Jones wins high attrition rate ABC Malaysia Truggy Main

Australian Tekno driver Liam Jones has won a high attrition rate Nitro Truggy A-Main at Round 2 of the Asian Buggy Championships in Malaysia.  The championship’s first visit to the country and the impressive LAP Paradise RC Raceway, which located just an hour across the border from Singapore, it was expected that the half hour final would be just a formality for Top Qualifier Caleb Noble.  The Sworkz driver dominated the opening round of the Team Cayote/VP-Pro backed championship last month in New Zealand, and no one would have bet against the Aussie going back to back here in Johor Bahru.  Starting on pole ahead of the Sparko of Ken NG, Noble quickly established a lead but as the race approached half way distance the 19-year-old suffered a diff failure, his race was done.  This promoted NG to the lead with Jones, who qualified P4, running in second.  However he too would hit mechanical problems, losing rear drive after just a few laps out in front – something he said may have been the result of his truggy taking a heavy hit to the rear early on in the final.  With Noble down in pit lane cheering on his compatriot, along with Jones’ elated father, the Melbourne driver would stay out front to take the win ahead by 2/3 of a lap over fellow Aussie Jayden Edmunds.  Chinese Kyosho driver Francis Guan completed the podium while with only 2WD NG managed to finish down in P6.

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.’

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.