May 2, 2025

Ongaro is Philippine Masters Top Qualifier

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro will go for a third consecutive win at the Philippine Masters as the Top Qualifier, his main rival in Manila Burak Kilic unable to force the battle for the overall TQ to go to tomorrow’s final qualifier.  Originally two qualifiers were scheduled to make up Friday’s timetable but with a chance of rain effecting the rest of the weekend, race control pushed through with getting a third round in the books.  With Ongaro having taken the opening 2 qualifiers, Kilic had to deliver a TQ run having come close in the previous round, but it wasn’t to be.  The Mugen Seiki would get caught out on his penultimate lap by light rain that started as the third round concluded.  Going off the track, Kilic would retire to the pits as Ongaro took the round ahead of Infinity pairing Kouki Kato and Naoto Matsukura.  Behind them, despite a mistake, Ryan Lutz maintained his run of Top 5 times taking his Kyosho to the fourth fastest time ahead of Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik and last year’s podium finisher Atsushi Hara.  With the TQ settled the focus of Q4 will be on the battle for second between Asian Buggy Championship debutant Kilic and last year’s season finale winner Kouki.

Securing the TQ a round earlier than he did last year at the Circulo Verde Track, asked about his third TQ run Ongaro replied, ‘It was good until the rain.  I feel like the car has no steering compared to before but my dad told me the laps so I knew it was the track conditions.’  The back to back World Champion continued, ‘I saw Burak behind me push and he was trying to stay behind me but I knew I could go from him with pushing so it was good.  I think it was the best run of today.  Now we see about eBuggy tomorrow and if we can the TQ from Alex (Bernadzik)’.  With team-mate Bernadzik having TQ’d the second eBuggy qualifier, Ongaro topping the other two, the Aussie could challenge for pole in the fourth & final qualifier tomorrow morning.

Suffering a mistake on the opening lap of Q1 and then messing up Q2 with another mistake, Kato said, ‘After the first two rounds I just went for a clean run.’   The Japanese Champion added the change in conditions due to the weather also added to how safe he drove the round but in the end it paid dividends.  Now with a P2, the ABC Indonesia winner is determined to TQ the final qualifier having opened the weekend so strongly with a seeding run that stuck until the final round when only Ongaro could beat it by 1/10th of a second.  He also posted the fastest lap of Q1 after his frustrating lap 1 crash.  On his car, Kato said he would wait to see how the track is in the morning before deciding if he would make any set-up changes, feeling the track will be different to the past few dry days.

Clearly pleased with his effort, Matsukura explained, ‘I changed the rear set-up a little and the car was more stable. It still felt a little understeer but overall it was more consistent.  Even with the wind and the little bit of rain I felt like I had a little bit more traction’.  Having reported understeer in Q2, asked if he had tried to resolve this he said rather than adjust the steering they worked on making the rear even more stable.  For Q4 they will try a change in the steering to try get more steering in the front of the car.  The multiple onroad World Champion, said the difference between him and Ongaro is pretty significant, ‘Ongaro can get 36 (second laps) easy but for me if its a good lap it’s low 37 so to do well we need to improve our lap times and more steering should help with that.’

Reacting to his third round Lutz said, ‘It was OK.  I made a mistake in the back, the first double, I just gassed it too much on the first one and ran into the back wall and tumbled for a bit’.  Winner of last season’s New Zealand round of the Asian Buggy Championships, the American continued, ‘I felt I finally started to get a decent pace at the end, I was just slow at the start.  So hopefully we can just clean it up and go a little faster tomorrow.’  Asked if he felt he was building up well for the final, he replied, ‘the cars are feeling better yeh, it’s more just my driving and just trying to be smooth.’

Ending the day with his best round, a P5, Bernadzik said what made Q3 better was he ‘kept it on all four wheels basically’.  With an ‘average Q1 and average Q2’, the 22-year ABC Australia race winner said, ‘the car is really good.  I went out on a fresh set of tyres there and it started off a little bit nervous but once they broke in I got really comfortable and started to make up some positions.’   Asked about tomorrow, the Brisbane driver said, ‘hopefully we can try grab a Top 3 and hopefully that can get me 4th or 5th on the grid and we’ll see how it goes from there.’  Having impressed with his pace in qualifying here last year but suffered a flame out in the final, he said his car is working well and it’s just a matter of stringing everything together adding ‘it was all me in those first two, just silly errors pushing too hard.  I’ll back it off about 5% and just keep it nice and consistent.’

