October 1, 2026

Fuller produces second TQ run in Texas

Sworkz’s Mason Fuller has opened Day 2 of the qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship with a second TQ run, the American topping the round from team-mate Juan Carlos Canas and defending Champion Davide Ongaro.  Going in the group ahead of Ongaro and Canas, Fuller would be the only driver to run 17-laps of the Thornhill Racing Circuit this morning, Canas missing the mark by 1-second as he snatched P2 from Ongaro on his final lap of the fourth qualifying round.  Behind the Top 3 it was David Ronnefalk, who took Q1 yesterday morning, who set the fourth fastest time ahead of Xray team-mate Chase Lemieux both drivers running in Heat 13 of 15.  The Top 6 was rounded out by eBuggy World Champion Marcus Kaerup with US Offroad heavyweights Dakotah Phend, who had two DNF’s yesterday, and Ryan Maifield just behind him.

A driver who prefers to do his talking on the track, Fuller summed up his second TQ run with, ‘I had a few little mistakes with traffic and just going wide in places but I guess it was quick enough to do the TQ without a pit.’  With his last lap dropping almost a second, asked about this he said, ‘I just got in the dust a little bit and when you get in the dust it slows you down so much so that was why.’  Asked his thoughts on the track today, the 21-year-old said, ‘It is definitely better because they didn’t water last night so it started out pretty good, I think it will still get faster.’  On any planned car changes for the penultimate round of qualifying, he replied, ‘Eh we are going to try run a similar tyre and try & TQ cause that would be nice.’  With 3 of the six schedule qualifiers to count a TQ run in Q5 would lock Fuller in as the Top Qualifier.

Reacting to his best qualifier so far, Canas said, ‘We tried new things on the shocks and it was good, today I think it is working better, I mean the speed is better than yesterday.’  The Top Qualifier of the previous Worlds in his home country Spain, he added, ‘It is a little bit difficult to drive but not too much and the pace was good so we’ll keep working for the next one.’  Asked about his last lap on which he took 3/10ths out of Ongaro, he said, ‘I pushed because I knew I was close to him, so I pushed on the last lap to get it.’

With Ongaro in a deep engine discussion all in Italian with his father and mechanic, he explained afterwards that they were talking about engine set-up for trying to do a run without a fuel stop.  He explained, We are working with Kouki (Kato) who is doing 12 (minutes) so I think my driving style is a little suited to the 10-minutes because I am not like super aggressive, so lets try it.  We have two good scores, I need one more and P5 will be the last one which is faster for us so we try it.’  On Q4, he said, ‘Yes it was good.  We use the same car as yesterday but I think they fixed some holes on the track and the dust off that was just a little bit everywhere so we had a little less grip than yesterday but I think it will come up soon.’

‘It was a good run, clean, no big mistakes’ explained Ronnefalk.  He continued, ‘I had one moment when I came down the straightaway and I just braked a little bit in the dust and got inside of the pipe like 3 laps from the end and lost I think a second which would have put me very very close to Canas and Davide.’  He added, ‘I mean we were the fastest guys doing a pit stop.  Fuller didn’t do the pit stop obviously but he was driving very good too.  Maybe I drove a little bit to cautious.  I had a six from yesterday I wanted to better and now I got a 4 which is better but I’d like to improve that a little but more.’  Asked about the track, the last World Champion to be crowned on US soil when he won in Las Vegas in 2016 said, ‘It was not as bad as yesterday morning as they didn’t water in between qualifying round. It was definitely a bit more similar to Round 2 of yesterday but from now on its going to get more grippy again.’

‘It was solid’ was the response of Lemieux when asked how Q4 went.  He continued, ‘The felt pretty good, pretty similar to yesterday maybe a little less grip but it is good enough to do some testing for the Main and the Semis so that is what is on my mind next.’  For sure I still want to go out there and TQ but I think now is the opportunity to do some testing for the finals ahead and give ourselves the best shot to make it count most when it matters most, you know.’  On what he is looking for in terms of a finals car, the 20-year-old said, ‘Mainly just consistency and easability to drive.  That is how my car has been all of qualifying and I have been happy with it but still looking for just that extra little bit of pace but your car also can’t be hard to drive in an hour long final which is going to come down to mistakes.  That’s going to be the biggest factor.’

