April 24, 2026

First big TQ for Iivonen at ABC Malaysia

Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen is the Top Qualifier at the second round of the Asian Buggy Championship, the Finn taking the final round of qualifying to win the shot out with Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen and Sworkz’s Caleb Noble.  The battle for pole between the drivers from three different continents was set as they each posted a TQ run over the opening qualifiers but laying down the fastest time to take the fourth round it was Iivonen who claimed his first major international TQ honours.  His third appearance in the Team Cayote/VP-Pro backed Championship, the Finn drove a near perfect final qualifier in a close battle with ABC debutant Nguyen until on the last lap.  With Iivonen running just behind him on track, the teenager made a mistake that sealed the deal for Iivonen.  The American will line-up P2 for the 45-minute final with ABC race winners Noble and Jayden Edmunds starting 3rd and 4th respectively.  Nguyen would get the better of Iivonen in eBuggy taking the final round in the fastest time to become the Top Qualifier on tie-break, both drivers having two TQ runs each.  In Nitro Truggy, with Noble having already secured pole position in Q3, Ken NG would take the final round and his Sparko Truggy will line-up second on the track which he has been a key figure in developing into an impressive facility.

Reacting to his first big international race TQ, Iivonen said, ‘I sam pretty happy with that.  I really got to battle it out with Phi.  It was super tight until the last lap when Phi made a mistake, it was super tight before that and I kept the pressure on him and got the best out of it.  He added, I am really happy with the car and the pace and it will be good for the final.’  Asked about run time for the final, the 23-year-old replied, ‘Actually I haven’t checked it but I think it should be fine to do 7:30 if not we need to do 6:3o but I think it will still be fine.  I think the biggest challenge will be if you are on your roof and need a marshal it going to be done already.  I think tyres are also fine so the bigger issue is that if you make a mistake and need a marshal, a clean race and there is a good chance to win.  Overall the Top 3 is very close so the winner will be the one who makes the least mistakes.’

I tried pushing it but Pekko had already caught up, his car was good in the fast 180s (degree corners).  My car good all round but we just got to do a little more tuning and drive better.’  The 15-year-old up & coming star of 1:8 Offroad said they hope to find last little bit in the set-up in this evening’s free practice, a weather front that was expected to curtail today’s action thankfully getting side track en route to the track.  Aside from fine tuning his set-up to try diminish Iivonen’s set-up advantage, the FEMCA Champion said his only other concern is compound choice for the final but he won’t make a call until Sunday as rain showers are set to hit the track plus all the lower finals will be run on it too.

Asked about his final nitro buggy effort, Noble said, ‘It was OK, I just made a couple of mistakes.  I was pushing a little hard as I figured the only way it was going to make a difference was if I won so I just went out there and drove as hard as I could really.’  Happy with car at the end of qualifying, asked his thoughts for the final, the Top 10 going directly to the main and 5 bumping up for a 15 car grid, he added, ‘I just wanted to see and find the limit of what made it unstable and what not and learn from it. For sure I can back it down and be consistent and drive the laps out and hopefully that will work out well.’  On race strategy for the final, the 19-year like his rivals doesn’t believe this will be a deciding factor explaining, ‘My run time I am getting towards 9-minutes so run time is fine and tyre wear is not too aggressive so I think we will be fine.  I think its just pick the right tyre and lets go racing pretty much.’  Agreeing with Iivonen on the marshals, these like most races in Asia provided my the organisers, he said, ‘the marshals are very harsh on you to put it nicely if you make a mistake.  The key will be no mistakes for the main for sure.’

