April 24, 2026

First big TQ for Iivonen at ABC Malaysia

Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen is the Top Qualifier at the second round of the Asian Buggy Championship, the Finn taking the final round of qualifying to win the shot out with Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen and Sworkz’s Caleb Noble.  The battle for pole between the drivers from three different continents was set as they each posted a TQ run over the opening qualifiers but laying down the fastest time to take the fourth round it was Iivonen who claimed his first major international TQ honours.  His third appearance in the Team Cayote/VP-Pro backed Championship, the Finn drove a near perfect final qualifier in a close battle with ABC debutant Nguyen until on the last lap.  With Iivonen running just behind him on track, the teenager made a mistake that sealed the deal for Iivonen.  The American will line-up P2 for the 45-minute final with ABC race winners Noble and Jayden Edmunds starting 3rd and 4th respectively.  Nguyen would get the better of Iivonen in eBuggy taking the final round in the fastest time to become the Top Qualifier on tie-break, both drivers having two TQ runs each.  In Nitro Truggy, with Noble having already secured pole position in Q3, Ken NG would take the final round and his Sparko Truggy will line-up second on the track which he has been a key figure in developing into an impressive facility.

Reacting to his first big international race TQ, Iivonen said, ‘I sam pretty happy with that.  I really got to battle it out with Phi.  It was super tight until the last lap when Phi made a mistake, it was super tight before that and I kept the pressure on him and got the best out of it.  He added, I am really happy with the car and the pace and it will be good for the final.’  Asked about run time for the final, the 23-year-old replied, ‘Actually I haven’t checked it but I think it should be fine to do 7:30 if not we need to do 6:3o but I think it will still be fine.  I think the biggest challenge will be if you are on your roof and need a marshal it going to be done already.  I think tyres are also fine so the bigger issue is that if you make a mistake and need a marshal, a clean race and there is a good chance to win.  Overall the Top 3 is very close so the winner will be the one who makes the least mistakes.’

I tried pushing it but Pekko had already caught up, his car was good in the fast 180s (degree corners).  My car good all round but we just got to do a little more tuning and drive better.’  The 15-year-old up & coming star of 1:8 Offroad said they hope to find last little bit in the set-up in this evening’s free practice, a weather front that was expected to curtail today’s action thankfully getting side track en route to the track.  Aside from fine tuning his set-up to try diminish Iivonen’s set-up advantage, the FEMCA Champion said his only other concern is compound choice for the final but he won’t make a call until Sunday as rain showers are set to hit the track plus all the lower finals will be run on it too.

Asked about his final nitro buggy effort, Noble said, ‘It was OK, I just made a couple of mistakes.  I was pushing a little hard as I figured the only way it was going to make a difference was if I won so I just went out there and drove as hard as I could really.’  Happy with car at the end of qualifying, asked his thoughts for the final, the Top 10 going directly to the main and 5 bumping up for a 15 car grid, he added, ‘I just wanted to see and find the limit of what made it unstable and what not and learn from it. For sure I can back it down and be consistent and drive the laps out and hopefully that will work out well.’  On race strategy for the final, the 19-year like his rivals doesn’t believe this will be a deciding factor explaining, ‘My run time I am getting towards 9-minutes so run time is fine and tyre wear is not too aggressive so I think we will be fine.  I think its just pick the right tyre and lets go racing pretty much.’  Agreeing with Iivonen on the marshals, these like most races in Asia provided my the organisers, he said, ‘the marshals are very harsh on you to put it nicely if you make a mistake.  The key will be no mistakes for the main for sure.’

April 24, 2026

Nguyen & Iivonen add TQ runs at Asian Buggy Championships

With three rounds of qualifying in the books at the Asian Buggy Championships, the LAP Paradise RC Raceway in Malaysia has given us different TQ runs from three different drivers representing 3 different manufacturers, Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen topping Q2 and Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen delivering in Q3.  With Sworkz’s Caleb Noble opening nitro buggy qualifying with the fastest time, the stage is now set for an exciting fourth & final qualifier with all three drivers in the hunt for the overall TQ honours.  After a mistake in Q1, Top Seed Nguyen made amends with a cleaner run to take a close TQ ahead of Iivonen and Noble, the three covered by just over a second.  In Q3 it was Iivonen’s turn to execute a clean 5-minute run and he took the round by a significant 4.2-second margin over his Australian and American rivals who both had mistakes resulting in costly seconds lost.  In eBuggy, Iivonen would make it back to back TQ run in Q3, while in Nitro Truggy, ABC New Zealand winner Noble locked in the overall TQ with a third consecutive TQ run allowing him to sit out Q4 and focus solely on buggy.

