The annual Thailand International Touring Championships is held in hot and humid Bangkok, Thailand. This time, it came back to the famous RC Addict circuit. This race is particularly difficult and competitive since many of the world’s top RC drivers call Bangkok their home. The event saw 300+ competitors from all over Asia attending in 5 different classes.
The super competitive modified class saw most of the world’s top drivers attending. The teams arrive up to two weeks before the actual race even starts, just to get more track time. I arrived together with my team mate Bruno on Tuesday the week before the race. We immediately started testing to find the best set-up for this track where track conditions vary a lot depending on the time of the day. The controlled Ride REX 34 tire is the same as used in the ETS series.
Working closely together with Bruno, we soon managed to fine tune our setups to suit this technical track. Choosing to not use the ARS system for this track, we found a more stable rear end with plenty of forward traction. We think the ARS works really well but not when there are bumpy high speed sections as on the RC Addict track. We played around with roll centers, damping, last but not least we played around with diff oils, finally opting to use a very thick 20K rear differential which helped the car to carry better corner speed in these very hot conditions.
My car was very good all throughout practice, eventually we also sorted out Bruno’s car which meant that for the controlled practice, Bruno would take the top spot, and myself in 3rd. We knew that we had a good base for qualifying.
In qualifying, it would be about the tire strategy as always as we could use 4 new sets for 6 rounds of qualifying, with 3 rounds to count. In the end I managed to take the overall TQ with 2 x 1st place and 1 x 2nd on a tie break with my Q5 being the quickest overall 5 minute run, due to it being run at 5 PM (happy hour). Bruno would line up 2nd for a fantastic XRAY 1-2 after a great drive as well.
In the finals, we would battle it out for the win. In A1 I was fighting closely with Bruno until the 4 minute mark when he accidentally tapped the outer wall on the main straight, causing his car to get unsettled. I could take the A1 in front of Bruno and Meen. In A2, unfortunately Bruno was hit by the #3 car Meen on the 2nd lap which ended both their races. Ronald would move up to 2nd, chasing me down for the rest of the race, but I managed to keep a steady gap after a very consistent drive. It felt fantastic to bring home the overall win at this event, where I have previously struggled. I seriously think it’s one of the most difficult TC events to win, and thus, the result feels even more rewarding!
Since I sat out A3, Bruno would fight with Meen for the overall 2nd place as they both virtually had new tires still for A3. Bruno’s car got unsettled going over the curbing in the sweeper after the main straight, which opened the door for Meen. Bruno made a very nice pass to get him back the following lap, but eventually Meen closed the door on the corner exit which flipped Brunos car onto its roof. Very bad luck as he had to recover from a lower position. Bruno would finish 5th overall which is still a great result in this strong competition!
In the open brushless class, local Thai driver Natee T. managed to take a strong 7th position overall with his XRAY T4'15 car!
I want to send out a big thanks to XRAY, Hudy, Suwich Vataniyapramote (XRAY Thailand), my team mate Bruno Coelho and all other friends & fans. Without all of you this result would not be possible. I hope to see you all next year again in Thailand!
Modified results:
- Alexander Hagberg - XRAY T4'15
- Meen Vejrak
- Ronald Völker
- Jilles Groskamp
- Bruno Coelho - XRAY T4'15
- Chavit Sirigupta
- Nicholas Lee
- Atsushi Hara
- Marc Rheinard
- Viktor Wilck
In the end we managed:
- TQ
- Win
- Fastest single lap
- Fastest qualifying run
- TQ in practice
- Qualified 1-2
- Finished 1-5
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