Batlle sets pace at Philippine Masters

Robert Batlle is the top seed for the Philippine Masters, the factory Mayako driver topping the single round of controlled practice from Davide Ongaro on the challenging Manila track.  With Race Director Scotty Ernst making the call to reduce the counting consecutive laps from the traditional 3 to 2 given the challenge of putting together 3 clean laps, Batlle’s best effort was 1:57.225 compared to the 1:58.176 of the race’s former Champion Ongaro.   Sworkz Micha Widmaier made it an all European Top 3 followed by local driver Daniel Miranda with Australian Jackson Beale completing the Top 5 from fellow countryman Jak Parsey.

While happy to kick off the start of official business at the top of the time sheets, Batlle said they ‘still have work to do’.  Supported at the race by the car’s design Joesph Quagraine, who is acting as his pitman, the former World Champion said some words of wisdom from JQ to settle down had helped with his clear run of laps.  The Spaniard said a change of tyre from open practice had also improved his buggy, the Hotrace’s Sahara Clay compound giving him better grip and traction and an overall better feeling with the buggy.  Landing on his roof during the run, asked how he felt he was on pace over 5-minutes, the first round of qualifying concluding today’s action, he replied it is difficult to be super consistent but towards the end of the run I was able to run four good laps’.

Having only arrived in Manila last night in time for dinner,  Ongaro is a day in deficit to his rivals in track time.  Describing his seeding pace as ‘overall good’, he added, ‘I need more track time, I am one day behind’.  The reigning World Champion said while the car is good their focus is already on getting the car set-up for the Main in 2-days time, he said the biggest improvements are to come from the driver.  Having to go up in his Team Associated buggy’s diff and shock oils for the 30 degree plus heat,  the Italian is running Matrix’s Block Hole tyre in clay compound.

‘So far so good’ was how Widmaier summed up his early performance.  The German came here with base set-up from team-mate Carlos Canas and described his car as working ‘great’.  The 21-year-old said his biggest focus for now is on his driving given that all his racing lately has been in 1:10 so he is still adjusting himself to the bigger buggy and track.  Building up his consistency with every run he is running TPro’s clay compound Matrix tyre.

Only taking up racing in 2019, this is Miranda’s first Philippine Masters and he is off to a solid start.  Running a HB Racing chassis, the 26-year-old said he is happy with the car and any improvements were going to come from his driving.  Choosing to run Procircuit’s Kamikaze tyre, he said ‘it is hard to be consistent on a track like this’ but the focus for now was on finding time in his driving.

From Brisbane, 17-year-old Beale described the track as ‘really challenging’ but added ‘it’s lots of fun’.  The Tekno driver’s first time here, he said he had to make quite a lot of changes to the buggy when he first got here but is pleased they now have a good ‘base’ to work from.  Using Jetko’s Red Devil tyre in ultra soft, he feels he could have pushed a little harder on his two laps and believes he has good consistency over 5-minutes.  Originally scheduled to be three rounds of 7-minute qualifiers, the sold out entry will now enjoy four rounds of 5-minute qualifying.

Philippine Masters – Track Focus

The Philippine Masters is back and is live in Manila today with a track best described as ‘challenging’.  Located in the capital city, the very 3D looking track is the creation of top Philippines driver Edward Sio, one of the people behind the Philippine Masters since its inception in 2015.  Having to move the track location a few hundred metres from its previous home, one of the stand out features of the move is the massive three story driver stand.  With the new track built during Covid restrictions, the reason for the massive structure was to meet the then guidelines on the spacing of people so each floor was used as pit area to ensure everyone was spaced apart.  Made from the same dirt of the original track, the build took 45-days.  Building the track to how Edward wanted it and rolling it to a flat surface, they then dug up around a foot into the top layer to allow for the all important bonding of final race surface.  Giving the 30 degree plus temperatures in Manila, just spraying the top layer would not last as the top layer would eventually break and reveal a dusty dry dirt.  Instead they soaked the loose 1-foot deep top layer with a mixture of molasses and glue before rolling to the finish they wanted.

As his inspiration for the track, Sio explained that Philippine drivers don’t travel internationally to races but they are keen to learn and try improve their driving so they brought that challenge to them with this busy lap.  Starting with a very simple track in 2015, he added ‘we have tried to make the track a little more difficult each year’ adding ‘the locals like it and are happy to be learning from it’.  He definitely delivered on the difficulty with this the most challenging yet as official confirmed by back to back reigning World Champion Davide Ongaro.  This is the Italian’s third visit to the track.  Approximately 60 metres at its widest point, the track is built on a plot of land which Sio describes as being shaped like a baseball field.  With a lot of elevation change over the lap, this presented its own challenges during the build with the equipment struggling in sections.  As part of the facilities the track has a hobby shop located in the lower level of the drivers stand and for this weekend the race has hired marshalled meaning drivers are spared standing in the hot sunny conditions between racing.

Asked his thoughts on the track, Ongaro replied, ‘The most difficult (track) so far. It’s fun and difficult.’  He added, ‘It’s a busy lap so you can’t relax’, pointing out the back section as the most difficult element of the lap.   He explained it was challenging to get the timing correct for the sequence of jumps.  Another World Champion contesting the 2023 Philippine Masters, Robert Batlle described the track as ‘super hard’.  Adding ‘it’s so difficult’, he said, ‘for the medium level driver maybe it’s too much, the 1-hour final is going to be very difficult’.  Asked what was making the track so challenging, he said, ‘it’s the angle of the jumps from the driver stand. They are really hard to judge’.  That said the Spaniard did go onto pay the track the biggest compliment possible by saying, ‘it would be nice to have a Worlds on this type of track’.  Highly experienced and well known Asian driver Ryan Lee called the track a ‘smaller version of C-Netic’ adding ‘I like this type of track, the surface is very smooth so you can get a good rhythm.’

Track Name – Circulo Verde Offroad Track
Host – Quezon City RC Car Club
Country – Philippines
Location – Manila
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Dirt treated with molasses & glue mixture