April 24, 2026

Nguyen & Iivonen add TQ runs at Asian Buggy Championships

With three rounds of qualifying in the books at the Asian Buggy Championships, the LAP Paradise RC Raceway in Malaysia has given us different TQ runs from three different drivers representing 3 different manufacturers, Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen topping Q2 and Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen delivering in Q3.  With Sworkz’s Caleb Noble opening nitro buggy qualifying with the fastest time, the stage is now set for an exciting fourth & final qualifier with all three drivers in the hunt for the overall TQ honours.  After a mistake in Q1, Top Seed Nguyen made amends with a cleaner run to take a close TQ ahead of Iivonen and Noble, the three covered by just over a second.  In Q3 it was Iivonen’s turn to execute a clean 5-minute run and he took the round by a significant 4.2-second margin over his Australian and American rivals who both had mistakes resulting in costly seconds lost.  In eBuggy, Iivonen would make it back to back TQ run in Q3, while in Nitro Truggy, ABC New Zealand winner Noble locked in the overall TQ with a third consecutive TQ run allowing him to sit out Q4 and focus solely on buggy.

Reacting to his TQ run, Iivonen said, ‘Q3 was a clean, I just had some traffic midway through and at the end but otherwise it was a super clean run for me and consistent.’  On his buggy, Mayako’s star factory driver said, ‘the car felt good but I think the grip went slightly down compared to the hotter weather in Q2 but the car handled very well after the changes we made’.  Asked about the changes the 23-year-old replied, ‘I just changed my rear link height slightly, that was the only change but on this track you can feel a small change for sure.’   On his Q2 performance he said, ‘the pace was super good and I was matching Phi but then at the end I had as couple of wobbly laps and dropped down slightly but it was super tight so not to bad.’  Looking to deciding final qualifier the Finn said, ‘I think we are going change a bit and try to make the car a little bit more flat around the track and I think if we can do that it will be super nice.’

Asked about his Round 2 & 3 performances, reigning FEMCA Champion Nguyen said ‘Q2 was fine. It was a clean run I think’. On Q3, the teenager summed up that run with, ‘I crashed. I guess I am too aggressive.’ Changing the ride height for the run, his dad explained that it was now maybe a little bit too low and negatively effecting how the car lands so they will revert back to their previous ride height setting. Asked his approach for the final qualifier, the threat of rain on the horizon, he said, ‘Hopefully it doesn’t rain but I guess this round I am going to try to be calmer and just take it easy. The track is very consistent although it might change now due to the weather.’ Making his debut in the Team Cayote/VP-Pro back Asian Buggy Championships this weekend rocking the colours of the last Kyosho World Champion Cody King asking about the distinctive colours he dad explained that as King was the last American driver to win the World title as well as the last Kyosho winner, and the fact the like the colours, they asked the 2010 World Champion for permission to run his paint job in the home it might also bring them luck in this World Championship year.

Summing up his Q2 after topping the first round, Noble said, ‘the car was good but I ran a pretty smoked set of tyres, still it was a solid run and there was only 1-second covering the Top 3 so I’m happy with that.’  Putting on a brand new set of JConcepts Dirtweb 2 tyres for Q3, the 19-year-old said this meant he ‘was a little slow early in the run’ adding ‘but I am happy with the way I drove and we should be good for Q4 with the tyres broken in.’  He will use eBuggy to run another set of tyres and plans to not run truck to give himself more time having already TQ’d three rounds to lock in pole for the final.

April 24, 2026

Noble TQ’s opening qualifier at ABC Malaysia

Sworkz’s Caleb Noble has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the second round of the Asian Buggy Championships in Malaysia.  The Australian set the pace in the first of the four scheduled Nitro Buggy qualifiers at LAP Paradise RC Raceway by just over a second from Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen.  Having topped yesterday’s seeding, Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen would suffer two mistakes on his opening effort, the second of which cost him over 6-seconds.  While setting the fastest lap the American wouldn’t recover the loss and finished P3 almost 5-seconds back on Noble.  Australian Jared Ment at the wheel of a Team Associated would set the fourth fastest time followed by the Sworkz of Adrian Wicaksono.  Having dominated the Team Cayote/VP-Pro backed ABC season opener in New Zealand, Noble would do the double in the nitro classes this morning also TQ’ing Truggy ahead of Jayden Edmunds while a clean run in eBuggy saw Nguyen top the times ahead of Iivonen and Edmunds.