May 2, 2025

Kilic closer but another TQ run for Ongaro

While a repeat of the opening qualifier result, Q2 at the Philippine Masters saw Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic get a lot closer to Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro.  With a 1-second buffer over the Manila race first timer in Q1, the defending back to back winner of Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race had just 4/10ths in hand over Kilic in the second round, the later saying afterwards traffic had cost him a the chance of the TQ.  Summing up his run Ongaro reported the wind was causing him some issues but added ‘wind is part of the game and you can do nothing.  For the rest (of the run) it was good’.  On his performance Kilic said, ‘It was really good but just held me up from making the TQ.  I mean it was the same for Davide he also had many traffic but we made a good race’.  While the original schedule for Friday’s action was just two qualifiers, the event famous driver’s banquet taking place this evening in the capital city, the threat of rain tomorrow means drivers will go at it one more time today with a third round of qualifying.  While up front things looked, again the Top 2 the only drivers to cover 9-laps, the second round produced some notable improvements from Naoto Matsukra and Pekko Iivonan who posted the 3rd and 4th fastest times ahead of Ryan Lutz.  Having had a Top 3 in Q1, Sworkz diver Mattia Polito could only manage P7, the Italian reporting he had a complete lack of traction this time round.

Asked about his new improved form this round Matsukura said, ‘We are making progress.  We improved both the car and the driver.’  The Infinity driver continued, ‘It was a good run with almost no mistakes.  We changed the downstops, so I am almost the same set-up as Kouki (Kato) and the car was more stable, it has a little more understeer now, but overall better.’  He would also change tyres for the run going for an almost new set of Hotrace Sahara tyres feeling the track today is a little more loose.  With his car feeling it had more understeer he said the plan is to make a change to try and rectify this.

Explaining his P4 run Iivonan said, ‘I went with more toe in in the rear and the car was actually better, easier to drive’.  P8 in Q1, he explained that run included a small mistake which dropped him down the order, for Q3 he said he will change some small things to try to make the car better adding ‘the last one was definitely a good run and has given me confidence in the car and slightly more rear grip off power would be good.’  The Finnish Mayako driver’s first time attending the Philippine Masters, the 22-year-old said, ‘I like the track, the layout is super nice and flowing but the grip is high’.

Backing up his P4 in Q1 with a P5, Lutz described the run with, ‘It was decent.’   The Kyosho driver continued, ‘I just didn’t quite have the steering I needed so my changes took away a little too much steering I think.  A little easier to drive but not as fast as I wanted.’  I’ll dial in a touch more steering and see how it goes.

May 2, 2025

Ongaro from Kilic as qualifying gets underway in Manila

With qualifying getting underway at the Philippine Masters in Manila this morning, it was Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro who topped the first of the 4 scheduled qualifiers from Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic.  Having topped yesterday’s seeding from Infinity’s Kouki Kato,  Ongaro completed 9-laps of the Circulo Verde Track over the 5-minute qualifier with Kilic, the only other drive to make 9-laps, just 1-second off.  It was to be a frustrating start to qualifying for Kato as he crashed on his opening lap and needed to be marshal.  Losing 4-seconds, the fired up Japanese driver would go on to set the fastest lap by an impressive margin as he recovered to salvage a P5.  Making it an all European based Top 3, Italy’s Mattia Polito managed to go ahead of Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz on the final lap.  Seeded No.8, the American lost 3/10ths of a second to the Sworkz driver on their 8th lap giving Polito 3rd for the round by just 0.048.  Behind them reigning Asian Buggy Championships Champion Christian Wolhuter completed the Top 6, this weekend’s second round of the Cayote backed championship the Australian Sworkz driver’s first outing of the season.

Having opened the day first with a TQ run in eBuggy, on his nitro heat Ongaro said, ‘It was a safe run and I just tried not to crash.  We used new tyres which for me was a bit to edgy so I tried to drive smooth and save the car in some spots which is still not the best but I think for the second round the tyres will be better.’  With 14-car heats, the World Champion said he had to deal with some traffic but he played patient adding ‘driving super fast here is not easy with a lot of drivers on the track, anyway it is what it is for everyone so we have to take what it is.  For Q2 we just try to repeat.’

