Car Club Festival @ Bira Circuit: Paddock, Pits & Races (I)

Twenty two niche car clubs from across the country have come together at the Bira Circuit near Pattaya for the Car Club Festival organised by the Super Club Thailand 2010. The idea being for the different clubs, all united by an overriding passion for the automobile, would mix together, showcase themselves and take part in activities, notably plenty of diversified on-track racing action.

The clubs dotted around the infield are made up of the: Toyota Corolla 80, Eleven R.D. Chantaburi Car Club, 2 Drivers Rayong Club, AE Racing Club, Vios Club & One Make Race, Freestyle, Saraburi Racing Circuit 2010, Corona Club Burapha, Chonburi Friend Club, KE Club Chonburi, Euro Club Race, Unity Honda & Corona Club, MR2, VIP Club Thailand, 200 SX & Silvia, Cefiro Thailand, Sport Truck Club, JDM Racing Attack, EG 3D Car Club, Super club My Friends, Toronto Club and the Daihatsu Club. There are plenty of banners on show and some have set up booths and displays and have accessories for sale.

Its a typical hot day at the Bira Circuit- which draws its name from H.H. Prince Birabongse Bhanutej Bhanubandh a famous and quite successful Thai racer who took part in 19 grands prix during the first half of the 1950s – which is located just 15 km north east of the popular seaside resort of Pattaya and is also bang on 100 km south of Bangkok. The clubs are scattered up and down the pitlane and around the paddock, grouped in clusters, identified by the brands or genres they are focused. From the tiny Daihatsu Mira, through to the ever-present mass market hatchbacks and sedans, such as the Honda Civic and Toyota Vios, to a variety of Japanese performance imports including Nissan’s Silvia and 200 SX, Toyota’s Celica and a lurid body kitted Porsche 944 with flush-fitting headlights, the big-power brigade topped off by an eye-catching canary-yellow Honda NSX. This muscular steroid-breathing collection is on show centre-stage, spread out along the pitlane. Along the way there are body styling kits of all shapes, sizes, finishes and taste, and many racecars, which are the cornerstone of the event, duelling it out for honours on track all day. There is also a group of highly-customised cars in attendance, polished and gleaming from end-to-end, with complex multi-colour-and-effect paint finishes, huge mirror-clear chromed wheels squeezed into wheel arches which almost rub the ground, and interiors that have been reinterpreted as mobile nightclubs. These customised creations range all the way from the tiny Toyota Yaris to the bulky shape of its biggest sister, the Camry, and include a bronzed Mazda 323 Protege, a shiny green-blue Toyota and a brilliant-white Honda City. Its almost exclusively Japanese brands on show today with just a handful of BMW road and racer cars, a couple of Fords, as well as a lone Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and a very rare Volvo 262-based ‘tourer’ providing the diversity.

Amongst this assortment is a big mix of racers, and these take to the track to contest a rapid-fire series of encounters that are mostly 20 minutes in duration, usually involving two similar-style club’s members running together, and range from around 8 to 10 laps with many cars popping up with different drivers and door number decals to fight it out in more than one race. The cars in action are mostly stock Thai racing production material, generally boasting 1500/1600 cc engines and lightly modified. There is also a mix of historics with a large turn out of the square-cut early-1980s Toyota Corolla/Corona sedans which have an active following in Thailand with three clubs in evidence today that cater for these machines. And they always seize the chance to go head-to-head when the opportunity presents itself. There is also an immaculate white-and-blue Ford Escort Mk1 racer lurking in the pitlane sporting an equally-immaculate 4-cylinder Toyota engine under the bonnet.

Honda’s Civic is represented in the racers’ ranks in large numbers, in both coupé and sedan formats, with the Japanese brands form the bulk of the track action, while niche players out on the circuit’s cut-and-thrust include the Subaru Impreza, Honda Prelude, Mitsubishi Evo and Daihatsu Mira. There are also sparkling new racing machines in the shape of the Honda Jazz and Toyota Vios. Pick-up racing is very popular in Thailand too and the smoke-belching “commonrail” diesel-powered machines from Ford, Toyota, Isuzu, Chevrolet and Nissan have their own dedicated club and own races.

Duration : 0:9:59

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