It has only just been a little over two months of a layoff, but the racing season 2013 starts up again for many of the classes running in Thailand, including the Retro race cars.
Now before you start heading out to Bira, the season’s opener is not there, but at the new Bonanza circuit in Khao Yai. In fact, we will be running at meetings promoted by the Nitto 3K people and others by the GPI Pro Series covering Bonanza, Kaeng Krachan (out near Cha Am) as well as Bira.
The Retro Ford Escort.
The calendar then looks like this:
March 8-10 Bonanza
May 3-5 Bira
June 29-30 Bira
July 5-7 Kaeng Krachan
July 27-28 Bira
September 6-8 Bira
September 28-29 Kaeng Krachan
October 26-27 Kaeng Krachan
November 1-3 Bonanza
December 6-8 Bira.
Pencil those dates into your calendar.
So you can see we will be doing a fair bit of traveling during the year. Highly developed race cars like our Escort cannot be driven on the road for long distances, even though it is road registered (and in livery that will attract the unwelcome attention of the BiB as well)!
For us, however, the layoff was very busy, mainly with sponsors, but the mechanical side saw us remove the entire rear axle system and send it to Bangkok to get the Limited Slip Differential worked on. This had given up at the last meeting (December 2012) and requires expert hands to get the limiting factor worked out. The other item was electrical (always a ‘black art’ in my opinion) with its second alternator giving up charging. The World Championship winning Red Bull F1 team also did their alternators in, so we are in good company! We are having an experienced auto electrician look at the entire wiring system, as well as replacing the offending alternator.
The sponsor line-up looks good, with most of last year’s sponsors remaining with us including CES, B-Quik, the Pattaya Mail, Hemaraj, EBC Brakes, AA Insurance Brokers and the Sausage King. However, the big news for us is the fact that BBX/Acorn Distribution has come on board as naming sponsor for 2013. In addition we have landed Stonefish Wines (a lovely drop from Australia) as another new sponsor. There will be more who are currently yet to make the decision.
