A productive weekend at Sepang Circuit to end a busy year on track. B-Quik Racing’s double programme for this event saw four of our young drivers running in the prestigious Sepang 1000 Km in a Toyota Vios while we also entered two cars in the final round of the Audi Sport R8 LMS Cup 2018 for Henk J. Kiks and Daniel Bilski.
We came here with the B-Quik Young Driver Programme in order to gain more experience, the Sepang 1000 Km being the perfect way to end an intensive season that has seen the new intake, the “Class of 2018”, tackling short races, endurance races, one make races and street races.
Our four rookie drivers – Jerasak Kongplab, Adisak Tangphuncharoen, Pongtanu Kamsai and Attapon Kaewarsa – only sat in a racecar for the first time in May and had never seen Sepang Circuit before. They hadn’t driven at night either and this year the race was scheduled to finish just before 10 pm. Our Toyota Vios wasn’t at the same power levels of our class rivals so they would have to fight hard to make up any positions.
The #126 Vios was supported by a crew of young technicians who are hand-picked from B-Quik’s nationwide chain of service centres and are being groomed so that the best will join the main team. The target was to be learning in every area.
The four drivers simply didn’t put a foot wrong all week, they raced consistently and with an improving pace, while the crew prepared a car that ran like clockwork for the whole 1,000 kilometres, which added up to 181 laps of the famously demanding Malaysian circuit. With a well-planned strategy in play and fast pitstops being executed we were able to steadily make up places as the race unfolded and eventually we finished inside the class top ten which was an extra bonus.
Meanwhile also at Sepang, we entered Henk and Daniel in the final round of the Audi R8 Sport LMS Cup and with the focus of last weekend’s bulging programme being on night racing, the first race of the ‘one make’ series reserved for GT3 versions of the R8 was held under Sepang’s just installed floodlights.
Daniel was driving the #27 R8 LMS Ultra GT3 that he raced this season in Thailand Super Series. The Australian is a former double “Audi Cup” champion and this was something of a “bookend” as he also entered the opening round of the series this year. Henk, meanwhile, was driving the R8 GT3 for the first time so he had work to do to get up to speed in the car and start to unlock its potential.
Both drivers did superbly in the races that were hard fought and incident filled and both finished Saturday’s late-night Race 1, as well as Sunday’s early afternoon Race 2, inside the top ten. The best result going to Daniel who tenaciously fought his way up to P6 in Race 2.
Our weekend wasn’t just about Sepang though as our Young Driver Programme was also in action in the final round of RAAT Thailand Endurance Championship 2018, which took place on Sunday at Buriram’s Chang International Circuit.
This time the graduates of the “Class of 2017”, Narin Naeosathon and Sathaporn Veerachue, were the drivers involved and they were behind the wheel of our #25 Honda Brio entered in the “Eco” class. They hit mechanical problems during the 6-hour race, however, the crew were able to get the car back into the race and to the finishline in P2 to cap off a good weekend in two countries for our young crews.
This weekend’s action concludes our year on track. However, this coming week we look forward to the “Thailand Super Series Champions Night 2018” where we will collect our Super Car GTM Drivers’ and Teams’ title trophies while the B-Quik Company will also show two of our racecars on its booth at the Thailand International Motor Expo when it opens its doors in Muang Thong Thani this coming week.
Source. B-Quik Racing
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