Tony Percy

Tony Percy

National Kart Champion

Tony Percy
Name Tony Percy
Born 26 January 1955
Nat. British
Started 1999
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RACE HISTORY:
2003 National Champion
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Tony Percy
Paul Kenny
Thomas Raldorf
Ray Macdonald

 

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14 Feb 10

Honda Racing Fest, Rounds 9 & 10 (late post)
Tony Percy
Tony Percy and Team in Chiang Mai

Honda Racing Fest, Rounds 9 and 10 From the 700 Year Stadium, Chiang Mai, 19th and 20th December 2009.

 

Pro Cup Series

We arrived in Chiang Mai on the afternoon of Tuesday as the children were on holiday from school and we decided to make it a mini holiday in Chiang Mai as part of the lead up to Christmas and the New Year. Khun Mit our team chief was in town early also and had set up the pits during the course of Wednesday  ready for when the cars would arrive during the afternoon of Thursday……. In the meantime we had spent a couple of days sightseeing the likes of Doi Sutep and Chiang Mai Zoo and plenty of touring up in the hills……..not to mention the shopping….. So Thursday afternoon arrived and the cars were offloaded from their transporters mid afternoon and we set about getting them race ready as the first practice session on Friday would soon come round. This weekend the fight was on with Khun Bam for the overall championship win with 8 points separating us and with the chance of 33 points up for grabs, it would be a close run thing for sure.
 

Friday Practice – 02nd October 2009, Cancelled.

I was at the track reasonably early as I enjoy to hang out with the mechanics and Thomas had also flown up on Friday night to join us for the weekend, it seemed and the feeling generally was of party atmosphere even though there was much to be decided over the weekend. We had two practice sessions of 20 minutes and 15 minutes each scheduled so not much time to change set up during the sessions. We opted to start the first session with more or less the same set up as the one we used in Khorat for the street circuit there but quickly found on this circuit the car generated further considerable understeer. At the end of session one we were 4th quickest overall.

We changed a few of the settings for session 2 and the car felt better but not that good to a point where I could not feel confident on some parts of the track, in particular when changing from a long fast corners into a sharper type of corner on the opposite steering lock where the car was really unstable. At the end of session 2 we were 3rd quickest and 2nd in Class.

 

Saturday Practice and Qualifying Sessions – 03rd October 2009.

There was to be two practice sessions on Saturday morning prior to qualifying, the first scheduled to last 30 minutes with the second scheduled for 20 minutes. We had again changed the cars settings for this first session and we also wanted to try running with full tyres on the front rather than shaved versions in order to assess how the cars handling would change and lap times that could be achieved. With full tyres the car was very stable on braking and initial turn in though generated more wheel spin exiting the sharper corners, lap times were reasonably close to one another but overall we decided to use the shaved tyres for the qualifying session.
The second practice session of the day threw up our regular weekend drama spot when at the end of the start finishing straight at the 100m board where I normally slam on the brakes and change down from 5th to 4th to 3rd for the first corner I slammed on the brakes and my foot went to the floor………..no brakes whatsoever…… with braking at 100m and changing down you can imagine little time is left for anything should you experience brake failure and I could do little other than brace myself for the inevitable impact into the tyre wall and concrete wall beyond the tyres. The car rode up over the tyre wall knocked over a couple of the concrete barriers and settled on its side on top of the debris . Khun Mit was close on hand and witnessed the whole sorry experience…. With less than 3 hours to go to qualifying the front of the car was in need of some major repairs that would require most of the team working on if we were to get the car back on track in time.

We have a great team of mechanics and to watch eight of them all working together on the front of the car to get it ready was inspiring and Khun Mits reassurance that car would be just as good as it was in the final practice session where we had recorded second fastest time. Mit wanted nothing less than pole and made it known that they would do their job and it would be down top me to get the car to the front of the pack…….

What can I say, the car was ready on time and we went out for qualifying where I placed the car on the second row in 3rd place overall, second in class. My main rival Khun Bam for the championship race qualified 8th, so far so good

 

Sunday 04th October 2009  – Race 1, Pro Cup Series.

There was a ten minute warm up scheduled for the Pro Cup cars at 08.50am, for those that wished to take to the track and check out any changes or settings prior to race one.
I went out for the warm up as we had made a couple of minor changes on Saturday evening to the car and wanted to see how the car felt. Immediately I new the car was improved and I only did 3 laps before coming back in to the pits.

Race 1 was scheduled for 11.40am and we ventured out of the pit lane to form up on the grid at 11.25am. It was dry and sunny but not particularly warm, so I felt good with not being too hot, Khun Ti was on hand as always on the grid and we go through nthe same little ritual each time, all felt good.
 
I made sure on the warm up lap to get heat in to the brakes as well as the tyres as much as possible as it would be heavy braking straight away in to turn one.
The lights went out and we were off, I made a reasonable start not great and got passed on the way into corner one. I was content for the first couple of laps to hold position and let things settle down and see where people were and what would be required if I was to close the gap to Khun Bam for the championship race. Getting through the first corners without incident was a huge relief .

I was circulating in fourth place second in class when the car in front had a problem and I was up to third. Directly in front  of me was Khun Ekprawat a Class A driver and in front of him car 38 of Class B. After 6 laps or so I could see that Khun Ekprawat was not as fast as he has been on the opening laps and I managed to draught past him on the main start / finish straight. On the very next lap the safety car was deployed as Khun Todd and Khun Supachai had an incident that blocked part of the track on the exit of the last corner. Behind the safety car I was circulating in second place behind car 38 and after 3 laps car 38 suddenly pulled to one side with a problem and signaled me past.

I was now up to first place and circulating behind the safety car…. When the lights on the safety car went out there was a further 4 laps to run and I decided to make a decent gap to the safety car before flooring it on exiting the final corner and managed to gain an advantage over Khun Ekprawat who was still struggling with his problems.

Following the safety car the handling had gone away and I had massive understeer again and during the final lap had Khun Grant all over the back of the car. I managed to hold him off and secure a first place overall and first in class. Khun Bam finished third overall and second in class, so I had managed to pull back a few points, 4 in all, but obviously had hoped for more.  

 

Race 2 –  For race 2,  I was starting from 4th place and had a great start and was able to enter turn one in second place with car 38 leading. Again I had a massive amount of understeer on the first 2 laps and found I could not match car 38’s pace. No one behind was really able to hold on to me either so I guessed most people were also struggling with the same problem of the track being slippery.

Khun Bam was in 3rd place behind me so I new if he managed to stay were he was I would lose the championship by just 2 points…. All was going well and I was holding down second place overall without being challenged from behind and without being able to mount a challenge for first place so had already resigned myself to looking after the car and short shifting wherever I could when suddenly after ten laps the brake peddle went long at the end of the start finish straight and I new I was in trouble with the brakes once again. In order to keep the car running and on track at every point I could, when not braking, I was pumping the brake peddle with my left foot and maintaining pressure in the system to be used at each brake point. This I managed for the last 5 laps and brought the car home to second place overall and second place in class.

For the overall championship of classes A, B and C I finished second overall splitting Khun Grant and Khun Todd of the Singha team both of whom are class A drivers and in the Class B Championship I finished in second place just 2 points behind Khun Bam.

Congratulations to Khun Bam who ran consistently all season whilst at the start of the season I had to run without the full race spec engine and giving away the much needed horse power.  The incident with Khun Bam at Kang Krachan was also a deciding factor when  8 points were effectively thrown away. All in all though a fantastic season of racing with 18 podium finishes, 2nd place in the supercar series, winning the team championship with my team mate Ray, 2nd place overall in the Honda Pro Cup series and second in class B of the Honda Pro Cup series.

Without Khun Mit and his team of mechanics the results for sure would not have been the same so I have to say a big thank you to Khun Mits team, likewise Paul our race Engineer has had a huge impact to the team results and of course Thomas who has lead the team brilliantly this season, only to suffer set back after set back with his own Subaru race car.

After this years experiences and learning we are all really fired up and looking forward to the 2010 race season.

14 Feb 10

Bangsaen Festival of Speed (late post)
Tony Percy
Tony Percy

Bangsaen Festival of Speed.
Supercar Thailand Round’s 7 and 8  -  25th to 29th November 2009.

 

 A Weekend to be Remembered for Many Reasons……………..

Thursday Practice and Qualifying Sessions.
Brief very brief for all the wrong reasons, firstly the KW front suspension broke for the 4th time this year during qualifying which pitched me in to the barriers wiping off both front corners of the car. With two wheels on the car it was not possible to weigh the car after qualifying on the four point weighing scales after driving the car in to 3rd place overall in this brief qualifying period………The stewards ruled that we had a legitimate reason for not weighing the car after qualifying and taking in to account that our weights had all season been in the region of overweight by at least +60kgs which coincided with our weights prior to qualifying it was ruled that my qualifying place of 3rd would be permitted.

 

Saturday 28th November 2009 – Round 7, Super 2000 Junior.

Saturday morning prior to the start of the race was spent checking and adjusting the front end geometry of the car and choosing which of the limited number of tyres we would use on either front or back of the car.

I was starting from 3rd place on the grid (inside of the track) that is until just one hour or so before the race when the team next door to us in the pits walked in and said ……..why are you starting 25th on the grid and not 3rd…………it was the first we had heard of this situation and Thomas our team manager went to investigate with the chief steward……it transpired that they had reversed their earlier decision on Thursday for me to maintain my 3rd position for starting and placed me 25th……….not one word was spoken to us over this and to be informed by the team next door was to say a little disconcerting…..and obviously nothing to do with the Thai team who I was fighting for the championship with who would be starting from 4th  and literally the championship decided on these last two races of the season. It would appear that I had been thwarted on the last weekend of the championship by bad luck with the suspension collapsing once again (thank you KW for your expensive and very breakable suspension) and team tactics brought in to play ……..Anyway 25th starting position it would be and nothing more to be said on the subject…… Oh only to say that the same rule had been applied for Round 8 on Sunday and I would be starting from 24th.

Starting from 25th  was uneventful other than when I got to the end of the race but I did have some fun fighting with both Khun Jacktong and also Khun Grant as we battled our way up through the field. I eventually finished 11th overall and 5th in class and went up onto the podium only to find out later that I had been penalized with a jump start and lost my 5th place and was eventually placed 6th……….as a driver you know if you have jumped the lights or not and I state that I did not…….anyway the championship leader finished 2nd overall first in class so the championship was wrapped up nicely at the front of the pack with me not even being able to challenge for it,,……………!!!!!!

What really was amazing is that after the race not one car was weighed to see if they conformed with weight or not, the very item that I had been penalized for after qualifying with not being able to prove I had made the weight limits……absolutely amazing……perhaps that goes a little way in explaining a little, one of  Thailand’s leading slogans being realized as AMAZING THAILAND.

 

Sunday 29th November 2009 - Round 8, Super 2000 Junior.    

I would be starting from position 24 and didn’t wish to be penalized with another jump start so was extremely careful at the start to ensure I was not starting too close to when the lights changed. I made a reasonable start and again Khun Jacktong and Khun Grant were in close partnership as we worked our way up through the field again. I eventually finished 5th in class and 11th overall and didn’t incur a jump start penalty, so at least did manage a podium finish….. Not exactly the exciting end to the season we had all hoped for in the Thai Supercar series but I did end up with second in class for the 2000 junior championship and together with Ray my team mate who finished third in the championship race we did win the overall team championship.

After the way in which we were treated in this last race of the season and in particular the way in which our challenge for the championship race was thwarted by officialdom we shall have a long think about if we enter the Supercar series next season, the way in which I feel at the moment, then I would prefer to concentrate on the new Thai touring car series to be started and the existing Honda Racing Fest series which is run under strict and fair rulings………

13 Oct 09

Honda Racing Fest, Rounds 7 and 8
Tony and Ray with yet another 1-2 victory, Khorat September 09
Ray and Tony takes another 1-2 victory !

Honda Racing Fest, Rounds 7 and 8 From Khorat Stadium,
02nd to 04th October 2009

Pro Cup Series

We arrived in Khorat on the afternoon of Thursday and since Wednesday evening the weather had produced continuous rain, even the drive up from Jomtien had been dull, wet and windy. The first action was to visit the track and view the layout as I had never been to this location before and everyone I had spoken to mentioned the long straights and the braking into narrow sections of track. I kept the walk fairly brief as guess what, it was raining and didn’t look much like giving up in a hurry…….so it was off to the hotel and an early night.
 
