September 6, 2026

Jung wins exciting eBuggy battle at ABC Indonesia

Team Associated’s Hyunkyu Jung has taken the eBuggy win after an exciting battle that went right down to the wire in A3 at the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships in Indonesia.  With a relatively uneventful A1 until a last lap error from Jung that dropped him to fourth bringing Saturday’s action to a close at West Side Raceway in Jakarta, the Mayako of Top Qualifier Pekko Iivonen leading from tone to tone, Sunday’s racing would prove far more entertaining.  With A2 having stretched out a little, Jung and third place qualifier Alex Bernadzik again following Iivonen in their starting order, with the race approaching the final minute the race came alive as the leader made a mistake.  This allowed Jung to attempt a pass but the pair collided in the air over a jump, gifting Bernadzik the lead but the Australian would then have his own mistake at the back of the track.  Iivonen went back to the lead momentarily but crashed on the landing handing Bernadzik back the lead ahead of Jung.  With a lap to go, Jung was applying the pressure on the leader who in a side by side final dash to the line with his AE team-mate landed badly and went rolling off the track – Jung the winner ahead of Iivonen with Bernadzik rejoining for third.

With all to play for going into A3 between the Top 3 qualifiers, Iivonen looked to be holding a comfortable gap to Jung with Bernadzik having lost touch after an earlier mistake.  But as the final minute of the 7-minute race closed in so did Jung, the young Korean talent putting the Finn under increasing pressure.  On the penultimate lap, Iivonen would jump slightly short on the triple allowing Jung to jump over him for the lead – the stage set for a last lap showdown.  Still in search of his first Asian Buggy Championships win, TQ’s in both Nitro and eBuggy achieved, Iivonen pushed to retake the lead sending it with a big jump to the finish line his final effort.  It wasn’t to be enough as Jung took the leg and the overall.  Iivonen’s pass attempt would be deemed a track cut and he was demote to third in A3 behind Bernadzik.  This didn’t effort the overall result however as he still claimed second with Bernadzik completing the final eBuggy podium of the championships’ fourth season.

Reacting to his win, this one a big addition to the up & coming 16-year-old talent’s CV, Jung said, ‘I was super nervous.  It was really close racing with Pekko but it was really clean.’   He explained, ‘In the first one I was a little unlucky as I flipped over on the last lap but I knew there was two more to go so I just kept patient.  I think patiences is always worth the ride so I am super happy.’  With his only previous Asian Buggy Championships outing the 2025 Philippine Masters, on the A3 showdown, he said, ‘I just tried to keep behind Pekko and not try to be aggressive and cause an incident or something.  I knew Alex (Bernadzik) and Jayden (Edmunds) were coming but I still just tried to drive my lines and not get over excited and then Pekko had a mistake and I got around his outside so I am super happy.’  Running the tyre of choice for the track conditions at Wesy Side Raceway this weekend, Hotrace’s Sahara in super soft, on his buggy performance he said, ‘the conditions were definitely different to yesterday, I think the track is 1-second slower today and there was a lot of dust but I ran my car the same as qualifying.  I just tried to drive better and keep patient and the result is this is a pretty big win for me.’

September 6, 2026

Chassis Focus – Hyunkyu Jung (Associated eBuggy)

Chassis – Team Associated RC8 B4.2e
ESC – Hobbywing XR8 Pro
Motor – Hobbywing Xerun 2200Kv
Battery – Team EAM 7700maH
Tyres – Hotrace Sahara Super Soft
Radio – Sanwa M17S
Servo – Power HD GTS6
Body –  JConcepts S15

Image Gallery

April 26, 2026

Nguyen sees off determined Iivonen to win eBuggy at ABC Malaysia

Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen has taken the eBuggy win at Round 2 of the Asian Buggy Championships in Malaysia, the American seeing off an intense challenge from Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen in the deciding third A-Main at LAP Paradise RC Raceway.  With Iivonen having won yesterday’s opening A-Main ahead of the Top Qualifier, this morning Nguyen would manage to keep his MP11e out front despite the Finn being all over his rear wing in A2 and even getting a look once or twice down the inside but just never quite able to see it through.  With 1 minute 20 seconds on the clock of the 8-minute encounter, Iivonen would attempt a long jump but it would go wrong and he would land off the track.  Rejoining the track without the need for a marshal, Iivonen’s next lap would be the fastest of the final but as he made another push he would crash again on his final lap, allowing Nguyen to win by over 6-seconds.  With the stage set for an A3 shootout, the contenders didn’t disappoint with the crowd producing many “Oohs and ahhs” over the race as Iivonen tried to put a pass on the Asian Buggy Championship debutant.  Despite his rival, who again set the fastest lap of the race, getting his noise alongside a number of times it was not enough to unsettle the teenager who put in a super cool headed drive.  The pressure on Nguyen would finally lift on the last lap as Iivonen, who showed incredible patients behind the leader, tried to out jump the leader but the landing didn’t work.  Crossing the line with a 4-second advantage the overall win was Nguyen’s.  Backing up his P3 in the days earlier encounter with another third in A3 meant it was Australian Jayden Edmunds who completed the podium ahead of 3rd place qualifier Caleb Noble.

