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This was a weekend away with Mike, Shannon, Mark, Jen, Matt, Tofu, Amy, Neil and all the kids. We rented a cabin in Wrightwood. There was no snow which stunk. The weekend started OK until the uninvited guest, the Noro virus showed up. Wil, Reagan, Aus and lexa spent the entire night sick. Most of the grown ups got sick after. Shannon and Matt spent some time off work the next week dealing with it. So we affectionately called this puke weekend. Merry Christmas.
Something I do like very much here in Dublin is the nice sunsets. It's this combination of rain, wind, clouds, and sun that make them special.
On a weekend day at Stanford University, as the adult visitors stroll the campus, younger visitors see the campus as a giant playground.
The past weekend saw a lot of great racing at the Bira Circuit just outside Pattaya on Highway 36 which goes towards Rayong.
Some of the best race car drivers in Thailand were gathered to race and compete for the 2014 Thailand National Championship .
Over 150 cars had been entered into different classes ranging from the small Eco car class cars to the big powerful and fully modified Pick-ups and Touring Cars.
The biggest event of the day was the Pro Car Class, which is comprised of 1500 cc and 1600 cc Production cars made in an ASEAN country after 2005.
The cars race each other and even though some have bigger cc engines there balance of performance system with extra weight to the more powerful cars makes the class and cars very evenly matched which again makes for great and close racing.
Inspire Magazine’s car from CEA Racing had been showing great speed in the Friday practice sessions setting several new personal fastest laps several times during the day, so expectations were high before the qualifying sessions.
Thomas Raldorf who is the driver of the CRA Racing Car in the Pro Car class did not disappoint, as he on his first lap out set the pace for everybody else to try and match.
After the Qualifying was over Thomas had only qualified his car on the front row in second place and would have a great starting point for the 1st race Sunday morning.
Having raced in Scandinavia for many years in both rain and snowy conditions Thomas always fancies when it rains in Thailand and was hoping that the rain would be around the track during Sunday as it had been all week.
Come Sunday morning the track was wet for the first few races but then dried up and stayed dry the rest of the day, so Thomas and CEA Racing knew that they would have to try and fight it out on a dry track.
At the start of Race 1 Thomas was up alongside the leading car down towards the first corner but had to concede as he was on the outside into the corner and slotted into 2nd were he was able to stay for the rest of the race, although he was under considerable pressure from the driver in 3rd for the last 4 laps of the race.
Between the 1st and the 2nd race of the day a few adjustment was made to the car for better handling and the car was back on the grid with Thomas starting from 2nd row in 3rd place for the 2nd race .
Regulations state that the driver with the fastest single lap in Race 1 will start on Pole Position for the 2nd Race of the day, and since CEA Racing had 3rd fastest lap in Race 1, they had to start 3rd although they had finished Race 1 in 2nd place.
At the start for Race 2, Thomas was all geared up and ready to challenge for the win again, and what a start he had…….
Thomas shot out of his starting grid like a rocket and went straight up between the driver in 1st and 2nd and took over the lead of the race before the first corner. Over the next few laps Thomas managed to pull out a gap of more than 100 Mtrs down to the 2nd and 3rd placed drivers as they were fighting with each other for positions.
Unfortunately an accident further down the grid caused the Safety Car to come out on Lap 3 and all the space he had gained was suddenly lost, as everybody was bunched up behind the safety car.
At the Restart Thomas again had a very good start and was able to stay in the lead but was not able to break away from the driver in 2nd place, as he was having to drive very defensively .
On lap 7 of the race The driver in 2nd managed to squeeze himself up beside Thomas in turn 2 and then an intense fight for the lead saw the 2 cars side by side with only a few centimeters between then trough the next few corners until Thomas eventually had to give up his position to avoid running of the track. This unfortunately allowed the train of cars behind to also pass and Thomas had to slot into 4th and take of the challenge again.
The next 5 laps was very thrilling with the 4 cars fighting for position almost every single corner and eventually finishing with 0.011 seconds between the 1st and 2nd placed cars.
CEA Racing and Thomas never really recovered and finished in 4th less than a second behind the winning car.
Next race will be held on the 22nd and 23rd of November in Buriram on the new FIA Grade 1 Race circuit which has been built for bringing International Motorsport to Thailand.
Ring Weekend (Tapit) prepares for the Preakness Stakes (Gr I) at Pimlico Racecourse 5/16/14. Trainer: Graham Motion. Owner: St. Elias Stable & West Point Thoroughbreds