Friday Practice – 02nd October 2009, Cancelled.
I was woken up by our race engineer Paul who informed me not to bother being at the track too early as with the continuous rain fall, the pit area and a good portion of the track were under water by as much as 50 cmts. The flooding had not spared the cars either and  both Rays car and mine had water inside of them. So the action plan was to get the cars to “higher” ground and give them a thorough drying out which included stripping the wheel bearings off the cars along with the braking systems to ensure no water had entered those areas which would later affect the cars performance.  Once on higher ground we set to work on the cars and completed the works which also included the setup of the suspensions, camber and toe to what we felt would best suit the track layout. The Honda organizers confirmed there would be no running on Friday, so we hung out at the track for the remainder of the day in order to attend the drivers briefing which started at 17.30pm

Saturday Practice and Qualifying Sessions – 03rd October 2009.
There was to be two practice sessions on Saturday morning prior to qualifying, the first scheduled to last 30 minutes with the second scheduled for 20 minutes. We ventured out onto track at the designated time for session one and I was just beginning to build on some reasonable laps once through the initial familiarization of the track layout when the red flag came out after 6 laps or so and ended the session due to one of the cars turning upside down in the last corner of the lap. It took the remaining time of the session to clear up the track and move the car back to the pits.

The second session was underway as planned. Between completing the first session and taking to the track for this second session we had made three major changes to the cars set up as we had encountered a huge amount of understeer in the front of the car with no movement at all in the rear during the initial short first practice session. The rear camber settings had been reduced, the cars suspension settings stiffened in the rear and also we had made significant changes to the tyre pressures all round.  Once out on track in this second session the car felt much better, though still not perfect. With only 20  minutes running of this session there was no time to come in to the pits make changes and go back out on to track again, so I basically continued to learn the track and produce the fastest times that I could with the car set up as it was.

Once the session was completed, I sat with Paul and Khun Mit and discussed the changes that I would like to make to the car to improve upon its performance once again. In conclusion we all agreed that the best change to be made now would be to alter the ride heights of the car, so with qualifying being the next session on track we said a little prayer and altered the ride heights in order to try and get rid hopefully of most of the understeer we were still experiencing.

Qualifying was to be a session of 30 minutes, so at 14.50pm I was on track and beginning the first of a number of laps which I am pleased to say saw the cars handling good, not perfect but at least we had managed to get the set up to a point I was happy with.

During qualifying I recorded a best lap time of 1m 14.7seconds which was good enough to place me second on the grid behind Khun Todd who recorded his best time of 1m 14.3seconds. So second overall and first in class for qualifying was a great result to start the weekend with particularly as Ray had qualified 5th overall and 3rd in class as well. I still felt that given some further thought to the set up of the car we could improve upon the times recorded in qualifying.

Sunday 04th October 2009  – Race 1, Pro Cup Series.
There was a ten minute warm up scheduled for the Pro Cup cars at 08.50am, for those that wished to take to the track and check out any changes or settings prior to race one.
I went out for the warm up as we had made a couple of minor changes on Saturday evening to the car and wanted to see how the car felt. Immediately I new the car was improved and I only did 3 laps before coming back in to the pits.

Race 1 - was scheduled for 11.40am and we ventured out of the pit lane to form up on the grid at 11.25am. It was dry though overcast and not particularly warm, so I felt good with  not being too hot, we had also experienced some light rain showers earlier on in the morning but at time of forming up the sky looked reasonably clear of rain.
 
I made sure on the warm up lap to get heat in to the brakes as well as the tyres as much as possible as it would be heavy braking straight away in to turn one.
The lights went out and we were off, I made a great start and got alongside Khun Todd  more or less off the line and by the time we were half way to turn one I had managed to pass him. A quick look in the mirrors confirmed Khun Todd had fallen right in behind myself as we approached turn one. Unfortunately Khun Suriaya who had made a charge up the inside of Khun Todd out braked himself by a country mile and hit me as we entered turn one. The impact spun me around and Khun Todd got mixed up in the shambles before we were able to get going again eventually. So from leading the pack in to turn one I now found myself completely last at the back of the field……  So nothing for it but to put the first turn woes behind me and get my head down and race as hard as I could throughout the remainder of the laps.

The car felt awesome and I was consistently lapping quicker than my qualifying time and quicker than Khun Todds pole position. I recorded the quickest time of the day with 1m14.1 second lap which also qualified me for pole position for race 2. In the process after 10 laps I found myself chasing down Ray my team mate who was holding down second place overall behind Khun Grant who is a grade A driver. I didn’t have a clue what position I was up to until I saw Rays lap board which was telling him he was in P1 for grade B and second overall, I was immediately behind Ray so discovered that I was in P2 for grade B with 5 laps to go. Khun Grant was leading the race, immediately followed by Ray who was immediately followed by myself. I had pushed the car that hard and particularly the brakes that at this point of the race I had lost most of the braking through overheating and I was having to pump the brakes at each and every braking point. With three laps to go I decided enough was enough and rather than risk ending up in the barriers somewhere I would ease up and bring the car home in third place overall and second place grade B behind Ray. What a great team result we had, Ray and myself had discussed it earlier but neither of us really thought that we would have a one, two. Absolutely brilliant work by the whole team of mechanics, Paul our race engineer and of course Khun Mit our chief mechanic and motivator……… 
 
Race 2 – Prior to the start of race 2 the mechanics had completely bled through the braking system and replaced the brake fluid for race 2 in order to try and prevent the brakes overheating again they had also added a couple of additional brake vents for air to get to the brakes.  I was starting from pole and had another great start and was able to enter turn one leading from Khun Grant and Ray. Khun Grant later informed me that he had his throttle stick open at this first turn and he thought that he was going to do to me in the second race what Khun Suriaya managed to do in the first. Anyway we all more or less managed to get through the first corner without too much incident and when I looked in to the mirror there was Ray sat right on my tail heading down to turn two. 

Again I put my head down and drove hard for the first eight laps, Ray was glued to my tail with Khun Ekprawat on Rays tail. By lap eight I managed to start opening a gap and by lap ten I had a few seconds lead over Ray and Khun Ekprawat. I managed to maintain this lead and controlled the gap back to second through until the chequered flag finally winning from Khun Ekprawat by five seconds or so, with Ray very close behind Khun Ekprawat holding down third place overall and second in class.

What a fantastic race for us as a team with myself winning the race overall and first in class and Ray a very strong third overall and second in class. Again a big thank you must go to Khun Mit, Khun Ti and their team of mechanics who had prepared the car for the weekend, it was awesome to drive, once we found the sweet spot on set up. Thanks to Paul for the input in to the car set up and of course a special thanks to our two main supporters in Khun Mam and Khun Tuk. A further special mention has to go to Khun Nud who prepared my race engine for me, thanks Khun Nud the engine was again dee mak mak.

All in all Ray and myself managed 8 podiums between the two of us over the weekend, Ray with a first in class and second overall for race one and a third overall second in class for race two. Myself I managed a third overall and second in class for race one and a first overall and first in class for race two. Race one holds a bitter sweet moment although I am extremely happy with where I finished I do feel that without being turned around by Khun Suriaya in turn one that I could also have gone on to win race one……never mind hopefully next time……………………….

A special mention must also be said for the race events organizers, they were faced with awesome problems on Friday with the rain and track flooding and still managed to pull off a fantastic weekend of racing, it’s a great series and it just keeps getting better and better.

We have two special race events coming up, the first being the Supercar Bang Saen Festival of Speed towards the end of November and then the final race of the year which is rounds 9 and 10 of the Honda Fest series, cant wait for wither of them to come round as I do enjoy racing on the street circuits…….

24 Sep 09

SuperCar, Rounds 5 and 6
Tony Percy

Supercar Series, Rounds 5 and 6 From Bira International Circuit,    11th 12th and 13th  September 2009.

Friday Practice and Qualifying Sessions – 11th September 2009.
One practice session was permitted during the morning period which we basically used to check out the car after having the suspension repaired on Thursday. All appeared fine, but by no means perfect during the practice session where we used old tyres just to check out the car. I say not perfect as in the long fast 100R corner on entry I had initial understeer which then affected the corner speed throughout the remaining section of the long double apex corner. Upon return to the pits, with the team we discussed the understeer in 100R and put it down to using such old rubber for this shakedown run. It was thought that with new tyres on the car for qualifying the car would handle much better through this section of track.

Qualifying was run at 14.25pm with a twenty minute session allocated. My lap timer had failed due to low satellite receiving signals so I was reliant upon the pit board to feed me my information. After completing half the 20 minutes session I decided to pit let everything cool down for a few minutes and go back out for 3 further laps. Whilst stopped in the pits I tried to find out where we stood and found out that I was holding second place. I went back out for a further 3 laps to try and better my previous times and did in fact reduce it by a tenth or so but not quite enough to secure pole, which we missed by just two tenths of a second. So P2 for starting both rounds 5 and 6 was a good start to the weekend particularly with having my team mate Ray along side on the grid for both days starting in P3.   

Saturday 12th September 2009  -  Round 5.
We had changed out the right side ball joint on the front wishbone as when checked on Friday evening we had discovered a significant amount of movement within the joint which we thought was probably responsible for the understeer in 100R that we had been suffering with all weekend. Other than this change out we had not made any further changes to the car.

Starting on the outside of the grid was OK at Bira as it did offer you a reasonable chance to get alongside the car starting from P1 with an option of lines for the first corner…. I made a very good start and managed to get alongside Khun Karn on the run down to turn one. I took the long way around the outside in turn one as Khun Karn was defending strongly the inside line. We took up our grid positions in Turn 2 with Ray a very close third in behind myself. For ten laps I pushed Khun Karn and on a number of occasions managed to get alongside but could not complete the pass. Khun Karn was driving defensively and blocking every move and the one real good chance that I had between the chicanes S1 and S2 he moved across and put me on the grass, not funny when travelling at over 100mph between the chicanes. I managed to hold the car on the grass and recover second place again entering S2 and had another go at Khun Karn in the next corner being the Honda corner. We continued to race in this mode right through to the chequered flag and I had greatly enjoyed myself racing with Khun Karn (except for his move when putting me on the grass) which was a deliberate move to stop me going though and taking the lead. The remainder of the race had been fought out fairly and was really good fun. Sanook Sanook for sure. On the steps going up to the podium Khun Karn apologized for the move that put me on the grass, OK I guess but something I was pretty pee’ed off with at the time.

Despite being the fastest car on track by some distance and posting the fastest lap times of the race it had not been possible to get past Khun Karn. Following the race it had been noticed by our team manager that Khun Karn had been running the Michelin S9A tyres that we had previously been informed by the organisers were not permitted and everyone had to run the Michelin B compound as the controlled tyre as the A compound could provide a distinctive advantage of up to one second per lap. When we again queried this with the organisers after the race they confirmed the A compound could be used, though none is available in Thailand…….work that one out please someone. 

As it turned out I had been very lucky to finish the race, when exiting the Honda corner on the last lap and accelerating hard in third gear about to change gear into fourth the gear change had jumped out of third and I found it difficult to either engage fourth gear or find third gear again. Upon stripping and checking the gearbox it was discovered that third and fourth gears had disintegrated and had also cracked the gearbox housing. We didn’t have a new gearbox to install with the same ratios that I was using so we would have to make do for the race on Sunday with a gearbox that didn’t really suit the Bira circuit and I would not be able to use sixth gear, just gears one to five………
 

Sunday 13th September 2009  –  Round 6.
With the gearbox having been replaced and untried we took to the grid with again the top five positions being occupied on the grid exactly the same as Round 5 on Saturday. I again managed a good start and kept to the outside line around turn one as Khun Karn defended the inside line and when we all exited I was holding down second place with Ray my team mate again close behind in third.

The three of us continued to fight it out throughout the race with Khun Karn again in blocking mode and driving an extremely wide car throughout the race. Ray overtook me exiting the hairpin corner on lap 8 where his car seemed very quick out of on every lap and perhaps the differing gear ratios of my car did offer the opportunity in the two slow corners being the hairpin and Honda corners. Khun Karn made a mistake exiting the Honda corner on the very next lap and Ray managed to get up the inside of him and lead for the next lap, with the three of us covered literally by a blanket. On the very next lap exiting the last corner on to the start / finish straight Ray appeared to miss a gear and both Khun Karn and myself swept past again.

The battle between the three of us continued throughout the remaining laps to the chequred flag with Khun Karn leading across the line from myself by two tenths of a second and Ray just a further six tenths behind myself.   

What a couple of races Rounds 5 and 6 had been with never more than one second  separating  Khun Karn and myself, it must have made good viewing for the spectators and I now look forward to watching the reruns on TV next week. A brilliant couple of races for both myself, Ray and the Team overall. Throughout the weekend we had managed to secure 2 second place finishes, 2 third place finishes, a fourth place and a fifth place finish, six pieces of silver in all.. Congratulations to Paul Kenny in the Super 1500 Series for not only celebrating his podium 5th place but also celebrating his 60th birthday and also to Thomas who managed to bring my Honda EP 3 home in third place in the supercar normally aspirated class, another mean feat for sure…….