Reacting to his TQ run, Iivonen said, ‘Q3 was a clean, I just had some traffic midway through and at the end but otherwise it was a super clean run for me and consistent.’  On his buggy, Mayako’s star factory driver said, ‘the car felt good but I think the grip went slightly down compared to the hotter weather in Q2 but the car handled very well after the changes we made’.  Asked about the changes the 23-year-old replied, ‘I just changed my rear link height slightly, that was the only change but on this track you can feel a small change for sure.’   On his Q2 performance he said, ‘the pace was super good and I was matching Phi but then at the end I had as couple of wobbly laps and dropped down slightly but it was super tight so not to bad.’  Looking to deciding final qualifier the Finn said, ‘I think we are going change a bit and try to make the car a little bit more flat around the track and I think if we can do that it will be super nice.’

Asked about his Round 2 & 3 performances, reigning FEMCA Champion Nguyen said ‘Q2 was fine. It was a clean run I think’. On Q3, the teenager summed up that run with, ‘I crashed. I guess I am too aggressive.’ Changing the ride height for the run, his dad explained that it was now maybe a little bit too low and negatively effecting how the car lands so they will revert back to their previous ride height setting. Asked his approach for the final qualifier, the threat of rain on the horizon, he said, ‘Hopefully it doesn’t rain but I guess this round I am going to try to be calmer and just take it easy. The track is very consistent although it might change now due to the weather.’ Making his debut in the Team Cayote/VP-Pro back Asian Buggy Championships this weekend rocking the colours of the last Kyosho World Champion Cody King asking about the distinctive colours he dad explained that as King was the last American driver to win the World title as well as the last Kyosho winner, and the fact the like the colours, they asked the 2010 World Champion (the year Nguyen was born) for permission to run his paint job in the home it might also bring them luck in this World Championship year.

Summing up his Q2 after topping the first round, Noble said, ‘the car was good but I ran a pretty smoked set of tyres, still it was a solid run and there was only 1-second covering the Top 3 so I’m happy with that.’  Putting on a brand new set of JConcepts Dirtweb 2 tyres for Q3, the 19-year-old said this meant he ‘was a little slow early in the run’ adding ‘but I am happy with the way I drove and we should be good for Q4 with the tyres broken in.’  He will use eBuggy to run another set of tyres and plans to not run truck to give himself more time having already TQ’d three rounds to lock in pole for the final.

April 24, 2026

Noble TQ’s opening qualifier at ABC Malaysia

Sworkz’s Caleb Noble has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the second round of the Asian Buggy Championships in Malaysia.  The Australian set the pace in the first of the four scheduled Nitro Buggy qualifiers at LAP Paradise RC Raceway by just over a second from Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen.  Having topped yesterday’s seeding, Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen would suffer two mistakes on his opening effort, the second of which cost him over 6-seconds.  While setting the fastest lap the American wouldn’t recover the loss and finished P3 almost 5-seconds back on Noble.  Australian Jared Ment at the wheel of a Team Associated would set the fourth fastest time followed by the Sworkz of Adrian Wicaksono.  Having dominated the Team Cayote/VP-Pro backed ABC season opener in New Zealand, Noble would do the double in the nitro classes this morning also TQ’ing Truggy ahead of Jayden Edmunds while a clean run in eBuggy saw Nguyen top the times ahead of Iivonen and Edmunds.

Asked about his strong start to qualifier, Noble responded, ‘eBuggy not so much but yeah Nitro Buggy and Truggy was a very good start.’  On his Nitro Buggy run, the 19-year-old said, ‘I knew Phi was fast, I knew he was probably faster than me.  He started behind me so he had a bit of a game plan advantage I guess.  I could see he was coming but then he made a mistake and I was back in front and then he made another one thankfully because he probably would have got back by me but my car was really good but he nitro buggy has been really good to drive, I just freshened the shock & diff oil last night and it was really good.’  Seeding P3 yesterday saying at the time he was saving his clay compound JConcepts Dirtweb 2 tyres for qualifying, he said he ran the clays on his eBuggy for Q1 and ‘probably shouldn’t have’ so he opted to stick with blue compound for nitro.  He will use clay again in eBuggy for Q2 to decide if they are now the right call for nitro, the day warming up here nicely now in Johor Bahru.  In terms of set-up changes he said, ‘I am going to say no for now, the car is really good to drive, it’s super easy to drive.  It is definitely a mains car.  I can just drive it around with no mistakes and that’s what i need to do.’

