Coelho dominates LCQ to complete WC grid

Infinity’s Bruno Coelho dominated the LCQ race to book his place in the inaugural IFMAR eBuggy World Championship final, the Portuguese driver making an early pass on pole sitter Ryan Cavalieri before quickly pulling clear to take an unchallenged win.  Not Coelho’s chosen route to tomorrow’s final at Barcelos Buggy Arena, the multiple Onroad & Offroad World Champion found himself in the B-Main after traffic delayed him in the sixth & final qualifier when he was on pace for a run that would have put him 8th on the A-Main grid.  With a stacked grid for the 10-minute LCQ, five Americans looking to somehow infiltrate the all European A-Main grid, Coelho needed just a lap to find his way to the front.  Having a moment with 4-minutes to go when he got his IFB8 E Prototype up on two wheels and had to save it, such was his lead he still managed to win by over 6-seconds from Xray’s Bartek Zalewski with Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic finishing third.  Dropping to 5th, Cavalieri maintained his status as the top US driver, on what has been a disappointing World Championships showing for the nation.

Asked about his appearance in the Last Chance Qualifier race, Coelho said, ‘We had a very tough week actually it was a lot of work we struggled a little bit with the high traction.  I mean the European Championship was amazing we finished second and it was pretty low traction  so are car was pretty good there here it was also difficult for us to find a set-up for the super high bite so today the low was good for us to improve the car.  In one of the qualifiers I made a mistake and in the last one we had a bit of trouble with the traffic when I was fighting for the Top 3 which would put me directly in the final, but now I am here.’  He added, ‘I knew I had the pace and I just need to keep calm, keep my head down and not make any mistake and it worked out.’  On the car set-up for the final, Coelho said, ‘for sure we still need sometime to work on the car, especially for me as it is a new platform.  We got it working well on the low bite but we need more time on the high bite the develop the set-up of the car and our knowledge of it.  It is work in progress for us.’

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