Sanook Sanook, cant wait for Bang Saen to come around in the supercar series though in the meantime in a couple of weeks time we look forward to racing in the Honda Pro Cup series in Khorat…..

10 Aug 09 Honda Racing Fest, Rounds 5 and 6
Tony Percy Tony Percy

From Kaeng Krachan Circuit,      31st July to 02nd August 2009.

Pro Cup Series

My car the Honda EP3 had been fitted with our race spec engine for the first time this year having run to date with the partially modified engine which had served us well though down on power, it had proven to be reliable. So I was more than keen to see exactly how the car felt now prepared to full race spec.

 
Friday Practice and Qualifying Sessions – 31st July 2009.

Two practice session’s were held during the afternoon period with the first session used for running in the engine using 5,500rpm to 6,000rpm as the maximum limit. As this was a brand new track to me and never driven before I also used this initial period for familiarization. For the second session we increased the rpm limit to between 7,500rpm and 8,000rpm whilst continuing familiarization of the track. During this second period though only using 8,000rpm as the maximum for the engine we were able to lap consistently in the 1m, 31s bracket which was a little surprising as we had expected the best lap times to be around the 1m, 30s to 1m, 31s mark, it was evident that the quicker lap times would be either in the low 1m, 30s or even in to the 1m, 29s bracket.

Saturday Final Practice and Qualifying Sessions – 01st August 2009.

We had made a few minor adjustments to the toe and suspension settings overnight, nothing drastic just fine tuning as the car had been near perfect on Friday, these were to be tried in the final practice session late on Saturday morning. So for the first time in this final practice session of 30 minutes I took the engine over 8,500rpm. For the first 15 minutes I continued to build on the rpm above 8,000rpm and increased it gradually up to just under where we had set the rev limiter at 8,800rpm. For the final 15 minutes I pushed the car for the first time and recorded lap times consistently at 1m, 30.5 seconds with the quickest lap of 1m, 30.4s. The car felt good and I was confident we could better these times come qualifying.

Qualifying was held late afternoon and I was worried that we would not be able to find a clear lap with 29 cars all on track at the same time, anyway as it turned out this was not going to be a problem as the organizers had split our race entries in two and offered 15 minutes for each group to qualify in rather than the 30 minutes for the whole group. This was much better and we were all able to find clear laps in which to qualify. Qualifying went well and I was able to again bang in all my laps within and around the 1m, 30.5s mark with the quickest lap being in 1m, 30.3s. Not quite as good as what I had hoped for, but it did secure me second quickest lap of the day and a front row starting position for race one on Sunday. In pole position Khun Todd recorded a 1m, 29.7s lap which was awesome. Saturday evening we had what is now becoming our ritual, the team bar b q and we spent a few pleasant hours chilling as a team whilst quaffing ample supplies of wine and the occasional beer along with the food, chicken piri piri, burgers, sausages, prawns and squid that had been prepared by Khun Tuk and Khun Mam whilst we were hard at work recalling the days events………….. !!!!!....long may this part of the weekend last.

Sunday 02nd August 2009  – Race 1, Pro Cup Series.

There was a ten minute warm up scheduled for the Pro Cup cars at 09.10am, for those that wished to take to the track and check out any changes or settings prior to race one. As it was raining at the time we opted to change the settings for wet weather running and venture on to track just in case when the time came round to race one or two it happened to be raining. As I didn’t want to “bend” the car during this initial warm up session with the track being wet, I took it gently and recorded the 4th quickest time. The car felt good and I was satisfied if it was wet come the time of race one or two we would have some good settings to go racing with….

Race 1 - was scheduled for 11.40am and we ventured out of the pit lane to form up on the grid at 11.30am. It was dry though overcast and not particularly warm, so I felt good with  not being too hot. I was a little worried with starting on this particular grid as the whole start straight appears to be on a decline and I don’t have a hand brake fitted to the car, in order to hold it in position if it was to roll forward and be credited with a jump start. My worries were unfounded as when we formed up on the grid the decline wasn’t evident and the car was able to sit in position without brakes applied…..good start to the morning so far.

I made sure on the warm up lap to get heat in to the brakes as well as the tyres as much as possible as it would be a few corners from the start before we actually needed to apply the brakes and when we had to it would be in a hard braking area.

The lights went out and we were off, I made a great start and got half way up alongside Khun Todd before dropping back in to formation behind him and to follow the racing lines in order to prevent anyone from behind creeping by in the opening few corners. By the third corner just about all had dropped in to line and we were all making efforts to break away from each other. Khun Todd was off like a bullet from the first corner and I was doing my best to hold on to him, directly behind me was Khun Poo who was piling on the pressure as well. Khun Todd was away and I finally managed to shake clear of Khun Poo by the third lap and continued to push through until lap ten in order to build a good buffer back to third. Eventually Khun Poo was passed by Khun Bam and we continued to the flag in this order. From lap ten to fifteen I was short shifting and saving the engine whilst able to continue to extend the gap back to third place.

When crossing the line what a feeling, to finish second overall in the race and first in  class B grade, absolutely brilliant, the car was awesome throughout. Now we had to do it all again in race two later this afternoon. By securing the third fastest lap of race one, this would mean that I would be starting from grid position 3 for race 2.

Race 2 – I had another good start and was able to slot in to 3rd position behind Khun Todd and Khun Grant with Khun Bam the third Singha driver right behind me and car 37 on Bam’s tail, all very tight. It had also started with very light rain and the pace was hot during these opening laps. The car felt quite loose particular the back of the car and I was struggling to keep Khun Bam behind me in this opening period, car 37 had been dropped a little but nothing much.

On lap four with the car being loose and Khun Bam close behind and applying pressure every where, I decided that I would let him pass me up the hill and sit behind him and apply pressure to try and get him to make a mistake during the remaining laps of the race. Khun Bam went past and I slotted in right on his tail and never moved for the next 7 or eight laps applying pressure everywhere and getting up alongside him on a number of occasions.

It was great racing which must have made good viewing for the spectators who had turned up. Khun Bam with a couple of laps to go in the race was slowing considerably and we were being caught just a little by car 37. Bam made a small mistake in the hairpin at the bottom of the hill on the back side of the track so I decided to try and out drag him up the hill in to the left hand sweeping corner at the far side of the track…….this is where for me it all went wrong and perhaps I should have waited for a better overtaking chance…..anyway I made the pass on the outside, I believe cleanly and upon entering the corner felt a nudge on the back of the car. The touch was sufficient to spin me off to the outside of the track in to the dirt. I managed to get going and out of the dirt and had only been passed by Khun Bam and car 37 so I was still in fifth place overall and third in class. I managed to get the car back to the finishing line and starting the last lap lost the back end of the car in to turn 2. I’m not sure whether anything on the back end of the car was damaged or misaligned by the “off” with Khun Bam but I entered turn 2 at the normal speed on the normal line when suddenly the back let go and I ended up in the tyre barrier, not too hard but with my front wheels stuck in a small drainage ditch and unable to get myself out.

What a frustrating end to what had been a fantastic day of racing, all caused by what can best be described as a “racing incident” after viewing the video I will leave you all to make up your own minds as to who was at fault or to blame when you have a chance to review the overtaking move again when aired on Channel 7 TV at 4.00pm on the 12 August 2009.

So its 5 weeks to the next race which will be the Supercar Series at Bira, Rounds 5 and 6 combined with the Asian Festival of Speed series on the 12 and 13 September 2009, sure to be another good weekend. From now until then, the EP3 requires some TLC to repair the bodywork damage caused by the off in the last race and we plan also to try and lose some of the weight from the car, as we are running some 80kgs overweight in the Supercar series .

Again a big thank you to Khun Mit, Khun Ti and their team of mechanics who had prepared the car for the weekend, it was awesome to drive, the best its ever been. Thanks to Paul for the input in to the car set up and of course Thomas for all the support and sound advice, unfortunately I was too stupid to heed some of it in the second race, had I done so I would have been sat on a number of championship points that were thrown away. Only Thomas will understand and be aware of his advice that I did not follow…..next time Thomas.

A special mention has to go to Khun Nud who prepared my race engine for me, thanks Khun Nud the engine was dee mak mak.

Oh and not to forget the organizers of the event, it’s a great series and it just keeps getting better, keep it up. And finally a special thanks must go to the track owners for building such a fun and technical track to drive upon, I certainly got a great thrill from driving the track and I’m sure all the other drivers did also….just brilliant, thanks.
15 Jul 09 Supercar Thailand Round’s 3 and 4
Tony Percy
Tony Percy Tony Percy

Supercar Thailand Round’s 3 and 4  -  10th, 11th & 12th July 2009.

A Weekend to be Remembered for Many Reasons……………..

Further work had been performed on the car since the last rounds of this championship, the most significant item being to install a new final drive ratio which would hopefully help in being able to use the full spectrum of gears in the gearbox, something to date we had not been able to utilize to the full potential. A number of smaller mainly cosmetic works had also been performed on the car.

Again for these two races we had opted to use the more standard engine rather then the full race prepared engine as it has proven to date to be very reliable and though some 13-15 bhp down on power we were hoping that the new final drive would help out to some extent with being able to hold our own in being more efficient with the gear ratios. Time would tell and our answers would be found no doubt in the coming race weekend………

Friday Practice and Qualifying Sessions.

The first issue to raise its head was the lack of tires being available to practice and set the car up with. The organizers had changed the controlled tire this season from Michelin to the Silverstone brand and there was no 17” Silverstone tires available in Thailand until the shipment bound for Suvanabumi airport arrived, which we were informed on Thursday would be Thursday evening late (very late, 10.00pm) at the airport. Customs clearance would then have to be performed and the tyres wouldn’t be available until early on Friday morning……..We were at the track early, 06.30am and managed to get our first 17” tires at around 07.30am. So it was off to the tire changing shop down the road in order to be back at the track and have the tires and rims on the car by 09.00am in order to be ready for the first and only practice session prior to qualifying.

The practice session was for just 15 minutes and in those 15 minutes came our first taste of using the 17” Silverstone tires……….suffice to say I cannot record in writing what my first impressions and thoughts are of these tires as I would probably be sued by the manufacturers or something, but they were absolutely terrible and what made it worse was that due to some manufacturing problems there was only 6 tires available per car for cars that use 17” rims. I through my own fault managed to damage one side wall of one tires on the kerbing in S2 chicane, so that meant that I had just 5 tires available for the whole weekend and those five tires had to last, the practice session, qualifying and two full race durations, hhhhhmmmm, not ideal by any stretch of the imagination given that the cars running on 15” rims had no such restrictions placed upon them concerning the number of tires available for the race weekend……..   

So the first practice session was carried out and the best time we could record was a 1m.11.1s lap which is almost 2 seconds slower than we were able to perform during our test day two weeks earlier on used Michelin tires that had done more than 80 laps, so it was with some reservation that we prepared for our qualifying session which was to be run at 13.40pm and when the track was approaching its hottest temperatures.

Qualifying:

Due to the serious amount of under steer experienced in the practice session at 09.30am we opted to change a few settings and play around also with the tire temperatures for the qualifying session, so with fingers crossed we rolled down the pit lane to start the out lap.

With only having the limited number of tires available for the weekend we had swopped the used back tires from our practice session to the front and from the first lap I had no option but to floor it and push for 5 laps before the tires had really gone past their best. It was just as well as I had four consistent laps from laps 1 through 4 before the tires became even worse and basically a hopeless exercise to continue much beyond that point, though I did have a couple of slow laps trying to cool everything down before trying for a final lap to nail a hot lap before ending the session and returning to the weighbridge and pit lane.

It turned out that most people were struggling in the same way with tires and I was surprised to learn later that I had managed to secure third place on the grid for Saturdays race with a 1m,11.52s lap and a second place grid position for Sundays race with a 1m,11.57s lap. These best two lap times were recorded in laps 1 and 4 of the qualifying session. There was just 3 tenths of a second between myself and pole with Ray my team mate also qualifying well with a second and a third place start for the two races……great news for the team and a good start to the weekend.

Saturday 11th July 2009 – Round 3, Super 2000 Junior.

Saturday morning prior to the start of the race was spent checking and adjusting the front end geometry of the car and choosing which of the limited number of tires we would use on either front or back of the car.

I was starting from 3rd place on the grid (inside of the track) and had more or less made up my mind that I would try to stay wide throughout the first corner just in case there was bunching of the cars on the tight inside line. I initially made a good start but with having the new final drive ratio in the gear box I maxxed out on the revs very quickly then found it difficult to engage second gear. By the time I managed to sort out second gear I found myself on the run down to turn one in tenth place, not how I had imagined the start to be from 3rd place.