‘I’m ok with that, I just need more steering but the car is good,’ that’s how Kilic summed up the first qualifier.  The Turkish driver continued, ‘I think I will maybe change to a softer compound (tyre) for the steering.  I just need a little more steering on the tighter corners but overall the car was good and my driving was really good.  Just 1-second behind Davide is good.’  Overall a clean run, with ‘just a few small bobbles’, he said while he finds the track is changing ever run, softer tyres should put him in an even better position to challenge Ongaro in the second of today’s qualifier.

Polito described his performance as ‘really, really good’ but added they need to set the engine better for the next one as he felt it was running a little too rich.  A clean run and feeling the track had a little more grip, he said while he wanted to push more he played it safe so as to have a good round to his credit.  Given that approached paid dividends, he will try to repeat it again in Q2.

Describing his Q1 effort as ‘solid’, Lutz, who took a P3 in Q1 of eBuggy, added, ‘The cars are feeling much better than yesterday and the changes that I have made have been good so now I hope I can make myself be more consistent.’  On his driving, this the popular US driver’s second trip to the Philippine Masters, he said, ‘It’s just my inputs, I am just too erratic at times.  I pull too much trigger, not enough trigger,  that’s my biggest issue right now.  The cars are a lot better, the tyres have been great.’  Asked what he felt was the biggest improvement to the buggy over yesterday he replied, ‘small progressions and I think taking out some bump steer in that last one, it maybe made the steering a little more consistent for me.’

Asked about his first lap mistake, Kato said, ‘I made a crash in the middle section and lost a lot of time.  I just touched the pipe and needed to be marshalled.’  The 18-year old continued, ‘the car was good and I could still set the fastest lap so the speed is there.  I just need to make a clean run.’

May 1, 2025

Ongaro tops seeding at Philippine Masters

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro goes into qualifying at the Philippine Masters tomorrow as the Top Seed, the Italian being one of three different drivers to top each of the seeding rounds today at Round 2 of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships.  With Infinity’s Kouki Kato laying down the opening pace, Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic topped the second round but fell short of bettering Kato’s fastest 2-consecutive laps.  With Ongaro somewhat off the pace in SP2, he would bounce back for the final round being the only one of the Top 6 to improve finding 8/10ths of a second on his previous best to better the Japanese driver’s time by a 1/10th.  Overall Kato, winner of the 2024 Asian Buggy Championship season final in Indonesia, will be the No.2 seed ahead of Kilic.  Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik ended the day P4, the 2023 ABC Australia race winner’s best run coming in SP2,  followed by Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura and Sworkz’ Mattia Polito.

Reacting to his seeding topping run, Ongaro said, ‘It was good.  Honestly it was the best one we had today.  Tyres were ok, we put the same compound as yesterday so the one that is working because at one point I had to use it to see if the car works and yeah the car was good, tyres, engine and everything was OK.’   Using Matrix Blackhole tyre in clay soft compound, he said the car was now ‘what I need and what I want so I can push and make two good laps and check the rhythm for 5-minutes so its good.  We are in good shape for tomorrow.’  It was double top seeding for Ongaro as he also set the fastest time in eBuggy with team-mate Bernadzik making it an AE 1-2 ahead of Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz who completed the Top 3.

Using the final seeding round to break in a new set of Hotrace Sahara tyres for qualifying, Kato said they only came in after about 4-minutes at which point it as too late to  push for an improvement on his SP1 time.   Despite being just 5th fastest for the round, the Japanese driver is confident he has a very good car going into the first 2 rounds of qualifying that make up Friday’s action at the Circulo Verde track.  The 18-year-old said, ‘the car is still good and it is consistent.  We now have two sets of tyres ready to go so for tomorrow so we will the set-up the same and just just go out on the used tyres.’

Asked how he was looking going into qualifying having ended the day P3,  Kilic said, ‘Everything is good. My 5-minute pace is really strong’.  Having originally planned to use SP3 to break in a fresh set of 6mik tyres for tomorrow, the Turkish driver said in the end he didn’t have enough time to get the tyres ready.  Changing something in the front of the car he said, ‘It didn’t work out how I wanted’ and so for Q1 he will revert back to his previous set-up.  On not having a second set of tyres broken in for qualifying Kilic didn’t seem to bothered adding the wear is low so I will use the one set of tyres for all of qualifying.’

