Bernadzik takes Q3 at Asian Buggy Champs
Alex Bernadzik has kicked off Day 2 of qualifying at the Asian Buggy Championships finale in Jarkarta with a TQ run, the 3rd of the 5 qualifiers producing a Team Associated 1-2 as Hyunkyu Jung recorded the second fastest time on what was a slower track than yesterday. With Pekko Iivonen making the first day of qualifying at West Side Raceway his own, topping both qualifiers, it was Jung and Bernadzik who battled out Q3 as the Finn used the round to test a harder compound tyre. Unfortunately for Jung traffic in the closing stages of the run cost him the top spot with Bernadzik, once again setting the fastest lap of the round, securing his first TQ by half a second from the young Korean. With the run the slowest of the three so far, the track almost 5-seconds off yesterday afternoon’s Q2, the Top 3 would be completed by Infinity’s Jason Nugroho. A 46-second lap half way through the round saw Iivonen stop the clock with the fourth fastest time ahead of Jayden Edmunds, the Sparko driver struggling for pace after putting on a brand new set of tyre for the run.
Pleased to finally register a TQ run, Bernadzik said, ‘For the most part it was a good clean run but the car felt a little bit slow, it had too much rear grip’. The 24-year-old continued, ‘I guess just with the track it feels like it has a lot of grip in it today but I don’t know if is it just the temperature or maybe I need to go up in shock oils a little bit. I need a little more steering and to make it more aggressive again and then it should be fine.’ The only one to run a 41-second lap for the round, on his eBuggy effort he described Q3 as ‘average’. Fourth fastest, Iivonen registering his first TQ run in the electric class, the Brisbane driver said both he, having crashed on his last lap, and the car need to improve.
Despite his traffic issue, summing up the round, Jung said, ‘It was not bad, my car was actually pretty good now.’ Not happy with nitro buggy in Q2, he said they changed to new shocks for today and ‘this worked pretty well’. Balked badly by another buggy, the 16-year-old said, ‘the traffic out there is a little bit annoying but we still have two more so we will see what we can do.’ On the track conditions he said, ‘today I think it’s slower and more dusty on the outside so there is less grip. Yesterday was pretty clean but today I don’t know why but its super less grip.’ On changes for Q4, he will leave his nitro car unchanged as he feels the track is going to change again but he will try something on his electric buggy first which runs earlier in he 10-heat round.
Asked how he felt Q3 went, Nugroho replied, ‘It went well. I tried my best to keep it safe and not crash cause I feel like there is more dust on the track and it’s more loose than yesterday afternoon.’ He added, ‘Fortunately I had no traffic issues but I had a couple of bobbles myself.’ The 26-year-old continued, ‘Now I am trying to figuring out what I can do to the car to get more steering.’
Iivonen said, ‘From yesterday I knew the pace was so good that I didn’t really need to worry too much this morning so I wanted to try a bit harder of a compound of tyre and it was a bit more slippery so harder to drive.’ The ABC Round 2 Malaysia Top Qualifier continued, ‘I made a couple of mistakes because of that but otherwise I think the car feels super nice to drive.’ The Mayako driver added, ‘we got some new parts that just arrived today so I will also try those next.’ With 2 of the five rounds to count, his Q2 time a potential tie breaker, he concluded, ‘I think we will be good cause I think the track wont get as fast as yesterday evening and it was quite a clean run but I still want to take a couple more TQ’s in nitro to be safe but with the time I should be good’.