I managed to pick up a couple of positions on lap one and crossed the line in 8th place, the next time across the line I was up in to 7th, then 6th on lap four. During laps 5 and 6 I managed to pick up one more place when Ray my team mate dropped out whilst leading the race with a mechanical issue which I found out later to be the throttle stuck open, so it was not going to be a lucky day for Ray. I was pushing all I could throughout these first ten laps and moving steadily up through the field and with six laps to go found myself in third place behind Khun M in car 29. By this time I had severe under steer and had also lost much of the front brakes and was happy to be back up close to the front of the race and it was obvious that I couldn’t catch either Khun M or car No. 8  who had managed to move from a qualifying position of 11th through to be the lead car. We were all struggling with the tires and with my car in its present condition I was happy to be able to maintain the same gap more or less between each of us through to the end of the race.

When stopped in parc ferme I was informed that car number 8 had incurred a one minute penalty due to a jump start from his original start position of 11th place, thus elevating Khun M to first and myself to second. All in all a good race result when taking account of the terrible start I managed.

Sunday 12th July 2009 - Round 4, Super 2000 Junior.    

Sunday morning first thing was spent reviewing which was the best four tires out of the five tires available for using in race 2, all had taken a pounding during the weekend so a little time was used for this exercise, very little else was done to the car during the period from finishing race one and preparing for race 2 other than sort out the brake issue that I had encountered. 

I would be starting from position 2 and during the initial warm up session had performed a couple of practice starts in order that I didn’t mess up the start again like in race one on Saturday.

I managed to make a reasonable start off the line though the final drive ratio means that it is difficult to maintain that initial momentum up through first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth due to the shortness of gears 1 and 2 and I was passed by a number of cars again on the run down to turn one. So again it was a case of getting my head down and working my way up through those in front of me, although the tires were absolutely shocking with under steer from lap one onwards and then from lap ten also struggling with over steer as the rear tires had also decided that they had been given enough punishment over the weekend.

It was a case of bringing the car home without pushing it in anyway. I was watching the mirrors and maintaining the gap back to the third placed car which was car 45 and the last few laps were uneventful and without drama.

It was a great feeling to have Thomas on the pit wall signaling and telling me to take it easy over the last few laps and the mechanics all lined up waving and acknowledging a sound and strong weekend of racing, just what we needed for the championship race, as with four races gone and four to go, a mere 6.5 points covers the top 5 drivers in the championship.

A special thanks must go to the team of mechanics who had prepared my car for this weekend of racing, the car was brilliant, just need a good set of tires to run on it. Thanks Khun Mit and Khun T and your team of mechanics who worked tirelessly throughout the weekend.

The next planned race will be in three weeks time when racing in the Pro Cup of the Honda Racing Series, it is to be run at the newly constructed track over at Phetchaburi so really looking forward to racing at this new venue.
20 May 09 2009 Honda Racing Fest, Race 1
Tony Percy
Tony Percy
Tony at Bira for the 2009 Honda racing fest - Race 1 Tony at Bira for the 2009 Honda racing fest - Race 1

Honda Racing Fest Thailand From Bira Circuit –  15-16-17 May 2009.

Pro Cup Series

The cars had been worked upon since the Supercar series at Sakaew with some minor improvements made though for my Honda EP3 we had decided to run with the second string engine that had served us well in Sakaew though lacking some 30BHP to my normal race engine. 

Friday Practice and Qualifying Sessions – 15th May 2009.

The practice session was held at 11.45am and in wet, slippery conditions that suited me perfectly with being down on horse power and I must admit to enjoying driving in wet conditions (must be something to do with all that rain we get in Manchester) long may the slippery and wet conditions last as far as I was concerned. Anyway by the time qualifying came around at 15.50pm the track had just about dried out completely and most of the cars during qualifying ran their shaved dry weather tyres. Unfortunately my shaved tyres were late in arriving and I had to use the wet tyres for the qualifying session.

Down on horse power and using the wet tyres on a dry track was probably just about the worse scenario I could have contemplated but none the less we gave it our best shot and I actually recorded a qualifying time of seventh overall and third in my group B classification. The times were very similar for both the Saturday qualifying and Sunday qualifying positions for races one and three with positions for race two and race four qualifying positions  for the Saturday and Sunday afternoon races to be decided by the best lap times posted in the Saturday and Sunday  morning races respectively………hope you’re following the drift so far……

With qualifying completed we set about fine tuning some small items on the car which took us around to early evening and time to put the baby to bed……..

 

Saturday 16th May 2009 – Races 1 and 2, Pro Cup Series.

Saturday morning prior to the start of the race was spent adjusting the front end geometry of the car. Warm up started at 09.10am so we had arrived at the track around 07.00am and spent the next two hours tinkering…. The shaved dry tyres had still not arrived but the rain had arrived, so my prayers had been answered. In the warm up I just took it easy and was more interested in finding out where we could get the power down on a wet track at the earliest opportunity. I was surprised when Thomas told me I had been one of the quickest on track for the initial warm up session.

Race 1 was scheduled for 11.40am but the race program had been delayed by about 40 minutes or so due to the heavy rains that had fallen so we took to the track around 12.20am on a wet and greasy surface.
I made a reasonable start with everyone taking it easy on the opening lap, I had made a place up and was in sixth place and decided after the second chicane approaching the Honda corner that if no one took the normal racing line I would go down the inside. We came through S2 chicane and everyone in front stayed wide so I took to the inside and passed car 33 (Bam), I was now up into fifth place overall and leading my class.

The next lap around I made the same move on car 9 who is an A class driver and made it stick, I was now up in to 4th place overall. For the next 10 laps car 9 and myself had a great race with each other and able to maintain the same distance up to the cars in the lead three pack. Eventually as the track was drying and I was down on power with the spare engine and had to give second best to car 9 as he passed me down the main start finish straight, enjoyable racing for sure while it lasted.

I’m not exactly sure who dropped out of the lead three but I managed to maintain fourth place overall and first in class through until the checkered flag dropped, my first race win came in my first race in the Honda series, thankfully it had been wet or else the power differential between my car and the lead cars would have been something difficult to overcome.

 

Race 2 – The rain had disappeared and the track was completely dry so I knew that with being down on power I would have to drive my heart out to be able to keep up with the remaining drivers at the front of the grid. The start position was defined by the best time achieved in race one so I was again starting from seventh place overall.

I had a reasonable start though on the run down to turn one I was passed by a couple of cars, I took the outside line in turn one which gave me the inside line up the hill and into the hairpin. I regained a position and found myself beyond M in car 29. We were in positions 8 and 9 and 4th and 5th in class. For 6 laps I sat behind M who was probably loosing 2 seconds per lap to the lead cars and costing me a lot of time as the laps went by. Car 37 was starting also to close down on us from behind and I decided it was time for a move in order to at least have a reasonable chance of a podium finish.

I was much faster then M in the hairpin, 100R, the chicanes and Honda corners, M had the power advantage on the main straight. I had touched M in the Honda corners and the hairpin where M had eased off considerably, likewise he was very slow around 100R and into S1 so I decided if nothing presented itself during the next lap I would make a move coming in to the S1 chicane. I had a good run around 100R and took the inside line into S1, I don’t believe M saw me at all as he just turned in to S1 as if I wasn’t there, in fact I was fully alongside and block passing on the inside of him. The inevitable happened and we touched resulting in M going straight on into the gravel trap and myself having to ride out a rodeo ride across the kerbs of S1 and deal with full opposite lock slides in an attempt to keep the car on the track. In the melee car 37 was able to get passed and I was unable to catch him, only match his pace as I had developed severe understeer having gone across both sets of the high kerbs at S1. In the end I managed to finish 9th overall and 5th in class.

Sunday 17th May 2009 – Races 3 and 4, Pro Cup Series.

Race 3  -  The start time of the race was 11.30 and though we had some rain showers during the morning, by the time race time came around it was reasonably clear skies with a dry track. I was again starting from 7th place overall so new the run down from the start quite well having started from 7th in both Saturdays races.

I had a good start and took the outside line into turn 1. We exited turn 1 and had more or less maintained our start positions though car 37 was in front of me. For the next 6 laps or so Car 37 and myself had a fantastic fight with each other trading places a number of times before I managed to break free and build a good gap. On lap 10 I noticed that I was closing fast on car 33 (Bam) who was holding second place behind car 30 in our B class group, I was therefore in 3rd place and closing in on 2nd place.

The car felt good and I felt good driving at almost 100% and really enjoying myself. This was to prove short lived though as with 4 laps to go to the finish of the race I picked up a puncture, I couldn’t believe that the same situation would occur yet again having suffered a puncture at Sakaew in the previous Supercar round also when in a comfortable second place, what is going on……… Anyway I managed to limp around to finish the race in something like 18th overall and I believe 9th in Class. Another story of what could have been.

Race 4  -  Started at 15.30pm and I was to start from 8th position overall and 4th in class B. I made a very good start and passed Car 33 on the run down to turn one where I decided to again take the outside line in the corner as most drivers where diving to the inside. Car 30 who I was behind on the run down to turn one made a late decision and changed to take the outside line directly in front of me. We were halfway around turn one when I got clobbered from behind and on the left of the car, not sure who it was, possibly car 33 and one other car, anyway the hit caused me to accelerate a little in order to get the car straight again and at the same time car 30 in front of me also had his problems in front of him and had to ease off. This resulted in me hitting car 30 and pushing the front end of my car back in to my radiator and into the pulley wheel of the power steering causing the belt to fray and slip around on the pulley wheel.

For the next lap I tried to see if the car was drivable in order to finish but it was evident that no way could I possibly get it to the finish line so decided in order to prevent further damage to either the engine or the car to pull into the pit lane and retire.

A sad way to finish the weekend that had promised so much. Overall I was obviously very pleased to have my first podium finish  in the Honda Fest Series and for it to be on the top step of the podium, but I came away from the weekend with a sense of underachievement. The win on Saturday morning in Race one should have set us up for a very good weekend, Race 2 the incident with M cost me a couple of places, the puncture in Race 3, cost me another sure fire podium position with a third place finish, the racing incident in turn one of the 4th race was just what it was a racing incident, though all three podium finishers at the end of the race, I had previously beaten during the course of the weekend.

So, much time to reflect before the next race which will be in the Supercar series Round 3 and 4 at the Bira circuit on the 11th and 12th July 2009. By then I will have my full race spec engine rebuilt so I am really looking forward to the prospect of hopefully doing well again.
6 May 09 2009 First SuperCar Race

Supercar Thailand Round’s 1 and 2  -  1st, 2nd and 3rd of May 2009.

From a Build up of Great Expectation to ……………..

As a team we had been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time. It has been a very long period of inactivity since Bang Saen last year and but for two test days of testing at Bira last month we had not been together as a team for almost 6 months. So it was with smiles and eagerness all round that we entered the weekend.

Friday Practice and Qualifying Sessions.

The first practice session of two was held at 09.45am with the second scheduled for 12.05pm. Prior to the first session we rechecked the cars geometry and made the settings more or less the same as what was used at Bira for our test days. Straight out on to the track and the car felt perfect and I was able to lap consistently in the low 1m-09s bracket with the fastest lap being a 1m-09.03s lap. Unfortunately though only using a maximum of 8,000rpm with the engine (maximum being 9,500rpm) on lap 8 of this first practice session the engine blew in a big way. What was to be the first of many set backs and obstacles to overcome during the weekend had just been realized, what a disappointment  not only to me but to Thomas our team manager who had put so much effort in to having all cars ready and on track at Saekaew.

The race was truly on in order to change out the engine and be ready for the qualifying session which was to take place at 15.20pm. Obviously any thoughts of being ready for the second practice session at 12.05pm were unrealistic. The spare engine we carry is more or less a stock standard engine though the race cams are swapped across and changed out on the cylinder head of the spare unit. This takes significant time and we were unsure if the car would actually be ready in time for the qualifying session.

The mechanics worked wonders and literally had the car ready with 2 minutes to spare before qualifying. I was ready suited up and strapped in the car when the hood was closed and the engine fired up for the first time. There was no time for tuning the motec (on board computer) to the new engine and likewise no time to check the cars front end geometry which had been disturbed when changing out the engine. The change of engine to this new unit would mean giving away something like 30 BHP to the other cars in the super 2000cc class, but at least we were up and running and hopefully able to score some points.

 

Qualifying.

I drove as hard as I could whilst at the same time being ultra careful not to rev the engine to more than 8,500rpm and straight away it was evident that the car was really lacking power and top end speed when compared to my race engine. Also the car had massive understeer when compared to the morning session preventing me from getting on the power early in many of the corners. Even so I persevered with what I had and managed to qualify 6th for the first race to be held on Saturday and 4th for the second race to be run on Sunday.

