Kato wins PM25 as Ongaro & Kilic fail to finish in Manila

It was only his second Asian Buggy Championships appearance but Infinity’s young Japanese prospect Kouki Kato made it 2 from 2 with the biggest win of his career taking victory today at the famous Philippine Masters which is Round 2 of the Cayote backed championship.  Having won last year’s season finale in Indonesia, Kato would line-up third on the grid in Manila behind Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic and Top Qualifier Davide Ongaro, the Team Associated driver chasing three in a row at Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race.  With the 1-hour final underway Ongaro and Kilic would establish a lead with Kouki driving his own calculated race in 3rd.  With a change coming up front after a mistake by Ongaro allowed Kilic to go to the front.  Unfortunately the Turkish driver’s Philippine Masters debut was to come to a premature end as he suffered the first of two flame-outs 15-minutes into the race.  It would turn out that the pick-up in his fuel tank had shifted and was longer positioned in the bottom of the tank hence the reason he was flaming out after just 5-minutes of running.  With the demise of Kilic allowing Ongaro back to the lead, it wasn’t to be the World Champion’s day either.  With 24-minutes remaining he too looked to flame out but the problem was more terminal.  Doing a battery pack change as the car’s radio was not responding it turned out that his receiver had failed and the 26-year-old was out.  In all the drama Kato was getting on with his race and took over the lead which he would hold until the finish, the crowd being entertained by the battle for the other podium places.  The Sworkz of Asian Buggy Championships Champion Christian Wolhuter and Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen went at it with Sworkz Mattia Polito also in the mix.  Looking on target to repeat his impressive P2 eBuggy result, Iivonen would cruelly run out of fuel on the penultimate lap allowing Wolhuter to claim second 14-seconds back on Kato.  While also running out of fuel, but on his last lap, Polito took third as Iivonen was classified fourth ahead of Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz with Alex Bernadzik completing the Top 6 as the dust settled on the biggest edition of the Philippine Masters yet.

Reminded of his 2 from 2 ABC recorded Kato replied, ‘I am very happy about this’.   On his race, the very likeable 18-year-old explained, ‘Kilic and Davide were super fast so I just tried to run a consistent race and I ran my race no problem with no mistake and was there when they had problems.’  Once he had established a comfortable lead the Japanese National Champion said they switched from 7:30 stops to 6:45 stops to play the safe game.  A driver who has been very involved in Infinity’s entry into the 1:8 Buggy market, he said they managed to improve the car between qualifying and the final and this was also a contributing factor to his clean race.  Following his win Kato confirmed he will travel to Round 3 of the championship in Australia on July 16-20.

Admitting his ‘qualifying could have been better’ adding traffic was his main issue, Wolunter said, ‘I knew as long as I am Top 10 or just in the Main being a 1-hour race I could just work at it as I am a consistent driver and get positions one by one.’  The 18-year-old from Perth explained, ‘I started 9th and was able to get a clean track and all of us didn’t make a mistake for I’d say at least 10-minutes so it was just a big train of cars and then I just picked them off as they made mistakes.’  He continued,  ‘I almost flamed out.  The engine was bogging but it picked up.  We cut it very close but that was only on one stop luckily.’  Describing his brain as ‘fried’ following the final asked how he found the hot 1-hour encounter he said, ‘to be far it went really quickly for me.  I was under the pump by so many people it didn’t feel like it was a long time which was a good thing I guess’.  Unfortunately due to commitments of racing in the US, we won’t see Wolunter again in the remaining two Asian Buggy Championships in Brisbane and Jakarta.

Asked to sum up his race, Polito said, ‘It was so difficult because my father put the car down on the grid to early and my engine was then slow off the line so I lost 1 or 2 positions.  Then I made a mistake and I was at the back but then in the second half of the race the car was so fast and I was able to come back a finish with P3’  His first time to attended the Philippine Masters, this year the 13th running of the race, he described his podium finish with ‘it is OK’ vouching ‘next year will be better’, this his second big international podium finish along with his second place ahead of David Ronnefalk and Bruno Coelho at the SIGP Offroad race in December.

Understandably disappointed to come so close to a podium only to be denied it by something outside of his control, Iivonen, who qualifying P7 on the 15 buggy grid, said, ‘It started out with me gaining a couple of positions, the car was feeling super good, for sure the changes we made for the main making the car feel much better and more stable and less edgy.’  The 22-year-old continued, ‘my driving was OK, a couple of small stupid mistakes but otherwise it came down to the flame out at the end.  The flameout in the pits was also unfortunate but thats racing’.  On his pit lane flame out, his pitman Joesph Quagraine explain that Iivonen thought he had a tyre coming undone but as they checked it during the pit stop he, JQ, must have caught flywheel and cut the engine.  It turned out the tyre was ok and it was only dirt that was giving the impression it was coming off.  JQ also explain that they knew the fuel run time was tight but had they opted for an extra stop to be safe then they wouldn’t have ever been in the battle for the podium.

