barrygrussell
Senior Member
Originally published in http://www.FMSCT-Live.com and reproduced by kind permission
Rider numbers doubled for Round 2 of the R2M SuperNaked Class, as registrations closed at the Thailand Circuit, Nakhonchaisri, on the morning of Saturday 16th July. In addition to the original competitors, more riders followed first round winner Luke Stokes down from Chiang Mai, and established Thai teams, PK Superbike and Panpund Team fielded two riders each in the SuperNaked class and one each for the first SuperStreet round. The number of SuperNaked sexes doubled too, thanks to PK Superbike, who entered fielded the category’s first female racer, 17 year-old ‘June’ Pattama Lamommanda, for her first ever competitive appearance. With Kawasaki’s ER6N proving to be a popular choice for this class, the second round also tempted Kawasaki exponent and Highside Tours boss, Graham Knight, to join, after a break of several years from racing.
With SuperStreet and SuperSport running together in the development stages, there were five initial entries, including Hans Muehlebach’s gorgeous Moto2 Suter, PK Superbike’s stripped-down Suzuki GSX-R750 and a KTM 690 Supermoto. A Husqvarna Supermoto bike had also turned up to test on the Friday, but was forced to sit out the meeting with a mystery electrical problem. In addition, Panpund Team also fielded a stock Kawasaki ER6N for Mickey Walker, whose experience excluded him from the SuperNaked class.
Qualifying: Butler grabs pole, but goes over the top
Since the first SuperNaked round a number of riders had taken the chance to practice and experiment with bike set-up and rumours were that Canada’s Colin Butler had chopped seven seconds off his Round One lap times at Thailand Circuit and was doing 1:31s, as was Britain’s Luke Stokes. The qualifying performances of the two riders confirmed the rumours, with Butler doing 1:30.815 on his only flying lap before highsiding when he went offline while attempting to pass a slower bike. Stokes, running on worn tyres, turned in a best lap of 1:33.446 ahead of Graham Knight and Niwat Kaewpradab’s Suzuki GSF 1200, who made up the front row. Race school instructor Knight looked smooth and precise in his comeback, reducing his times progressively through the session. Although Butler’s highside looked nasty, he had recovered by the time he got back to his garage, took off his shredded leathers and, within an hour of the crash, had replaced the bent handlebars and zip-tied the plastics on his bike back together.
The diversity of the sights and sounds we can expect from combined Supersport 600 and Superstreet classes was evident in qualifying. Mickey Walker streaked around on his virtually silent ER6N to claim pole position with a time of 1:33.320, ahead of Hans MuehleBach’s screaming Suter, Frank Smith’s thumping KTM and Tanadith Thitipongbancha’s howling Gixer.
Race: Two in a row for Stokes
Although Colin Butler’s battered ER6N was declared fit to race, the rider himself was only able to make the grid thanks to R2M’s Kraitos Wongsawan, who lent him a race suit after his own had perished in the line of duty the previous day.
With the race being broadcast live on Motorsport TV, it was Luke Stokes who got the best start and led into Turn One, chased hard by Butler with the rest of the field behind. With his Canadian rival suffering vibrations under braking, no doubt the consequences of the previous day’s crash, Stokes was able to control the race from the front and stretched his lead to 15.7 seconds from Butler by the end. Although Butler managed to claim the fastest lap with a 1:31.414 new class lap record, before vibrations forced him to back off, Stokes was able to lap consistently in the mid-1:31s, with a best time of 1:31.462.
The newcomers in the Naked 750 class impressed too, with the ER6Ns of Chiang Mai’s Veerayuth Suwan and Witawet Ruadrew claiming third and fourth, both with best laps in the low 1:34s while Graham Knight finished fifth ahead of Narasak Kruechaiwattana. Seventh on the road and the sole entry for the Naked 1200 was Niwat Kaewpradab.