It should be noted the quickest lap during qualifying and pole position for the Saturday race was a 1m-09.788s lap which is almost 8 tenths of a second slower than my best lap in the first practice session on a “green” track when I was only taking the engine up to 8,000rpm and not pushing the car in any way. (sad in a way when you think of what could have been) are those immortal words of 2008 (well that’s motor racing) going to haunt me throughout the 2009 season as well………..surely soon my luck must change and I get some good luck rather than just bad luck all the time.

More drama was yet to unfold as when I came in to my pit following qualifying the engine compartment went on fire………..The flames were quickly extinguished and the problem located. The power steering hose that runs across the back of the engine compartment had been leaking and the hydraulic oil had sprayed on to the red hot exhaust manifold, igniting once the speed and air movement from the moving car that had prevented ignition had stopped when I came in to the pits. Certainly Friday had become a drama packed day.

The leaking hose was repaired which took considerable time locating the correct fittings. Thankfully one of the other teams in the pits had some and we were able to complete the repair.

I am absolutely positive that given my race engine and the car set up as it was for the first practice session and the track “rubbered in” I could surely have dipped in to the 1m-07s laps during the qualifying session.

The motec engineer to tune the on board motec unit arrived late in the evening to set the motec unit to optimize the replacement engine. Unfortunately by the time he arrived the track had long been closed and the runways barriered off preventing running of the car. He set the motec unit as best he could based upon the running in the afternoons qualifying session.  

 

Saturday 2nd May 2009 – Round 1, Super 2000 Junior.

Saturday morning prior to the start of the race was spent adjusting the front end geometry of the car. It was little wonder that we had understeer during qualifying as when checked the camber differential from right to left side was 1.5 degrees and the toe setting right hand side was 7mm toe out and left hand side was 2mm toe in. Far removed from our normal settings.

I was starting from 6th place on the grid (outside of the track) and had more or less made up my mind that I would try to stay wide throughout the first corner just in case there was bunching of the cars on the tight inside line. I initially made a good start but the engine was lacking so much power I was swamped on the run down to the first corner and passed by at least 2 cars. I stayed wide to stay out of trouble and settled down in 8th place and prepared for a long slog throughout the race in order to score points of some description. I made a couple of passes and a couple of cars dropped back so I was circulating in 4th/5th place driving within the cars capability (slow engine) and careful not to over rev it at any point.

I made a pass on Bobby car 39 at the end of the straight and whilst changing down under braking I had a problem with the cars gearbox, when I changed from 5th gear to 4th gear it jumped out of 4th. I immediately changed again in to 3rd as the corner was rapidly approaching only for the same thing to happen and it jumped out of 3rd gear as well. By this time I had run wide in turn one (extremely wide).

I managed to build a rhythm of using the gearbox as little as possible and could use 3rd gear for changing provided I held it in physically with my hand. 4th gear was completely useless and had to be by passed when either changing up or down. I was able to maintain my position and according to Thomas just losing a half second per lap to the lead car. Just when I thought nothing more could go wrong……….it did.!!!!!! …. I lost the power steering and was unable without great difficulty to turn the car to the right, a distinct problem when running on a clockwise circuit. Yes the repair performed on the power steering hose had not been sufficient and again hydraulic oil was being lost and sprayed over the hot engine and manifold.

Not too much I could do at this point other than get the car back to the pits and record a DNF for the first race of 2009,  a disaster for sure. The only consolation being in that my team mate Ray MacDonald had taken over the lead and was able to cruise to a well deserved victory. Well done Ray keep the flag flying.

So Saturday afternoon and evening was again spent with working on the car. Firstly identifying and changing out the broken gears in the gearbox and secondly again finding the correct fittings in order to carry out a proper replacement of the complete steering hose and assembly.

The motec engineer arrived early also so was able to tune the motec and engine as one whilst having the car running at speed.

Lets hope that Round 2 on Sunday would not provide any further drama………….

 

Sunday 3rd May 2009 - Round 2, Super 2000 Junior.    

Following disturbing the front geometry again when changing out the gearbox we spent Sunday morning prior to the start of the race adjusting the front end of the car.   
As I was starting this race from 4th on the grid I had no real preconceived plan for the first corner, it was to be a suck it and see situation upon the run down to the first corner and much would depend upon the power I would be able to get out of the replacement engine.

I managed to make a good start and could if I wished take a chance and try the outside line running around the first corner. I decided to slot in to third place on the inside of the corner and follow my team mate Ray who started from third and was up to second through this first corner without trying to win the race before it had really begun.

I sat behind Ray through the first corner and through the “S” sections of the track and approaching the chicane Ray was very early on the brakes. I changed down in to second gear in order to get early drive out of the chicane and on the run down to the hairpin managed to get alongside Ray and take the inside line and complete the pass through the hairpin.

Now in second place I was able to gap Ray a little and concentrate on attempting to close down on car No. 8 the leader. With the replacement engine I was losing a little on top end power and speed though the bottom and mid range power appeared to be OK.

Ray was comfortable in third and we started to close down on the lead car little by little. Then on the fourth lap the car started to develop understeer not a little but a lot and my lap times started to drop off significantly and I was experiencing difficulty in getting the power down and traction out of the hairpin. I had massive understeer through the last two corners leading on to the straight and on lap 7 decided that I had to let Ray pass me on the straight and indeed the car in fourth place as I was going nowhere fast.

On this next lap the car started to develop a large shaking through the steering wheel and the car became even more difficult to turn at corners. It suddenly dawned on me that I had had a slow puncture since lap 4 and the tyre had now become fully deflated. I decide to pit immediately and with Thomas supervising the wheel change in the pits, though it seemed an age sat in the car it was completed speedily and I was back on track in a minimum of time. Despite the slowing of lap times due to the puncture and the time spent in the pits changing the wheel we still managed to cross the line in fifth place. Not what I had hoped for and certainly not what I know the car and myself are capable of.

So a full weekend of drama throughout practice, qualifying, race 1 and race 2. I sincerely hope in the next two rounds at Bira we can surely show the capability of both the car and myself. Bira is by far a more technical track compared to Sakaew and our true colours should come to the fore. Given some form of luck other than just bad luck we intend to set some fastest laps and have some fun at the same time.

Congratulations to my team mate Ray for again driving a sound second race just as the first and he completed a great weekend for the team by finishing in a very comfortable second place.

We are all looking forward to rounds 3 and 4 at Bira though have to wait a couple of months before Supercar is active again. In the meantime Ray, Thomas and myself will be at Bira for the first round of the Honda Pro Cup later this month being 15,16 and 17 May 2009.

30 Mar. 09 My new car

Getting ready for a big step up...

I am excited to get the chance of driving for the Pizza Company Racing Team again in 2009 and to be able to move up to the fast and very competitive Super 2000 Class, which this year promises to be the most competitive class in Thailand, with several of the A-class drivers moving down from the Supercar class to the Super 2000 class.

I will be competing in the Super 2000 Junior Class and my new car is being prepared with a new race suspension and my Mechanic Khun Haew is working on the engine, to find a few more Horses in the engine and a bit more torque. I hope to come out of the box fighting and to be fighting for the win already at the first track in Sa Khaew.

I will be testing the car with the new suspension on the 11th and 12th of April at Bira and then again on the 26th and 27th at Bira, so to do the last fine tuning of it.

I am in the gym now 5 times a week and I feel pumped with energy and can not wait to get this season started.

10 Mar. 09 2008 and 2009

The Closing of 2008 and the new Season 2009 Beckoning.

My first season of saloon car racing is over with and I am already really looking forward to something new and exciting planned in 2009. Before we wrap up 2008 I have to thank my two team mates in The Pizza Company Racing Team, Thomas and Paul, they both offered me support and advice in differing ways throughout the season, it was a sharp learning curve for me to participate in the Supercar series and without their help and assistance that learning curve would have for sure been near vertical, thanks guys it was great to be part of “the team”. Without the following sponsors I could not have participated so again a big and loud thank you:

  • The Pizza company
  • PTT
  • Swensen’s
  • Sizzler
  • Xanita
  • Jotun
  • DSL
  • Dacon Inspection Services Ltd
  • Mermaid Offshore Services Ltd

Entering 2008 I set myself a few goals which I came close to achieving though the second half of the season could have been much better. The first goal I set myself was to finish on the podium in each round, and the second as a spin off from the first was to finish in the top three of the championship.


Well we didn’t achieve the first goal so the second came pretty near impossible to achieve and I missed out finishing within the top three places though in the end by just two points…….Having secured 52 points in the first 4 races of the season with four podium finishes, the last three races produced just 6 points, not for the want of trying or effort by the whole team, as we had in those last three races qualified 2nd, 2nd and 4th but  mechanical issues continually dogged us throughout those last three rounds.
Without those mechanical issues we were able to run in the top 3 in each round and what turned out to be a good season could have been a fantastic season. As my team mates aptly put it when finishing my last race at Bang Saen “ well that’s motor racing”. In that particular race I had qualified 4th, though had to change the engine before the race so we were penalized and relegated to the back of the grid on race day. Starting from the back I had worked my way up to 6th place and able to challenge for 5th when with 2 laps to go I lost second gear, then 4th gear whilst at the same time the front camber locking bolts on the suspension became loose and the bodywork began rubbing on the front tyres. Dropping from 6th to 8th on that last lap cost me the points that would have secured third place in the championship.


2009 Beckons.
The race plans have been finalized and I am very pleased to confirm that I will be racing with Paul and Thomas again with the Pizza Company Racing Team together with our new team member Ray MacDonald. Ray and myself will be competing in the Super 2000 Class, Paul in the Super 1500 Production Class and Thomas raising the bar again and entering the Supercar Class, the pinnacle of the Supercar Series.
I will be driving the Honda EP3 that Thomas drove last year, though but for a very short test session in late January during the evening’s diminishing light, I have yet to get my hands on the car, due to my work commitments outside of Thailand. We await new KW suspension for the EP3 that will arrive from Germany, which has been scheduled for the end of March and together with a few additional modifications and mechanical upgrades the car will be ready for testing around mid April.
If last year was a steep learning curve for me then for sure 2009 will be no different with entering the Supercar 2000 Class.

Expectations and goals for this year have to be  -  Firstly you have to finish before you score points,  so look after the car throughout the race weekend and get it across the finishing line (hard and true lesson learned from 2008) secondly to be competitive in the 2000 class and be in a position to fight for podium positions. Thirdly to have a successful season which will justify the drive my sponsors have afforded me and last but not least not to hear those words that keep ringing in my ears  -  “ well that’s motor racing”, see you all soon.
12 Nov. 08 Supercar Thailand Round 7  -  7th, 8th and 9th Nov. 2008

A Further Weekend of Great Expectation to a Weekend of Woe (that’s motor racing).

The weekend actually started on Tuesday evening for me arriving at Bangsaen and starting to erect the pits. My car would not be arriving until first thing on Wednesday morning as more bad luck struck when the car was put on the dyno testing machine in Bangkok during Tuesday evening with the engine I intended to use for the race weekend. Unexpectedly and without warning the engine blew up and had to be changed out…… not a particularly good start to the weekend.

The Pizza Company Racing Team were entering the 6 hour endurance race on Friday as well as our normal supercar events on Saturday and Sunday. Thomas and myself would be running the Yaris and Paul would drive his Vios with Dr. Ian Cournes. Practice sessions would commence on Wednesday morning at 10.20am as the first super 1500 practice followed by an endurance race practice session at 12.25, lunch time, followed by two further sessions throughout the afternoon.

Wednesday Practice Sessions.

Unfortunately the Yaris engine change out was not completed in sufficient time to allow me to take part in the first session at 10.20, though it was ready in time for the second session at 12.25. As it was my first time racing at Bang Saen I was obviously more than keen to get in as much track time as possible. During the 12.25 session I managed to run times of 2 minutes 14 seconds which was no where near the lap times needed for qualifying and during the race proper. Within this session I did manage to put the Yaris in to the barriers along the section of track close by the beach at the sharp left hand turn, not exactly going to plan so far as the repairs required changing out the front wish bone which we had to wait for delivery from TRD in Bangkok. The Yaris was not ready for the third session of the day at 3.15 so we spent the afternoon tinkering with and adjusting different suspension, toe and camber settings. Session four we were ready for at 5.35 and during this session the Yaris felt much better and we were able to better the lap times by a further 3 seconds, which was using very old tyres. We would try a couple of different settings during the last two practice sessions on Thursday, prior to qualifying on Thursday afternoon.

Thursday Practice and Qualifying Sessions.

