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Bangsaen, Round 9, Saturday 25
February
1. Kantadhee Kusiri (Honda Civic); 2.
Carlo van Dam (SEAT León); 3. Jack
Lemvard (SEAT León)
Bangsaen, Round 10, Sunday 26
February
1. Kantadhee Kusiri (Honda Civic); 2.
Jack Lemvard (SEAT León); 3. Carlo
van Dam (SEAT León)
The Bangsaen street circuit hosted
the final event of the 2016 TCR
Thailand that was originally
scheduled to take place on October
23, 2016, but was postponed because
of the period of national mourning
declared after the tragic death of
King Bhumibol the Great.
Singha Motorsport Team Thailand’s
Carlo van Dam was crowned the
series’ first-ever champion, beating
his rival Jack Lemvard of Vattana
Motorsport by seven points, thanks
to the scoring system that provided
for two results to be dropped.
Kantadhee Kusiri in the Billionaire
Boy Racing Honda Civic won both
races at Bangsaen.
In Race 1, Kusiri sprinted to the lead
and bid farewell to the rest of the
field. He pushed to create a gap,
leaving the SEAT cars of van Dam and
Lemvard to have a close battle for
second place.
On lap 3, van Dam brushed a barrier,
but was able to keep a charging
Lemvard at bay; then, after lap 7,
van Dam pulled away while Lemvard
appeared to struggle with his car’s
set up and lost contact with his
rival. This meant that van Dam and
Lemvard were on equal points going
into the last race.
In Race 2, Lemvard made a brilliant
start and squeezed between the
Kratingdaeng Racing Team SEAT cars
of Chen Jian Hong and Grant
Supaphong that were sharing the
front row on the top-five reverse grid
and took the lead. He managed to
create a small gap, while van Dam
was fighting with Kusiri.
On lap 5 Kusiri overtook van Dam for
second and quickly closed the gap
from Lemvard, eventually passing
him on lap 6.
In the second part of the race, Kusiri
maintained a comfortable lead on his
way to another victory, while
Lemvard successfully defended his
second position. However, as
Lemvard had to drop two results,
third place was enough for van Dam
to secure the title.
“Being the first TCR Champion of
Thailand is something really special.
Thai motorsport is growing at the
moment and it's great that a new
Van Dam pips
Lemvard in the title fight
touring car series was born last year.
Driving the SEAT was a lot of fun and
I was impressed with the handling. I
managed to dominate the first part
of the season, which allowed me to
build up a strong lead despite driving
a 2015 spec car! Although I have
mainly been racing GT3 cars, the
experience of touring car racing
definitely makes me want to do more
in the future. I will not be able to
defend my title in Thailand, but I
hope to be racing a TCR car again
soon.” said van Dam.
The 2017 TCR Thailand series will
kick off on 29/30 April at Buriram’s
Chang International Circuit.