Race weekend at Nakhon Chaisi (R2M) track July 17th 2011

[KTMphil]

Race weekend at Nakhon Chaisi (R2M) track July 17th 2011

We'll start with an umbrella girl to keep your attention

Winner of the Honda CBR 250 class, lead from start to finish, incredibly talented rider in an ultra-competitive fleet

Racing is LIVE on Thai TV today around 12 -12.30 mid day, Luke is racing and will be on your TV screen, on Sunday the 17th July was broadcast on the IPM sports channel.

A couple of photo s from yesterdays practice and qualifying, Kun Luke in the lead here

 

[KTMphil]

Re: Race weekend at Nakhon Chaisi track July 17th 2011

Gorgeous genuine moto 2 race bike at the track yesterday. We were told just the rolling chassis is USD$ 70,000. The high pitched scream from it was delicious.

 

[KTMphil]

Re: Race weekend at Nakhon Chaisi track July 17th 2011

Off to the track for practice and qualifying on sat 16th July, Luke's Er6 and mark's Husky 450

The weather was perfect, rain held of at all the import times, meaning the track was dry for all of the qualifying and racing, very lucky

Great shot of Luke and Colin bunched up in the first tight corner

Photo edited bu Danny Bowes

A quick nap in the pits before racing

Its all taken very seriously, here checking the mapping on a modified Honda CBR 250

Checking the mapping of a race scooter with a laptop before the race

The scooters were even running steering dampers! Never seen this before on a scooter

The Honda CBR 250 class were weighed and had to have a MINIMUM combined bike and ride weight of 200kg. We talked about this and in looked like there may have been some 45kg riders. Withe the bikes weighing around 125kg, we still not sure how they add the handicapped weight.

 

[KTMphil]

One of the Honda CBR 250 class coming off the weighing station. This production road bike was only released in Thailand at the beginning of the year & the new ABS model sells for around 130,000 bht (USD$ 4,300). It's the perfect bike for Thai's and will be a huge success.

Racing in the CBR 250 class was very close, these are the front runners

This guy lead from start to finish in the CBR 250 class

Was eye opening to see a smoking Thai chic in the CBR 250 class holding her own in this super competitive fleet, i think her lap time was only 0.75 of a second slower than Luke on a ER6! Here she is in the green on the left

One of the CBR 250's smoking around the track

Look at the lean angle

Close racing in the CBR 250 class

 

[Midnitemapper]

Great photos, were is this track?
how did you get that 2.9mb photo in there? Making my browser do funny things.

 

[KTMphil]

Mark talking with the rock star "Titti" (right) from the CBR 250 class

Ready for racing

Small crash in the 250 class no one hurt

For this one an ambulance was needed

 

[KTMphil]

Great photos, were is this track?
how did you get that 2.9mb photo in there? Making my browser do funny things.

This R2m track is about 50km west of Bangkok in Nakhon Chaisi


Just uploaded it as far as i know. i'll ask out tech team if there's an issue (my tablet pc had the same problem!)

 

[KTMphil]

Colin in the Er6 class had a high side crash on the Saturday the qualifying day




Bent bars and a fuel dented tank, but he was able to race on Sunday

The delicious genuine moto gp 2 class bike pre race with its tire warmers on

Hans bump starting it

The moto gp 2 bike under way, fantastic sound.

Hans drains all his fuel after each time on the track, we think its so he can calibrate exactly how much fuel is in the bike for each race

Great trailer set up for his bike






Luke on the podium shooting his load winning the Er6 class (the umbrella girl to his left may have caused this), Colin a credible second.

Winner of one of the scooter classes looking pretty chuffed

Owner of the track Kraitos Wongsawan in the pink shirt in the middle, very friendly guy with a sense of humor!

Barry Russel (bottom left) involed in race event organizing and promotion, a very knowledgeable addition.

 

[KTMphil]

TV interview with Luke the rock star post race

Hans on the moto go 2 bike thrilled with the trophy for winning the open class

Luke at speed in fast bend

Colin (right) looking good on a ER6 also

Winner of the moto 3 (cbr 250) class flying around the track

 

[KTMphil]

Mark unfortunately had an electrical problem with the Husky 450 SM and wasn't able to race on the Sunday

What coming out of corners fast does to slick tires

Victory sign from Luke after winning

 

[Pounce]

Well done Spanky

 

[KTMphil]

Frank was down Saturday on his KTM 690 SMR

Luke and Colin battling it out

Colin on his Er6

Luke starting to lap the tail enders

A couple of Graham who owns High Side tours based at Bira race track in Pattaya









Luke in the groove

 

[KTMphil]

Thai guys from Chiang Mai in the Er6 class, 1st time for them on these bikes

 

[bigntall]

Congrats to Luke on the win!!

So how is poor ole Colin post crash? That looked like a wicked highside?

