Supercar Thailand Rounds 1 and 2  -  10th and 11th May 2008.

What a race weekend it turned out to be with many new and different experiences to adjust to. My first ever supercar and experience of saloon car series racing resulted in two podium finishes and proved both myself and the Toyota Yaris can run at the front of the field where it matters.

Qualifying.

Due to a shortage of the new tyres to be run in the series (B F Goodrich S9B tyres) we had no experience of running with the tyre prior to qualifying. We set the car up using our old slick tyres and set the tyre pressures at what we thought would be good for 6 laps or so. The pressures we later found out to be not the correct pressure for the tyre and suffered accordingly.

We arrived at the pit lane exit a few minutes early and found ourselves at the head of the queue and first on track, following the initial warm up lap I pushed for all I was worth on laps one and two. Running the new tyre with the pressures we opted for simply left the car with far too much grip particularly in the long sweeping turn one and I could feel I was losing significant time in this one turn alone.

After just two laps a sudden shaking developed on the front end which over the course of one lap made the car undrivable at any kind of speed, so my first ever qualifying session was halted with just two flying laps. Once through the weigh bridge and back in the pits it didn’t take long to discover the cause of the front end shake. Two wheel nut studs had sheared on the front left hand wheel, perhaps caused by the additional grip the new tyres had generated…………….

The end result was we had ended up with 5th place in qualifying which was not too bad considering all those in front had set their fastest laps between laps 4 and 6 during the qualifying period and we only managed just two flying laps.

Round 1.

Prior to getting in to the car in the pits, I have to admit to being just a tad nervous and to having a few butterflies in my stomach, but once in the car and buckled up I felt much better and relaxed. Once formed on the grid the little Yaris must have stuck out like a sore thumb as being the only one in our class and when the lights went out I made a cracking start and opted to go to the centre of the track initially as car 33 was covering the inside line. Upon entering turn one I managed to squeeze to the inside and held the inside line and exited turn one in second position. I couldn’t have imagined the type of start we had but it was all short lived as when we were approaching the last turn on the lap red flags suddenly appeared and we regrouped to form up again on the grid. The red flags were brought about by Khun Beer’s car rolling a half dozen times when running through the chicane on the back straight.

The restart of Round 1 proved that the little Yaris is certainly quick off the line as again I moved initially to the centre of the track and cut back to the inside line for turn 1, we exited in third place this time not as good as start one but pleased to have managed a good start once again. The first ten laps were fraught with action as position 2 to 5 battled throughout and constantly swapped places with each other. After this initial ten laps I managed to secure second place and pulled a gap between myself and third place which I maintained at a pace that I was comfortable with and once in to lapping back markers started to close down on the leading car though the gap that he had pulled whilst we were all scrapping over second, third, fourth and fifth places put the possibility of catching him well out of the realms of possibilities. Once free from the following cars I was able to push and try the car for the first time with correct tyre pressures and returned lap times on used slicks of just two tenths of a second off the pole sitters qualifying lap. Anyway to have finished second in my first ever saloon car race was something that I could have only hoped for and for it to become reality was absolutely brilliant. I have to thank my team mate and friend Thomas for much assistance and help with leading me by the hand throughout the weekend and taking me through step by step what I should or should not be doing………Thomas thanks.  

Round 2.      

After heavy overnight rain the skies looked ominous when we arrived at the track. Sure enough the rain started around 8am and continued through to the start of the opening race of the day being the supercar 1500 open race. We were next up and unsure as to what to run, either wet weather tyres or slicks with a wet car set up. We decided to hold everything until after the start of the 1500 open race to monitor the first couple of laps which would still permit sufficient time to change to the settings and tyres of our choice. Thomas made the call of going with slicks and the car set up with basically dry settings, which turned out to be the correct choice for sure.

On the warm up lap I tried to identify the many different track conditions, where it was wet, semi wet or just greasy, nowhere did it appear to be completely dry. I was starting again from 5th place on the grid and new that the Yaris can be quick off the line provided I time everything just right. When the lights went out I had purposely lowered the rpm to try and reduce tyre spin with the wet conditions and again made a really good start. I attempted to go down the middle of the grid as per round 1 starts but my competitors had got wise to that move from Saturday and started to squeeze the middle ground, realizing immediately what was going on I switched to the inside of the track and made my way down the straight into turn one tight to the inside. The cars I was overtaking again had tried to squeeze me out of the position and onto the grass when I was coming down the inside but I managed to hold track position both in to and out of turn one. When exiting turn one I found myself in second position and with a small gap to third place. The track was certainly slippery in places as I was to find out later in the lap to my detriment. Both the lead car and myself had pulled a gap of some 50 metres on the opening lap and when entering the final ”S” turn of the opening lap I lost the back of the car and spun off the track in the process demolishing a scaffold tower that carried overhead lines across the track at this point. I engaged first, then second, then third gears in an attempt to keep the rpm down whilst attempting to regain the track from the sodden grass. I rejoined the race in last place (21st) and couldn’t believe that I had made the error of my life whilst sitting in a comfortable second place and trying to win the race on the first lap……….A big, big lesson learned the hard way and one not to be repeated, hopefully………………….

