Nguyen & Iivonen add TQ runs at Asian Buggy Championships

With three rounds of qualifying in the books at the Asian Buggy Championships, the LAP Paradise RC Raceway in Malaysia has given us different TQ runs from three different drivers representing 3 different manufacturers, Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen topping Q2 and Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen delivering in Q3.  With Sworkz’s Caleb Noble opening nitro buggy qualifying with the fastest time, the stage is now set for an exciting fourth & final qualifier with all three drivers in the hunt for the overall TQ honours.  After a mistake in Q1, Top Seed Nguyen made amends with a cleaner run to take a close TQ ahead of Iivonen and Noble, the three covered by just over a second.  In Q3 it was Iivonen’s turn to execute a clean 5-minute run and he took the round by a significant 4.2-second margin over his Australian and American rivals who both had mistakes resulting in costly seconds lost.  In eBuggy, Iivonen would make it back to back TQ run in Q3, while in Nitro Truggy, ABC New Zealand winner Noble locked in the overall TQ with a third consecutive TQ run allowing him to sit out Q4 and focus solely on buggy.

Reacting to his TQ run, Iivonen said, ‘Q3 was a clean, I just had some traffic midway through and at the end but otherwise it was a super clean run for me and consistent.’  On his buggy, Mayako’s star factory driver said, ‘the car felt good but I think the grip went slightly down compared to the hotter weather in Q2 but the car handled very well after the changes we made’.  Asked about the changes the 23-year-old replied, ‘I just changed my rear link height slightly, that was the only change but on this track you can feel a small change for sure.’   On his Q2 performance he said, ‘the pace was super good and I was matching Phi but then at the end I had as couple of wobbly laps and dropped down slightly but it was super tight so not to bad.’  Looking to deciding final qualifier the Finn said, ‘I think we are going change a bit and try to make the car a little bit more flat around the track and I think if we can do that it will be super nice.’

Asked about his Round 2 & 3 performances, reigning FEMCA Champion Nguyen said ‘Q2 was fine. It was a clean run I think’. On Q3, the teenager summed up that run with, ‘I crashed. I guess I am too aggressive.’ Changing the ride height for the run, his dad explained that it was now maybe a little bit too low and negatively effecting how the car lands so they will revert back to their previous ride height setting. Asked his approach for the final qualifier, the threat of rain on the horizon, he said, ‘Hopefully it doesn’t rain but I guess this round I am going to try to be calmer and just take it easy. The track is very consistent although it might change now due to the weather.’ Making his debut in the Team Cayote/VP-Pro back Asian Buggy Championships this weekend rocking the colours of the last Kyosho World Champion Cody King asking about the distinctive colours he dad explained that as King was the last American driver to win the World title as well as the last Kyosho winner, and the fact the like the colours, they asked the 2010 World Champion (the year Nguyen was born) for permission to run his paint job in the home it might also bring them luck in this World Championship year.

Summing up his Q2 after topping the first round, Noble said, ‘the car was good but I ran a pretty smoked set of tyres, still it was a solid run and there was only 1-second covering the Top 3 so I’m happy with that.’  Putting on a brand new set of JConcepts Dirtweb 2 tyres for Q3, the 19-year-old said this meant he ‘was a little slow early in the run’ adding ‘but I am happy with the way I drove and we should be good for Q4 with the tyres broken in.’  He will use eBuggy to run another set of tyres and plans to not run truck to give himself more time having already TQ’d three rounds to lock in pole for the final.