The first practice session was held at 10.15 and for the first time we tried what would be our set up for qualifying and on new tyres and we recorded a time of 2 minutes 10 seconds. Not good enough for a front row position but good enough to be close to the front of the grid, I could push a little more during the qualifying session but didn't wish to “bend” the car on Thursday morning. The second practice session of the day went much the same as the first with times consistently in the 2 minutes 10 second range. I was confident in race set up that we could run at the front of the grid but qualifying had to go to plan in order we could start at the front end of the pack.

Qualifying.

Qualifying for the super 1500 race was held at 4.00pm and went well though I cut it short and went for the pits earlier than planned as during the latter part of qualifying I heard the valves bouncing and rattling far louder than at the start of the session. It was just as well I did come in as we also discovered that the bottom hose on the radiator had lost its jubilee clip and had worked lose and drained the radiator of all its water. In effect the engine had been run dry of water and started to over heat though again the temperature gauge in the car indicated a normal temperature of around 900 C.  The mechanics checked out the noisy valves and discovered that one of the camshafts had broken, this was changed out, the engine topped up with water and started in readiness for the next qualifying session which would be at 17.35pm for the Endurance race. Once fired up the engine didn’t sound too well and wasn’t performing to its optimum. Thomas and myself discussed our options of either sitting out the qualifying session and starting the endurance race from the back of the grid or running the engine seeing what times we could record and then attempt to repair the engine thereby not getting penalized and being moved to the back of the grid for an engine change. Unfortunately the engine didn’t last but for a couple of laps before blowing itself to bits coming out of the hairpin and down the back straight.

My qualifying time for the super 1500 race was a 2 minute 9.795 lap which was good enough for 4th place on the grid and for the endurance qualifying I recorded a 2m 11.009 lap which was good enough for 3rd place. The engine blow up and subsequent change out would mean not only was I to be penalized and moved to the back of the grid for the endurance race but also for the super 1500 race. Not what I had hoped for at the start of the days proceedings……    

We purchased a second hand engine from one of the other teams mechanics at the track which was fitted overnight ready for the 6 hour endurance race on Friday.

 

Friday 7th November 2008 – 6 Hour Endurance Race.

With the engine untried and being penalized back to 29th place on the grid for the engine change, I was determine to put up a good showing and drive flat out for the first 40 minutes session. This was the plan that was discussed with Thomas prior to the race and after this initial session we would take stock of what position we had managed to achieve and then drive accordingly afterwards. If we had made good progress up through the field then it would be time to hold station for an hour or so and let the car cool down. If we hadn’t made the progress anticipated then Thomas would continue to push in his session.

Starting from 29th and last would mean that I had three Mini’s in front of me which I could not attempt to pass until crossing the start finish line. They were surely slow and spread out when coming down to the start of the race which was a rolling start and I was some 600 metres behind the last of the vios cars when crossing the line to start the race.

From the time of crossing the start finish line I pushed for all I was worth and had managed to move from 29th place up into 5th place and racing with Jack Lemvard. I new that Jack had started from 2nd place and I was now in a train of 6 cars all nose to tail which covered the first 6 places of the race. What a drive up through the field, the car was brilliant at the start and to drive a track such as Bangsaen is absolutely awesome, it has everything and surpasses anything that I have experienced in my racing career to date. At this point in time a big thank you has to be mentioned to the organizers and officials for making the event such a success, it was brilliant thank you mak mak.

Back to the race, I was due in for a drivers change after around 36 minutes so held station behind Jack as during the last 4 laps or so I had found it hard to get grip down to the front wheels which were spinning up at all the tight corners, I thought that it was either a drive shaft problem or clutch issue.

During the change out with Thomas I mentioned the problems and we would continue with the car to see if it improved once a little cooler or if it developed in to something more dramatic….. Well after a stint of some 15 minutes it turned in to something more dramatic with a drive shaft failure, so Thomas had a long walk home (via the seafood restaurant at the far end of the track for a drink) thank you to all the staff at this restaurant who had been cheering on and waving every lap to the Pizza Company cars as we passed the premises.

So we were out of the first 2 hour session and the car needed some quick work to be performed on it during the opening of the second 2 hour session if we were to be in contention for individual race honors. (the 6 hours were split in to 3 x 2 hour races with each 2 hour race run individually for podium positions followed by the best overall result of the 3 races to give overall podium places for the full 6 hours . No work can be performed on the car during the 30 minute break between the 3 individual race’s other then to refuel as necessary.

It was decided that I would start the second 2 hour session using the same tactics as before, ie drive flat out for the first session and assess where we were at and for Thomas to either push for all he was worth or conserve the car if up at the front end of the grid… My session was OK and again had driven up through the grid during this initial session following some very fast work by our mechanics in changing out the left hand side drive shaft, excellent work by them over the whole weekend.

Thomas took the wheel for the second 40 minute session and had only driven for 15 minutes or so when he had a dramatic moment losing all brakes when traveling at around 130kms an hour coming in to the sharp left hand bend alongside the beach. No brakes at 130kms an hour and straight in to a wall is no joke, luckily Thomas was OK though the Yaris definitely looked second hand when brought back to the pits.

We were out of the 6 hour endurance race with much work to be completed on the Yaris, which required the whole of the front end to be rebuilt if I was to be starting in the super 1500 race on Sunday.
 
Sunday 9th November 2008 - Round 7, Super 1500.      

With the front end of the Yaris rebuilt overnight of Saturday night due to the parts required for the rebuild arriving from TRD at 7.00pm on Saturday evening, meant that the mechanics once again worked throughout the night to ensure the car was ready for the race on Sunday at 10.30am.

I was starting from 15th place and new if I was to keep a hold of 3rd place in the Championship I would have to drive at 10 tenths throughout the race.

I made an excellent start and gradually moved my way across the track for entering the first sharp right had bend on the inside if the corner. Entering the corner I felt a hard impact from the car behind though didn’t know who it was at that point in time due to concentrating on entering the first corner on the line I wanted.(Khun Trai after the race came by the pits and apologized for the wack in the back) I mad a good corner and got  alongside car 5 up the hill entering the narrower section of track. The driver of this car appears to have an issue with surrendering a position when losing out and was determined to push me in to the barriers entering the narrow section of track. I surrendered the position as it was my intention to finish the race rather than end it after just a kilometer of racing.

I continued to pressurize car 5 throughout the lap and got fully alongside on the inside of the car at the tight left hand turn on beach road. Again even though fully alongside on the inside of the corner the driver chose to turn in on me rather than give second best. This of course had the effect just to take car 5 around the outside of the corner in to the tyre wall.

The remainder of the race was less dramatic and I continued to make good progress up to the front end of the field and managed to gain a comfortable 6th place and was set to concentrate on attempting to gain 5th place from the Barawindsor car which I was gaining on hand over fist at the time. Cruel luck or call it what you like then set in with 2 laps to run, firstly losing 2nd and 4th gears then the front end of the car began moving around and rubbing on the cars bodywork which was due to the camber setting bolts working themselves loose. I had to drop my speed considerably in order to bring the car home across the finishing line. Having worked myself up in to a comfortable 6th place and able to challenge for 5th from 15th had been really enjoyable around this race track absolutely brilliant fun sanook sanook jing jing and then having to give back 6th place to car 33 and 7th place to car 58 Khun Hung right on the finishing line was a huge disappointment as it meant with surrendering my position of 6th I would lose out by 2 point in finishing 3rd in the overall championship race, a bitter pill to swallow as it had been my goal to finish in the top three in the championship overall.

Well that’s my first season of saloon car racing over with and I would like to congratulate both Khun Pitsanu and Khun Hung who finished first and second in the championship. With better maintenance and consistency I will be back next year to put up a stronger challenge for the championship, this year has been a sharp learning curve for sure.

I would like to thank Thomas and Paul my team mates in the Pizza Company Racing Team for all the support and understanding they have offered me throughout the season, at times I know I have been a real pain to them as I do sometime wear my heart on my sleeve, thanks guys for putting up with me and all the enjoyable moments we have had together.

Plans for next season are still up in the air, though I do intend to again race in the supercar series and perhaps join a further series to add to the racing calendar, watch this space for further news. The Yaris has already been taken to the Bangkok workshops where it will be fully stripped to the shell and rebuilt thoroughly in preparation for next years races, along with the three engines we intend to run.
23 Aug. 08 SuperCar Thailand Round 5 and 6 at Bira Circuit

From a Weekend of Great Expectation to a Weekend of Woe.

During the Thursday practice sessions we managed to fine tune the cars set up and were able to better our previous best times around the Bira Circuit by some 4 tenths of a second, with times recorded consistently in the 1.14.2 and the odd lap in the 1.14.1. So expectations were running high for a position close to the front of the grid during qualifying.  

Qualifying.
Qualifying went reasonably well up until the run down lap though it was proving difficult at times to get a clear lap with 23 cars running on track at the same time, the net result of which meant backing off and securing a gap to the car in front of you and then flooring it for a hot lap before again catching the car in front. Ideally it would have been nice to have a large enough gap to ensure 3 or 4 laps of clear track but this proved impossible and most efforts were limited to a hot lap back off for a lap then push for a further hot lap. In the end I recorded two laps in the 1.14.3 second bracket (1.14.344 and 1.14.369) which was good enough to secure a front row grid position of 2nd place for both rounds 5 and 6 with both times just 2 tenths of a second off pole and some 5 tenths clear of the third placed driver.

Obviously we were really happy for the qualifying result but joy turned to disappointment as when weighing in after the qualifying session the engine died and would not restart. Some quick checks in the pits revealed that we had dropped a valve in the engine and damaged two pistons so the engine would have to be changed out which meant being moved to the back of the grid as a penalty for an engine change……

The next problem was that with the engines normally being so reliable we don’t carry a spare race engine, so the hunt was on to obtain something that would allow me to race in rounds 5 and 6. I have to thank Hans Teitz who had an old spare engine that he had obtained from a scrap yard and had intended to modify as a spare engine for himself when running in the super 1500 open series. This would mean that I would be running with an engine untried and untested and we had no idea as to what it would give us, no matter at least we would be racing and it would in essence hopefully mean damage limitation in the points race for the championship positions. The other unsung team members I have to thank are my mechanics who worked throughout the night until  4.00am fitting the engine and ensuring it was running prior to race day proper.

Round 5.
With the engine untried and being penalized back to 19th place on the grid for the engine change, the red lights were out and we were off to a flyer until that is I tried to grab second gear and couldn’t engage second no matter what I tried but managed to engage third which obviously bogged the engine and the remaining cars in the field streamed by relegating me to dead last in 25th place. 

I managed to build some rhythm on the opening few laps and began working my way up through the field and I believe after 4 laps or so was up to around 14th place though with now being able to try the engine for the first time it was surely slow and I was some 2 seconds a lap slower with it than the normal lap pace I would expect to be running. As it turned out all the hard work of the mechanics during the night was for nothing as on the 5th lap the gear linkage connection in the engine compartment came apart and left me with no gears at all. I managed to coast through S1 and S2 and park up on the inside of Honda corner so at least just a short walk back to the pit. Round 5 of the championship was therefore a big disappointment to the whole team and also leaving us little to look forward to for Round 6 the next day knowing full well that we were down on power and would not be competitive at the front of the field where we have run all year.  

 
Round 6.      
With the gear linkage repaired we would again be starting from 19th place on the grid and prior to the race we targeted a top 10 finish only, due to the under powered engine. Though difficult to see the lights from 19th place on the grid I managed to make a reasonable start though blocked a little by the car in front of me not making a clean get away from 17th place. On the run down to turn one I was passed by a couple of cars which then made my mind up that I should attempt to drive around the outside of turn one and gain the inside for turn 2 the hairpin. Whatever places I lost on the run down to turn one I made up through the turn and also around turn 2 the hairpin.

As the engine was lacking so much speed it was down to myself to push as hard as I could on all parts of the track particularly through 100R, the two chicanes and Honda corners, at least on overall lap times I would be holding my own against the drivers I was racing against simply by running much higher corner speeds compensating for losing so much on the straights and bottom end power corners. At the end of the race we had managed to secure 9th place and it was the best we could have achieved with the tools at hand. I had driven harder throughout the race than in any of the previous rounds simply being let down by an engine that had seen better days.

Overall a weekend of disappointment though a couple of lessons learned for the future, the main lesson for sure being I will carry a spare race engine from now on, one that is to the exact specification as my normal race engine thus precluding any possibility of changing an engine and being left with something that is only good enough for a mid field finish. We now have to wait for the Bang Saen race in November before taking to the track again, almost 3 months of inactivity. Perhaps a couple of practice sessions and some running in of the new engines will help to fill the time. I will also be at Sepang next  weekend 29 / 30 August to cheer on my team mate Thomas Raldorf who is driving in the 12 hour endurance race, so another weekend of racing is taken care of……

11 July 08 SuperCar Thailand Round 3 and 4 at Bira Circuit

Tony Percy

Tony Percy and Paul Kenny

Tony Percy

Supercar Thailand Rounds 3 and 4  -  28th and 29th June 2008.

