, where I have been lucky to get a drive in one of the best teams and most experienced team, which is “Team Naraya”.