At 18, Kinatcha is showing the flair of her father, racing hero Kirakiat Yenmanoj

A pair of eyes in the control tower closely follow one particular Super Car flying around the Bira International track. They belong to Kirakiat Yenmanoj, who's remembering when he started racing two decades ago.

In the hurtling car down on the field is his 18-year-old daughter Kinatcha.

She won last year's Toyota Vios One Make Race Lady's Cup, and here she is competing against the men in the 1,500cc open category. Her dad, one of the best-known race drivers in Thailand, organised the event.

She's under a lot of pressure down there, he says, almost as much as she went through getting into the automotive-engineering faculty at Chiang Mai University.

"The men drive like fighters," Kinatcha confirms later, "but after two races I think I'm good enough - women can fight too."

A lot of her friends at university are interested in competing against men on the track, she says.

Kinatcha started out driving go-karts at age 12 and calls that approach "the right way to learn the basics, because you have to go into the corners with accuracy".

"In go-karting there's almost nothing between you and the road, which allows you to choose the right line. That's what my father taught me."

Studying in Chiang Mai leaves her little time to practise at the Bira Circuit in Pattaya, but while up north she keeps her hand in with more go-karting.

"I don't want to let my father down!" she laughs.

But Kirakiat insists that he doesn't pressure her.

"I just want her to drive according to what I've shown her," he says. "And even though she's racing in an event I organised, she doesn't get any special privileges - she has to go through everything the same as the other drivers.

"I know she'll feel a little pressure because she's following in my footsteps, but I'm very happy about this - I'd like to see a lot more young people involved in sports, which is always a good thing."