After the drama of the opening race at the Bangsaen Grand Prix, the start of round eight of the 2017 TCR Asia Series saw much drawn breath around the circuit, as the 15 remaining cars from Saturday’s aborted first start, drove off the line and through to turn one – fortunately – without any contact.
Sadly though, the inevitable contact did continue, with first a stoppage to recover three stricken cars mid-race, before the final red flag for TCR Asia came within sight of the finish after points leader WS Lai collected race leader Jasper Thong under brakes down at turn 18, putting both into the barriers.
That allowed the closely following Tin Sritrai to move into the lead, and after the Safety Car was deployed, the race was ultimately declared, handing the Thai driver back-to-back wins at home, with Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Diego Moran and local favourite Nattanid Leewattanavaragul completing the podium.
Emotions were running high post-race, and continue to smolder on social media, but despite the tensions, the underlying result of TCR’s first visit to the beachside circuit was success, with drivers, teams, sponsors and the Thai fans themselves declaring the event a huge success with plans already underway for a return in season 2018.
“It has been a very good weekend for me, best time of my life. Double race wins at Bangsaen – my home circuit – where I had a lot of pressure across the weekend because a lot was expected of me. I knew I was fast from practice, but I wasn’t sure what the weekend would bring, but two wins is fantastic, I’m very very happy. There were a lot of accidents going on, but I just had to focus on my driving and what was going on in front of me, I feel very lucky this weekend.”
