The 9th and 10th rounds of the international Asian
Touring Car Championships will be held at the Bira Circuit this weekend,
2nd and 3rd of September. This FIA recognised international formula is for
Touring Cars, but without the wild embellishments to the bodywork as seen
in the GT series for example.
Leading the championship is Henry Lee Jnr from Hong
Kong in the Longman Racing Peugeot 306 with 132 points. He is only 2
points in front of the other Hong Kong driver, Charles Kwan, a previous
multiple winner of this series, driving the BMW of EKS Motorsport from
Malayasia. Alber Au is third in the Honda Integra. There are 18 teams who
have entered and all should be at our local circuit this weekend.
From Bira, the cars will be shipped to the Zuhai
circuit in China and then on to Macau for the final round in November.
The 4th Round of the very popular and action packed All
Thailand Touring Car Championship 2000 will be also be held at the Bira
Circuit this weekend. Qualifying is on Saturday and Racing on Sunday from
around noon. The circuit is on Km 14 on Highway 36, the road leading from
the ISR to Rayong if you are unsure.
Currently leading the championship is Natavud in the
lead works team Toyota Corolla Altis. Natavud is one of the smoothest
drivers I have seen in a long time and is generally a good half second
quicker than the rest of the baying pack. However, the Corollas have been
having some gearbox and clutch plate problems recently and Natavud has to
be very careful at the start.
Natavud’s team mate, “Pete” has been having the
Michael Schumacher first corner problems with some over enthusiastic Honda
Civics giving him heave-ho’s into the shrubbery for the last couple of
meetings.
The esses at the back of the circuit are always good
for some action, especially if it is raining.
Autotrivia Quiz
I got so carried away last week I forgot to put in the
Autotrivia Quiz! I had mentioned two weeks ago Rubens Barichello taking
123 GP’s before cracking top spot on the podium and asked which current
F1 driver took 91 shots at it before he won his first? The answer was the
mercurial French Sicilian Jean Alesi, still one of the most spectacular
drivers around. It is such a shame that the equipment under his backside
these days is so mediocre. Alain Prost’s cars are not even a good joke.
The first in with the correct answer was Sean Jehan
from the Channel Islands again. Sean has now won so many quizzes that I
sent him the following email - “Right again, Sean. Let me know when
you’re coming to Pattaya and I’ll make sure I’m out of town!
Regards, The Doc!” That bloke will cost me a fortune in FREE beers!
So to this week. Just about everyone knows that world
motor sport is controlled by the FIA (Federation Internationale de
l’Automobile). Bernie Ecclestone only owns Eff Wun! The FIA did not come
into being, however, till 1946. There had been a governing body which had
ruled since 1904 till it was reconstituted as the FIA in 1946. What was
the name of that body? And, why was it set up? For the Automania FREE beer
this week, be the first correct answer to fax 427 596 or email [email protected].
Wozzit cost?
The amount of money to build and maintain an Eff Wun
vehicle is just staggering. So if the boys who watch the telecasts with me
at Delaney’s would like to have a quick whip-round, here’s how much
we’ll need to get our Pattaya entry up and running.
These costs have been gleaned from the nice chaps at
Benetton and cover components only. The chassis or tub, as it’s known,
is extra.
Gearboxes are relatively cheap at only 3.9 million
baht, but the set of gears that go inside (and only last one race) are
another 0.6 M, making it 4.5 M for the driver to play with while changing
gears. Of course, with today’s F1 vehicles you don’t get a stick to
shift the cogs with - you get a fancy electronic steering wheel with gear
shift “paddles”. This little item costs a mere 3 M, so it’s now 7.5
M baht and you can change all six gears. What a lovely bargain!
Now we need an engine. The cheap Supertec units as used
by Benetton are only 10.8 M baht and most teams keep 80 engines to last
the season. To make it such that you don’t have to reach for the
calculator, I have done it for you - 864 M. By the way, the exhaust system
only lasts one race as well, but they’re only 0.3 M each, so let’s
order a dozen of ‘em.
To stop the F1 rocket you’ll need a damn good set of
brake callipers that will set you back 1.2 M, but the actual discs and
brake pads also only last one race and will cost another 0.3 M, another
cheap throw-away item!
I can remember being horrified at having to pay 100,000
baht for a second hand (about twelfth hand really) Cosworth BDG for my
last sports sedan. In fact, compared to that lot it was a veritable
bargain.
No, motor racing has never been cheap, and to be at the
pointed end like McLaren and Ferrari, you can imagine just what their
budget would be like. Probably larger than the GNP of some small
countries. The top teams even employ people whose sole job it is to go out
and find and secure sponsors. And that’s not a free tank of petrol
sponsors either. It needs the fag companies and the new “Dot Com” kind
of companies to have that amount of available cash to feed Formula 1,
I’m afraid. Millions - and that’s not Thai baht, that’s good ol’
Yankee dollars!
Really old racers!
Last week I mentioned my old team mate, John English,
still flogging round the bitumen tracks in Australia. I captioned the item
“Old Racers Never Die”. However, this week here is a truly old racer
who still hasn’t traded in his cloth helmet. The legendary pre-war
Mercedes works driver, Manfred von Brauchitsch turned 95 two weeks ago
(August 15th).
I last saw him at the release of the Silver Arrows
McLarens a couple of years ago, when Ron Dennis’ outfit first got their
Mercedes (Ilmor) engines. Manfred was there to help Coulthard and Hakkinen
pull the dust sheets off the race cars, and he was still a very tall and
noble figure.
He is still around and looking very sprightly despite
his years. His is a record from the glory days of motor sport. He won his
first race for Mercedes in 1929 and drove his own car to win the Avus GP
in 1932. After this he scored a factory drive and notched up a total of 45
wins in races and hill-climbs. He is the only surviving pre-war Mercedes
works driver. My personal favourite, Rudi Caracciola, died in 1959, aged
58.
I must acknowledge the international correspondent Eoin
Young who passed on that nice little piece of historical autotrivia.
New man in BeeEmm top spot
Following the recall of Jesus Cordoba to Head Office in
Munich, the new President of BMW Thailand is Karsten Engel, coming over
here from his previous posting as President of BMW South Korea.
There is no doubt that Cordoba has had a profound
influence in the marketing and sales of BMW in Thailand, and Engel will
have a hard act to follow. However, with the new Eastern Seaboard plant up
and running under the eagle eye of Dr. Ralph-Rainer Ohlsen, Engel comes in
at a very propitious time in the history of BeeEmm in this country.
