Ongaro Top Seed at Nitro Buggy World Championship

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro is the Top Seed going into qualifying tomorrow at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship, the defending World Champion setting the fastest time in the second of the seeding rounds today in Texas.  Having set the pace in free practice yesterday, in the opening seeding round the Italian broke a front arm but on a much faster track for Round 2 he produced the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the three days being the only one to break 1:50 with a time of 1:49.983.  Xray’s David Ronnefalk would be his closest challenger on the hot track running 1:50.126 but the 2016 World Champion seeds P3 behind Sworkz’s Mason Fuller.  Fastest in SP1 from Ronnefalk, the points system puts the American second in the seeding ranking as he completed seeding with the third fastest time.  Again fourth fastest in the second seeding round, Juan Carlos Canas seeds P4 for Sworkz while a big turn around in form from Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen sees the youngster claim 5th with Nate Sutherland completing the Top 6.

‘For me Top Seed means nothing but we have the car to do well and just need to find the litte details’, was Ongaro’s reaction to topping the seeding.  He continued, ‘I was just trying to find a car for the 10-minutes which I found in a good way I would say.  We found 70% of the car for the 10-minute because at the end it was a little bit too soft.’  Chasing a fourth consecutive World Championship title here this week at the 20th running of the Nitro Buggy Worlds, he added, ‘I was driving with David (Ronnefalk) and I saw his car was doing the same as mine so it means for me driving after after 5 hours from first one that we need to change something for sure for tomorrow but in general we are good  for quali.’  On the track being at its fastest this evening he said, ‘It definitely has more grip.  I think the morning has less and and each night there is more grip but for this we just need to go to a harder compound and maybe up in the diffs.’

Ronnefalk summed up SP2 by saying, ‘There was a lot more grip out there for that round, already 5, 6 heats before us you could see a lot of guys already matched our Top 3 from the first round.  So we knew the track was going to be a lot more grippy and we adjusted a few things on the car.  Like I said earlier I was looking for a little bit more rotation in Round 1, then with the grip I was quite sure that the track would give me that rotation so ended up making a few other changes and it worked really well.’  He added,  ‘It felt very comfortable out there and I was able to string my fast laps together which is a good sign cause the track is definitely not easy.’  With Ongaro topping him by just over a 1/10th of a second, Ronnefalk said, ‘we were driving pretty close to each other in the last half of the run and could kind of see how our speed was against each other and it was good overall and I am happy with the performance.’  Asked about consistency as the focus changes from 3-laps to 10-minute run times, he said, ‘I felt great that round but in the first qualifier I wont be in the top group (running in heat13/15) lets say so know I will get what JCC got in the first round this morning but I think I was just suffer from it in the first round a little bit so it is extra key to keep the car on the wheels for the first quali.  After that I think we will have more of an equal track moving forward.’  He concluded, ‘The speed has been there from the first practice really so I’m feeling good for tomorrow.’

Summing up his second effort, Fuller said, ‘Can’t be too disappointed with third.  The track was insanely different so we over 2-seconds faster but the car was still good so I am happy with it.’  Asked about his car over a full 10-minute qualifying run, the 21-year-old said, ‘It was pretty good, especially in the morning run so I think, hopefully, it will be good’.  On carrying his 3-lap pace through to a full qualifier, 3 of the six rounds making up Wednesday’s action, he said, ‘I think everyone will be a bit slower but overall the pace should be about the same.  We’ve done a lot of 3-laps but I hope the consistency will be there.’  On track conditions, the back to back Silverstate Champion said, ‘It always resets in the mornings and then gets better throughout the day.’

Canas explained, ‘I was looking for a little bit of pace and not only the fastest 3-laps and I feel comfortable, maybe the buggy was a little soft in the rear but tomorrow the grip will not be like now so I will keep the car the same.’  On grip levels he said, ‘All the days are the same.  In the morning no grip and after you have grip.’  Feeling he was slightly hampered by running in Heat 13 of 15 in seeding, the Spaniard is looking forward to running in top tomorrow along with Ongaro, ‘tomorrow I am in Heat 15 so I can see the times of the other guys and compare directly my speed.’  The European Champion is also confident his consistency is better that his 3-laps adding, ‘I feel comfortable and don’t need to push too much for going 37 flat.  And if tomorrow is going like that I think we can make Top 5, that is the main goal.  If you go Top 12, 15, it is quite difficult especially in this track because it is impossible to overtake I think.’

‘A rough start but we made some changes and made it more aggressive and it was pretty good there’, that was Nguyen reply when asked to sum up seeding.  The 15-year-old continued, ‘we struggled in free practice trying to figure out the tyres, testing a different set-up we came here with, and me trying to drive better but I think we are getting close now.’  On the track layout, the 2 time FEMCA Champion described it as ‘pretty fun’ adding ‘it is very fast and flowy’ but cautioned ‘you have to have the right set-up or it is very hard to drive, tricky.’  With the JConcepts supported driver finding himself running the Silver Overdoses tyre in SP2, on his consistency for qualifying Nguyen responded with, ‘that’s why we have got to make the set-up change.’  Asked what changes he has in mind, he flagged the chances of rain arriving in Hutto.  While the track is covered, the atmospheric changes from rain will completely change the characteristics of the track with him concluding, ‘we will see how the track is and then decide what we need to change.’