The Thailand Super Car Championship is on a knife edge after a dramatic third round of the B-Quik Thailand Super Series.
Absolute Racing’s Akash Nandy/Sandy Stuvik won Race 5 of the season at Buriram’s Chang International Circuit after the #11 Vattana Motorsport Honda NSX GT3 ran out of fuel while leading by half a minute on the final lap.
However, Vattana bounced back in Race 6 with as Andrea Gagliardini ran away with victory in the Honda which he shared with Jacopo Guidetti.
Markus Winkelhock had emerged with the initial lead in that contest in the #55 Absolute Audi, but did not shake Guidetti for the first several laps.
The German did eventually creep to a two-second advantage before Guidetti peeled off for his compulsory pit stop on Lap 17, handing over Car #11 to Gagliardini.
Winkelhock pressed on for two laps more before he stopped and Vincente Floriendo hopped into the white and silver R8.
Floriendo exited the lane in the effective race lead, with a margin of almost three seconds on Gagliardini, but soon found himself under pressure.
On Lap 22, Gagliardini got a run on the Filipino out of Turn 1 and pulled off a textbook pass at Turn 3 before quickly skipping multiple seconds clear.
By the end of that lap, Car #11 was the official race leader as others pitted, and that Vattana entry would not be headed again.
Gagliardini took the chequered flag 12 seconds to the good after 37 laps, with Nandy getting home in second place in the #25 Absolute Audi after overtaking Floriendo on Lap 35.
The weekend’s victorious GT3 crews are now essentially level-pegging with each other ahead of the season finale in Buriram.
In the GT3 Am class, Daniel Bilski/Philip Massoud (#27 Absolute Audi) prevailed in fourth outright in Race 6, after Chonsawat Asavahame/Pitsanu Sirimongkolkasem (#28 Vattana Lamborghini) got up in Race 5 in third outright.
Akihiro Asai/Ananthorn Tangniannatchai (#29 Vattana Lamborghini) took GTM honours in both races.
Vattana also scored a victory in the first of the weekend’s GTC encounters, courtesy of Thanathip Thanalapanan in a KTM X-Bow GT4, with Full Function’s Chonravit Nuya prevailing in the second race in a McLaren 570S GT4.
The final round of the B-Quik Thailand Super Series takes place at the Chang International Circuit on December 8-11.
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