Giving his reaction after the first qualifier Iivonen said, ‘I had to go out with a new set of tyre so for sure it was slower but I picked up the pace at the end but couldn’t catch Caleb anymore.  I had a slight bobble on the second last lap, I haven’t checked the lap times yet, but probably would have been closer without that.  A bit unfortunate but I think the pace is there and the car was working well and we already have some changes in mind to do for the next one so it will be quite good.’  Asked about his tyres, the Finn explained, ‘I scrubbed them in a bit but they need to be worn down slightly more, they were more slippery at the start of the run but then they picked up the pace.’  Using Jetko tyres on his Mayako, based off local advice and having tested them against other brands,  in relation to tyre wear and usage he said, ‘they last quite long so probably like one set for qualifying in both classes.  And after doing Q1 they should be better for the next one.’

‘I just made one big mistake’, was Nguyen reaction after Q1.  The American explained, ‘I turned into a wet spot a little too aggressive I guess and then just spun into the pipe and it was like a 6-second mistake.  I just got to keep it clean the next round.’  On the performance of his Ielasi Tuned powered MP11 this morning, he said, ‘I need to make it a little bit more aggressive because now it’s safe out there.’  Asked what he was thinking of changing to achieve this for Q2, the 15-year-old replied, ‘I’ll ask my dad’ before concluding ‘if I just keep it clean I’ll be fast.’

April 23, 2026

Nguyen top seed at Malaysian ABC encounter

Making his Asian Buggy Championships debut as the 1:8 Offroad Championship makes its first visit to Malaysia this weekend, Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen has topped seeding at the impressive LAP Paradise RC Raceway in Johor Bahru.  With rain briefly interrupting proceedings during the second of the two seeding rounds, the 15-year-old American talent set the fastest two consecutive laps for both rounds both in Nitro and eBuggy.  Behind it was Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen who was the closest challenger, the Finn 8/10ths of a second off in the first & faster of the rounds, driver’s fastest laps being in the 38-seconds.  Having dominated the opening round of the Team Cayote/VP-Pro backed ABC in New Zealand in March, new 2026 Sworkz signing Caleb Noble completed the Top 3 half a second off Iivonen.  In was an another of the championship’s Australian regulars and race winners Jayden Edmunds, also driving an Sworkz in fourth, with Ken NG, a key figure behind Round 2 host track, completing the Top 5 with his Kyosho.

Describing the track as ‘big’, Nguyen added it also had ‘a lot of traction’ and for him it was also ‘kind of technical’.  Liking the track’s elevation changes, he added this was a feature that was quite different to the US.  On topping seeding, the Asian Champion having won back to back FEMCA titles in Vietnam last year,  explained that in terms of his Kyosho buggies the main work has been on his diff set-up and choosing the right tyres.  Running JConcepts’ DirtWeb 2 tyre, he is running it in clay compound and they are working to his liking but he said they are only lasting 10-15-minutes before coming a slick but he wasn’t too concerned as they are ‘still pretty fast when they are bald.’

Asked about seeding, Iivonen said, ‘We got some rain but I think the track cleared up quite well.   After that it was maybe slightly more slippery and the lap times were a bit down but I think our cars are working quite good.  Small changes here and there and I think for tomorrow’s qualifiers it will be really good.’  Asked his thoughts on the track, its black bitumen emulsion surface making it almost look like full asphalt when you first arrive, he said, ‘the track is super nice, I really like it.  It’s super high grid, definitely more than we have in Europe.  It is quite extreme.’  Regarding qualifying runs, 3 5-minute rounds on tomorrow’s schedule he said, ‘To do a clean lap is not too bad so it should be quite good to do a full 5-minute run but the problem is if you need a marshal it can be fast or slow so you never know what is going to happen there.  You definitely don’t want to crash’ – as is common in Asia the event is providing its own marshals for the event.  On tyre choice, Iivonen said he is running Jetko J1 rubber following local advice that they were the best and having tried other brands he said ‘the Jetkos have been the fastest so far so I’m sticking with them for now.’

Summing his Thursday’s performance Noble said, ‘Seeding was pretty good and I am pretty happy considering I am on a tyre I am not 100% sold on compound wise.  I am just reserving my clays for qualifying and onward’.  Running JConcepts blue compound Dirtweb 2, he said, ‘they are fine, just not as fast as clays’.  He added, ‘I’m happy with third, it was nearly 2nd in the second round, so happy with that.’  On the track and its 3D elevation layout he said, ‘I am really enjoying it.  I am really enjoying the elevation, the grip, I am really really having a good time.’  Asked about his confidence after his domination of Round 1 at Counties RC in Auckland, the 19-year-old replied, ‘we definitely got stiffer competition with Phi and Pekko here but I think I’d be happy to get Top 3 and that’s a realistic goal.  If I can fight with those two I think that would be a huge step from 12-months ago in the Philippines.’  On his switch from Tekno to Sworks for the new season, he said, ‘I’m loving it.  I am really enjoying the car, really enjoying the platform, and learning every day with it and getting faster and faster.’