From the time I rejoined the race until the time the chequred flag dropped I pushed as hard as I could and lap by lap I was working my way back through the field whilst at the same time setting the fastest laps of the race. At the flag I finished in fourth place with just nine tenths of a second covering second, third and fourth places. I had been closing down on second and third places at 3 seconds a lap during the final three laps and was hoping for just one more lap. I didn’t initially realize that the race had been reduced from 17 laps to 15 laps and didn’t take the time during the race to look at the lap boards, it was only when the lap board signifying last lap came out that I noticed it, and couldn’t believe the race had finished so quickly. Amazing how time flies when you are enjoying yourself………..

I have to say that it was my error in spinning off whilst attempting to do just a little too much on the first lap, but I was determined not to allow the lead car build a gap as per round 1 that couldn’t be reduced and the lead car caught during the race. I guess that’s racing but it is for sure a lesson learned filed away for the next time.

So overall two podiums on a track I had never seen before prior to this weekend and with just two 15 minute practice sessions prior to qualifying I have to admit as being a good solid start to the season and has given me an insight to the series and to the competition that I will be racing against for the remainder of the season. I am now looking forward to rounds three and four at the BIRA track which I have driven before in two endurance races so do know my way around. See you all then and hopefully we can produce a little bit extra now knowing “the ropes” of the series.

Tony at the 2008 Fast Forward Faster press conference

Tony joined the 2008 Fast Forward Faster campaign at the World center in Bangkok on April 30 to inaugurate his season in the SuperCar Super 1500 series. A multiple race winner and Thai National Champion from karts, Tony has already proven himself as a very fast driver in saloon cars. This will however be his first full season in Saloon Cars and Tony is exited to get on with his first race, schedule for Sa Kaew on May 11. We welcome Tony into the race team and wish him the best for the season.

With the first race weekend of 2008 just over three weeks away and most of the modifications complete on the Toyota Yaris that permit running the car competitively in the Thai Super 1500 series, rather than the Toyota one make series it was time to take to the track and start preparing for the 2008 season. We chose Monday 14 April and Tuesday 15 April estimated for the two days of testing and set up works that would be required to get the car in to a condition that would best suit my style of driving and to record some competitive lap times. To assist with this we invited Khun Nattavude of Supercar fame to BIRA where the testing and set up works was to be performed.

Initially a used set of slick tires where installed and I drove a number of laps to assess the cars current set up and form, then in consultation with both Khun Nattavude and Thomas Raldorf, my team mate, we decided to set about making a number of changes to the cars initial set up. Firstly we worked upon the front geometry in order to get the car to “turn in” correctly, in particular to the slower tight right handed corners at the hairpin and Honda corners where significant under steer existed. A number of alternatives were tried varying from suspension settings, toe and camber settings and offsets in order to find the right combination of each that allowed the car to “turn in” and also react as I wanted it to without being too “twitchy” and over responsive.

This took a number of track sessions that basically took up most of Monday’s track time with making individual minor corrections, trying the new settings with a half dozen laps, back in to the pits, making more changes back on the track etc… etc. Once we were happy with the cars front end set up we then set about curing some over steer that was prevalent in the rear of the car. Again a number of settings was tried until we found a good balance that permitted good turn in and cured the over steer issue.

By Monday evening the car felt extremely good and well balanced to a point where I could push and attempt some reasonable and consistent lap times, this was greatly helped again with some “tips” from Khun Nattavude and Thomas on driving the BIRA circuit.

Tuesday was to be a day where I was to push a little more and record lap times that would hopefully have been sufficient to put the car theoretically close to the front end of the grid when comparing with previous lap time records of the Super 1500 series. Unfortunately we were greeted with gray skies and some seasonal Songkran rain in the early afternoon session’s that prevented any advantage with putting a new set of slick tires on to the car. During the evening session of Monday an exhaust gasket had also blown that took some time to repair on Tuesday due to replacement parts difficult to locate during the Songkran holiday period, thus preventing us from taking to the track until after 3.00pm.

This same gasket repair was required following a couple of on track sessions in the late afternoon, only to blow again which also prevented any attempts at bettering the lap times from Monday. I found that with the leaking exhaust, I was changing gear upwards some 100 meters later, than I would have been normally, when exiting the last corner on to the start and finish straight, and also from third to fourth gear when exiting the hairpin down the hill towards the 100R corner, basically loosing significant power from the engine through the exhaust problem.

I managed to get close to the times recorded on Monday evening (within 3/10 of second) though I am confident we could have without the loss of power and by bolting on a new set of slicks made a significant step forward with improving Mondays lap times, though on this occasion it wasn’t to be.  

Overall I felt that significant improvement with the cars handling performance had been achieved, whilst recording some reasonable lap times during the period, and am really excited by the prospects of the upcoming race at Sa Khaew on 10th and 11th May 2008. Between now and the race at Sa Khaew, I am also looking forward to meeting up with the other team members of the Pizza Company racing team, when the team will be holding their annual press conference and team news on the 29 April 2008 at the Central World Plaza in Bangkok.

Tony Percy preparing for the 2008 season

I hope to be able to race in a couple of kart races during 2008, more for the fun and enjoyment to be around the many friends I am lucky to have met during my years of karting in Thailand. A great atmosphere for the whole family.