Bernadzik summed up SP3 with, ‘It was pretty good, pretty clean, although I could of got a couple of tidier laps.  Each lap I did do had some sort of bobble’.  The 22-year from Brisbane continued, ‘I think my 5-minute pace is right there and that’s what sort of matters for tomorrow.  I made some set-up change to make the car easier to drive which definitely helped.  It was pretty radical in that second round so we put a bit more rear toe-in to lock in the rear end and it helped.’  In terms of tyres, Bernadzik has chosen to go for JConcepts Double Bar super soft clay compound adding he plans to stick with that for both qualifying and the final.

Asked about ending the day in P5, Matsukura responded with, ‘not bad for me’.  Running the same tyres as his team-mate Kato, but a slightly different chassis set-up, the Japanese driver thinks qualifying should be OK  but added that today it was taking him too long to find his rhythm and it is was not until the end of the run that he was ‘warmed up’.   Planning to try and drive more smooth tomorrow, the multiple onroad World Champion said running safely feels more slow but overall the time is still good.’

Summing up his day, Polito was overall happy with how it went adding he is confident the car has the consistency for a good 5-minute pace.  One thing the SIGP podium finisher did add was that he was still chasing a bit more steering and that this would have to come from  a set-up change.  Like Ongaro, the Italian is running Matrix Blackhole tyre in Supersoft Clay compound, describing them as ‘perfect’ for the track here in Manila.

May 1, 2025

Kilic fastest in SP2, Kato maintains top seed status

He said after SP1 he felt his car would be faster for the second seeding round at the Philippine Masters and that turned out to be the case as Burak Kilic took his Nova Engines powered Mugen Seiki to the fastest 2-consecutive laps.  Going one better than he did in the morning’s opening round, Kilic’s time however would not better than that set by Kouki Kato, that time still more than 2/10ths of a second faster around the technical track where currently 36.8-seconds are the benchmark lap times.  Behind Kilic, Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik set the second fastest time with an improvement of 5/10ths on his SP1 effort.  Almost half a second off his morning time, something he put down down his tyre prep, Kato would complete the Top 3 ahead of his Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura who was much happier with his latest effort.  Fifth fastest in SP1, Sworkz’ Mattia Polito again rounded out the Top 5 of the high qualify field ahead of the race’s defending champion Davide Ongaro.

Reacting to his run, Kilic said, ‘For me that was a good run.  Actually I don’t look for my 2-laps I look for my consistency and it is really good for the moment.’  Using the same set of 6mik Dash tyres as SP1, he said they were much better as the reached proper break-in in the second run.  Looking to the third & final seeding round, which brings Thursday’s action to a close in Manila, he said, ‘I will leave the car the same and I will break in one more set of tyres for the qualifying and the race and yeh that’s it.  I am really happy at the moment.  My car, engine and tyres work really good.’

‘The two lap pace was there.  I was probably on another good 2-laps but had a bobble and tangle’, that was how Bernadzik summed up SP2.  The Aussie added, ‘I went quicker lap time wise but my car was a bit hard to drive so I am going to make some changes and make it a bit easier and then see how we go in the last round.’

Giving a run down on his performance Kato said, ‘I changed the tyre prep and it was no good.’  Switching to a brand new set of Hotrace Saharas, the same choice he ran in SP1, this time prepared them differently by gluing the insert.  The result of this was the Japanese National Champion ‘had too much traction’ and he will now revert to his regular tyre prep.

Naoto said the set-up he ended yesterday with was too loose in the first seeding round this morning but after changes he had a much better buggy for SP2.  Adjusting the rear shock position and changing spring he said this made it better but he was still lacking something in the rear and for the next one he plans to try a different wing.  Asked his thoughts on the track, the multiple onroad World Champion replied, ‘it’s high traction, it’s good.  The jumps are the difficult part.’  He elaborated, ‘Always single jump is ok but the rhythm jumps are challenging.  The problem is I only see the first jump, I am not looking ahead enough so its difficult but overall things here are going a lot better than at the Worlds.  We have improved the car set-up and also me.’

