While the main action was taking place on the tortuous 3.7 kilometre long street circuit, the party action at the Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival 2009 was in full swing at the Activity Zone located behind the grandstands opposite the winners rostrum, a relatively narrow strip of promenade backing onto the sea where the sponsors and trade firms were pushing their angle. Toyota had the biggest gig, topped by a line-up of heavily customised cars. While one of the drawbacks of the circuit is that the key function locations, such as the pits/paddock, start/finish line, rostrum, media centre, etc, are all split away from each other, a problem that always faces a street circuit, the location of the Activity Zone on the cape was quite an idyllic setting. While sections of this coastline, such as Pattaya, has lost any charm in the relentless building of hotels and apartment blocks and the consequent sewage discharges, Bangsaen remains pretty much unspolit both on land and in the sparkling blue waters, although the vast beachfront is simply ripe for development, so one assumes that planning applications are swatted away with gusto. Apart from the new, upmarket The Tide Resort which has been pretty tastefully integrated into the landscape there are just a small handful of high rise apartments that are quite scattered so Bangsaen retains the air of a traditional, sleepy fishing village: ancient wooden boats with peeling paint and piled high with tattered nets bob at their moorings, seafood is the only order of the day at the tranquil restaurants that dot the waterfront. These eateries seem almost oblivious of the scream of racing engines just a dozen metres away: the lazy pace of life here isnt going to hurry when motor racing glitz and glamour, a la Macau or Monte Carlo hits town for the week.
Fishing is really synonymous with Bangsaen and the cape is dominated by a huge fish-shaped monument. There are a handful fake trees with clusters of pink LEDs on their branches that look quite beautiful when lit it up at night and huge rocks have been left by the promenade builders which have worked round these monolithic objects to retain the pleasant charm of the waterfront while building in protection from the pounding of the tides.
Toyota has the biggest presence here, and in the sponsors' village its red-and-white colours hold sway with a zone that includes a stage, various models from their road range and a grandstand for their guests next to the podium. The Japanese brand holds a brisk contest for customised cars, a long double of lurid coloured and wild bodykitted cars with music blaring, seemingly a pretty even split between the Yaris and Vios. One Yaris has a mini-disco going on inside, its a sea of flashing strobe lights, booming, clouds of dry ice and flickering LEDs, while another has combined door, floor and seat sections that slide outwards. Of particular note, it needs mentioning, is the brutal BMW M1 racer lurking on the Three Crowns stand, looking as potent as it did when it was first in action two decades ago.
There is a Singha party with stage and bands, and when the drifting kings are introduced onto the PTT stage, the crowd goes instantly to 20-deep. Finally on Saturday night there is a firework show. This is in listed the programme for both Friday and Saturday and it eventually happens on the latter of these days. No one seemingly knows anything about it and I chase dead end after dead end trying to find if or when its going to happen. Eventually it takes place although its timing means most people have gone and its location is too far away on the headland opposite the cape so all the drama, lights and noise of what is a pretty good firework display is somewhat lost. With the Activity Zone and non-racing entertainment the organisers have made strenuous efforts to turn Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival into a good day's entertainment.
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i wan make sounsystem at thailand duno cheap anot
KaCaNgGuru 1 year ago
i like jazz/fit than yaris :)
AgentZero1728 2 years ago
cool video. Lots of nice Yarii
lowsushi 2 years ago