Faine Kahia of Ngāti Tūwharetoa continues to impress on the F4SEA circuit on day 2 following an eventful first day of action at the 4.554km Buriram United International circuit in Thailand.
The second race of the day and fourth of the weekend, belonged to the young Kiwi, Kahia, claiming his second win of the weekend ahead of Singapore’s Danial Frost and Oman’s Khalid Al-Wahaibi. Local favourite Komarakul finished fourth with F4/SEA debutant Daniel Hibbitt with a strong fifth place finish.
“The plan was to drive a consistent race and it worked. Though I did have a good fight with Danial (Frost) but I did not want to take any unnecessary risk and preferred to race responsibly. I was able to regain the position and from that point on pushed as hard as I could,” says Kahia.
Race 5 line honours belonged to Indonesia’s Presley Martono, with Kahia managing to sneak home in second place in race 5 who despite struggling with mechanical issues to bring his car in ahead of India’s Akash Gowda. The young Indian’s result also came on the back of difficulties in the earlier races. The Malaysian contingent also had a strong outing with Isyraf Danish also reversing his misfortunes from the previous race to finish in fourth ahead of compatriot Eric Louis.
Kahia says, “I had a really good start in Race 5 and was able to keep the lead in the first few laps. But then I started struggling with the car, as there was some vibration early on. I had to try and manage the situation but the car didn’t feel that great, so I just pushed as hard as I could, given the circumstances. By the mid-way point Presley (Martono) had caught up and he overtook me. I did not want to threaten my position with any risky moves, so I am really glad to finish on the podium.”
The final day of the event on Sunday will see two more races scheduled, including a seventh race held in place of the race that was postponed from the second event at the Clark International Speedway in the Philippines last October.