Chonsawat Asavahame and Indharasak Taechatheerasiri provided a first & second finish for Lamborghini and overall team honours for Reiter Vattana Unity Racing during an exciting Round 4 of the Thailand Super Series Class 1 event at Pattaya’s Bira Race Circuit last Sunday.
Packed crowds attended the motor racing festival, held from August 16-18, and as well as stunning weather they were also provided with some memorable racing in the multitude of racing classes on show. The main event was the 3rd and 4th rounds of the Super Series Class 1 championship which featured some of the fastest GT sports cars in the region.
Chonsawat Asavahame (rear-center) holds up the champion’s trophy after winning Round 4 of the Thailand Super Series Class 1 at the Bira International Race Circuit in Pattaya, Sunday, August 18.
Thai/Greek driver Phasin Lathuras won leg three on Saturday in his Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 and was hoping for a repeat in Sunday’s race when he lined up in pole position on the grid. Indeed Lathuras would speed into the first corner in first place after battling for road position with Piti Phiromphakdee’s Singha-A Motorsports Porsche 997 GT3R, both closely followed by the twin Lamborghini Gallardo LP600’s of Chonsawat and Indharasak.
Nattavude Charoensukawattana was the winner in the Class 2 Race.
The four cars pulled away from the rest of the field and held a titanic mini-battle for the lead for 10 laps until Phasin, who had already slipped down to third, tried to overtake Piti for second place and sent both cars spinning off the track. Piti would recover and rejoin the race in a distant third position but Phasin’s Ferrari had sustained terminal damage in the collision and he was forced to limp back to the pits, his race over for the afternoon.
The incident allowed Chonsawat to pull out a substantial lead over his team mate Indharasak and the two would remain in first and second positions to the checkered flag, Chonsawat winning by a margin of 8 seconds. Despite suffering handling problems in his damaged Porsche, Piti was able to hold off the challenge of Suttiluck in the True Visions Lamborghini Gallardo for third, both finishing almost half a minute down on the winner.
Chanomsawat stated after the race, “It is all worth the hard practice for the past month but I had to acquaint myself with the car since this is the first time on the Bira circuit and on Thursday the test driver missed the curve and damaged the car. It wasn’t until Friday that the Lamborghini was fixed and I therefore only had one practice before qualification.”
With Chanomsawat’s third place finish on Saturday and the one-two result on Sunday, it enabled Reiter Vattana Unity to pick up enough points to take the team title for the weekend.
“Our results this week were satisfactory as I finished 3rd on the first day and managed to win today. I am very happy but it is sad that my teammate crashed out in round 3 but we got maximum points today to allow us to take the team title,” added Chanomsawat.
Cars and brollies line up on the starting grid.
In other races held Sunday, Nattavude Charoensukawattana improved on his second place finish on Saturday to win Race 4 of the Super Series Class 2 event for Toyota Team Thailand while Kantasak Kusiri and S. Tin captured the Class A & B honours respectively in the Super 2000, and Kantadhee Kusiri and Komkrit L won Class B & C in the Super 1500 race.
Chonsawat’s Lamborghini Gallardo (right) holds off the challenge of Piti Phiromphakdee’s Porsche 997 GT3R.
The final race of the day saw a spectacular crash on the first corner in the Thailand Super Pickup championship that caused a 20 minute delay while officials cleared debris off the track. When the reduced field finally got underway, the race was won by Vorapot for the Bridgestone-Sittipol-Isuzu team.
Action from the Super 2000 race, Sunday, August 18.
Rounds 5 & 6 of the Thailand Super Series are due to take place again at the Bira Circuit in Pattaya on Oct. 5-6 with the championship being concluded at the Bangsaen Speed Festival in December. For more information, go to: www.thailandsuperseries.net.
Phasin Lathuras’ Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 pulls out onto the pit lane.
Large crowds enjoyed the racing weekend in Pattaya.
