Kato Top Seed at Asian Buggy Championships Finale

Kouki Kato is the Top Seed at the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships, the Japanese driver leading an Infinity 1-2 in Indonesia from fellow countryman Naoto Matsukura.  Racing on the completely natural dirt West Side Raceway track which is proving a big hit with the visiting drivers, Kato set the fastest two consecutive laps in the single seeding round.  The only driver to dip into the 40-second lap times, Kato ended up almost 1-second quicker than Matsukura over the 2-laps.  A regular in the Asian Buggy Championships finishing on the podium at the previous round in Brisbane, Sworkz driver Christian Wolhuter opened his third race of the current season with a Top 3 time.  Just 3/10th back on the Australian, Indonesia’s own Rama Tribudiman took his Kyosho to fourth fastest time, the local racer saying afterwards that the traction is completely different to what he used as a result of the large entry who have made the trip to Jakarta this weekend so bring a close to the second season of Scotty Ernst’s Asian Buggy Championships.

Asked about his seeding run, reigning Japanese 1:8 Offroad National Champion Kato summed it up as, ‘Better’.  He explained, ‘yesterday in practice we tried a number of different set-ups and for today we combined the best bits and now it works better’.  Asked about the track layout and surface he said, ‘It is very interesting (the layout) to drive.  The grip is also good & stable and the surface is very smooth, it is quite similar to what we have in Japan.’  Planning no changes to his IFB8 for Q1, 5 rounds of qualifying on the schedule for drivers, Kato also said tyre wear is very low and he plans to continue on the same set of Hotrace Bangkok Soft tyres he ran in seeding.  On a busy program of racing currently having contested the recent 1:8 Offroad World Championship in Spain before travelling to Singapore last weekend to race 1:8 Onroad at the Singapore Open and now back to Buggy here in Indonesia, asked if he had any issues switching back & forth he said the adjustment between the two very different disciplines was ‘no problem’.

Matsukura described his seeding as having gone ‘OK’, feeling he had a much better car in practice yesterday.  He explained, ‘today there is low traction so the car was a little bit pushing.  The track was a little different but we also changed the set-up so I think for qualifying we will go back to yesterday’s set-up’.  Like his team-mate, this being his third consecutive race in as many weekends,  the multiple Onroad World Champion said he is enjoying the West Side Raceway track a lot more than Worlds track.  He said, ‘It is more fun for the jumps, this track is not as big but the jumps are not straight, they have more angle which makes it more fun.’

Changing diff oils on his buggy for seeding thinking it would give it more rotation with running bar tyres, Wolhuter said, ‘now that the track is a little bit dustier it’s too loose in the rear and hard to hang on to.’  Planning to go back up to a slightly thicker oil in the rear and keep the front and centre the same, ‘hopefully it will give us a little bit more drive and the ability to keep consistent.’  Asked his thought on the track, the recently turned 18-year-old said, ‘the track is fun, I’ve never driven on something this big before, the biggest jumps I probably ever experienced and I do like the natural clay.  I am used to the oiled tracks so it’s great being on natural dirt again.’

Pleased to open his home track’s first international race with P4 in seeding, asked about his run Tribudiman, who lives just 10-minutes away, said, ‘This is our first time to have an event this big at the track so the track is actually quite different in terms of grip and I need to adjust.  The track is very natural with no chemicals or anything so with the amount of cars running, also today it is quite hot, it is getting very dusty.  Every run I am trying different tyres’.  The 36-year-old confirmed he used Proline Electron M4 to set his seeding time.