Bernadzik delivers on speed to take Q4 in Brisbane
Having been super quick throughout the first two days of action at the Australian round of the Asian Buggy Championships, Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik finally delivered a TQ run when he took the penultimate round of nitro buggy qualifying at Pine Hills Dirt Racing track. Opening Day 3 of the event with a third TQ run in eBuggy, last year’s event Top Qualifier finally put together the run we were waiting for, setting a new fastest time as he ended up almost 5-second faster than the Sparko of Q3 winner Tyler Jones. Taking the opening two rounds on Thursday, Infinity’s Kouki Kato completed the Top 3, and with the just fifth & final quali to go it will be a three way battle for the overall TQ between Kato, Jones and Bernadzik – drivers’ best two to count. Getting a fourth for the round was Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen, the Top Seed now no longer in contention to be the Top Qualifier in Brisbane. Leading the Sworkz challenge this weekend, it was another solid nitro effort from Atsushi Hara, the former World Champion & Philippine Masters podium finisher, completing the Top 5 for his best run so far having got his first Top 6 yesterday.
Reacting to his TQ run Bernadzik said, ‘I didn’t really make too many changes, just lengthened my rear link out which made it a bit easier to drive. I think my shock package was right for the temperature. It’s pretty cold still but the actual track temp is right there so the car was good and I kept it on all four wheels. I didn’t drive like an idiot and kept it together.’ Looking to Q5, the former Australian National Champion said, ‘I think that TQ has been the fastest time of the weekend so hopefully I get another in around that pace. I am going to keep an eye on the ambient temperature and I might go up in shocks if it gets any warmer.’ Doing the buggy double for Q4, on his eBuggy he said, ‘both cars are pretty much on the same set-up now, and the track seems to suit the cars when its nice and cold so its all good.’
Jones summed up his run by saying, ‘I made a couple of mistakes, the first lap was a rough one, and then I had a couple of slower 32s (second laps) but I got into a rhythm and starting putting down some laps and came up a little short on Alex but I am getting pretty confident going into tomorrow.’ On his rough start the American said, ‘Yeh I think was just pushing a little too hard, trying just to be ultra perfect when I needed to go out and just turn some laps.’ On today’s track conditions, he said, ‘eBuggy was definitely slick, I thought the grip was going to be higher, so I kind of held on for that one but the track was pretty good for Nitro.’ For the final qualifying round, the 25-year-old will put a new set of front arms & move everything forward 2mm on his eBuggy to try get more steering out of the car and if that works well he’ll do the same on his nitro buggy.
Asked about his run, Q4 being his fastest of his 4 so far, Kato replied with, ‘Alex is very fast, we need to change something and try find more speed’. The ABC Indonesia and Philippines winner, added, ‘the car feels good to drive but we are missing some speed compared to Alex so we will have to try something different for the last one.’
Having had traffic issues in Q3 yesterday Iivoven summed up his fourth run with, ‘no traffic issues this time but there was some driver issues, I made a couple of mistakes’. The Finn would switch tyre brand for the round, explaining, ‘I tried different tyres and went on Jetkos and they were way different. A different feeling with way more forward bit. I think I will stick with the tyre but now change the car to suit. The pace is there I just need to get comfortable.’ Proof of that pace came with the 22-year-old posting the fastest lap, his advantage almost 2/10th on Bernadzik and 4/10ths on Kato.
On back to back race weekend duty having podiumed at the eSIC Electric Touring Car race in Singapore last weekend, Hara was happy with his performance now saying, ‘My focus is on good points because the first day I was driving really bad, so many mistakes’. He continued, ‘the car is good, I don’t change much there, and I have started to drive more calm. One thing I did change was the rear spring. I noticed some of the fast guys running a short spring on the rear, so the same front and back, so I was interested to try it and it works really well.’ Asked what difference it made, he replied, ‘It just makes it more stable in the rear, it’s not a huge difference but it makes it a little more easy to drive so I can push a little harder. Still I need a little more speed if I want to compete with top guys.’ Asked if that speed was in the car or him he replied, ‘I think both.’ That said he feels he has a good finals car but with his opening laps proving slow he thinks he has something too stiff in his set-up and he believe the diffs might be the issue.
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