Did TonyBKK make it to the event?

 

[KTMphil]

A young lady racing on a very pink motorcycle

 

[KTMphil]

The Er6 pit area

 

[KTMphil]

Where to stay if you're racing at the R2M Nakhon Chaisi race track

We stayed 36km from the track at the Whale Hotel in Nakhon Phanom








Rooms were a decent size 600 bht including breakfast. i personally don't like older hotel rooms that are carpeted as they never feel clean, but apart from that it was a bargain, there was even an interesting massage place to get rid of your aches right next door.





They have a row of TV's in reception that was quite unusual, showing all the channels on their TV system!

 

[KTMphil]

People in the know say that this guy has all the qualities to become a super star. He currently rides in the superbike class (1,000 cc). Word is he's an amazing rider, great with the media, so we'll keep an eye on him.




On Sunday we was racing a standard Er6 in the open class against the moto 2 bike. On the warm up lap, he locked up into the second corner, it almost seemed like he was trying to avoid hitting the moto 2 bike, high sided and damaged his wrist.

 

[KTMphil]

In photographer mode on the track, didn't feel too safe out there

 

[Steve Canyon]

Looks far better than the Gp was...well done on the win old chap... :RO

Cmon fellas, where are the beer shots from the trip

Who's the Giza in the HiVis?

 

[MastaMax]

Awesome Luke, and thanks Phil for the great pictures.

 

[KTMphil]

If you're going down from Chiang Mai, it's 701km to the Nakhon Chaisi R2M track. Tak makes a good lunch stop, but it seems to be the only city in Thailand without a Tesco Lotus ot Big C - so that meant no KFC!

Next best choice is the Viangtak Riverside Hotel, Tak







You don't often see a 2,400cc Triumph Rocket on the roads in Thailand





The rather large road marker in Lampang




Middle of rainy season, this is what to expect

 

[barrygrussell]

Hey Phil

Thanks for covering the R2M/FMSCT Road Race meeting at Thailand Circuit, Nakhonchaisri (I see people are asking) at the weekend. It was great to meet you and Mark and the pics are stunning. Nice job!

As I helped to design the race classes featured here, both of which were launched this year, here are a few points off the top of my shiny head.

What you refer to as the “ER6 Class” is R2M SuperNaked, which is divided into three categories, though all bikes start from the same grid:

Naked 1200 : 776cc up to 1200cc / 4T
Naked 750: 526cc up to 775cc / 4T
Naked 500 : up to 525cc / 4T[

Outline regulations

Motorcycles should be manufactured without fairings, such as the Kawasaki ER6N, Yamaha Fazer, Triumph Speed/Street Triple. For example, the ER6F does not qualify.

Handlebars must be mounted above the top yoke so that the bar ends are higher than the bar mounting

Wheels and tyres are open, subject to FIM safety standards

In fact the picture you describe as a scooter podium is in fact the Naked 500 podium. As well as the Kawasakis on Sunday, there were also Suzukis with engine sizes of 1200, 400 and 250 in the other categories. No Hondas!!!

As the class is designed to attract new riders, it is only open to competitors who have not previously held a MSAT licence, or who have not held one for the last two years

R2M SuperStreet

A more open class than SuperNaked that permits a wider range of bikes and modifications:

Motorcycles with nose cones and/or bikini fairings are acceptable, such as Kawasaki ER6F and Versys, as are stripped ‘streetfighter’ versions of superbikes like the Yamaha R1 or CBR1000RR and supermoto machines

Maximum engine capacity is 1200cc

Handlebars must be mounted above the top yoke so that the bar ends are higher than the bar mounting

Wheels and tyres are open, subject to FIM safety standards

Supermoto bikes are permitted

R2M SuperSport

An open regulation class for 600cc sports bikes. Examples of eligible machines include Honda CBR600RR, Kawasaki ZX-6R and Triumph 675 Daytona as well as Moto2 machines, such as Suter, Moriwaki and others.

Engine capacity is:

400cc up to 600cc 4-cylinders / 4T
500cc up to 675cc 3-cylinders / 4T
600cc up to 750cc 2-cylinders / 4T

Although it is believed supersport machines will become a popular choice for Thailand’s short, technical circuits over the longer term, numbers are likely to be low during the rest of the 2011 season. Assuming that is the case, R2M SuperSport competitors will join the SuperStreet grid and be regarded as a separate class. I have spoken with a number of good racers in Thailand who intend to bring supersport machines to the grid, including one AMA racer. Also, the owner of the gorgeous, screaming Suter has two fully prepped Hondas for sale (one to WSS spec) for a lot less money that you may think – not too much more than an ER6N, as it happens. If anyone here wants to take a look I can hook them up.

