Lutz dominates EP Buggy in China

Completely dominating the Electric Buggy class here at the SIGP in Xiamen, southern China, Ryan Lutz took all qualifiers and the first two of 3 A-mains to wrap up the overall win early. In a league of his own, the winning margin after 5 minutes for the Tekno driver over 2nd place Yusuke Sugiura was 11 seconds in the first main, and 7 seconds over Sunpadow backed Kaja Novotny in the 3rd main. With the US driver sitting out A3, Sugiura would take the win in the final A-main to secure the runner up spot, while a disappointed Kaja took the final spot on the podium in 3rd place. Chen Guanxian, Jonathan Yeung and Chinese National Champion Hu Weiping would complete the top 6.

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Grid finalised for EP Final

With Ryan Lutz wrapping up the TQ early after round 2 of qualifying it took Q3 to finalize the rest of the grid for tomorrow’s triple A-mains. Taking the round again, behind Lutz it was Kaja Novotny who took second for the round, the much improved Sunpadow backed Xray driver knocking 9 seconds off his time to end up 3rd overall, behind Yusukue Sugiura who will start the final in 2nd. Chen Guanxian will set off from the grid in 4th while Jonathan Yeung broke into the 9 laps when it mattered to move up to 5th, his 5th for the round combined with his 4th from round 1.

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Double pole for Ryan Lutz in Xiamen

Confirming what everyone suspected following Rd1 of Practice, Ryan Lutz has taken the top qualifying spot in Nitro Buggy in Xiamen, China. Despite not improving on his Q1 time the Tekno driver continued to better his best lap time each round to end with a 33.542. Yusuke Sugiura would take the final round just ahead of Lutz but a number of mistakes meant he also didn’t improve his result. Wataru Takashiro ended in 3rd overall with his Q2 time, having a difficult time with traction rolling in the final round. The biggest improvement for the round came from both Kaja Novotny, who secured himself 4th overall, and Chen Guanxian who took 5th, both drivers have 12 plus second gain.

Ryan said that his car was now too soft or more the balance was not right following a rear anti-roll bar change that saw him go up in hardness making the difference between front and rear 5/10ths which maybe caused the issue. As the only direct qualifier into the 1 hour main final tomorrow he will have his own 10 minute practice in which he plans to try some things, suggesting he move the setup over from his EP buggy with the biggest difference between the two cars being the shock package.

Sugiura was on a very good pace in Q3, set to take a 5:12 which was within 2 seconds of Lutz’s Q1 time but made two mistakes on the last two laps when the announcer called the pace. With the surface quite abrasive, especially for the hour final, the Japanese Kyosho driver tried a harder compound, which while slower was more consistent so he will try a few more things to find pace, planning to use the semi final as testing for the main.

Taking 3rd on the spot and pole for the first of the semi finals Wataru Takashiro said ‘car was amazing but made a mistake with the tire’, the Kyosho driver trying a softer compound of Blockade on his MP9 for the cooler conditions. The result was too much grip which saw him struggle with traction rolling, so for tomorrow he will revert to X3 and work on some other small changes to the car.

Finding nearly 14 seconds in Q3, Xray driver Kaja Novotny has been tweaking his setup to gradually get more traction in the car, using his EP buggy to back-to-back test the changes. The run was clean, despite some traffic on the last lap, but without needing to be marshalled he managed a 9 lap run.

Another driver to find a big chunk of time, Taiwanese Agama driver Chen Guanxian put his improvement purely down to the traction and track conditions improving. Also having a clean run, the owner of James tires has not made any changes to his car all qualifying, just deciding to focus on his driving, and for the final may consider a harder compound of Revenge tire should he make the main final, positions 2-17 making the semi final, with the top 4 finishers from each, along with the next fastest driver, joining Lutz to battle it out for the championship.

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Ryan Lutz TQs EP Buggy in China

Ryan Lutz is the top qualifier of EP Buggy at the 2018 SIGP in Xiamen, China having taken Q2 which along with taking Q1 locks in pole position for Sunday’s triple A-mains. Putting in a blistering run on the ARC International Raceway, the Tekno driver took 4 seconds off his Q1 time and set the outright track record with a 32.904 second lap, the only driver to drop below 34 seconds in qualifying. It was a familiar order behind with Kyosho driver Yusuke Sugiura taking 2nd place, with Kaja Novotny a further 11 seconds back in 3rd with Chen Guanxian and Shin Dongcheol completing the top 5.

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Ryan Lutz tops SIGP EP Buggy Q1

Tekno driver Ryan Lutz has carried his form through from controlled practice in EP Buggy, once again dominating proceedings with Yusuke Sugiura the only driver close to the American in Q1. Over 6 seconds clear at the top of the times, his fastest lap was also over 1.2 seconds faster than his Japanese rival. In 3rd place was Czech Sunpadow backed Xray driver Kaja Novotny, with Jonathan Yeung, who struggled with engine problems in Nitro Q1, ending up 4th a further 4 seconds back with Chen Guanxian from Taiwan completing the top 5.

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