Kato Top Qualifier at Asian Buggy Championships Finale
Making his debut in the Asian Buggy Championships at the season finale in Indonesia this weekend, it is Infinity driver Kouki Kato who will start the 1-hour Main as the Top Qualifier. The reigning Japanese National Champion secured the top spot on a tiebreak with team-mate Naoto Matsukura who would take the fifth & final round of qualifying at West Side Raceway. Having ended Day 1 of qualifying with a TQ run, Matsukura did the same again today in Jakarta. With 2 from 5 to count, his Q5 time however was 2.8-seconds shy of what he needed to deny Kato, who topped three rounds, the overall TQ. The driver with the fastest lap of qualifying, set this morning in Q3 when he was P2 behind Kato, Indonesia’s own Jason Nugroho locked himself into 3rd place on the grid ahead of Australian Christian Wolhuter, the Sworkz pairing also going to tiebreak for their grid positions.
With Jakarta a home race for Infinity owner Kenji Taira, Kato was pleased to give the team’s new IFB8 the TQ saying, ‘I am very happy to get the TQ here.’ Opening Day 2 of qualifying by topping Q3 and backing it up with another fastest time in Q4, Kato would finish only P4 in his final attempt. Changing his car set-up for Q5, he said it left him with a fast but difficult car to drive which is not suitable for a 1-hour final. Describing the final as ‘very long’, the 18-year-old believes the key to tomorrow’s race will be an ‘easy to drive car’ and that is what he had for Q4 so he will revert back to that set-up for the main event.
‘The car in that one was very nice. I changed the car to a higher diff and the setting was very good’, was how Matsukura summed up his TQ run in the final qualifier. With the multiple discipline World Champion’s face indicating slight frustration at missing out on the overall TQ as he checked out the timing monitors immediately after the qualifier, asked if he was chasing the time of his team-mate to try & snatch the TQ away he replied, ‘I don’t push no. My lap time is a little bit faster than the others but I needed that TQ to improve my grid position so if I pushed too much and made a mistake I had more to lose than gain.’ Looking to tomorrow’s final, the former 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Champion who has plenty of experience of 1-hour finals said, ‘One hour, one hour, long, long, long but lets see. The car is very nice now, it is more stable so I just need to keep on going for the distance with as few mistakes as possible.’
‘I’m pretty satisfied with the result though I made some stupid mistakes and costing some time in the last but it is good enough starting 3rd.’ Expecting the track to get very dusty over the hour of the final he said the podium is his goal adding ‘I need to keep it safe and make sure I don’t push as much as I did in the quali which cost like 7-seconds. The speed is there I just need to take out the stupid mistakes.’
Reaction to his P4 starting position Wolhunter said, “I’m happy enough but could have don’t better with less mistakes and better consistency but it’s a very hard track to keep consistent on. At the end of the day I am in the A-Main and anything can happen.’ Trying a different shocks in the concluding qualifier, claiming another P2 finish behind Matsukura, the 18-year-old said the changes ‘made the car very good’ with it ‘easier to drive and a lot more consistent’. His third Asian Buggy Championship race this season, Wolhunter said the 1-hour finals have worked in his favour and he hopes to put his experience to good use tomorrow. A podium finisher at the previous round, he said, ‘I do think 1-hour is on my side. I have had problems in the past in 1-hours finals where I have hit or ended up last and I have made my way back into podium finishes.’
With his track having been superb hosts of the Asian Buggy Championships, and drivers from 12 different countries over the past few days, Adrian Wicaksono’s on track performance has also gone well. Reacting to his P5 on the 13 car grid, the Team Associated driver said, ‘I’m happy, I think that is the best I could I do I think the top 4 guys are a bit faster than me so I think 5 is the best result I could get’. Asked about his final two qualifiers, a P3 in Q5 his best result, he responded, ‘I think all qualifiers went ok, I was trying different things every run to find the best set-up. I came back to my Q3 set-up for the last one and I think this is what I am going to use for the final.’ He added, ‘Maybe I am just going to try different tyres tomorrow for the A-Main practice.’