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’.