Kaerup is inaugural eBuggy Worlds Top Qualifier

Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup is the Top Qualifier for the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship, the Dane securing the honours in Portugal with a round to spare after Michal Orlowski TQ’d the penultimate round at the Barcelos Buggy Arena track.  With three consecutive TQ runs in Q2, 3 & 4, only Xray’s David Ronnefalk could deny the talented teenager from leading away the 12 buggy grid that will battle it out tomorrow to become the first ever eBuggy World Champion.  Going in the first group of potential title contenders, Ronnefalk couldn’t deliver the required TQ as last year’s Nitro Buggy Worlds Top Qualifier Juan Carlos Canas topped that heat with a time that was eventually be good enough for the 3rd fastest time.  With that result confirming Kaerup as the overall TQ, Q5 was now just an opportunity to chase 4-in-a-row as he was next up to run, but a mistake would bring an end to his very impressive run.  In the end Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski finally delivered his promised TQ run ahead of Ongaro, giving them the Top 2 for the round.  With the tension levels palpable going into sixth & final qualifier, many leading drivers desperate for a good result to make the A-Main cut, the focus was on who would line-up behind Kaerup, that battle for P2 between Orlowski, Ronnefalk and Ongaro.  In the end, Orlowski backed up his Q5 TQ with another, this time ahead of Kaerup.  Overall, Ongaro will start third ahead of Elliott Boots and Ronnefalk with Cement Boda completing the top half of the grid.  While currently an all European final line-up, there is still an outside chance for a US driver to fill the 12th spot via the B-Main LCQ race.  Ryan Cavalieri starts second on that grid as the best American qualifier with P13.  The offroad racing powerhouse nation will get an opportunity for a stronger showing at the 2nd edition of eBuggy Worlds which it was announced will take place in the United States in 2027.

On his first World Championship TQ, Kaerup said, ‘I am happy with being in front and will try and drive away if possible but it is so close out there.  There are so many strong contenders so I feel it is going to be a long 10-minutes.’  With the TQ wrapped up allowing him to use the final qualifier to test ahead of the triple 10-minute finals, he said, ‘we changed some stuff but it didn’t work as we thought it would so we are going to go back.’  On how the track has evolved after the overnight rain and with the completion of Day 2 of qualifying, the 1:10 Offroad World Championship finalist said, ‘It is getting pretty bumpy out there, and there are some pretty big holes that unsettles the car.  I think if it is going to get patches for tomorrow I think it is going to be ok for us.’

‘Second is a nice starting spot, no pressure of the whole field behind me but now I am just curious what the track will be like for the finals tomorrow’, that was Orlowski’s reaction at the conclusion of qualifying.  The Schumacher team driver continued, ‘It is nice that the car is competitive in the high grip conditions, and now when it’s lower grip, without making many changes.  I saw many guys were thrashing on their cars changing stuff, we kind of decided to chill out and just drive what we have.’  Looking to the finals the former European eBuggy Champion said, ‘We just need to stay on top of the tyre choice for tomorrow.  We have such a big variety of tyres and we don’t know what the track might do.  It is meant to be quite warm tomorrow so we need to make the right choices and drive like I have been driving so far.’

Summing up his third place on the grid, Ongaro said, ‘Finally qualifying is over.  P3 is not bad a starting position, any thing can happen in the main so we are confident.  Considering from where we start I’m pretty happy.’  The Italian continued, ‘We have practice this afternoon so we will try something with different tyres, the car is actually pretty OK, we are just missing some grip.’  An interesting fact highlighted by the reigning Nitro World Champion is that he has never won any of his 1:8 World titles from pole position and as the current European 1:8 eBuggy Champion, the title was achieved from second on the grid.

‘One word, traffic’, that was how Top Seed Boots response when asked to sum up qualifying.  On his P4 starting position the former Nitro Buggy Worlds Top Qualifier continued, ‘yeah anything can happen from there, were kind of in the mix but would have been nice to be starting P2 which could have happened if I TQ’d that round but the same guy again cost me the TQ.  The car, everything, is feeling good.  We made a lot of changes to adapt to the conditions.’  On how he found today’s track, he said, ‘it wasn’t better for us, not with the set-up I was using from yesterday, it was completely different, but now we are on top of it and I was feeling good then.  They were saying I was quite a bit ahead of the TQ pace & comfortable, without that who knows but feeling good going into the finals.’

Asked about his qualifying Ronnefalk said, ‘I would sum it up as very disappointing to be honest.  Obviously I had the two good runs to start qualifying with, then I was on a very good run also in Q3 until the very last corner.  Today the weather has completely changed the track for everyone and I think in the first one my heat being the first top heat it definitely was the slowest, it was still wet out there.  The track was drying all the time so I think the fair thing for the qualifying today would have been to have a short practice round and run all the heats one time and then it would have been a little more equal’.  The former Nitro Buggy World Champion continued, ‘Our heat was always going to be a slower one being first out so that kind of cost me the possibility to do something today.  Basically the other two heats they had our heat to judge which tyre and compound they wanted to go with.’  Feeling he ‘probably picked the wrong tyre’ for Q5 he ‘just didn’t have the drive’.  For Q6 he went back to the soft compound that he ran yesterday and made some other changes he thought was going to be in the right direction but while the car was ‘pretty fast’ it was ‘difficult to drive’ that compounded by contact with Brandon Rose which cost him a potential fourth on the grid.  On the finals, the reigning European Nitro Buggy Champion, who won that title here at Barcelos starting from P5, said, ‘I think it is difficult in terms of it’s like pretty much one line.  I think it is going to be hard to pass unless someone makes a mistake so its all going to come down to whether you can keep you line or not with the guys behind you.  Fifth is not terrible but obviously with the speed I had in the dry before the rain today and all that happened today I’m disappointed for sure.’