Another fantastic race weekend it turned out to be at the Bira International Circuit with a further two good points scoring podium finishes following on from the podium positions of Rounds 1 and 2. The net result of which is that I am in a solid third position in the overall championship race, just 3 points behind the second placed driver. Likewise the team (myself and Paul) are third in the team championship race. So 4 races are now complete with 3 remaining and the chase is certainly on for me to hopefully improve my position further in the championship race.

Qualifying.
Prior to qualifying we had completed a half day of testing earlier in the week and returned lap times consistently in the low 1.15’seconds on used slick tires, so we were hopeful of improving come qualifying time of being able to dip in to the 1.14 second bracket when using new tires.

With speed like that I would expect to see the car towards the front of the grid in qualifying for the remaining rounds.

Other than the excitement in the opening two laps of the qualifying session where I was being chased and pressured by Car No. 5 for some reason, (With speed like that I would expect to see car No. 5 towards the front of the grid in qualifying for the remaining rounds), the remaining laps were fairly uneventful and I have to say a little disappointing. Following our test session earlier in the week, I had expected to be able to record a time of somewhere in the 1.14 second bracket. In essence I much preferred the Yaris on used slicks with it moving around, rather than having almost to much grip on the new tires. In the end, I recorded two laps of 1.15.7 and 1.15.8 to secure 4th place, for both rounds 3 and 4, a full one second off where I had expected to be.  

Round 3
The red lights were out and again I had a good start from 4th on the grid managing to slot in to 3rd place after the initial scramble in turn one. Hung car 58 who had a great and really quick qualifying session, had a slow start, and was scrapping for 4th place behind me. Once Hung had managed to secure a gap in 4th place, he began closing down on me, and was clearly the faster car, during the early phase of the race. We had a great and clean scrap, with Hung quicker down the main straight, around turn one and up the hill to the hairpin. I was then slightly quicker than him around 100R and through the chicanes, so we spent 10 laps or so, with myself holding the line to keep him behind me in the first half of the lap and then driving flat out through the second half of the lap to try and build a small gap before coming back on to the main straight again. For me this was really enjoyable racing throughout, but eventually had to give second best to Hung, up the hill to the hairpin, I believe on or around lap 12.

I then spent the remaining laps of the race, trying to hunt down Hung, and during this period, I set the fastest lap of the race with a 1.14.523. We eventually finished the race with just 9 tenths of a second separating our two cars, with car 44 again coming out on top, some 4 seconds ahead of our scrap for second place, thoroughly enjoyable racing, ending with a good points scoring, third position.
 
Round 4      
Whilst sat on the grid waiting for the warm up lap to start my team mate Thomas, just happened to remind me of the “tower” incident in round 2, and to try not to repeat the act on the opening lap of this race, as there was so much oil dropped from the previous race and cement dust laid just about in every corner. Thomas’s last few words of advice was “take it easy on the opening couple of laps, until we find out where the track is slippery, and then push after that point, not before”…………..With Thomas’s words of advice ringing in my ears, the lights went out and we were off. Again I made a good start and managed to secure third place in the first corner. Car 44 was leading and Hung was holding second with myself in third. We all took it reasonably easy on the opening lap due to the oil, and then started to push on the second lap. The Yaris, I have to say, felt much better, for some reason in this race and was handling brilliantly, especially around 100R were I could close down on the car in front of me. On lap three I used this speed to close right down on Hung, and carried the speed through S1 and into S2 chicanes, I then ducked out and block passed in to Honda corner, though managing the pass on Hung, I brought with me Car 3 also, and under acceleration and due to difference in gear ratios of the Vios and Yaris, both Hung and Car 3 managed to pass me out of Honda and down the main straight. We spent the next couple of laps tied together, but coming up the hill and into the hairpin, I managed to get up the inside of Hung, and passed him, in to third place.

The race was then on to close down and try and pass car 3, who was not as quick as I was, and after a lap or so, I was on his case. I managed on at least 8 occasions to pull level through turns 1, the hairpin, S1 and down the straight, but car 3 was in blocking mode, and always had the upper hand, as he was holding the inside line, in to each and every corner. I was not going to attempt any kama kazi moves, and throw away a good solid points scoring position, especially as car 3 had not been in contention previously, at the front of the field. So we ended up fighting fairly and cleanly over second position, right to the flag, with both of us separated by just 3 tenths of a second, and some 3 seconds down on car 44 the race winner. During the period of closing down on car 3, I again set the fastest lap of the race, with a 1.14.592, which I believe is a lap record for our specific  race class…….

So overall two third place podium positions, which maintains the momentum in the championship race, and I now look forward to my first street race, which will be held in Korat on the 22nd , 23rd and 24th of August 2008.

 
23 Aug. 08 SuperCar Thailand Round 5 and 6 at Bira Circuit

From a Weekend of Great Expectation to a Weekend of Woe.

During the Thursday practice sessions we managed to fine tune the cars set up and were able to better our previous best times around the Bira Circuit by some 4 tenths of a second, with times recorded consistently in the 1.14.2 and the odd lap in the 1.14.1. So expectations were running high for a position close to the front of the grid during qualifying.  

Qualifying.
Qualifying went reasonably well up until the run down lap though it was proving difficult at times to get a clear lap with 23 cars running on track at the same time, the net result of which meant backing off and securing a gap to the car in front of you and then flooring it for a hot lap before again catching the car in front. Ideally it would have been nice to have a large enough gap to ensure 3 or 4 laps of clear track but this proved impossible and most efforts were limited to a hot lap back off for a lap then push for a further hot lap. In the end I recorded two laps in the 1.14.3 second bracket (1.14.344 and 1.14.369) which was good enough to secure a front row grid position of 2nd place for both rounds 5 and 6 with both times just 2 tenths of a second off pole and some 5 tenths clear of the third placed driver.

Obviously we were really happy for the qualifying result but joy turned to disappointment as when weighing in after the qualifying session the engine died and would not restart. Some quick checks in the pits revealed that we had dropped a valve in the engine and damaged two pistons so the engine would have to be changed out which meant being moved to the back of the grid as a penalty for an engine change……

The next problem was that with the engines normally being so reliable we don’t carry a spare race engine, so the hunt was on to obtain something that would allow me to race in rounds 5 and 6. I have to thank Hans Teitz who had an old spare engine that he had obtained from a scrap yard and had intended to modify as a spare engine for himself when running in the super 1500 open series. This would mean that I would be running with an engine untried and untested and we had no idea as to what it would give us, no matter at least we would be racing and it would in essence hopefully mean damage limitation in the points race for the championship positions. The other unsung team members I have to thank are my mechanics who worked throughout the night until  4.00am fitting the engine and ensuring it was running prior to race day proper.

Round 5.
With the engine untried and being penalized back to 19th place on the grid for the engine change, the red lights were out and we were off to a flyer until that is I tried to grab second gear and couldn’t engage second no matter what I tried but managed to engage third which obviously bogged the engine and the remaining cars in the field streamed by relegating me to dead last in 25th place. 

I managed to build some rhythm on the opening few laps and began working my way up through the field and I believe after 4 laps or so was up to around 14th place though with now being able to try the engine for the first time it was surely slow and I was some 2 seconds a lap slower with it than the normal lap pace I would expect to be running. As it turned out all the hard work of the mechanics during the night was for nothing as on the 5th lap the gear linkage connection in the engine compartment came apart and left me with no gears at all. I managed to coast through S1 and S2 and park up on the inside of Honda corner so at least just a short walk back to the pit. Round 5 of the championship was therefore a big disappointment to the whole team and also leaving us little to look forward to for Round 6 the next day knowing full well that we were down on power and would not be competitive at the front of the field where we have run all year.  

 
Round 6.      
With the gear linkage repaired we would again be starting from 19th place on the grid and prior to the race we targeted a top 10 finish only, due to the under powered engine. Though difficult to see the lights from 19th place on the grid I managed to make a reasonable start though blocked a little by the car in front of me not making a clean get away from 17th place. On the run down to turn one I was passed by a couple of cars which then made my mind up that I should attempt to drive around the outside of turn one and gain the inside for turn 2 the hairpin. Whatever places I lost on the run down to turn one I made up through the turn and also around turn 2 the hairpin.

As the engine was lacking so much speed it was down to myself to push as hard as I could on all parts of the track particularly through 100R, the two chicanes and Honda corners, at least on overall lap times I would be holding my own against the drivers I was racing against simply by running much higher corner speeds compensating for losing so much on the straights and bottom end power corners. At the end of the race we had managed to secure 9th place and it was the best we could have achieved with the tools at hand. I had driven harder throughout the race than in any of the previous rounds simply being let down by an engine that had seen better days.

Overall a weekend of disappointment though a couple of lessons learned for the future, the main lesson for sure being I will carry a spare race engine from now on, one that is to the exact specification as my normal race engine thus precluding any possibility of changing an engine and being left with something that is only good enough for a mid field finish. We now have to wait for the Bang Saen race in November before taking to the track again, almost 3 months of inactivity. Perhaps a couple of practice sessions and some running in of the new engines will help to fill the time. I will also be at Sepang next  weekend 29 / 30 August to cheer on my team mate Thomas Raldorf who is driving in the 12 hour endurance race, so another weekend of racing is taken care of……

11 July 08 SuperCar Thailand Round 3 and 4 at Bira Circuit

Tony Percy

Tony Percy and Paul Kenny

Tony Percy

Supercar Thailand Rounds 3 and 4  -  28th and 29th June 2008.

Another fantastic race weekend it turned out to be at the Bira International Circuit with a further two good points scoring podium finishes following on from the podium positions of Rounds 1 and 2. The net result of which is that I am in a solid third position in the overall championship race, just 3 points behind the second placed driver. Likewise the team (myself and Paul) are third in the team championship race. So 4 races are now complete with 3 remaining and the chase is certainly on for me to hopefully improve my position further in the championship race.

Qualifying.
Prior to qualifying we had completed a half day of testing earlier in the week and returned lap times consistently in the low 1.15’seconds on used slick tires, so we were hopeful of improving come qualifying time of being able to dip in to the 1.14 second bracket when using new tires.

With speed like that I would expect to see the car towards the front of the grid in qualifying for the remaining rounds.

Other than the excitement in the opening two laps of the qualifying session where I was being chased and pressured by Car No. 5 for some reason, (With speed like that I would expect to see car No. 5 towards the front of the grid in qualifying for the remaining rounds), the remaining laps were fairly uneventful and I have to say a little disappointing. Following our test session earlier in the week, I had expected to be able to record a time of somewhere in the 1.14 second bracket. In essence I much preferred the Yaris on used slicks with it moving around, rather than having almost to much grip on the new tires. In the end, I recorded two laps of 1.15.7 and 1.15.8 to secure 4th place, for both rounds 3 and 4, a full one second off where I had expected to be.  

Round 3
The red lights were out and again I had a good start from 4th on the grid managing to slot in to 3rd place after the initial scramble in turn one. Hung car 58 who had a great and really quick qualifying session, had a slow start, and was scrapping for 4th place behind me. Once Hung had managed to secure a gap in 4th place, he began closing down on me, and was clearly the faster car, during the early phase of the race. We had a great and clean scrap, with Hung quicker down the main straight, around turn one and up the hill to the hairpin. I was then slightly quicker than him around 100R and through the chicanes, so we spent 10 laps or so, with myself holding the line to keep him behind me in the first half of the lap and then driving flat out through the second half of the lap to try and build a small gap before coming back on to the main straight again. For me this was really enjoyable racing throughout, but eventually had to give second best to Hung, up the hill to the hairpin, I believe on or around lap 12.

I then spent the remaining laps of the race, trying to hunt down Hung, and during this period, I set the fastest lap of the race with a 1.14.523. We eventually finished the race with just 9 tenths of a second separating our two cars, with car 44 again coming out on top, some 4 seconds ahead of our scrap for second place, thoroughly enjoyable racing, ending with a good points scoring, third position.
 