October 1, 2026

Ongaro comes good in Q3, Ronnefalk holds overnight TQ

Defending World Champion Davide Ongaro has concluded the first day of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship in Texas with his first TQ run, but it is Xray’s David Ronnefalk who holds the overnight TQ at the Thornhill Racing Circuit.  After topping seeding yesterday, Ongaro would not have the best of starts to qualifying as he managed only P5 while Ronnefalk topped Q1.  Worse was to come in Q2 as Ongaro posted the 8th fastest time.  With the frustration starting to show on the Italian’s face, while Sworkz’s Mason Fuller impressed with the Q2 TQ, the Ongaro smile would return in Q3 as the Team Associated driver just managed to pip the Xray of an impressive Chase Lemieux to the top of the timing sheets.  Lemieux has put in a strong day posting a P4 on his first attempt which he duly backed up with a P3 in the second one before closing out the day with a very competitive 2nd fastest time.  Overall it was a good end to the day for Team Associated with Spencer Rivkin putting together a P3, the leading drivers breaking 17-laps for the first time.  For Fuller, new tyres left him struggling a little in Round 3 and he ended the day by adding a P4 to his TQ & P3 while Tekno’s Ryan Maifield, who surprised with the 2nd fastest time in Q2, completed the Top 5 ahead of Ronnefalk.  The Swede felt he had a really fast car in Q3 but admitted he got carried away and this led to a number of mistakes that put him sixth for the round.  Elsewhere having looked to have found his way in Q2, America’s pre-event title favourite Dakotah Phend, like he did in Q1, ran out of fuel.  European Champion Juan Carlos Canas had been on a strong final run but the Spaniard had a costly last lap his Sworkz getting hooked up on one of the track’s roof support posts leaving him with a P9.

Putting it to Ongaro, ‘the smile is back’, the 25-year-old responded, ‘Yeah I mean I wasn’t happy before, not about my consistency but my package overall was a little bit not comfortable.  Now we changed a few things and maybe the rain helped a little bit with our tyres but I think we are now going on the right way.’  Asked what was the biggest thing they discovered to improve the car for Q3, he said, ‘we improve a lot with the car because before when I was going into the corner it was like locking, not going around like I like, but now I can do the corner more easy like my driving style.’

‘Really good’ was how Lemieux summed up his run that was just 0.173 off Ongaro’s TQ and fastest time of the day.  The son of former top international touring car racer Paul, the 20-year-old explained, ‘I didn’t make any mistakes and it was another 99 consistency run which I am trying to do every time.’  He continued, ‘Ongaro was very very fast that time and just got me by a tenth but we are heading the right direction and I feel very very comfortable with my car, the track, and tyres.  I am very confident for tomorrow, I feel good.’   On any car changes for Day 2 of quali, the current ROAR 1:10 National Buggy Champion said, ‘In the morning it is always very difficult to know what to do.  It’s like you need two or three different cars for each track condition.  In the morning it is super dusty and loose, and then you run different compound tyres or thread as in the middle of the day its pretty grippy, and at the end of the day it is very hooked up.  It’s hard to say what we are going to do for tomorrow but we’ll see when we get there.’

Reacting to his Top 3 run, Rivkin said, ‘Definitely finding some speed and consistency out there, I am definitely a slow learner and building confidence & pace into the car and comfortability is huge.  Big props to My who crew that’s helping me, Brent (Thielke) and dad.  It’s definitely a grind to say the least.’  The Arizona driver added, ‘We have a lot of team-mates here that are being very helpful.’  Asked what he had been lack from the outset, the 2 time 1:10 2WD Buggy World Champion said, ‘for sure just confidence and the car being edgy and hard to drive, but now it is being more one to one and feeling more in the track.  I just feel I wasn’t in the track and now I am more in that window of feeling where the car is going and how fast it is, under braking, confidence, the whole monty.’   He concluded, ‘We ended the day good so now we can get dinner, eat some ice cream and go to bed and get at it tomorrow.’

Asked about his run, Fuller said, ‘I don’t know if the new tyre was the best.  I felt like it took a while to break in, I was just a bit slower that round cause I ran a perfect race pretty much but just slow.’  Asked if he changed compound, the Iowa driver replied, ‘Nope same tyre just the first run on these so I guess now we know to probably run some balder tyres and hopefully I have got some more pace.’  Sitting pretty good at the end of Day 1 of qualifying with a 1,3 and 4, Fuller said, ‘now we can test for tomorrow and try and get more speed’.  Asked where he expected to get that speed from he said, ‘I think it is just the tyres because the last one (Q2) it was good and that’s the only thing I changed.’

First explain what happened in Q2, Maifield said, ‘I didn’t change anything on the car, ran the same tyre, but it felt really soft and I tried to manage it best I could and then I crashed in the double double single coming onto the straightaway with 3-laps to go.  I salvaged a Top 15 run, not great, probably would have been 6 or a 7 without the crash so not really on pace.’  He continued, ‘For Round 3 we left the car alone again but just changed to a completely different tyre and it definitely had a little more pace.  I put in a clean drive and still was a little off but overall it was a solid run and I know kinda now were I stack up.  I have 3 points worth talking about but hopefully I get ride of that 13 tomorrow and then just reset.’  Looking to Q4 he said, ‘We are going to put some fresh parts on this thing so we can liven her up a bit and go back to work.’  Switching to a JConcepts Spacebar in a new still to be named compound, he says he will most likely stick with that for tomorrow but added ‘it depends on the track with the rain, weather, so we are just going to have to play that by ear.’

