2016 Luk Thung Cup

The 2016 Luk Thung Cup will be the first ever Luk Thung Cup held in Bangkok, Thailand from November 28 to December 4. It was originally scheduled for October 24, the same week as the WTA Finals, but postponed CDs forced BATC organizers to move the tournament to closer to the 2016 Swiss Open.

Tournament
The Luk Thung Cup is only for IndyCar players ranked 9 to 20 in the final standings after Sonoma. The wildcard entrant must be born in Thailand. There are four groups of three players, in which the IndyCar player ranked 9, 10, 11 or 12 in the final standings are seeded.

Qualified players
Charlie Kimball finished 9th in the standings after being ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya (who had still been in qualifying position for the Luk Thung Cup) entering Sonoma. Kimball had an up and down season, finishing the top 5 only twice in the season and the top ten 11 times in the season. His best finish in the season was 5th at Indianapolis GP and also the Indy 500. Kimball's Celebrity Family Feud was also a season up and down, exiting before the quarterfinals in the majority of the tournaments. Carlos Munoz finished 10th in the standings, leading the Andretti Autosport pack of 4 full-time drivers. Munoz was at one-time top 5 in the standings, tied with Alexander Rossi, after Texas got postponed. Munoz had a good Indy 500, finishing 2nd to his Andretti teammate Alexander Rossi, who was a rookie entering the race. Munoz also posted a podium at Mid-Ohio, where he finished 3rd behind Simon Pagenaud and Will Power, who were 1-2 entering the race. Alexander Rossi finished 11th in the standings, despite being in the top 5 tied with his Andretti Autosport teammate Carlos Muñoz in the standings one time after Texas got postponed to August. He had a good rookie season, winning the Indy 500 for the first time after beating Munoz at the finish line and also drank milk for the first time at the track. His only top tens outside the Indy 500 were at Watkins Glen, Sonoma and Iowa. Ryan Hunter-Reay had not brought the form from 2010 to 2015, being a Hélio Castroneves in 2011 and Eugenie Bouchard in 2015. He finished only 12th in the standings after Sonoma, his lowest since 2009. His best results in the season were 3rd at St. Petersburg, Detroit #2 and the postponed Pocono race. He also had strong showings at Sonoma and Road America, finishing 4th in both races. James Hinchcliffe didn't bring the 2013 form back, finishing 13th in the standings after Sonoma, one position short of his 2014 season. Hinchcliffe also helped the Verizon IndyCar Series to a victory over the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Models in Celebrity Family Feud. His best results were 3rd at the Indianapolis Road Course race and the Honda Indy Toronto, his home race. He managed to qualify for the pole at the Indy 500, the track he almost died on Simon Pagenaud's birthday the year before. Hinchcliffe was announced as a Dancing with the Stars Season 23 contestant days after he almost won the revised race at Texas in August. He also had a good Mid Ohio result. Sebastien Bourdais won the 2016 Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit Race 1 on Saturday, keeping up his good results at Detroit. He also had an up and down season marred by three DNFs at St. Pete, Mid-Ohio and Indy GP. Bourdais had a great Phoenix return, with a top ten result. He had a top ten Indy 500 result, finishing 9th. Bourdais also finished 5th at Watkins Glen. His only top 5 finish on an oval was Pocono, which was postponed until Monday due to rain. Mikhail Aleshin had an up and down season, with the up being his 2nd place result at Pocono to Will Power, leading the most laps at Mid Ohio and a 5th at St. Pete and Iowa. Aleshin's downward part of the season were crashes at the Indy 500, the revised Texas race and Watkins Glen. He also had finished in the top ten in Toronto. Marco Andretti had an inconsistent 2016 season, finishing 16th in the standings after Sonoma. Andretti's best result is only 8th at Sonoma, where Pee Saderd led Russia at the time. His other top ten finishes were 9th at the second Detroit race and 10th at Toronto. His finishes in the majority of the season had been in the 11th-20th range. Takuma Sato led the Foyt standings in 2016, finishing 17th. He missed out on a 2016 Swiss Open by one position. Had Takuma Sato and Apolo Anton Ohno finished inside the top ten at Sonoma and Pee Saderd finished 21st or 22nd at Sonoma, he would have denied Pee Saderd one and it would have been all 32 seeds fluent in English. Sato's season was highlighted by a top five finish at Toronto and Long Beach. He also finished at the top ten in St. Petersburg, the second Detroit race and Mid-Ohio. Sato's downfall of 2016 were DNFs at the Indy 500, a last place result at Pocono and an engine issue at the revised Texas race. Conor Daly had an awesome season with Dale Coyne Racing, finishing 18th in the final standings. His best results were 2nd to Sébastien Bourdais at the first Detroit race and 4th at Watkins Glen. Daly also had great results in the second Detroit race, Indianapolis GP road course, and Mid-Ohio. He also participated in Celebrity Family Feud with the other Verizon IndyCar Series drivers Hélio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, James Hinchcliffe and Will Power in their victory over the Sports Illustrated Models. Max Chilton had an impressive 2016 rookie season driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, having at least a top ten finish. He had always remained 16th through 20th in the standings in nearly every race. Chilton had also missed out on a Celebrity Family Feud seeding in nearly every episode (expect 6, where IndyCar drivers had to play the Models). Max Chilton's highlights in 2016 season were 7th place at Phoenix and a tenth at Watkins Glen. He had a great qualifying results, as he made the Fast Six at Watkins Glen and started fourth at Iowa. Pee Saderd qualifies for the Luk Thung Cup as a wildcard, having been born in Chum Phae. His first seven months of 2016 representing Thailand was an up and down season; with best results being at least second round. After the hospitalization in July, he started representing Russia. His resurgence started in Paula Deen vs. Carson Kressley and Rico Rodriguez vs. Jaleel White, where he made the quarterfinals as a qualifier ranked 95th entering the event on the BATC Contestant Rankings as of August 8, 2016. After the tournament, his results on the BATC World Tour as a Russian continued increasing his Choot Tee 9 chances, with a final in Tommy Davidson vs. Kristi Yamaguchi and Dave Foley vs. Jalen Rose and a win in the final over Hélio Castroneves in Gus Kenworthy vs. Sheryl Underwood and David Chokachi vs. Alan Thicke. Saderd's good results continued in September, with a final in 2016 Indianapolis Open 3, losing to Castroneves; and another title in Garrett Morris vs. Alfonso Ribeiro and Todd Chrisley vs. Sara Evans, defeating Chespin. The last tournament before the IndyVision Contest was the 2016 BATC Champions League, where he eventually won the tournament despite being unseeded based on standings after Sonoma.