McBride Top Qualifier at Asian Buggy Championships season opener

Kyle McBride is the Top Qualifier at the season opener of the Cayote supported Asian Buggy Championships.  The Australian secured pole for tomorrow’s 45-minute Nitro Buggy A-Main when he took the fourth & final round of qualifying in New Zealand this morning.  After yesterday’s 3-rounds of qualifying at the Counties RC Car Club track produced three different winners, it set the stage for a four way battle for the overall TQ between McBride, Sworkz’s Jayden Jamieson, Mayako’s Jayden Edmunds and WIRC’s Kasey Dawson.  Having ended yesterday with a TQ run in Q3, mistakes costing him dearer in the opening two heats, McBride would make his intentions for Day 2 of qualifying very clear early on as he kicked things off with his first TQ run in the final eBuggy round.  With the top heat of Nitro Buggy bringing a close to qualifying, McBride delivered the only 10-lapper to take Q4 ahead of Tekno’s Caleb Noble, Edmunds and Jamieson.  Overall it will be Jamieson who will start from P2 ahead of Edmunds, Noble and Dawson with Logan Toia’s HB Racing buggy completing the top half of the starting grid which features buggies from 6 different manufacturers!  While it was a double TQ run morning for McBride, Noble again his closest rival, the honour of Top Qualifier for the triple A-Main of eBuggy goes to Logan Toia with McBride starting P2 and Top Seed Dawson third.

A podium finisher at the season opener last year, Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz taking the win, on his Q4 run McBride said, ‘It was a solid run.  I had one mistake over the double but apart from that it was clean.  The track definitely felt like it got a bit of grip this morning.  The car was good, it probably started to get a little edgy on the rear so we’re maybe going to have to adjust that a little and try something for tomorrow but overall it’s good and I’m happy.’  Asked his thoughts for the final, the former factory AE driver said, ‘honestly, just get out there and get a clean first 5-minutes.  I know my car is fast and it’s just about not making mistakes at this track.  The track is definitely starting to get rough in some sections, don’t know how much worse it will get from here.  Obviously there are lower finals today and more tomorrow so that could change definitely.  I think the grip will probably stay the same, we’ll just have to wait and see if it gets dustier with the longer finals.’   Asked about tyres wear he said, ‘tyre wear is very low here.  The first day we ran one set of tyres on both cars all day and they were completely fine.  Our run time is very good, our engine program is fantastic so no changes need to be made there.’

Feeling under the weather today having all but lost his voice, getting a quick run down on his Q4 effort Jamieson said, ‘It was a bit slow.  I chose too soft a tyre as I thought it was a bit more damp than it was and then lacked a bit of steering cause the rear was so gripped up.  So I will make a few little tweaks and hopefully we get some steering.’  He added, ‘feeling real shit didn’t help’ his performance either and the plan between eBuggy A-Mains was to sleep most of the day in the hope of feeling better for tomorrow.

Summing up his Q4 effort, Edmunds said, ‘One mistake cost me the TQ but still I start 3rd and anything can happen in a 45-minute main’.  Asked his approach for the final he said, ‘I normally settle into a rhythm, I sort of struggle with the short stuff and little mistakes really cost you where as in a 45-minute they are not a massive deal.’  On his car, the Mayako Youth Mentoring Program driver said, ‘I think I’ll leave it pretty much the same.  I’ve got a harder set of tyres so that’s what I’ll do for the Main, I’m happy with the car.’  On tyre wear and run time, the 19-year-old explained, ‘there is not much tyre wear here at all really so that’s not a problem and we’re good on run time.’

With Q4 his best result of the weekend, reacting to the run Noble said, ‘It was going really well ’til I got trafficked, that’s what I am going to call it.  Someone didn’t move, they came off the line and as I went to go past they came back on the line and I drove into them which cost me 3-seconds or what ever but it cost me a 10-lapper again.’  A race winner in the Asian Buggy Championships last year, but somewhat struggling here this weekend, on his buggy he said, ‘the car was little better and I was somewhat in the hunt for the TQ but I can’t help other people’s decisions I guess.  For the final I think we will maybe go a little stiffer in the shocks, the car was a lot better so I guess I can’t ask for too much more.  We’ll see if we can make some progress in the final, it’s 45-minutes long so consistency will be key.’

‘Stoked with the TQ and the first Kiwi to TQ a class at ABC so I couldn’t really be happier’, was Logan Toia’s reaction to securing pole for eBuggy.  Asked about the final qualifier, the 17-year-old replied, ‘It was horrible.  I kind of confirmed my suspicions of what was wrong with my nitro buggy after trying some stuff on my eBuggy and it made the eBuggy pretty bad so I’ll just go back to how its been all weekend.’  On nitro, him starting P6 directly ahead of his younger brother Dylan, he added, ‘I feel am getting there.  I feel like I have got a good race car so I am confident for the final.  What I tried on the eBuggy helped to improve the nitro buggy and in the last qualifier I was able to hit my marks all the time.  I had one mistake, I tried to change my line to pass a car and hit a rut and endoed over the jump but other than that it was a flawless run.  There is no issue with the car.’