Asked about his strong start to qualifier, Noble responded, ‘eBuggy not so much but yeah Nitro Buggy and Truggy was a very good start.’  On his Nitro Buggy run, the 19-year-old said, ‘I knew Phi was fast, I knew he was probably faster than me.  He started behind me so he had a bit of a game plan advantage I guess.  I could see he was coming but then he made a mistake and I was back in front and then he made another one thankfully because he probably would have got back by me but my car was really good but he nitro buggy has been really good to drive, I just freshened the shock & diff oil last night and it was really good.’  Seeding P3 yesterday saying at the time he was saving his clay compound JConcepts Dirtweb 2 tyres for qualifying, he said he ran the clays on his eBuggy for Q1 and ‘probably shouldn’t have’ so he opted to stick with blue compound for nitro.  He will use clay again in eBuggy for Q2 to decide if they are now the right call for nitro, the day warming up here nicely now in Johor Bahru.  In terms of set-up changes he said, ‘I am going to say no for now, the car is really good to drive, it’s super easy to drive.  It is definitely a mains car.  I can just drive it around with no mistakes and that’s what i need to do.’

Giving his reaction after the first qualifier Iivonen said, ‘I had to go out with a new set of tyre so for sure it was slower but I picked up the pace at the end but couldn’t catch Caleb anymore.  I had a slight bobble on the second last lap, I haven’t checked the lap times yet, but probably would have been closer without that.  A bit unfortunate but I think the pace is there and the car was working well and we already have some changes in mind to do for the next one so it will be quite good.’  Asked about his tyres, the Finn explained, ‘I scrubbed them in a bit but they need to be worn down slightly more, they were more slippery at the start of the run but then they picked up the pace.’  Using Jetko tyres on his Mayako, based off local advice and having tested them against other brands,  in relation to tyre wear and usage he said, ‘they last quite long so probably like one set for qualifying in both classes.  And after doing Q1 they should be better for the next one.’

‘I just made one big mistake’, was Nguyen reaction after Q1.  The American explained, ‘I turned into a wet spot a little too aggressive I guess and then just spun into the pipe and it was like a 6-second mistake.  I just got to keep it clean the next round.’  On the performance of his Ielasi Tuned powered MP11 this morning, he said, ‘I need to make it a little bit more aggressive because now it’s safe out there.’  Asked what he was thinking of changing to achieve this for Q2, the 15-year-old replied, ‘I’ll ask my dad’ before concluding ‘if I just keep it clean I’ll be fast.’

April 23, 2026

Nguyen top seed at Malaysian ABC encounter

Making his Asian Buggy Championships debut as the 1:8 Offroad Championship makes its first visit to Malaysia this weekend, Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen has topped seeding at the impressive LAP Paradise RC Raceway in Johor Bahru.  With rain briefly interrupting proceedings during the second of the two seeding rounds, the 15-year-old American talent set the fastest two consecutive laps for both rounds both in Nitro and eBuggy.  Behind it was Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen who was the closest challenger, the Finn 8/10ths of a second off in the first & faster of the rounds, driver’s fastest laps being in the 38-seconds.  Having dominated the opening round of the Team Cayote/VP-Pro backed ABC in New Zealand in March, new 2026 Sworkz signing Caleb Noble completed the Top 3 half a second off Iivonen.  In was an another of the championship’s Australian regulars and race winners Jayden Edmunds, also driving an Sworkz in fourth, with Ken NG, a key figure behind Round 2 host track, completing the Top 5 with his Kyosho.

Describing the track as ‘big’, Nguyen added it also had ‘a lot of traction’ and for him it was also ‘kind of technical’.  Liking the track’s elevation changes, he added this was a feature that was quite different to the US.  On topping seeding, the Asian Champion having won back to back FEMCA titles in Vietnam last year,  explained that in terms of his Kyosho buggies the main work has been on his diff set-up and choosing the right tyres.  Running JConcepts’ DirtWeb 2 tyre, he is running it in clay compound and they are working to his liking but he said they are only lasting 10-15-minutes before coming a slick but he wasn’t too concerned as they are ‘still pretty fast when they are bald.’

