TCR Asia’s and TCR Thailand’s competitors raced together at Bangsaen’s Street Circuit, where Tin Sritrai and his Team Thailand Honda Civic won the first race after they survived a pile up at the start that decimated the field. The incident was caused by a manoeuvre of pole sitter Kantadhee Kusiri in the Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf that is being investigated by the Stewards.
At the start, Kusiri’s Golf swerved to the left and hit Sritrai’s Honda; the collision caused a pile up that involved six other cars. Those of Kusiri, Abdul Kaathir (R Engineering Honda), Rattanin Leenutaphong (Yontrakit Racing SEAT), Douglas Khoo (Viper Niza Racing SEAT) and Kittipol Ayudhya (Singha Motorsport SEAT) were too damaged to rejoin and the race was suspended to recover them.
When the race restarted, less than 15 minutes were left on the clock. Lai Wee Sing made the best start in the second R Engineering Honda Civic and led from Sritrai who was followed by Shaun Thong (Audi Hong Kong) and Diego Moran (Liqui Moly Team Engstler Golf). On lap 2 Sritrai dived inside Lai’s car and overtook it after a light contact.
On lap 4, S. Thong tried to overtake Lai for second, but he outbraked himself and went wide; Moran was following closely and could not avoid the collision. Both drivers managed to rejoin having lost a few positions. On lap 5, Pasarit Promsombat (RMI Racing SEAT) overtook Jasper Thong (Audi Hong Kong) for third.
After seven laps, the chequered flag hailed Sritrai as the winner, while Lai beat Promsombat for second. J. Thong, Nattanid Leewattanavaragul (RMI Racing SEAT) and Chariya Nuya (Billionaire Boy Racing Honda) filled the positions from fourth to sixth, while S. Thong and Moran finished in seventh and tenth respectively.
After the race J. Thong was given a 30-second time penalty for jump start and finally he was excluded as his car failed at the ride height check.
The second race will start tomorrow at 13:05 local time (8:05 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.tv.
