Chassis – Infinity IFB8
Engine – O.S. Speed B2105
Fuel – Merlin
Tires – HotRace Sahara
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Sanwa PGS-XB II
Body – Kit
Remarks – The buggy Kouki is racing here in Indonesia is the same one he used at the recent World Championships in Spain.
Making his debut in the Asian Buggy Championships at the season finale in Indonesia this weekend, it is Infinity driver Kouki Kato who will start the 1-hour Main as the Top Qualifier. The reigning Japanese National Champion secured the top spot on a tiebreak with team-mate Naoto Matsukura who would take the fifth & final round of qualifying at West Side Raceway. Having ended Day 1 of qualifying with a TQ run, Matsukura did the same again today in Jakarta. With 2 from 5 to count, his Q5 time however was 2.8-seconds shy of what he needed to deny Kato, who topped three rounds, the overall TQ. The driver with the fastest lap of qualifying, set this morning in Q3 when he was P2 behind Kato, Indonesia’s own Jason Nugroho locked himself into 3rd place on the grid ahead of Australian Christian Wolhuter, the Sworkz pairing also going to tiebreak for their grid positions.
With Jakarta a home race for Infinity owner Kenji Taira, Kato was pleased to give the team’s new IFB8 the TQ saying, ‘I am very happy to get the TQ here.’ Opening Day 2 of qualifying by topping Q3 and backing it up with another fastest time in Q4, Kato would finish only P4 in his final attempt. Changing his car set-up for Q5, he said it left him with a fast but difficult car to drive which is not suitable for a 1-hour final. Describing the final as ‘very long’, the 18-year-old believes the key to tomorrow’s race will be an ‘easy to drive car’ and that is what he had for Q4 so he will revert back to that set-up for the main event.
‘The car in that one was very nice. I changed the car to a higher diff and the setting was very good’, was how Matsukura summed up his TQ run in the final qualifier. With the multiple discipline World Champion’s face indicating slight frustration at missing out on the overall TQ as he checked out the timing monitors immediately after the qualifier, asked if he was chasing the time of his team-mate to try & snatch the TQ away he replied, ‘I don’t push no. My lap time is a little bit faster than the others but I needed that TQ to improve my grid position so if I pushed too much and made a mistake I had more to lose than gain.’ Looking to tomorrow’s final, the former 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Champion who has plenty of experience of 1-hour finals said, ‘One hour, one hour, long, long, long but lets see. The car is very nice now, it is more stable so I just need to keep on going for the distance with as few mistakes as possible.’
‘I’m pretty satisfied with the result though I made some stupid mistakes and costing some time in the last but it is good enough starting 3rd.’ Expecting the track to get very dusty over the hour of the final he said the podium is his goal adding ‘I need to keep it safe and make sure I don’t push as much as I did in the quali which cost like 7-seconds. The speed is there I just need to take out the stupid mistakes.’
Reaction to his P4 starting position Wolhunter said, “I’m happy enough but could have don’t better with less mistakes and better consistency but it’s a very hard track to keep consistent on. At the end of the day I am in the A-Main and anything can happen.’ Trying a different shocks in the concluding qualifier, claiming another P2 finish behind Matsukura, the 18-year-old said the changes ‘made the car very good’ with it ‘easier to drive and a lot more consistent’. His third Asian Buggy Championship race this season, Wolhunter said the 1-hour finals have worked in his favour and he hopes to put his experience to good use tomorrow. A podium finisher at the previous round, he said, ‘I do think 1-hour is on my side. I have had problems in the past in 1-hours finals where I have hit or ended up last and I have made my way back into podium finishes.’
With his track having been superb hosts of the Asian Buggy Championships, and drivers from 12 different countries over the past few days, Adrian Wicaksono’s on track performance has also gone well. Reacting to his P5 on the 13 car grid, the Team Associated driver said, ‘I’m happy, I think that is the best I could I do I think the top 4 guys are a bit faster than me so I think 5 is the best result I could get’. Asked about his final two qualifiers, a P3 in Q5 his best result, he responded, ‘I think all qualifiers went ok, I was trying different things every run to find the best set-up. I came back to my Q3 set-up for the last one and I think this is what I am going to use for the final.’ He added, ‘Maybe I am just going to try different tyres tomorrow for the A-Main practice.’