April 23, 2026

Nguyen to make Asian Buggy Champs debut at first Malaysian encounter

Young Kyosho star Phi-Long Nguyen will make his Asian Buggy Championships debut this weekend as Malaysia hosts the latest round of the Scotty Ernst promoted championship for the very first time.  Now in its fourth season, reigning back to back FEMCA Champion Nguyen will join ABC championship regulars at the impressive LAP Paradise RC Raceway for the second of the 4 round Team Cayote/VP Pro backed 1:8 Offroad Championship.  The American will be compete against Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen, Sworkz’s Caleb Noble, who dominated the season opener in New Zealand in March, team-mate Jayden Edmunds and Mayako’s Logan Toia.  On his Asian Buggy Championships debut the teenager said, ‘The series as I have seen in the past is amazingly organized and well run with Scotty behind the mic the world will be heard. Lap Paradise looks like a perfect track to improve on high traction and we can’t wait to visit Malaysia which is another beautiful Asian country.’

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

March 1, 2026

‘We made the impossible possible’, Orlowski leads Schumacher 1-2 at MIBO International

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has added his name to MIBO International’s Roll of Honour for the offroad, the previous Touring Car Champion of the Czech event denying compatriot Bartek Zalewski the double when he took the 4WD Buggy title which went down to A3.  Making the switch from the onroad track across to the parallel offroad track for the fourth edition of the annual race, Orlowski would qualify second to Zalewski in both 2WD and 4WD but coming up short on winning in 2WD, a team effort would see Orlowski lead a 1-2 result in 4WD from team-mate Daniel Kobbevik.  Armed from fresh tyres for A1, Orlowski kicked off 4WD with a win ahead of Kobbevik as mistakes dropped Zalewski to P5.  A2 would see Zalewski benefit from fresh rubber to win with ease over Orlowski despite the pair sharing identical fastest lap times for the race.  In the decider while Zalewski looked to be dealing with the pressure of Orlowski almost on his rear wing, a small mistake at the tabletop with a minute to go gave us a lead change.  While Orlowski led for a lap, Zalewski would then drive around the outside of his rival after they had came off the straight but they touched on the jump and both went tumbling handing Kobbevik the lead.  With Zalewski trying for another pass after they resumed, he would catch the jump and roll out of contention finishing P3, 2-seconds back on Orlowski who took the overall win on tie break from Kobbevik.

‘We made the impossible possible with Daniel’, was how Orlowski described his team’s 1-2 at MIBO International.  The Pole continued, ‘We have been working super hard with Ben, Eugene, and Elias on the car and by the end of qualifying and for the finals we got it the best we could.’  He added, ‘We needed to put Bartek under pressure and pressure him into mistakes.  We worked together with Daniel on tyre strategy and on the track as well trying too help each other.  At the end we were quite lucky with how it all happened on the track but we did everything thing perfectly and with some luck we were able to 1 and 2 with our cars so we are very happy about that.’

Asked to sum 4WD Kobbevik replied with it, ‘It ended good’.  He continued, ‘It has been an up and down day for me.  I struggled to find the confidence and the right way around the track let’s say.  I couldn’t improve in the final qualifier so Michal went ahead of me on the grid in both classes but I still think it was a good end to the weekend with a 2nd (4WD) and a 3rd (2WD) after fighting like crazy all weekend.’  The World Championship finalist added,  ‘I am always trying to find more speed and I worked very well together with Michal, Elias and Ben to try and achieve the best possible set-up for this track.  I feel like we improved a lot but I want to improve even more because it doesn’t feel perfect let say.’  Asked where the final improvement came from he explained, ‘We did a huge change on the 4-wheel for the front and the rear with the geometry and it seemed to be a lot better, making it faster and more drivable as well.  It was difficult to get a good feel out of the car before that and I was struggling with the lap times which is not a good deal.  The A3 win and podium was a good way to finish.’

Clearly disappointed to miss the double, the 19-year-old always having huge fan support at MIBO International, Zalewski said, ‘The car felt good for most of them.  The first one though I had used tyres compared to the Schumacher guys and oil was on the track so I was driving and just get a spin into the pipes and lost it.  I was pushing so hard, but I make a few more mistakes and I end up P5.  In the second main I pulled away.  The car felt very strong and I was confident to many the bigger & bigger gap.’  On A3 the Top Qualifier said, ‘The third one it was close racing I would say.  He passed me, then I passed him and we had contact, I mean I was out front, he touched me before the jump and in the the jump I couldn’t control where I was flying and made a mistake and that was it.’

View the action from an exciting third A-Main of 4WD Buggy which would decide the 2026 MIBO International title.

View full 4WD results here.