Fuller closes gap as Ongaro continues to set pace in Texas
Mason Fuller continues his rise up the practice rankings in Texas today, the Sworkz driver closing the gap to World Champion Davide Ongaro with the second fastest time in the fifth round of free practice at the 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship. Again it was the Team Associated of Ongaro who topped the times around the Thornhill Racing Circuit, the Italian finding more than a second to lay down the fastest 3-consecutive laps we have witnessed yet. Just 4/10ths of a second off, Fuller bettered his best time by 2-seconds with a run that put him ahead of Xray’s David Ronnefalk and Associated’s Marcus Kaerup. The second fastest American driver, Brandon Rose took his Team Associated to the fifth fastest time for the round with the Xray of much favoured USA title hopeful Dakotah Phend completing the Top 6.
‘I was surprised to be that close’, was the reaction of Fuller after setting the second fastest time. ‘We are just trying different stuff and tried a different tyre that one.’ He explained, ‘We went with a Silver Eurobar which I never tried before. It was pretty much the same as the Spacebar which is also new.’ On other changes to his buggy he added, ‘we went a little stiffer in the shocks and that’s it, otherwise just tyres.’ On how he feels the track is continuing to develop he said, ‘It’s getting a little more grip, that was definitely the fastest run, I mean everyone went faster that one. It is not changing as much now its just a little more grippy to run.’ Asked if that suited his style, the 21-year-old replied, ‘I guess so because I have been getting better each run.’ For the sixth & final free practice he said, ‘Now I am going to try a harder tyre which I haven’t tried yet, that’s the only thing I am changing.’
On his new fastest time, Ongaro said, ‘It was OK, we changed tyres, the compound not the thread. It was working better but I think it was still a bit too soft.’ Having reigned over the 1:8 Nitro Buggy class since his Worlds win in Australia in 2018, he continued, ‘Like I said before we are just trying to find when is the time for Clay and when not to use Clay which makes a lot of difference on this track, but anyway the run was good.’ On FP6, he stated, ‘I think for the last one we will change something on the shock set-up and maybe tyres to try medium in Clay. Maybe we also will make a change in the 12-minute run too.’ Regarding how the track is continuing to evolve, Ongaro pointed out, ‘Yesterday the last one was slower compared to the second one, the one in between the two was the fastest one, so I don’t know who it will be this evening, lets see.’
Ronnefalk summed up FP5 with, ‘That was a little worse’. He explained, ‘I tried a couple of things on the car and it made it a little bit too pushy and instead of just driving around I forced it a little bit too hard so I had a couple of crashes. I also had some bad traffic so wasn’t really able to get 3 of best laps together. I had one really good one, a 36.9, so the speed is there.’ He continued even if it was the worst run so far I still managed 3rd for the round on the Top 3 consecutive laps so that just tells me that we are still right there.’ On his set-up change, the Swede said, ‘some stuff was better but I felt that the car was a little too pushy in that run. Off power in the slow corners I was not having the steering that I had before so tried to punch it around the corner instead and then I ended up making a couple of bobbles because of that.’ He concluded, ‘So yeh I just need to keep some of the changes I made but go back on some of the others for the next one.’
Asked how he felt his event was going so far, Kaerup said, ‘We are doing pretty good.’ With Kurt Wenger as his mechanic this week, the Dane continued, ‘We’ve been working on the car a lot, and tyres especially. It is important having the right compound and thread pattern out here.’ Having only run Hotrace’s Sahara tyre so far, he plans to use the final free practice run today to test the Italian manufacturer’s new Tokyo pattern. He explained, ‘the Sahara has been working really good but a lot of the fast guys like Ronnefalk are on the Tokyo so I thought I might as well give it a shot before we head into qualifying or the important stuff.’ On the World’s track layout, he said, ‘It’s an awesome track, really really cool, really challenging especially the whoops. I think it has caught many people off guard. But yeh so far we are just trying to manage and get the consistency down which is going to be super important for qualifying.’ As the reigning 1:8 eBuggy World Champion and 1:10 4WD Buggy World Champion, asked about adapting to racing nitro, the 18-year-old said, ‘It is my least favourite class I would say, not because the car is bad or because the engine is bad, it is just because you need to have a special feeling for it. In all engines there is a small delay, it’s not like an electric car that goes as you want it so it is a completely different driving style which I have to adapt too especially when the track is loose, its more difficult, but now the grip is coming up and I think it is getting more and more towards what I like.’