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.’