September 4, 2026

Iivonen takes opening ABC qualifier in Jakarta

Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen has TQ’d the opening qualifier at the concluding round of the 2026 Asian Buggy Championships in Jarkata, Indonesia.  The Finn took the first of the five scheduled qualifiers at West Side Raceway ahead of Top Seed Alex Bernadzik, the Team Associated driver 2.7-seconds off the TQ pace after a slow start on new tyres.  Making it three different manufacturers in the Top 3, Sparko’s new FEMCA Champion Jayden Edmunds was a similar margin off his fellow countryman Bernadzik to open with a P3 effort.  While taking the opening TQ in eBuggy ahead of Edmunds with his Team Associated, Hyunkyu Jung encountered traffic on the opening laps of his first nitro qualifier hampering his chances of a double, but it was a costly mistake on the teenager’s penultimate lap that meant the 4th fastest for Q1.  Infinity’s Jason Nugroho upheld home honours as he set the fifth fastest time ahead of the Mugen Seiki of Australian teenager Zac Foster.

Overall pleased with his opening run Iivonen said, ‘I had a couple of smaller mistakes but nothing huge.  The track is more challenging today and definitely has less grip but I was able to make some changes to the car which made it much much better and I think that should be fine for Q2 also.’  With this his second outing of the Asian Buggy Championships’ fourth season, him taking his first overall Nitro TQ earlier this year in Malaysia, Iivonen cautioned that, ‘my tyres are looking a bit worn out so hopefully they will last because I don’t have so many of them.  I will hold a new set for the last qualifier tomorrow.  They tend to wear out when you are using additive.’

Summing up his opening qualifier, Bernadzik said, ‘It started off a bit slow, I had a new set of tyres on and they took a little bit of time to come in but mid to end of the run the car was pretty good.’  Setting the fastest lap of Q1, the Australian continued, ‘I was getting close and then on the last lap I made a couple of silly errors’.  Asked about tyre wear, he replied, ‘It depends.  If I sauce them like everyone else is then the wear is starting to up come up a little bit, so it is going to be something that we are going to keep an eye on.  At the moment it is not too bad.’  On changes for Q2 he said, ‘No, we’ll just run what we’ve run, the car was good yesterday at this time of the afternoon so we’ll just trust it and drive it.’

Giving a run down on his Q1, newly crowned FEMCA Champion Edmunds said it was ‘pretty good, pretty clean, and the car was working well.’  The 20-year-old added, ‘It was lacking a little bit of grip to the other three so I am going to try and find that but the car is really easy to drive, just need to find that last little bit.’  Asked if that missing edge was in the tyres , tyre prep, or car set-up, he said, ‘I think it something in the car that I need to find.  I have been on the same sort of tyre prep, I haven’t really deviated too much, so maybe it is in that (the tyres) but I think it’s safer now to stay with what I have got and continue to work with the car.’

‘I think the pace was there to fight with Pekko for the TQ but I had some traffic and one silly mistake’, was how Jung described his run.  He elaborated by saying, ‘I had one mistake on the right side and that cost me 4-seconds.  Traffic on the first and second laps cost me 2-seconds and I would say I was mentally broken after that.’  He continued, ‘It’s OK, its only Q1 and we have four more rounds.’  On changes to his car for the second & final qualifier of today’s action, the Korean said, ‘My car definitely has the pace so we don’t need to change anything.  We will just go into Q2 and hopefully we have no problem with traffic this time.’

September 4, 2026

Bernadzik ‘Top Seed’ at Asian Buggy C/ships Finale

Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik is the Top Seed at the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships in Indonesia, the second round of seeding seeing no improvement in times from the leading contenders.  Fastest yesterday afternoon with a time of 1:23.448 for his 2-fastest consecutive laps, Bernadzik again topped this morning’s second round but in a slower time of 1:24.030.  The Australian reported that compared with running at the similar time yesterday in free practice when his buggy ‘felt good’, this time round it felt ‘a little soft’.  With a break before the start of qualifying here at West Side Raceway, he will wait to see how the temperatures are closers to the first of the 2 qualifying rounds on today’s schedule before making a call on whether to change stiffener up his RC8B4.2.  Again the closest challenger to Bernadzik, while a slower SP2 time team-mate Hyunkyu Jung did get the gap down to 1/10th of a second.  For the round it was Sparko’s Jayden Edmunds who was third fastest almost matching his pace of SP1 but again not an improvement he seeds 4th in the top Nitro heat.  Topping eBuggy seeding with his Cayote powered Mayako, drivers also failing to better Thursday’s time, a set-up change resulted in Pekko Iivonen’s nitro buggy having more understeer and he was fourth fastest but his SP1 time means he seeds P3.