Ongaro summed up his SP2 as, ‘It was good but at the same time not good.’  He continued, ‘I have the pace to drive 37 (second) laps but if I push any more the car will flip, so it’s not so easy to drive.  I will try something different in the next one.  I am just using seeding as a practice, I don’t care about the top seed.’  That said the World Champion did admit, ‘this time we were not as fast as Burak and Alex so we need a few tenths more’.  Part of that missing pace was due to compound choice.  The Matrix backed driver explained, ‘I don’t have many tyres so I say ok lets try something different and save the good ones’.  During the run the Italian would have an unusual incident that saw him come in unexpected contact with fellow countryman Polito.  With the Sworkz driver having had a flip, when the marshal returned the buggy to the track he threw it down on top of Ongaro’s in flight buggy which had just taken a jump, Ongaro finding the incident amusing as he explained what happened.

May 1, 2025

Kato sets early pace at Philippine Masters

Infinity’s Kouki Kato has set the pace in the opening round of seeding practice at the Philippine Masters, the Japanese driver fastest by a decent margin over 2-consecutive laps of this year’s more technical Manila track layout.  The second round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, Kato was the winner of last season’s championship finale in Indonesia but this weekend marks his first trip to the legendary Philippines race and it was another of the race’s first timers, Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic, who was his closest rival 7/10ths of a second back with the rest of the Top 5 covered by just 2/10ths.  The first of the three seeding rounds that make up Thursday schedule would see Team Associated’s reigning World Champion Davide Ongaro complete the Top 3 ahead of team-mate Alex Bernadzik with Italy’s Mattia Polito fifth as the leading Sworkz driver.

Having made many changes to his car set-up, Kato said the opening seeding round was the first time he felt it was at point where he was getting the car to his liking around the track, shocks being the biggest positive change he made.  Enjoying the high grip and layout he described its as technical adding the lines are tight in some sections.  Quickly deciding on his tyre choice for the race, opting for the clay compound Sahara tyre from Hotrace, for SP2 he said the plan is to leave the car unchanged and instead use the run to break in a new set of tyres over the timed 5-minutes.

‘It was fine I just needed more steering in some corners but my tyres were new and need about 10-15 minutes to break in so the next one we should be better’, that was Kilic reaction to SP1, the Turkish driver choose the Dash tyre from 6mik.  The biggest edition of the Philippine Masters yet, the 21-year-old is one of the many drivers getting their first experience of the race and Filipino hospitality and he endorsed the event fully saying, ‘I love it here.  It’s really good, also the facility, and the people you can have much fun with them.  It’s amazing.’  On the track layout he said, ‘It’s difficult I have to say. It’s not that easy, to go fast is really hard.  In some corners it is wide and some corners it is narrow but I am having a lot of fun.’

Asked about his first run, the Italian topping the first eBuggy seeding, Ongaro replied, ‘It was good for both cars.  eBuggy was amazing to drive, nitro was good but I just need to find good balance with the steering because it is really hot.  I can push but not too much so now we are changing springs and some stuff but the base is good’.  Chasing his third consecutive win at the Circulo Verde track since its return following pandemic, asked about this year’s layout he said, ‘It is more difficult and technical in some parts but still fun to drive and this year the entry is really strong’.

Taking the opening qualifier at the event last year and qualifying P2 behind Ongaro, Bernadzik summed up his opening seeding as ‘a pretty clean run’.  The former Australian National Champion continued, ‘I guess it was a consistent run with just one bobble at the start but I got a couple pretty clean laps in.  Still I had a few little bobbles like hitting pipes and stuff which probably cost me a few tenths here and there.’  On his buggy he said, ‘It feels pretty safe to drive so I’m already pretty comfortable heading into qualifying.  It’s real hard to go for the one fast lap here so I’ll back it off 5% and I think I should be able to get nice clean runs in’.  Comparing the track to last year’s layout the 22-year-old said, ‘I like it a bit more, it’s a bit more technical and there is a bit more going on.  It’s less wide open so set-up is a lot different to last year, they got a lot more oil into the track this time.’

Another making the trip to Manila for the first time and coming off a very impressive battle with Ongaro at the SIGP race in China at the end of last year where he finished second, Polito was clearly enjoying his experience here so far saying, ‘I love the track.  I think it’s my favourite now’.  On his SP1 performance, the 21-year-old said they are still trying a few things on the buggy and with what they tried this morning ‘the car was good’ but they ‘weren’t so fast’.  Not concerned, he said today’s program is to focus on working on the car for tomorrow’s qualifying.  Asked what he was working on, he replied, ‘we are still changing the diffs and the shocks to find what works best’.