Ronnefalk doubles in Q5 as Ongaro fuel gamble fails

Xray’s David Ronnefalk has taken a second TQ run at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship, the Swede topping Q5 by more than 2-seconds as his main rivals for the overall TQ honour here in Texas had their issues.  In the end it was Sworkz’s Juan Carlos Canas who was closest to Ronnefalk over the 10-minutes.  Up in the first of the Top 3 heat groups, Ronnefalk set the benchmark with a new fastest time of qualifying of 17/10:30.480, doing so as the only driver to run a 35-second lap of the Thornhill Racing Circuit.  Having posted his second TQ run in this morning’s Q4, it looked like running in Heat 14 of 15 that Mason Fuller was going to better the Swede’s time.  While looking very fast on track, the American Sworkz driver would make a number of mistakes that needed marshalling ending his quest to wrap up an early overall TQ.  Considering the time lost his P3 for the round was impressive.  With the top heat next up, all eyes were on Ongaro, the defending Champion having TQ’d Round 3 with a fuel stop but now gambling on trying to do the full 10-minutes without a stop.  With the noise of the rain on the roof covering the track drowning out the noise of the engine, Ongaro’s engine was to fall silent for other reasons.  His fuel gamble didn’t pay off and as he started his last lap his Team Associated came rolling to a halt.  With the Top 5 druver making 17-laps run it was Associated’s Spencer Rivkin in P4 and Sparko’s Noha Ben Mohamed who completed those position ahead of Ongaro who still took a P6 for his efforts.

Commenting on his second TQ run, Ronnefalk said, ‘It was pretty hectic there mid way through the run.  I had a lot of traffic and I probably had to go by five cars or so, so that was a bit scary.’  He continued, ‘I also had one moment on the back left with a lapped car and luckily I was able to keep the car on the wheels even if I went in to the infield and probably lost 2-seconds or so.  Then with 4-5 minutes to go I had clean air and I felt like the car was really really fast so I just needed to stay smooth and click off the fastest laps and was able to finish off very strong there.  I posted the quickest time so far this week and put some pressure on the guys coming up after me.’  On the track, the 2026 World Champion felt, ‘It got more grippy now, it was a lot more critical to drive and you could see that with all the other guys having a hard time fighting the cars.  I did too, it got a little soft towards the end so I just need to bump up the oils or something like that to just slow the movement down a bit.’  Asked if it is game on for the final qualifier Ronnefalk said, ‘Mason was very fast in that last one but had a couple of crash so I just need to post that good fast time before he is up and maybe I can put some pressure on him.  At the end of the day qualifying is not everything, there is a long way to go after that.’

‘It was perfect, I liked how the car was driving and behaving, everything was good’, was how Canas described the penultimate qualifier.  Making a suspension change and switching to a lower rear wing for the run, the 24-year-old now plans to use the sixth & final round to test a few more things saying, ‘I want to try things I have in my head.  I will change many things, tyres, shocks, many things.  I will try things that I think will be better and if it is not working I go back to the normal things for the Semi practice.’  On the wing change he said, ‘with the lower wing in the 180s there is more corner speed.’

Giving his thought on Q5 Fuller said, ‘I tried a different tyre which was better so that will be good for Round 6, I just had 3 wrecks so that kind of killed me.  Other than that the car is going to be good for the Semi I think.’  Asked if his Reds Racing powered buggy had become edgy to drive leading to his mistakes, he replied, ‘I think I just pushed a bit too hard and they were just dump wrecks.’  Quizzed on his tyre change, asked if it was a different tyre or just compound change he replied, ‘both’ adding when asked their name, ‘I don’t know if I can say what it was.’  Planning to use the same tyre in Q6 and ‘probably the Semi too’, the battle for the overall TQ is now a two horse race between himself and Ronnefalk.

‘That one was pretty dang good’, was Rivkin’s reaction to his P4 for the round.  Opening the day with the 17th fastest time, the 2-time Electric Offroad World Champion, explained, ‘the first one today was actually OK.  I ended up running a test compound that the guys ran last night, Canas and Maifield, and just the way my set-up was for a little bit more traction with the conditions I was just a little bit slow and just needed more steering.  I went back to the tyres I ran in the other qualifiers then for that one and we are back kind of on the same pace we have kind of been at.’  He added, ‘I ran brand new tyres that run that were kind of scuffed in with the drill and my speed was adequite to my other personal best so I think we are definitely on the right track but feel there is more in the tank in terms of hitting my marks better with my driving and a couple of things clicking together with the car can be improved.  I think we are kind of peaking at the right time, there is still a lot more racing left.’  On the run time gamble, that didn’t pay off for his team-mate Ongaro he said, ‘A lot of people that run were trying to go 10-minutes that haven’t been going 10-minutes and its getting into some people’s head a little bit.  I haven’t pitted once in the qualifiers.  The Reds guys, Marco and the Reds family are here, are putting in a lot of time and effort with their drivers which is really nice so huge round of applause to them.’

‘The run was really good and I finished P5’ was Ben Mohamed reaction to his first Top 5 run.  The talent French racer added, ‘All my package is good, my car, my engine, my tyres, all is OK and I am happy how things are going’.  Describing the track layout as ‘challenging’ and ‘completely different’ to when he came here for the official Warm-up Race in May, the 17-year-old also highlighted he is happy with his engine package explaining, ‘With my Reds engine I don’t need to stop so lets see now how we do in the last one.’  Running Matrix Black Hole tyre, he said this has been pretty solid through the event but he might use Q6 to try something different for the Semi finals.