September 3, 2026

Bernadzik tops first seeding in Indonesia

Alex Bernadzik topped the opening round of seeding at the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships today in Indonesia, the Australian heading a 1-2 for Team Associated.  Over the 41-seconds West Side Raceway lap, he would have a 4/10ths of a second advantage over team-mate Hyunkyu Jung as each drivers best two consecutive laps were recorded.  A more technical track layout than the Championships’ previous 2024 visit to the dirt track, traffic seemed to be the biggest challenge for drivers in the randomly created seeding groups.  Completing the Top 3 for the first of the two seeding rounds, the second getting Friday’s action underway here in Jakarta, was Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen who was 7/10ths off Bernadzik’s pace.  The Sparko of Jayden Edmunds was next up, the Australia fourth fastest ahead of the Infinity of Jason Nugroho, one of the few drivers not to sauce his tyres, and the Sworkz of fellow Indonesian Adrian Wicaksono.

‘Nitro was definitely good’, was Bernadzik’s response when asked about the first seeding run.  The former Asian Buggy Championships Australia race winner added, ‘My car is really good but still lacking a little bit in mid corner but it was super easy to drive.’  His first time to Indonesia, he continued, ‘I had one mistake but that was just tangling with another car.  The actual run itself was pretty good and I don’t think I made one mistake myself.’  Still running on Hotrace’s Super Soft Sahara tyre in the dusty track conditions, asked about set-up changes for tomorrow, he replied, ‘I am just going to work on my eBuggy because Nitro is fine.  It’s more so tyres and just making sure they are right’.

Asked how he felt the first counting run of the weekend went, Jung said, ‘It wasn’t bad’.  The 16-year-old Korean continued, ‘we ran the same car (set-up) and just tried a different tyre compound.  The tyre is so important here with everyone saucing and doing something on the inserts.  I think I went out with too soft a compound for the conditions then but for tomorrow I think we need to try some other things with our tyre prep.’

Fastest in the first eBuggy seeding run Iivonen summed up his nitro effort with, ‘It was OK, I was in a slower group and there was some drivers who tried to be faster than me so I had some slight problems getting two good laps but my pace wasn’t too bad.’  The new slimmed down Finn, who just recently ran & completed his first half marathon, continued, ‘the car was slighted too soft I would say so I think compared to eBuggy, I was running the same shocks in both, I think I will go stiffer with the nitro for tomorrow.  It was actually rotating a bit better than the eBuggy and that was good but I just need some more stability in my opinion and once I get that it will be quite good.’

September 3, 2026

Drivers full of praise for track at Asian Buggy C/ships Finale

With free practice for the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships complete, drivers have been heaping praise on Adrian Wicaksono for his track layout for the season finale here in Jakarta, Indonesia.  After the race was cancelled last year, West Side Raceway returns to the Season 4 calendar after it previously proved a huge hit with driver as the concluding round of the 2024 championship.  With many of this weekend’s race favourites making their first visit to the Southeast Asian country for Round 4, they are all relishing a weekend of racing on the ‘proper dirt track’ which over the previous edition takes things up a notch by being a lot more technical.  One of the drivers expected to be in the mix for a podium in the main Nitro Buggy class this weekend, on his track design Wicaksono explained, ‘basically the previous year it was more like an open layout, fast with big sweeping corners.  This year I wanted to make the track more technical but still have enough space for passing.’

Asked his own thoughts on his creation, Wicaksono said, ‘for me personally I do like it, some may not like it, but for me it is a different challenge.’  The Sworkz driver added, ‘when we finished the track based on the drawing, I then modified it three times because when we built it as per drawing it was like impossible so I took out some jumps, moved some lanes etc. to make the flow better and make it better for the mid level drivers.’  With drivers reporting the traction being low, Wicaksono said he didn’t know why this was, stating ‘it is never like this and maybe it is because in years past we had lot of rain and the soil needs water to be grippy so maybe it is because it is just too dry but also we never run with so many drivers over so many days on a regular basis.’  In terms of his own car set-up he said, ‘the key here is No.1 tyres, geometry wise you change a lot of different things but the impact is not really that much.  The key is tyres, diff, and shocks.’  Running JConcepts Dirt Web 2, asked about drivers trying tyre sauce he said, ‘we never use sauce but these guys used it and now it is in their heads so we tried it and it was better the first run but after that I don’t feel that much difference compared to not saucing.  I am not a fan of saucing’.