Asked about seeding, Iivonen said, ‘We got some rain but I think the track cleared up quite well.   After that it was maybe slightly more slippery and the lap times were a bit down but I think our cars are working quite good.  Small changes here and there and I think for tomorrow’s qualifiers it will be really good.’  Asked his thoughts on the track, its black bitumen emulsion surface making it almost look like full asphalt when you first arrive, he said, ‘the track is super nice, I really like it.  It’s super high grid, definitely more than we have in Europe.  It is quite extreme.’  Regarding qualifying runs, 3 5-minute rounds on tomorrow’s schedule he said, ‘To do a clean lap is not too bad so it should be quite good to do a full 5-minute run but the problem is if you need a marshal it can be fast or slow so you never know what is going to happen there.  You definitely don’t want to crash’ – as is common in Asia the event is providing its own marshals for the event.  On tyre choice, Iivonen said he is running Jetko J1 rubber following local advice that they were the best and having tried other brands he said ‘the Jetkos have been the fastest so far so I’m sticking with them for now.’

Summing his Thursday’s performance Noble said, ‘Seeding was pretty good and I am pretty happy considering I am on a tyre I am not 100% sold on compound wise.  I am just reserving my clays for qualifying and onward’.  Running JConcepts blue compound Dirtweb 2, he said, ‘they are fine, just not as fast as clays’.  He added, ‘I’m happy with third, it was nearly 2nd in the second round, so happy with that.’  On the track and its 3D elevation layout he said, ‘I am really enjoying it.  I am really enjoying the elevation, the grip, I am really really having a good time.’  Asked about his confidence after his domination of Round 1 at Counties RC in Auckland, the 19-year-old replied, ‘we definitely got stiffer competition with Phi and Pekko here but I think I’d be happy to get Top 3 and that’s a realistic goal.  If I can fight with those two I think that would be a huge step from 12-months ago in the Philippines.’  On his switch from Tekno to Sworks for the new season, he said, ‘I’m loving it.  I am really enjoying the car, really enjoying the platform, and learning every day with it and getting faster and faster.’

January 30, 2026

2026 Asia Nitro Party Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend Red RC kicked off our 2026 race coverage by travelling to China to the impressive Hongyu GDC track in Foshan for the inaugural running of the Asia Nitro Party.  A brand new nitro onroad race providing an international stage for the category, it attracted a stacked international entry that only looks set to grow after a successful first edition.  With newly crowned IFMAR 1:8 GT World Champion Alessio Mazzeo and his Raptor leading the biggest category, 1:8 GT, in 1:8 GP it was IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani and his Serpent who led the entry.  Come the finals however the Italians couldn’t put their name on the race’s opening role of honour, that instead going to France’s double European Champion Bernard-Alain Arnaldi and Genius in GT and Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura in 1:8 GP.   Over the busy weekend of high revving racing action we managed to get our hands on 8 cars from 6 different manufacturers and for those who missed the any of these chassis focuses as part of coverage from the Asia Nitro Party we have compiled them in our first Chassis Focus Index of 2026.

1:8 GP

Naota Matsukura (Q14/Winner) – Infinity

Filippo Domanin (Q5/P2) – Xray

Andrea Catanzani (Q4/P3) – Serpent

Sinnosuke Yokoyama (Top Qualifier/P8) – Mugen Seiki

JJ Wang (Q2/P5) – Mugen Seiki

 

1:8 GT

Bernard-Alain Arnaldi (Q2/Winner) – Genius

Alessio Mazzeo (Q4/P2) – Raptor

Natanaele Senesi (Top Qualifier/P3) – Senesi Motorsport

 

