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.