One of the stars of the Malaysian round of the championship earlier this year, taking the TQ but losing out on the win after he ran out of fuel during the first stint of the final, giving his thoughts on the track Mayako star Pekko Iivonen said, ‘It’s nice to have a track that is a bit lower grip and not high grip so you can really enjoy the driving.  It is really nice going around the track and also the jumps are really really good.  Overall  the track is amazing.’  The Finn added, ‘both our cars now work quite good.  From the get-go it felt super good so I have just been making some small tweaks here and there and testing some different TRC pistons.  I think we have found the best package for now I think.’  Running JConcepts Dirt Web 2 he said these have been the fastest tyres he has tried so far adding ‘the track is fastest in the morning, even though they water it it is never the same as in the morning, but I think both cars work good overall in all conditions.’  He concluded, ‘I think our set-up window is right right now and it is looking good.’

Coming into the ABC final direct from becoming double FEMCA Champion in Malaysia last weekend, Sparko driver Jayden Edmunds said the track was ‘like nothing I have driven on before’.  The Australian continued, ‘the way the surface is prepared is so smooth.  Generally dirt or clay tracks back home are not this smooth and the jumps aren’t perfect but coming here the down ramps are perfect, the face is perfect, it does everything the same every lap.  It is just really nice to drive on.’  On his buggy set-up, the 20-year-old said, ‘Finding steering because of how polished the track is the biggest challenge.  It just understeers, I think everyone is looking for the same thing.  It’s the opposite of what I have been doing with this car since I got it, I have been trying to take away steering and then coming here I still need more.  I am slowing finding more, the car has been real comfortable from the start, I just need that little bit more steering.’  His tyre of choice is the JConcepts Dirt Web 2.

Another driver on his ever visit to Indonesia, Alex Bernadzik reacted to the track by saying, ‘Hats off to everyone that has built the track, photos don’t do the track justice.  Seeing it in person is a whole different world and it is probably, if not, the best track I have ever driven on.’  The Australia added, ‘It very different to what we are used too.  We are having to set the car very aggressive to get corner speed and rotation out of the car but we are getting there now.  We are trying not over complicate things now as we have had so much practice it can get in your head a little bit.  The car is comfortable and I am just focusing on my driving more.’  Asked the most challenging aspect of the track, he replied, ‘trying to get the car to generate grip mid corner.  If you can get that it is a second a lap pretty much.’  Running Hotrace’s super soft Sahara tyre, on the track getting more dusty over the day he felt, ‘online it still worthy of a bar tyre.  I tried pins and they weren’t any good.’

His home track, Infinity driver Jason Nugroho, a multiple ABC Finalist, said his event was ‘going not so good’ at the moment.  He explained, ‘It was OK yesterday but today it is getting dustier and dustier, it feels more dusty than usual.  I had a discussion with Adrian (Wicaksono) and he agrees it is dustier than it usual is so I am just still trying to figure things out.  I think tyres are very important here and talking to several fast guys they are using sauce and I see that their car is not really effected by the dust so it think it is worth a shot to try it out.’  Running a Proline Slide Lock tyre, he joked ‘it is a very old tyre but it still works’ adding compared to previous track builds here ‘the surface is much smoother this time.  Usually we have some tiny holes but this time it is super smooth and a bit like driving on ice.’  He concluded, ‘I think it will be a challenging weekend.’

‘The facility is super amazing’, that was how Team Associated’s Hyunkyu Jung summed up his first visit to West Side Raceway.  The young Korean racer added, ‘It’s a super big track, natural dirt, and it gives you a really good feeling to drive on.’  Pleased with his performance in yesterday’s practice, he said he has struggled a little today to find the same pace but believes everyone is in the same boat in wanting to have more front steering.  Running Hotrace’s Sahara, he said, ‘everything about the track is challenging because the grip is super low but the more we work on the car the better it is getting.  It’s not perfect be we have a bit more to try.’