Lutz wins A3 as Ongaro takes eBuggy in Manila

Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz delivered on his ever building speed throughout the Philippine Masters with a victory in the third & deciding A-Main of eBuggy, but overall it was Davide Ongaro who successfully defended his title in Manila.  The eBuggy mains kicked off on Saturday afternoon with a thrilling A1 final in which Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen saw off an intense last lap charge from Top Qualifier Ongaro.  A2 on Sunday morning wouldn’t quite serve up the same level of excitement as the first one with Ongaro taking the win by just shy of 1-second over Iivonen with third place qualifier Alex Bernadzik completing the Top 3.  This set the stage for a shoot out between Ongaro and Iivonen, however with his A2 win the faster of the races the Italian had the advantage with Iivonen needing to take his all new MX8E LCG prototype eBuggy to the win in a faster time.  With Ongaro struggling with his Team Associated’s handling and in particular the picking up wind throwing it around over the jumps, Iivonen got to the front but it was short lived as Lutz arrived to the party and soon eked out a lead.  In the closing stages Iivonen, having got by Team Associated’s Hyunkyu Jung-J, tried to chase down the American setting the fastest lap of the race on his penultimate round but he ran out of laps and finished 8/10ths back.  On tie break it was Ongaro with the overall win from Iivonen with Lutz’s win securing him the final step on the podium from Bernadzik.