October 1, 2026

Fuller takes Q2 in Texas

Despite a mistake, Sworkz Mason Fuller has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship at Thornhill Racing Circuit.  Running in the second fastest heat, the American just missed out on a 17-lap run posting a time of 16/10:00.219 to beat Q1 winner David Ronnefalk, the Xray driver having went fastest in Heat 13 from team-mate Chase Lemieux, this the Top 3 order for the round.  A qualifying round that would see mistakes from many drivers, having opened with the second fastest time in Q1 Tekno’s Ryan Maifield would need to be marshalled on his second attempt and with 4-seconds lost he ended up P13.  While finishing top of the timing screens in Heat 15, Juan Carlos Canas’ effort was only good for P4, the Spaniard like Ronnefalk having the disadvantage of needing to do a fuel stop to get through the 10-minute run.  After a torrid Q1 in which he ran out of fuel, a much happier Dakotah Phend would run the fifth fastest time just ahead of 2-time 1:10 Offroad World Champion Spencer Rivkin who was the best Team Associated for the round.  For defending World Champion Davide Ongaro he was again not happy with his car, the Italian only managing P8 to go with his P5 from Q1.

‘With a mistake I was not expecting to get the TQ’, that was Fuller’s reaction to taking the round.  He continued, ‘I am super happy again, the car was good, and for the next one I am going to throw on a new set of tyres ad hopefully we can repeat.’  On his mistake, asked if he was pushing, he said, ‘I really wasn’t I just jumped a little bit too inside the curb and rolled over with too much grip.’  Looking to the third & final qualifier of the opening day here in Texas, a massive rain shower having just hit facility but racing continuing under the covered track, he said, ‘We are starting (the group) with Race 7 so we are going to be up pretty soon but yeh the grip will be a little bit higher for sure so a new set of tyre should be better for that.’

Asked how he felt Q2 went, Ronnefalk responded, ‘Overall it was good.  P2, I will take it, it was very close and the track was fast.’  The 2026 World Champion continued, ‘I had just a bad moment to catch some traffic in the middle of the track before the washboard so just kinda screwed up my line going into the washboard right after the guy let me by in the corner before that, and made a mistake and made a bobble over the washboard.  Luckily I saved it but I lost 4-seconds or so.’   The Swedish racer added, ‘I saw that Mason also had a crash but he didn’t pit and I did.  Like I said before I know I cannot crash and they can’t crash either and now we all ended up crashing I think.  I am very happy with my pace, I saw the forecast before going into the pit and I was probably 3-seconds up which shows our speed is great.’  Asked if he was tempted to try run the full 10-minutes without a fuel stop he replied, ‘I am a little to close for comfort for that and like I said before it makes my mind free just knowing that I can go for it.  My pit stop has been very quick, like in the 42 (seconds), so I think that is right where I need to be.’

‘Made really big improvements on the car but honestly didn’t drive as good but my pace was much better’, that was Lemieux’s reaction to running the third fastest time.  The Wisconsin driver continued, ‘I had a couple of crashes, maybe 4 or 5 seconds worth of crashing, I think everyone did crash that time out but I am feeling really confident with the car.’  The 2026 ROAR Nationals runner up added, ‘I feel like my driving is solid and I just need to clean up the mistakes.’  On changes for Q3, he said, ‘we are going to make changes for sure to make the car easier to drive as the grip keeps coming up, you just need to make you normal diff changes, and maybe lower the ride height a little bit just to calm it down.’

On his run to the fourth fastest time, Canas said, ‘I think the pace OK and we need to look at Ronnefalk because he is the fastest of course that did a fuel stop and we will keep working to have the pace of him.  The other guys are fast but they are not refuelling.’   Asked if not refuelling was a option for him to try the Spaniard immediately replied, ‘No, no, no.’  On his car the 2024 Worlds Top Qualifier explained, ‘It is working good, maybe it was soft on the tyre setting because at the beginning it was much easier to go low 37 (lap times) but not at the end so that means something is soft, I don’t know if shocks, diff or tyre, but I think it is tyre.  We have other harder compounds and we tried them on Monday and they worked really well so maybe we put these on for the next one.’

Giving his thoughts on Q2, Phend called it, ‘Better’ adding ,’we made some tyre changes, made some car changes, and I feel like I am racing on the same track as everyone else now were I wasn’t before.  So we are in the ball park now.’  Asked what his issue with buggy was before, the Michigan driver replied, ‘Grip and balance so I feel like I have both of those things now, so now we are at the fine tuning stage I’d say with everything.  That was the first laps I felt good, I felt I had speed, I still had a mistake so I need to kind of clean that up and be right in it.  At least we got a decent point out of that one.’