Rather than reinventing everything, we drew heavily on and adapted the UK's highly successful ACU/Thundersport GB regs. After all, the rules developed the same way: people have all sorts of bikes in their garage that they want to race against something comparable

What you refer to as the CBR 250 class is Moto3 Production. Regulations shadow those for the MotoGP Moto3 class that will replace the 125 two-strokes in 2012. That means you can modify original parts and replace things like rearsets, clip-ons and exhausts with anything that is on general sale in Thailand. That is intended to control costs, but the main idea is that it should prepare the best young Thai riders for the Moto3 world championship. You can see that the level of the riders is very high. Tingnote struggles to reach the front in this class (second corner crash on Sunday) and, in fact, the winner, Sup-Anucha took his third successive victory at Thailand Circuit.

Moto3 Production does look like a one-make series right now, but is open to any sports bikes with a 250 single engine. So you could put a D-Tracker engine in a Ninja 250, or indeed in a CBR frame. Diversity will come as the series matures and teams look beyond the current margins for technical advantage and begin to experiment.

I hope that helps and look forward to getting to know people around here.

Cheers

Barry

 

[KTMphil]

Barry - you are doing a fantastic job down there, we were all talking and can't see any reason (apart from ramping up the marketing) why it won't be a huge success, congratulations on the concept here in Thailand.

The affordability of the moto 3/ 250cc class is perfect for Thailand/ Asia, we could not believe in 6 months what you have made of that already!

Everybody that was there was having a ball, hope to meet up with you again soon.

I think we'd all like to see lap times for each class while racing and also record lap times for each class. It was interesting to see that the moto 3/ 250cc class were quicker than the Er6 650 cc bikes on lap times.

 

[KTMphil]

Wheels and tyres are open, subject to FIM safety standards

Barry- we were told the moto 3 / 250 cc class wern't allowed to run slick tires, is this the case?

 

[KTMphil]

Some video from Colin here

[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOdmycrgNUw[/VIDEO]


[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASy9sEwGudg[/VIDEO]

[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xiuwPiEGq0[/VIDEO]

 

[jon]

Well done that man Luke and any chance he might paint his bike in brighter go faster colours? Thanks to Phil for the photos and videos. Do you have any videos of the Moto3 race?

 

[barrygrussell]

Thank you for the kind comments, Phil. I spend so much time with my head down that the odd word of encouragement makes it all worthwhile!

As I mentioned, we are really doing R&D for racing in Thailand and use an heuristic approach: understand what people want to do, build a loose set of regs around it (or at least borrow from a more advanced racing scene) and go racing, making adjustments as we go. SuperStreet and SuperSport, which ran for the first time at the weekend was conceived after the last meeting at Bira on 2nd July.

On lap times, you will have seen that Thailand is a very technical, twisty circuit, so the cornering speeds of the 250s are comparable with the more powerful naked machines. And make no mistake, the best five or six riders in the class would not disgrace themselves on the international stage. Tingnote recently went a second faster than Feem in his Spanish Moto2 test and he struggles to stay close to the front of Moto3 Production, as you saw on Sunday.

SuperNaked, at just its second meeting, showed how effective it is at bringing new riders into a very affordable class. I think that SuperSport is the most obvious class for Thailand's tracks and this should grow. It failed the last time out when Petronas Yamaha came in with factory bikes that privateers could simply not compete with, so we will take the lessons from that. We are starting with open regs, but may need to tighten them up as the class develops; if factory machines do come inwe may have to consider pegging the regs back to Superstock 600. SuperStreet is more of a punt, but it is getting supprt from the Thai teams and the thought of people bringing all kinds of lairy machines to the grid makes it worth a try!

I'll post something on lap times and some explanatory notes soon.

In the meantime thank you for your interest and support!

Cheers

Barry

 

[barrygrussell]

Wheels and tyres are open, subject to FIM safety standards




Barry- we were told the moto 3 / 250 cc class wern't allowed to run slick tires, is this the case?

Yes, that's correct, road tyres only for Moto3 Production (not CBR 250 class, please!). The rule quoted is for SuperNaked, SuperStreet and SuperSport.

 

[KTMphil]

Well done that man Luke and any chance he might paint his bike in brighter go faster colours? Thanks to Phil for the photos and videos. Do you have any videos of the Moto3 race?

Jon - Barry should have some videos of the Moto 3 race, I'll see what he has.

 

[Mark Rossi]

Great report Barry, and being there I can account this was a very accurate in-depth report of what went done. Thanks for sharing.

 

[jon]

Barry,
I wonder if you could explain a few things to me. I have been reading about the race weekend on another website and there is quite an argument going on as to why the Moto3( production ) lap times were faster than the ER6's. One guy ( who just happens to be a ER6 racer) wrote that the CBR250's are nothing like the stock bike and all have extensive modifications to the engine, suspension, electronics and frame and he also implied that the were so highly tuned that the engines had to be rebuilt after every race. He also said that at the race weekend at least half the bikes had their engines pulled down between Saturday qualifying and the Sunday racing and that 3 or 4 bikes per race were retiring due to engine problems. He also said that all the riders competing in MOTO3 (production) were professional licensed racers. I would really appreciate your take on all of this.