Kilic takes final qualifier at Philippine Masters

Burak Kilic has taken the fourth & final round of qualifying at the Philippines Masters, the Mugen Seiki/Nova Engines driver finally ending Davide Ongaro’s reign at Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race.  While yesterday threatened the possibility of rain, the record entry of drivers from 21 countries arrived Saturday morning to a dry & very hot track for one last qualifying effort and it would prove to be the fastest and most exciting of the four.  With Ongaro having already secured the overall TQ in the penultimate round yesterday, an early mistake from the World Champion gave his rivals the chance to go the top with Infinity’s Kouki Kato topping the timing screens and looking like he might finally deliver on the outright speed he has shown over the last two days.  It wasn’t to be however as he had a bobble on his sixth lap of 9.  This promoted Mayako’s Pekko Iivonan to the top of the timing screens but a bad lap dropped him off the top spot before a bobble on the last lap ended the prospect of a TQ run.  Having lost over two & a half seconds in the first half of the heat with a bobble, bobble the word of Q4, a recovering Kilic took over from Iivonan and laying down the fastest lap managed to get the TQ by half a second over Ongaro with Ryan Lutz only a further 4/10ths back after putting in his best run of the 4.  With Ongaro and Kilic the only two drivers to make 9-laps yesterday, today the Top 6 all broke that barrier.  Overall the result means Kilic starts directly behind Ongaro for tomorrow’s 1-hour Main with Kato lining up P3 ahead of his Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura, Lutz and the Sworkz of Mattio Polito.

Reacting to his TQ run, which turned out over 1-second faster than Ongaro’s best TQ run, Kilic said, ‘It was really good and now I have steering in my car.  It was just awesome, my car, my engine, my tyres worked amazing’.  Switching to a softer compound 6mik tyre for the final qualifier he said this gave him the steering he was after yesterday.  The Turkish racer continued, ‘I made a small bobble that cost me 2-seconds, even Davide make a mistake also.  It is really hard to go really fast without mistakes on this track’.  On the final, Kilic finding the heat in Manila hard going, he said, ‘It will be hard, really really hard but we will try our best to stay focused and have a good race.’

Summing up the closing qualifier Ongaro said, ‘It was good except for the first lap crash which gave me a 40.1 (seconds) lap.  I jumped and landed on the pipe, so probably that was 4 or maybe 3.5 seconds lost.’  The Italian continued, ‘the feeling with the car was the same as yesterday which was good after the rain.  I think there was a little bit more grip for me compared to yesterday.  Only that one mistake cost me the TQ probably but I think me and Burak are a little bit close now but 1-hour will be so long so we will see.’  As a winner of the race the last two years, Ongaro knows what it is like to race for that long here in the Manila heat.  Not planning to change his buggy set-up for the longer distance, on fuel mileage in the final, Ongaro said, ‘we tested and we have done like 8.45 so 7:30 should be fine’.  He then concluded, ‘the biggest challenge will be the heat, traffic, everything, 1-hour is going to be challenging for sure.’

‘Getting a little better, it’s more just me just being smooth on my inputs,’ was how Lutz summed him his P3, that result putting the American P5 on the starting grid for Sunday’s final behind Matsukura.  Describing the track as a little grippier today, the Kyosho driver continued, ‘the car has got good pace, and it’s just about me not blowing corners.  For the final I am going to go up in shock oil, 50cst all the way around just to kind of slow it down a little bit and other than that just rebuild and off we go.’  Asked about tyre wear he responded with ‘it’s reasonable’ explaining, ‘I ran the same one set on both cars the whole day yesterday so that was 45-minutes on them and they still have some thread so it’s going to be ok.’  On race mileage Lutz said it is a hard track on fuel, explaining he is getting 7:30 on the dot so it’ll be a risk to either do 6:40 stops cause it’s a bigger track layout or be safe and just do the 6 stops.  We’ll play that by ear.  An hour long final anything can happen.’

Appearing somewhat dejected after missing out on topping Q4, Kato summed up his run by saying, ‘I just tried to drive safe like the last one yesterday but the traction was a little bit higher so that was why I was faster but so was everyone else.  I tried to keep it clean but one lap I made a 40 something with just a bobble.’  Asked about the finals, the 18-year-old winner of last year’s Asian Buggy Championships finale in Indonesia said, ‘the car is very easy to drive and I think I can make consistent laps.  We just need to think about what exactly our plan is for the one hour.’

On a high from TQ’ing the final round of eBuggy ahead of Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik, Ongaro securing the overall TQ as a result,  Iivonan explained, ‘I made some changes to my nitro buggy based off the eBuggy set-up I ran in the last qualifier and I felt that was the best the car has been and definitely the changes were really good.’  The 22-year-old continued, ‘the pace was also on point and it was a little bobble on that last lap that cost the TQ for me but it was super nice to be in the mix’.  The Finn admitting he’s not used to 1-hour mains, all but Polito starting direct ahead of him in P6 having previous World Championship or Asian Buggy Championships Main final experience.  On the final he said, ‘the car is super consistent and easy to drive so for sure it will be a good final.  For sure the 1-hour will be long.’