Nitto 3K Racing Car Thailand 2010 Rd 3, Bira Circuit - July 31: Recovering Crashed Cars

The third round of the Nitto 3K Racing Car Thailand 2010 championship took place on the series' home circuit at Bira over the weekend drawing an array of club racers, most Honda and Toyota models from through the ages. The programme draws together a wide variety of cars with reasonably limited levels of preparation to contest a number of different races and classes with many of the cars able to contest more than one race over the weekend or with more that one driver sharing the wheel. It's a low cost "club racing" format that works well, with plenty of wheel-to-wheel action, in cars that are mostly equal in performance. This year there are six rounds, all of which take place at the Bira circuit.

The Bira International Circuit, to use the track's full title, is named after Thailand's most famous racing historic driver, H.H. Prince Birabongse Bhanutej Bhanubandh, and is a 2.41-km, 11-turn test which includes elevation changes, a double apex bend, a constant-radius 360-degree turn (which drops sharply) and a fast chicane. It's usually hot too, and at around 20 kilometres inland from the sprawling costal resort of Pattaya it doesn't benefit from any cool sea breezes while its also well above sea level, and today with only some wispy cloud cover, it's baking hot.

Due to other commitments there is only time for a very brief visit to the series action on Saturday afternoon. The weekend-long format of the Nitto 3K Racing Car Thailand 2010 series calls for practice runs on the Friday, qualifying taking place on Saturday morning before the races kick off in the afternoon and carry at a rapid-fire pace throughout Sunday. The bulk of the machines in action, as can be expected, are drawn from the Japanese brands that utterly dominate the Thai automotive landscape, models such as Toyota's Vios and Yaris and Honda's Civic and Integra (there are "one make" races for the latter's Civic) while there is also a well-supported one make race series for Izusu's turbodiesel pick-up. The "Retro" class races though throw out some interesting diversity and alongside the hordes of ageing, square-cut Toyota Corollas are a pair of elderly and well-worn VW Beetles and several of BMW's E30-vintage 3-series'. Also popping up on the track in the "Retro" class a Ford Escort MkI and the bulky, chunky shape of a Volvo 740. The historic racing action is pretty frantic with a pair of very evenly matched Corollas slugging it out together for supremacy clear at the front while the big dark-blue Volvo is somewhat swamped by the field at the green lights from its solid grid slot.

There is one biggish accident through a race later at Turn 5, the kink just after the infield access road under the track, as two Honda Civics, fighting for the leading position (after starting from the front row of the grid) down the fast downhill section that leads from the 360-degree bend, collide, and head straight for the gravel trap. The blue-and-white liveried #5 machine ends up with severe right hand front corner damage and a wheel torn off, the left hand front corner is also pushed back, while the #56 black car comes to rest on its roof, dug firmly into the gravel trap. The race is red flagged, the safety crews are very quickly on the scene and the two stricken machines are eventually dragged out and winched onto flatbeds (the upturned car having been rolled back onto its wheels) before the afternoon's racing action gets back underway.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• nitto
• 3k
• racing
• car
• bira
• thailand
• pattaya
• 2010
• toyota
• honda
• ford
• escort
• isuzu
• civic
• vios
• volvo
• corolla
• corona
• vw
• beetle
• integra

[cutenukkah]

i want my car to look like that minus the accident

[TokuMR]

ยับเยิน

[kengrcw]

Thank you

KengRacing