Bernadzik reigns as rain halts Asian Buggy Championships Australia

Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik converted TQ honours at the Australian round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships into the win but unfortunately Mother Nature put an early halt to what was building into an epic battle in Brisbane.  Having TQ’d all three hostings of the Asian Buggy Championships at the Pine Hill Dirt Racing track, Bernadzik led away the race’s most stacked international field yet for what was original scheduled to be a 1-hour final.  While the intimidating dark clouds started to gather in the distance, racing got underway in the sunshine and the early pace was hot but all the time the darkening skies were moving in.  Unfortunately for Kouki Kato and Tyler Jones, the latter got into the eBuggy winner Kato on the opening lap sending the Infinity and Sparko drivers dropping to the back of the field.  The American did show great sportsmanship in waiting after the contact with the talented Japanese driver.  Up front it was Bernadzik who led from Pekko Iivonen, but 6-laps in, the home favourite made a mistake allowing the fourth place starting Finn to take over at the front.  From there he looked very strong as he led the field into the first round of pit stops just after the 7-minute mark.  While touching the wall on the tight pit lane entry, once the first & only stops were completed, it was still Iivonen who was in charge.  Coming up on 10-minutes however a mistake would hand the lead back to Bernadzik with Kato, who briefly took over the lead during the fuel stops and was now firmly back in the game, also going through for second.  Locked into their intense battle, Jones having worked his way up to fifth behind 2024 winner Caleb Noble, little did the drivers know they had less than 3-minute left to play things out.  A track that drew huge compliments from drivers for both it surface and size, unfortunately one of the downsides of its oiled dirt surface is that oil & water don’t mix!  As soon as the lightest of drops started falling the effect on the cars was immediate forcing Race Director Scotty Ernst to call the race just shy of 13-minutes – the heavens opening up shortly after.  While the disappointment of having their entertainment cut short clear on everyone’s face, including Bernadzik, a result is a result and Bernadzik goes down as the third different winner of the 2025 Asian Buggy Championships season.  Less than a second back Kouki had to settle for second while Iivonen completed the Round 3 podium.

Reacting to his win, Bernadzik said, ‘Kouki was super fast and honestly it doesn’t feel the greatest to win like that but at the end of the day it is an official result so you’ve got to take it.’  On his performance in the shorter that expected race, the former Australian National Champion said, ‘Everything was running good.  My car was a little bit hard to drive, I think the track conditions changed today with longer mains on it, but the car was good.  I had a few small bobbles which probably cost me so I could have been well ahead at that stage, but yeh I’ve got to take it.’  On his one & only pit stop, the 23-year-old said, ‘the fuel stop was sweet.  We were going with 7:30 stops just to be safe cause fuel economy gets a bit risky going into a 1-hour final.’

‘I’m unlucky but this is racing so it is what it is’, was a clearly disappointed Kato’s thoughts on the final.  Winning the eBuggy A-Main earlier in the day ahead of Bernadzik, and agreeing the Nitro Final was just starting to shape up to be a great race, on his buggy’s performance he said, ‘the car was really good, the speed was also good, it was also consistent and we were close to Alex.  Everything was good but we didn’t get enough time to show it.’

Summing up his race, Iivonen said, ‘The start was super good, the car felt actually the best it has been the entire event but I think after the first pit stop the car started to feel maybe too soft or something.  It started to feel to slippery in the rear and a bit uncomfortable to drive so it made it quite hard and I made some stupid mistakes on my own and basically then I lost it.  It could have been better for sure.’  Feeling he may have been to soft with his shock set-up, asked if he may have struggled if the final had run the full hour he said, ‘it depends, I don’t know how it could have been but it really felt like it wasn’t good anymore compared to how good it was at the start because it was really really good.’

Asked, ‘pretty bummed on that.  I put on a newer set of tyres for the final and I think I should have went out on an older set because they just took a while to come in. I unfortunately hit Kato right off the start and I’m a nice guy I’m always going to wait so I waited and I went all the way back to last.  I took off and I was coming and just got up to fifth and the rain hit and unfortunately they called it so ended up there’.  My stuff was good all week, I’m excited where I ended and I’m ready for next year already.’  With the race marking his first time travelling outside of the US, asked how he found the experience, the 25-year-old replied, ‘definitely one for the books.  I had a lot of fun with Ben and Walker.  Hopefully I get to see some stuff before I head home tomorrow but a super cool, once in a life time, experience really and I hope I can come back next year.’  He added, ‘Scotty’s events are always good, good program, tracks are always good, so hopefully I can make a few more next year.’

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