Panpund Team claimed first and third places in Naked 500 with Manat Chitringham’s Suzuki Bandit 400 and ‘Eff’ Tanit Suko’s 250 Bandit, while PK Racing took second and fourth with 400cc Suzukis of ‘June’ Pattama and Cheardchai Wonglieng.
Overall winner Luke Stokes said, “It’s fantastic to get another win. I fitted new tyres last night, which made a difference and I also took a chance by dropping the front yoke and cranking up the rear. The bike was more unstable, but I was able to corner much faster and I’m really happy with the times I was able to do.”
Colin Butler added, “I was getting a real bad vibration from the front under braking so had to back off to make sure I could finish the race. After yesterday’s crash I’m more than happy with second place and it was awesome of Khun Kraitos to lend me his suit!”
Attrition and Exhibition in SuperStreet and SuperSport Race
The inaugural SuperStreet/Supersport field shrank to three after Frank Smith failed to show with his KTM 690 Supermoto on Sunday morning and then to two when Mickey Walker lowsided his ER6N at the second corner on the warm-up lap, breaking his wrist.
That left Hans MuehleBach and Tanadith Thitipongbancha free to treat the crowd and cameras to an exhibition of their contrasting machinery, with the Swiss rider’s Suter Moto2 machine finishing around half a lap ahead of Tanadith’s GSX-R750 streetfighter.
While the numbers for the two new classes were disappointing, it is clear that Thailand’s short, technical circuits are favouring lighter motorcycles than the superbikes which make up the Blue Riband racing class and a number of experienced racers are known to be planning to enter SuperSport 600s in 2012. The suitability of 600s is further reinforced by the fact that the first four SuperNaked finishers are doing lap times that would put them into R2M’s SB2 Superbike category, so the organisers will continue to develop the two brand new classes with the intention that they should rival the success of Moto3 Production and SuperNaked, which are developing fast during their first season.
The next R2M SuperNaked, SuperStreet and SuperSport rounds will be the the Thailand Circuit on 17-18th September.
With thanks to FMSCT-Live for the right to reproduce
Rider numbers doubled for Round 2 of the R2M SuperNaked Class, as registrations closed at the Thailand Circuit, Nakhonchaisri, on the morning of Saturday 16th July. In addition to the original competitors, more riders followed first round winner Luke Stokes down from Chiang Mai, and established Thai teams, PK Superbike and Panpund Team fielded two riders each in the SuperNaked class and one each for the first SuperStreet round. The number of SuperNaked sexes doubled too, thanks to PK Superbike, who entered fielded the category’s first female racer, 17 year-old ‘June’ Pattama Lamommanda, for her first ever competitive appearance. With Kawasaki’s ER6N proving to be a popular choice for this class, the second round also tempted Kawasaki exponent and Highside Tours boss, Graham Knight, to join, after a break of several years from racing.
With SuperStreet and SuperSport running together in the development stages, there were five initial entries, including Hans Muehlebach’s gorgeous Moto2 Suter, PK Superbike’s stripped-down Suzuki GSX-R750 and a KTM 690 Supermoto. A Husqvarna Supermoto bike had also turned up to test on the Friday, but was forced to sit out the meeting with a mystery electrical problem. In addition, Panpund Team also fielded a stock Kawasaki ER6N for Mickey Walker, whose experience excluded him from the SuperNaked class.
Qualifying: Butler grabs pole, but goes over the top
Since the first SuperNaked round a number of riders had taken the chance to practice and experiment with bike set-up and rumours were that Canada’s Colin Butler had chopped seven seconds off his Round One lap times at Thailand Circuit and was doing 1:31s, as was Britain’s Luke Stokes. The qualifying performances of the two riders confirmed the rumours, with Butler doing 1:30.815 on his only flying lap before highsiding when he went offline while attempting to pass a slower bike. Stokes, running on worn tyres, turned in a best lap of 1:33.446 ahead of Graham Knight and Niwat Kaewpradab’s Suzuki GSF 1200, who made up the front row. Race school instructor Knight looked smooth and precise in his comeback, reducing his times progressively through the session. Although Butler’s highside looked nasty, he had recovered by the time he got back to his garage, took off his shredded leathers and, within an hour of the crash, had replaced the bent handlebars and zip-tied the plastics on his bike back together.
