McBride wins eBuggy at Asian Buggy Champs
He may have got off to a slow start in eBuggy, but Kyle McBride came away with the win at the opening round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships in Pukekohe, New Zealand. After two exciting A-Main encounters on Saturday, it was a three way battle for the overall win going into A3 on Sunday – McBride having won A1, Top Qualifier Logan Toia winning A2, and a second place in A1 putting Caleb Noble in contention. With Toia leading them away, he and McBride would tangle on the opening lap causing chaos in the chasing pack. Starting from the 3rd spot, it was WIRC’s Kasey Dawson who came through that the best to lead at the end of the first lap. From there the top seed & Q1 winner managed to see off the challenge of Mayako’s Jayden Edmunds to take the win with McBride crossing the line in third. Overall with his A1 win and second in A2 it was McBride’s victory ahead of Toia, who pulled off in A3 in frustration of the driving standards, while an over the moon Dawson completed the podium at his home track.
Summing up A3, McBride described it as ‘extremely hectic’ adding, ‘it was a crazy start, everyone was going for it. I think I got into the back of someone then had to wait and then I got cleaned out after that and then yeah, I don’t know what was happening, it was a crazy run.’ The Australian continued, ‘about half way through I got to settle down a little bit, everyone sort of got in their places, and I ran smooth race from there and I got a third place.’ Asked if he was aware of what was going on in the overall in terms of points he explained, ‘I knew as long as I beat Logan and Caleb I was sweet. They were ahead after the start and all the carnage, then I think Logan crashed, same with Caleb, and yeah I just ran clean from there. As soon as I got in front of them I was like alright just calm down and finish the race.’ On the overall result he said, ‘I’m pretty happy with the win. I pretty much never run eBuggy only at big events so I haven’t run it in a long time. It was a bit of a learning curve coming back into it. Considering how my qualifying went, which was pretty average, it was a pretty good improvement and we got it figured out in the end.’
Asked about the hectic start to A3, Toia said, ‘I don’t really have much to say about it. I’m quite angry about it so yeah, the car was good but I got driven over the top of’. On his second place overall, the 17-year-old said, ‘I’m happy, I definitely wanted more but that’s the way racing goes. I’ll go again in nitro.’
One of the happiest drivers of the weekend, asked about the deciding A-Main, Dawson said, ‘She was a hectic start with pile up in the top right hand corner that I did end up getting stuck into. I tried to go round and got taken out as well, and then somehow we got to the apex and I’d muscled my way past and got to the lead. We towed around for a couple of laps and I started to get a gap but everyone started crashing so I had a huge lead there at one point until Jayden (Edmunds) slowly reeled me in. After that I just tried to keep my lines tidy and drive good and managed to do that. Jayden caught right up to me right at the end and I tell you what I was rattled.’ He continued, ‘I knew before the race that if I won it would put me on the podium no matter what happened anyone else. Top Seed, a TQ run and then a Main win wasn’t on my bingo card for this event. I was hoping for Top 5 in both classes and a podium was a very far cry. Dreams do come true’. Admitting to tearing up on the drivers stand after winning A3, he said, ‘I put some much time, effort and money into this, for me but also the Rouge RC boys to give them something back is a great feeling. All the time Ben Young puts in with me especially on practice days its great to thank them for that with this result.’