April 25, 2026

Iivonen holds off Nguyen to win eBuggy A1 at ABC Malaysia

There was an exciting finish to the opening A-Main of eBuggy at the Asian Buggy Championships in Malaysia as Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen held off a recovery charge from the Kyosho of Top Qualifier Phi-Long Nguyen.  The 8-minute encounter, A2 & 3 on tomorrow’s race program at LAP Paradise RC Raceway, saw Nguyen and Nitro Buggy Top Qualifier Iivonen quickly pull clear of the field.  Looking to be holding station, as the race hit mid distance a mistake from the American teenager would see the order switch.  Charging to close down the Finn, traffic would delay his attack, but setting the fastest lap of the race on his penultimate lap he looked poised to challenge for the lead on the final lap.  In the final quarter of the lap, Nguyen would set-up a pass over the double into the downhill section but landing partly on the leader his buggy ended up on its roof allowing a very relieved Iivonen to take his Cayote powered MX8E-26MPC to the win – the 23-year-old punching the air as he crossed the finish line.  Nguyen would cross the line 3.2 seconds back in 2nd with Sworkz’s Caleb Noble coming through from 5th on the grid to finish 3rd ahead of Jared Ment and third place qualifier Jayden Edmunds.

April 25, 2026

Chassis Focus – Pekko Iivonen (Mayako eBuggy)

Chassis – Mayako MX8E-26MPC
ESC – Cayote Crest 8 EVO
Motor  – Cayote 1900kv
Battery – Cayote 5500mah
Tyres – Jetko J1 Ultra Soft
Radio – Sanwa M17
Servo – Savox SB3290SG
Body – Mayako

Image Gallery

March 1, 2026

‘We made the impossible possible’, Orlowski leads Schumacher 1-2 at MIBO International

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has added his name to MIBO International’s Roll of Honour for the offroad, the previous Touring Car Champion of the Czech event denying compatriot Bartek Zalewski the double when he took the 4WD Buggy title which went down to A3.  Making the switch from the onroad track across to the parallel offroad track for the fourth edition of the annual race, Orlowski would qualify second to Zalewski in both 2WD and 4WD but coming up short on winning in 2WD, a team effort would see Orlowski lead a 1-2 result in 4WD from team-mate Daniel Kobbevik.  Armed from fresh tyres for A1, Orlowski kicked off 4WD with a win ahead of Kobbevik as mistakes dropped Zalewski to P5.  A2 would see Zalewski benefit from fresh rubber to win with ease over Orlowski despite the pair sharing identical fastest lap times for the race.  In the decider while Zalewski looked to be dealing with the pressure of Orlowski almost on his rear wing, a small mistake at the tabletop with a minute to go gave us a lead change.  While Orlowski led for a lap, Zalewski would then drive around the outside of his rival after they had came off the straight but they touched on the jump and both went tumbling handing Kobbevik the lead.  With Zalewski trying for another pass after they resumed, he would catch the jump and roll out of contention finishing P3, 2-seconds back on Orlowski who took the overall win on tie break from Kobbevik.

‘We made the impossible possible with Daniel’, was how Orlowski described his team’s 1-2 at MIBO International.  The Pole continued, ‘We have been working super hard with Ben, Eugene, and Elias on the car and by the end of qualifying and for the finals we got it the best we could.’  He added, ‘We needed to put Bartek under pressure and pressure him into mistakes.  We worked together with Daniel on tyre strategy and on the track as well trying too help each other.  At the end we were quite lucky with how it all happened on the track but we did everything thing perfectly and with some luck we were able to 1 and 2 with our cars so we are very happy about that.’

Asked to sum 4WD Kobbevik replied with it, ‘It ended good’.  He continued, ‘It has been an up and down day for me.  I struggled to find the confidence and the right way around the track let’s say.  I couldn’t improve in the final qualifier so Michal went ahead of me on the grid in both classes but I still think it was a good end to the weekend with a 2nd (4WD) and a 3rd (2WD) after fighting like crazy all weekend.’  The World Championship finalist added,  ‘I am always trying to find more speed and I worked very well together with Michal, Elias and Ben to try and achieve the best possible set-up for this track.  I feel like we improved a lot but I want to improve even more because it doesn’t feel perfect let say.’  Asked where the final improvement came from he explained, ‘We did a huge change on the 4-wheel for the front and the rear with the geometry and it seemed to be a lot better, making it faster and more drivable as well.  It was difficult to get a good feel out of the car before that and I was struggling with the lap times which is not a good deal.  The A3 win and podium was a good way to finish.’

Clearly disappointed to miss the double, the 19-year-old always having huge fan support at MIBO International, Zalewski said, ‘The car felt good for most of them.  The first one though I had used tyres compared to the Schumacher guys and oil was on the track so I was driving and just get a spin into the pipes and lost it.  I was pushing so hard, but I make a few more mistakes and I end up P5.  In the second main I pulled away.  The car felt very strong and I was confident to many the bigger & bigger gap.’  On A3 the Top Qualifier said, ‘The third one it was close racing I would say.  He passed me, then I passed him and we had contact, I mean I was out front, he touched me before the jump and in the the jump I couldn’t control where I was flying and made a mistake and that was it.’

View the action from an exciting third A-Main of 4WD Buggy which would decide the 2026 MIBO International title.

View full 4WD results here.