Round 4      
Whilst sat on the grid waiting for the warm up lap to start my team mate Thomas, just happened to remind me of the “tower” incident in round 2, and to try not to repeat the act on the opening lap of this race, as there was so much oil dropped from the previous race and cement dust laid just about in every corner. Thomas’s last few words of advice was “take it easy on the opening couple of laps, until we find out where the track is slippery, and then push after that point, not before”…………..With Thomas’s words of advice ringing in my ears, the lights went out and we were off. Again I made a good start and managed to secure third place in the first corner. Car 44 was leading and Hung was holding second with myself in third. We all took it reasonably easy on the opening lap due to the oil, and then started to push on the second lap. The Yaris, I have to say, felt much better, for some reason in this race and was handling brilliantly, especially around 100R were I could close down on the car in front of me. On lap three I used this speed to close right down on Hung, and carried the speed through S1 and into S2 chicanes, I then ducked out and block passed in to Honda corner, though managing the pass on Hung, I brought with me Car 3 also, and under acceleration and due to difference in gear ratios of the Vios and Yaris, both Hung and Car 3 managed to pass me out of Honda and down the main straight. We spent the next couple of laps tied together, but coming up the hill and into the hairpin, I managed to get up the inside of Hung, and passed him, in to third place.

The race was then on to close down and try and pass car 3, who was not as quick as I was, and after a lap or so, I was on his case. I managed on at least 8 occasions to pull level through turns 1, the hairpin, S1 and down the straight, but car 3 was in blocking mode, and always had the upper hand, as he was holding the inside line, in to each and every corner. I was not going to attempt any kama kazi moves, and throw away a good solid points scoring position, especially as car 3 had not been in contention previously, at the front of the field. So we ended up fighting fairly and cleanly over second position, right to the flag, with both of us separated by just 3 tenths of a second, and some 3 seconds down on car 44 the race winner. During the period of closing down on car 3, I again set the fastest lap of the race, with a 1.14.592, which I believe is a lap record for our specific  race class…….

So overall two third place podium positions, which maintains the momentum in the championship race, and I now look forward to my first street race, which will be held in Korat on the 22nd , 23rd and 24th of August 2008.

 
23 Aug. 08 SuperCar Thailand Round 5 and 6 at Bira Circuit

From a Weekend of Great Expectation to a Weekend of Woe.

During the Thursday practice sessions we managed to fine tune the cars set up and were able to better our previous best times around the Bira Circuit by some 4 tenths of a second, with times recorded consistently in the 1.14.2 and the odd lap in the 1.14.1. So expectations were running high for a position close to the front of the grid during qualifying.  

Qualifying.
Qualifying went reasonably well up until the run down lap though it was proving difficult at times to get a clear lap with 23 cars running on track at the same time, the net result of which meant backing off and securing a gap to the car in front of you and then flooring it for a hot lap before again catching the car in front. Ideally it would have been nice to have a large enough gap to ensure 3 or 4 laps of clear track but this proved impossible and most efforts were limited to a hot lap back off for a lap then push for a further hot lap. In the end I recorded two laps in the 1.14.3 second bracket (1.14.344 and 1.14.369) which was good enough to secure a front row grid position of 2nd place for both rounds 5 and 6 with both times just 2 tenths of a second off pole and some 5 tenths clear of the third placed driver.

Obviously we were really happy for the qualifying result but joy turned to disappointment as when weighing in after the qualifying session the engine died and would not restart. Some quick checks in the pits revealed that we had dropped a valve in the engine and damaged two pistons so the engine would have to be changed out which meant being moved to the back of the grid as a penalty for an engine change……

The next problem was that with the engines normally being so reliable we don’t carry a spare race engine, so the hunt was on to obtain something that would allow me to race in rounds 5 and 6. I have to thank Hans Teitz who had an old spare engine that he had obtained from a scrap yard and had intended to modify as a spare engine for himself when running in the super 1500 open series. This would mean that I would be running with an engine untried and untested and we had no idea as to what it would give us, no matter at least we would be racing and it would in essence hopefully mean damage limitation in the points race for the championship positions. The other unsung team members I have to thank are my mechanics who worked throughout the night until  4.00am fitting the engine and ensuring it was running prior to race day proper.

Round 5.
With the engine untried and being penalized back to 19th place on the grid for the engine change, the red lights were out and we were off to a flyer until that is I tried to grab second gear and couldn’t engage second no matter what I tried but managed to engage third which obviously bogged the engine and the remaining cars in the field streamed by relegating me to dead last in 25th place. 

I managed to build some rhythm on the opening few laps and began working my way up through the field and I believe after 4 laps or so was up to around 14th place though with now being able to try the engine for the first time it was surely slow and I was some 2 seconds a lap slower with it than the normal lap pace I would expect to be running. As it turned out all the hard work of the mechanics during the night was for nothing as on the 5th lap the gear linkage connection in the engine compartment came apart and left me with no gears at all. I managed to coast through S1 and S2 and park up on the inside of Honda corner so at least just a short walk back to the pit. Round 5 of the championship was therefore a big disappointment to the whole team and also leaving us little to look forward to for Round 6 the next day knowing full well that we were down on power and would not be competitive at the front of the field where we have run all year.  

 
Round 6.      
With the gear linkage repaired we would again be starting from 19th place on the grid and prior to the race we targeted a top 10 finish only, due to the under powered engine. Though difficult to see the lights from 19th place on the grid I managed to make a reasonable start though blocked a little by the car in front of me not making a clean get away from 17th place. On the run down to turn one I was passed by a couple of cars which then made my mind up that I should attempt to drive around the outside of turn one and gain the inside for turn 2 the hairpin. Whatever places I lost on the run down to turn one I made up through the turn and also around turn 2 the hairpin.

As the engine was lacking so much speed it was down to myself to push as hard as I could on all parts of the track particularly through 100R, the two chicanes and Honda corners, at least on overall lap times I would be holding my own against the drivers I was racing against simply by running much higher corner speeds compensating for losing so much on the straights and bottom end power corners. At the end of the race we had managed to secure 9th place and it was the best we could have achieved with the tools at hand. I had driven harder throughout the race than in any of the previous rounds simply being let down by an engine that had seen better days.

Overall a weekend of disappointment though a couple of lessons learned for the future, the main lesson for sure being I will carry a spare race engine from now on, one that is to the exact specification as my normal race engine thus precluding any possibility of changing an engine and being left with something that is only good enough for a mid field finish. We now have to wait for the Bang Saen race in November before taking to the track again, almost 3 months of inactivity. Perhaps a couple of practice sessions and some running in of the new engines will help to fill the time. I will also be at Sepang next  weekend 29 / 30 August to cheer on my team mate Thomas Raldorf who is driving in the 12 hour endurance race, so another weekend of racing is taken care of……

11 July 08 SuperCar Thailand Round 3 and 4 at Bira Circuit

Tony Percy

Tony Percy and Paul Kenny

Tony Percy

Supercar Thailand Rounds 3 and 4  -  28th and 29th June 2008.

Another fantastic race weekend it turned out to be at the Bira International Circuit with a further two good points scoring podium finishes following on from the podium positions of Rounds 1 and 2. The net result of which is that I am in a solid third position in the overall championship race, just 3 points behind the second placed driver. Likewise the team (myself and Paul) are third in the team championship race. So 4 races are now complete with 3 remaining and the chase is certainly on for me to hopefully improve my position further in the championship race.

Qualifying.
Prior to qualifying we had completed a half day of testing earlier in the week and returned lap times consistently in the low 1.15’seconds on used slick tires, so we were hopeful of improving come qualifying time of being able to dip in to the 1.14 second bracket when using new tires.

With speed like that I would expect to see the car towards the front of the grid in qualifying for the remaining rounds.

Other than the excitement in the opening two laps of the qualifying session where I was being chased and pressured by Car No. 5 for some reason, (With speed like that I would expect to see car No. 5 towards the front of the grid in qualifying for the remaining rounds), the remaining laps were fairly uneventful and I have to say a little disappointing. Following our test session earlier in the week, I had expected to be able to record a time of somewhere in the 1.14 second bracket. In essence I much preferred the Yaris on used slicks with it moving around, rather than having almost to much grip on the new tires. In the end, I recorded two laps of 1.15.7 and 1.15.8 to secure 4th place, for both rounds 3 and 4, a full one second off where I had expected to be.  

Round 3
The red lights were out and again I had a good start from 4th on the grid managing to slot in to 3rd place after the initial scramble in turn one. Hung car 58 who had a great and really quick qualifying session, had a slow start, and was scrapping for 4th place behind me. Once Hung had managed to secure a gap in 4th place, he began closing down on me, and was clearly the faster car, during the early phase of the race. We had a great and clean scrap, with Hung quicker down the main straight, around turn one and up the hill to the hairpin. I was then slightly quicker than him around 100R and through the chicanes, so we spent 10 laps or so, with myself holding the line to keep him behind me in the first half of the lap and then driving flat out through the second half of the lap to try and build a small gap before coming back on to the main straight again. For me this was really enjoyable racing throughout, but eventually had to give second best to Hung, up the hill to the hairpin, I believe on or around lap 12.

I then spent the remaining laps of the race, trying to hunt down Hung, and during this period, I set the fastest lap of the race with a 1.14.523. We eventually finished the race with just 9 tenths of a second separating our two cars, with car 44 again coming out on top, some 4 seconds ahead of our scrap for second place, thoroughly enjoyable racing, ending with a good points scoring, third position.
 
Round 4      
Whilst sat on the grid waiting for the warm up lap to start my team mate Thomas, just happened to remind me of the “tower” incident in round 2, and to try not to repeat the act on the opening lap of this race, as there was so much oil dropped from the previous race and cement dust laid just about in every corner. Thomas’s last few words of advice was “take it easy on the opening couple of laps, until we find out where the track is slippery, and then push after that point, not before”…………..With Thomas’s words of advice ringing in my ears, the lights went out and we were off. Again I made a good start and managed to secure third place in the first corner. Car 44 was leading and Hung was holding second with myself in third. We all took it reasonably easy on the opening lap due to the oil, and then started to push on the second lap. The Yaris, I have to say, felt much better, for some reason in this race and was handling brilliantly, especially around 100R were I could close down on the car in front of me. On lap three I used this speed to close right down on Hung, and carried the speed through S1 and into S2 chicanes, I then ducked out and block passed in to Honda corner, though managing the pass on Hung, I brought with me Car 3 also, and under acceleration and due to difference in gear ratios of the Vios and Yaris, both Hung and Car 3 managed to pass me out of Honda and down the main straight. We spent the next couple of laps tied together, but coming up the hill and into the hairpin, I managed to get up the inside of Hung, and passed him, in to third place.

The race was then on to close down and try and pass car 3, who was not as quick as I was, and after a lap or so, I was on his case. I managed on at least 8 occasions to pull level through turns 1, the hairpin, S1 and down the straight, but car 3 was in blocking mode, and always had the upper hand, as he was holding the inside line, in to each and every corner. I was not going to attempt any kama kazi moves, and throw away a good solid points scoring position, especially as car 3 had not been in contention previously, at the front of the field. So we ended up fighting fairly and cleanly over second position, right to the flag, with both of us separated by just 3 tenths of a second, and some 3 seconds down on car 44 the race winner. During the period of closing down on car 3, I again set the fastest lap of the race, with a 1.14.592, which I believe is a lap record for our specific  race class…….

So overall two third place podium positions, which maintains the momentum in the championship race, and I now look forward to my first street race, which will be held in Korat on the 22nd , 23rd and 24th of August 2008.

1 May 08 Tony flies at the season opening races

Tony Percy

Tony Percy
Tony Percy

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 did’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.

1 May 08 Tony at the "2008 Fast Forward Faster"

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.

21 Apr. 08 BIRA PRE-SEASON TESTING 14 AND 15 APRIL 2008.

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.

10 Mar. 08 Tony Percy to race with Pizza Company Racing Team for 2008

Tony Percy

Tony Percy preparing for the 2008 season

Tony Percy
(Racing CV)


Date of Birth:

26th of January 1955

Current age:

53 Years

Nationality:

British

Started Racing in:

1999

Career best in Thailand:

Thai Karting Champion 2003

Race results:

2001

Runner up to Thai Karting Champion (class: Clubman 125cc)

2003

Thai Karting Champion (class: Clubman 125cc)

2003

3rd overall in Thai Rotax Max Challenge (part season raced only)

2006

4th overall in Clubman 125cc Class (part season raced only)

Remarks: Tony did not drive due to work commitments outside of Thailand in:
2002, 2004(1 race), 2005 and 2007.
Whilst racing in 2006, Tony sustained 4 broken ribs during the 5th round of the Thai karting championship series, thus precluding him from completing the season.
Plans for 2008:
I plan to race in the Super 1500 class of the Thai Supercar series and in addition compete in the endurance races planned for this year.
The 2008 season will be doubly enjoyable by being able to race on a tracks such as Sepang in Malaysia, an experience I am really looking forward to.

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.

Future Plans:
To have a successful 2008 season and justify the drive my sponsors have afforded me.

Tony Percy

National Kart Champion

Tony at 2008SuperCar Round 4Tony Percy