The diversity of the sights and sounds we can expect from combined Supersport 600 and Superstreet classes was evident in qualifying. Mickey Walker streaked around on his virtually silent ER6N to claim pole position with a time of 1:33.320, ahead of Hans MuehleBach’s screaming Suter, Frank Smith’s thumping KTM and Tanadith Thitipongbancha’s howling Gixer.
Race: Two in a row for Stokes
Although Colin Butler’s battered ER6N was declared fit to race, the rider himself was only able to make the grid thanks to R2M’s Kraitos Wongsawan, who lent him a race suit after his own had perished in the line of duty the previous day.
With the race being broadcast live on Motorsport TV, it was Luke Stokes who got the best start and led into Turn One, chased hard by Butler with the rest of the field behind. With his Canadian rival suffering vibrations under braking, no doubt the consequences of the previous day’s crash, Stokes was able to control the race from the front and stretched his lead to 15.7 seconds from Butler by the end. Although Butler managed to claim the fastest lap with a 1:31.414 new class lap record, before vibrations forced him to back off, Stokes was able to lap consistently in the mid-1:31s, with a best time of 1:31.462.
The newcomers in the Naked 750 class impressed too, with the ER6Ns of Chiang Mai’s Veerayuth Suwan and Witawet Ruadrew claiming third and fourth, both with best laps in the low 1:34s while Graham Knight finished fifth ahead of Narasak Kruechaiwattana. Seventh on the road and the sole entry for the Naked 1200 was Niwat Kaewpradab.
Panpund Team claimed first and third places in Naked 500 with Manat Chitringham’s Suzuki Bandit 400 and ‘Eff’ Tanit Suko’s 250 Bandit, while PK Racing took second and fourth with 400cc Suzukis of ‘June’ Pattama and Cheardchai Wonglieng.
Overall winner Luke Stokes said, “It’s fantastic to get another win. I fitted new tyres last night, which made a difference and I also took a chance by dropping the front yoke and cranking up the rear. The bike was more unstable, but I was able to corner much faster and I’m really happy with the times I was able to do.”
Colin Butler added, “I was getting a real bad vibration from the front under braking so had to back off to make sure I could finish the race. After yesterday’s crash I’m more than happy with second place and it was awesome of Khun Kraitos to lend me his suit!”
Attrition and Exhibition in SuperStreet and SuperSport Race
The inaugural SuperStreet/Supersport field shrank to three after Frank Smith failed to show with his KTM 690 Supermoto on Sunday morning and then to two when Mickey Walker lowsided his ER6N at the second corner on the warm-up lap, breaking his wrist.
That left Hans MuehleBach and Tanadith Thitipongbancha free to treat the crowd and cameras to an exhibition of their contrasting machinery, with the Swiss rider’s Suter Moto2 machine finishing around half a lap ahead of Tanadith’s GSX-R750 streetfighter.
While the numbers for the two new classes were disappointing, it is clear that Thailand’s short, technical circuits are favouring lighter motorcycles than the superbikes which make up the Blue Riband racing class and a number of experienced racers are known to be planning to enter SuperSport 600s in 2012. The suitability of 600s is further reinforced by the fact that the first four SuperNaked finishers are doing lap times that would put them into R2M’s SB2 Superbike category, so the organisers will continue to develop the two brand new classes with the intention that they should rival the success of Moto3 Production and SuperNaked, which are developing fast during their first season.
The next R2M SuperNaked, SuperStreet and SuperSport rounds will be the the Thailand Circuit on 17-18th September.
With thanks to FMSCT-Live for the right to reproduce
