McBride finally delivers in Q3 in New Zealand
Kyle McBride finally delivered on the speed he has shown all day at Round 1 of the Asian Buggy Championships in New Zealand by closing out the first day of qualifying with a TQ run in Q3. Opening Friday’s action with a P2 and then a P3 in Q2, mistakes dropping him of the top of the timing screens in both, the former pro racer again didn’t have a clean run however on the third time of asking he had the pace to snatch back the TQ on the final lap. Behind the Aussie, the WIRC of Kiwi Kasey Dawson would also end the day with his best nitro run for a result that makes him one of four remaining contenders for the overall TQ going into Saturday’s fourth & final qualifier. An impressive drive by Mayako’s Dylan Toia saw him complete the Top 3 ahead of Q1 winner Jayden Jamieson. Having taken Q2, Jayden Edmunds was unable to back that up after he made a tyre change that resulted in his Mayako having too much grip and he was only P7 for the round. In eBuggy, HB Racing’s Logan Toia backed up his Q2 performance to claim another TQ run and only Q1 winner Dawson can deny him the overall TQ but in order to do so he needs to top Q4 in the fastest time of the weekend.
‘The car was good, the driver still needs some work, I made it hard for myself that win’, was McBride’s reaction to his TQ run. He continued, ‘the car is really getting good so we are moving the right direction there, I just need to clean myself up. On this track it is so easy to overdrive and just try to push too hard and that is when the pipes suck you in and you make mistakes.’ Asked his plans for Q4, he said, ‘get a good sleep. Probably not going to change too much, tried some different tyres and they work really good so we’re going to stick with those.’
‘Almost’ was Dawson reaction at the end of Q3. The local racer explained, ‘we made a small shock change at the rear which made the car noticeably better. I think the tyres were just a bit too old for that one but I definitely picked the right compound for the conditions, the track was half in the shade. I had good consistency through the run but it was tough with Kyle. He crashed 2 or 3 times and went back behind me and I let him go and the last one with about a minute to go I didn’t know what to do so I drove around for 2 or 3 laps and eventually let him go because it didn’t feel right but it’s a tough one. I mean you’re battling for the lead and they’ve crashed multiple times, it’s not in your best interest to keep waiting and allowing third to catch up. It’s a strange one. It’s qualifying and you let the fast guy go but in that situation when you are battling for the lead you kind of dig your own hole but I still felt I needed to let him go but it is gutting to get to the second last lap and still have the lead and I just have a slight messy last lap and lost that.’ Looking to tomorrow’s final qualifier as one of the drivers who could secure pole for the 45-minute A-Main, Dawson said, ‘this wasn’t a situation I expected to find myself in having had a 7 in the first round and DNF in second’, that retirement coming after he pushed too hard and fired it into the fence and broke a link.
One of the young guns impressing here this weekend, Dylan Toia, who set the fastest lap of Q3, said, ‘I had a good start, the tyres were amazing, they caught on just as I went out for my first lap, the Green Falcons (JConcepts) are an amazing tyre out here. So yeah we got off to a good start, I had a few little bobbles in the middle of the run and then I had a roll on the first corner and got stuck in the pipe which I think cost me 3 or 4-seconds so that dropped me down to I think third, I was leading before then. From there I sat in third for the rest of the run and came out with a P3.’ Asked about the improvement in performance the 11-year-old said, ‘it came mostly from my driving. I wasn’t driving too good this morning and in the middle. I think also as it got later the car hooked up more. Me and my car are better at the rougher tracks rather than the smoother tracks its just my driving style. As the track gets bumpier its suiting me better.’ Asked about changes for Q4, he replied, ‘I will see what it is like in the morning and go from there but mostly we’ll just rebuild the shocks and the diffs.’
On his Q3, reigning New Zealand National Champion Jamieson said, ‘I was on target to go good but as I took the lead I clipped the pipe and rolled over so unfortunately that put me out of the TQ position for that one but I think being only 4-seconds off the lead at least I know the pace was there to potentially take that one.’ Asked about tyres having announced early he would have to change pattern to save the last set of tyres he had been using he said, ‘because of how late we ended up running I ended up going on a supersoft 500. I was about to go on a soft 200 like I did on the last eBuggy one but I seen the track got colder because the sun dropped so I got to run supersoft.’ Asked if he planned any set-up changes for tomorrow he said, ‘not at this stage no unless I think of something in my sleep’. On the track, the regular visitor to the Counties RC Car Club track said, ‘It’s getting a little bumpy here and there and in that one it was a little hard to see the bumps with the sun especially the whoops because there were shadows all through them so it was a little bit tricky other than that it’s not too rough yet.’
Asked about his eBuggy TQ, Logan Toia replied, ‘awesome eBuggy, terrible Nitro Buggy’. The 17-year-old driver continued, ‘I left the eBuggy as is and just threw a battery in it and drove it, the car is awesome. Nitro I went with too soft a tyre and the car was real edgy to drive and I got caught up with traffic that was about it.’ Asked how he could improve his nitro buggy, he replied, ‘my car pretty much works here, it’s just putting the right tyre on at the right time and I picked the wrong tyre then and then I was just getting angry with myself for making mistakes. Its frustrating.’