Chassis – Sworkz S35-4 EVO
Engine – Spower R7GT
Fuel – Merlin
Tires – Jetko J1
Radio/Servos – Futaba 10PX / Futaba CB701
Body – Kit
Chassis – Team Associated RC8 4.1
Engine – O.S. Ongaro Edition
Fuel – Merlin
Tires – Hotrace Sahara
Radio/Servos – Sanwa M17 / Sanwa XRII (Steering) | XBII (Throttle)
Body – JConcepts S15
Remarks – Adrian is running World Champion Davide Ongaro’s ONG brand shock caps and rear wing button.
Having kicked off Day 1 of qualifying at the Asian Buggy Championships Finale in Indonesia with a TQ run, Kouki Kato repeated the feat at West Side Raceway as he opened the second day’s action at the top of the Q3 time sheets. The Infinity driver would set the new fastest time of qualifying by a massive 6-seconds, overnight track maintenance and a better tyre choice by the Japan National Champion contributing factors. With Q2 winner Naoto Matsukura setting the early pace in the 5-minute qualifier, until the first of two mistakes dropped him to P6 for the round, it was local racer Jason Nugroho who continued to be Kato’s closest rival. Setting a new fastest lap and getting very close to being the first driver to go 39-seconds, the Sworkz driver finished 2.6-seconds back on the Pro driver with the similar car of Christian Wolhuter completing the Top 3.
Asked about his run, Kato said, ‘My car was better. I changed to super soft tyre and it works good so I can make more push’. Content to leave his IFB8 unchanged for the penultimate qualifier, asked about track conditions, the 18-year-old replied, ‘this morning there was very high grip I think so better laps but I think the next round will be slower because the dust will come up and there will be less grip’. With this in mind and his car ‘working good’, he said the focus will be on working on his consistency as it is one area he feels there is room for improvement in.
‘I think it was OK, I am pretty satisfied with it’, was Nugroho reaction after Q3. Having had suspected radio glitches yesterday, he switched radio for Day 2’s qualifying explaining, ‘I switched back to my older controller and I think it was a bit different to my previous one so it took some time for me to readjust but I think overall it was OK.’ Asked if he felt the radio change cured his issues he said, ‘I had a similar problem at the start once again like yesterday when the car was out of the pit so I am trying to change to a different servo model to make sure it is the servo and not the controller.’ Suffering some traffic on the last lap, he said he was pretty happy with his result and his fastest lap time and planning to leave his car unchanged for Round 4 he said his big focus is to get the radio issue sorted ahead of tomorrow’s final, the Main here in Jakarta a 1-hour race.
His 3rd Top 3 run, Wolhunter summed up his latest effort by saying, ‘Yeh it was alright.’ The ABC Australia podium finisher explained, ‘I had a little bobble going onto the off camber. The track has changed quite a bit so it’s a lot dustier now and with the bars (tyres) when you are off line it’s very slippery so that cost me some time and then I made a little mistake on the double coming towards us so considering the mistakes I had I am still happy with the result’. Running Jekto J1 tyres on his buggy, he plans to continue with them saying, ‘I’ll stick with the tyre, the tyre is fast so I just need to stay on the line’.
The host of the Asian Buggy Championships first visit to Indonesia and responsible for the track build that has been praised by all the drivers, Adrian Wicaksono said, ‘Fourth was the best I could do, the Top 3 were so much faster than me but I was consistent, had zero mistakes and it got me 4th’. Asked how he felt his track creation is holding up, the Team Associated driver said, ‘I think this morning the track is slightly better because they did maintenance and some water last night. I think it was in much better shape then the last run yesterday.’ On his car he said, ‘I’m going to change the rear diff and try to go lower, in the tight hairpins I think my car is a little lazy so we will go down in the diff and see how it goes.’
Completing the Top 5 for the round, Rama Tribudiman summed up his result with ‘It was quite OK.’ With West Side Raceway his local track, he continued, ‘The traction was good this morning and my car was good but we are talking about racing against world class drivers. I am a newb you know but it was good fun out there.’ Raising the diffs in his Kyosho prototype for Q3, he plans to raise the front diff further for Round 4. Running the same car as Ryan Lutz and the rest of the Kyosho factory team used at the IFMAR World Championship in Spain, asked how he came about to having a car with the same upcoming parts releases on it, he explained, ‘I am not a special driver for Kyosho or anything but I am good friends with [Yuichi] Kanai (famed Kyosho buggy designer) so he gave me the parts to try.’
Chassis – Sworkz S35-4 EVO
Engine – O.S. Adam Drake AD3
Fuel – Merlin
Tires – Proline Electron M4
Radio/Servos – FlySky Noble 4 / ProTek RC 170SBL
Body – Kit
Remarks – Jason is running RC Project Shock Caps as well as the Italian brands front Shock Tower.