January 25, 2026

Arnaldi takes GT victory at Asian Nitro Party

With the 1:8 GT Final bringing a successful inaugural Asian Nitro Party race to a close under the lights at the Hongyu GDC track, it was Genius’ Bernard-Alain Arnaldi who took the win in China.  It was to be a drama packed start to the 45-minute final with World Champion Alessio Mazzeo calling a time out during the warm-up due to an engine issue.  With that time out expiring, as the rest of the field headed to the grid after complete a restarted warm-up, Mazzeo’s car only making its back onto the starter having been fitted with a new engine that still needed to be tuned.  With this hastily done by Gimar’s Giovanni Crea to try not miss the start, the Italian would have to begin from the pit lane.  With that immediately putting him half lap down, Italy’s quest for victory was struck a blow for a second time as Top Qualifier Natanaele Senesi would flame just 2 corners after the start.  He would rejoin two laps down as Spain’s Raul Anton led the way in front of team-mate Arnaldi, who had had a mistake at the first corner.  Anton would soon allow the Frenchman to go to the front, giving Arnaldi plenty of room to execute a pass at the end of lap 6.  Once there that was where he would stay til the finish.  With Mazzeo’s Raptor the fastest car on track, it did look like we might be in for a showdown in the closing stages of the race.  Getting the gap down to 3-seconds, unfortunately damage to his body would in turn lead to it cutting into his tyre and causing his pace to drop right off and allowing Arnaldi to build back up his advantage to win by 16-seconds.  All the time, as the Mazzeo tried to chase down the leader, Senesi was working his way back up through the field to salvage a podium finish.

Reacting to his win, Arnaldi said, ‘It was a very good race for me except for one mistake at the first corner.  After that I raced with a lot of strategy for our refuelling and tyres.  This was very hard because Alessio is very fast, but it work out very well.’  The 2-time European Champion continued, ‘My car was very consistent, my engine consumption was very good.  I made two less refuelling than Alessio.’  On the battle that was looming in the closing stages of the race he said, ‘I don’t push 100% in the race so at the end I had still enough tyre to respond to Alessio.’  Summing up the event he said, ‘’The weekend started slow & bad and every day it got better & better.  I was maybe not happy with our speed in the end but the end race result is perfect.’  Asked about coming back to defend his win next year, the Asia Nitro Party set to establish itself as a season opener on the international nitro onroad calendar, Arnaldi replied, ‘For sure’.  Today’s win is perfect preparation for his French National GT Championship which kicks off in a months time but before that he reverts to a race organiser of his own Large Scale & GT8 race, this year being its 5th edition.

Putting his engine trouble ahead of the race down to some sort of dirt getting into the engine, Mazzeo said they had no choice but to change it ahead of the final.  He explain, ‘we take an engine from Natanaele, so thank you Natanaele and Michelle for the engine, but when we started the engine was not set for carburation so we set it during the race.  We had to come in many times to adjust it.  The engine was sometime too rich so we loose time on the track with that also.’  The 33-year-old continued, ‘We start from the pit lane, not P11, and I tried to catch BA (Arnaldi) but we lost a bit of time in the pit lane with the body touching but still in the end I think I could do it because the gap was only 4-seconds, but on my last pit stop I touched the wall and the body went in and cut the tyre so that was like ‘you have no win today’.  The race was like a big quali, I pushed every lap and our pace was super fast’.  Always a driver with great respect for his rivals, he said, ‘Congrats to BA and I am happy for Genius because it is an Italian brand so I am happy they won in Asia.’  He was also full of praise for the race and his first trip to China, ‘It has been an amazing race so I will be back next year for sure.  Gavin (Kwok) did an amazing job.  It’s an experience that is impossible to describe, you have to come live it.’  While his next race will see him at the controls of an 1:8 Buggy at his engine sponsor’s Gimar Trophy Race, in March he will be back to GT for the opening round of the Italian National at his home track of Naxos in Scilly.

Trying to explain the flame out that robbed him of the chance of a perfect debut using the Raptor chassis, Senesi said, ‘I started, the engine was good and I arrived at the second corner but since I release the throttle and went slowly on it again I fouled up the engine and it stopped.  I lost 2-laps and then it was an impossible race to come back’.   Recapping the weekend’s performance, he sad, ‘I think at the beginning of the race we where the fastest, then Alessio came in pretty good, and without the flame out I think it would have been another race but overall I am super happy because it is the first race with new car and I TQ’d and make P3 with a flameout.’  With it hard not to be impressed by Hongyu GDC,  Senesi said, ‘I think Gavin made a great job with the facility and all around it.  For sure there are always ways improve how the race is run so as to make it even better but for sure he organised a very nice race and it is for sure the race to come to in Asia.  I will be back next year absolutely.’

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