 

[barrygrussell]

Hi Jon

Make no mistake, Moto3 Production is the most serious of all the race classes - that's why all Thailand's top superbike racers are in it. The standard of preparation has improved hugely since the first race back in February, when it was basically a grid full of stock CBR250s.

The stories about scrutineeering strip-downs and rebuilds between races are exaggerated. There have been quite a few engine failures though. The rule is that you can modify standard engine parts, or use production parts from other bikes, like, say a Kawasaki D-Tracker engine in a CBR frame, so the engine failures are likely because of teams pushing too hard in their search for an advantage, or technically just not doing the job well enough. I cannot say categorically that scrutineering have never demanded a strip-down, but I can confirm that nobody has been penalised for cheating.

Lap times, particularly at a very technical track like Nakhonchaisri, are about rider skill and cornering speed: if you miss one apex at the track it will screw your lap time. Frankly, I'm surprised that the ER6 riders - all new to racing - have got so close to the Moto3 Production times. New lap records set last Sunday were:

SuperNaked: 1:31.414 (Colin Butler, ER6N)
Moto3 Production: 1:28.707 (Anucha Nakcharoensri, CBR250RR)

I have asked the Federation for a complete list of lap records for each class, which I'll post here, but to compare Tingnote's best lap times as an illustration of how technical the track at Nakhonchaisri is, his best Moto3 Production time is 1:30.102 and his best Superbike time is 1:24.316. For Colin Butler and Luke Stokes to be doing 1:31s on ER6s is just phenomenal!

A note on riders' skill levels in Thailand: Tingnote was faster than most of the regular MotoGP Moto2 riders at a recent test at Albacete and there are four other riders who regularly beat him in this class. International race teams are actively looking right now at recruiting riders from the series. It is a professional series: riders are paid a salary by teams and win prize money (10,000, 5,000, 3000 for first, second and third) and Honda's more loyal riders get bonuses on top of that for winning.

Hope that helps

 

[jon]

Barry,thanks for taking the time to reply. Good to know that International teams are looking at more Thai riders. I am hoping that the other main manufacturers bring out 250 singles for the roads here and that they too will find their way on to the grids.

 

[KTMphil]

Great insight Barry, answered all my questions thanks for taking the time.

Hi Jon

Make no mistake, Moto3 Production is the most serious of all the race classes - that's why all Thailand's top superbike racers are in it. The standard of preparation has improved hugely since the first race back in February, when it was basically a grid full of stock CBR250s.

The stories about scrutineeering strip-downs and rebuilds between races are exaggerated. There have been quite a few engine failures though. The rule is that you can modify standard engine parts, or use production parts from other bikes, like, say a Kawasaki D-Tracker engine in a CBR frame, so the engine failures are likely because of teams pushing too hard in their search for an advantage, or technically just not doing the job well enough. I cannot say categorically that scrutineering have never demanded a strip-down, but I can confirm that nobody has been penalised for cheating.

Lap times, particularly at a very technical track like Nakhonchaisri, are about rider skill and cornering speed: if you miss one apex at the track it will screw your lap time. Frankly, I'm surprised that the ER6 riders - all new to racing - have got so close to the Moto3 Production times. New lap records set last Sunday were:

SuperNaked: 1:31.414 (Colin Butler, ER6N)
Moto3 Production: 1:28.707 (Anucha Nakcharoensri, CBR250RR)

I have asked the Federation for a complete list of lap records for each class, which I'll post here, but to compare Tingnote's best lap times as an illustration of how technical the track at Nakhonchaisri is, his best Moto3 Production time is 1:30.102 and his best Superbike time is 1:24.316. For Colin Butler and Luke Stokes to be doing 1:31s on ER6s is just phenomenal!

A note on riders' skill levels in Thailand: Tingnote was faster than most of the regular MotoGP Moto2 riders at a recent test at Albacete and there are four other riders who regularly beat him in this class. International race teams are actively looking right now at recruiting riders from the series. It is a professional series: riders are paid a salary by teams and win prize money (10,000, 5,000, 3000 for first, second and third) and Honda's more loyal riders get bonuses on top of that for winning.

Hope that helps

 

[barrygrussell]

Thanks for replies and comments.

Taking Jon's last point, other manufacturers are almost certain to bring out new 250 singles based on the new MotoGP class. While everyone competing on Hondas is doing the job of bringing the best riders through, we won't feel that the series has achieved it's objectives until we see a variety of machinery. Pretty much every manufacturer has got a 250 single in the range, so hopefully it won't take too long ... Bring it on!!