Kato takes Q1 in Indonesia

Having set the pace in seeding practice, Kouki Kato carried that form into qualifying to TQ the opening round at the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships in Indonesia, but only just.   While putting together a perfect error few 5-minute run, the Infinity driver didn’t have the same outright pace as the morning with local Sworkz driver Jason Nugroho coming to within 0.1 of a second of denying him the top spot.  With visiting drivers still finding their way in terms of how the track conditions change over the day, another local to open qualifying with a strong showing was track owner & builder Adrian Wicaksono who took his Team Associated to third ahead young Australian Christian Wolhunter.

‘A good consistent 5-minute run but I need more pace’, was how Kato summed up Q1.  Over a second off on his best lap time compared to when he topped seeding in the morning, the 18-year-old Japanese driver felt he lacked the traction to push his IFB8 and for the day’s second and final qualifier he plans to make the switch from the Hotrace’s Bangkok tyre to their Sahara bar tyre.  With Infinity leading a 1-2 in seeding, while Kato stayed top in Q1, team-mate Naoto Matsukura could only manage P7 as he had a costly crash on his final lap losing over 8-seconds.

Reacting to his P2, Nugroho said, ‘I wasn’t expecting that much pace due to the track conditions’.  The 24-year-old, who set the fastest lap of Q1 as the only one to run 40-seconds, continued,  ‘I was close but hit a pipe and in the dust was all over the place and just lost it by that much, just 0.1 seconds!  Congrats to Kato for the first TQ’.  Expecting the track will be more challenge for Q2, he said he hopes he can drive around the conditions and stay ‘nice and neat.’  Planning to leave his Drake O.S powered buggy’s set-up unchanged for the second qualifier he will also continue with his choice of Proline Electron M4 tyres.

With his track building efforts proving a hit with visiting drivers, racers from 12 different nations making the trip to Jakarta, Wicaksono put his P3 down to consistency rather that outright pace.  He said, ‘My single lap time was off the top guys but I think I kept it consistent and made zero mistakes and that is why I got third’.  Running Hotrace Sahara Supersoft he said, ‘It is more dusty than usual with the amount of racers we have for this race so maybe for Q2 I will use a small pin tyre’.  Asked about changes to his buggy set-up he said. ‘I plan to keep the car the same but the engine needs a better tune, the bottom end was a little rich in that one’.  One of three track in Jakarta, asked about the West Side Raceway build Wicaksono explained that the dirt used here was brought in from a different part of the country.  With a lot less tyre wear racing on this red dirt it also handles rain better.  Getting his inspiration for the layout from Supercross and the Philippine Masters track build, he is pleased with the reaction to his natural clay layout and is happy that each round is giving drivers a new challenge to contend with which he feels is how offroad should be.

Chasing another podium to round out his 2024 Asian Buggy Championship campaign, Wolhunter was ruing a mistake in Q1.  He explained, ‘The set-up on the car was very good.  We changed the rear diff and raised the rear arms up one and that made it easier to drive and more consistent.  Race wise it went really well until I had a 7-second crash that kind of sucked so to get a 4th with such a crash is pretty good, I just need to do better on the driving next time’.