Kaerup goes fastest in final practice

Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup has wrapped up practice at the 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship, the Dane laying down the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the Barcelos track in Portugal in the 7th & final free practice.  Ending Day 1 of practice fourth fastest, in this morning’s two final free practice runs Kaerup bettered that time ending up 1-second faster with his FP7 time.  Behind it was Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik who set the second fastest time just ahead of another of the morning’s big improvers Pekko Iivonen for an all Scandinavian Top 3.  Setting the pace yesterday, Dakotah Phend would not improve on his FP4 time but the Xray driver still ends free practice in P4 with the that time ahead of Polish duo Bartek Zalewski and Michal Orlowski.

Announcing after his strong FP5 run yesterday evening that he planned to talk with Team Associated Team Manager Brent Thielke about potential changes for today, asked if he did, Kaerup replied, ‘We had a dinner at McDonalds, a very fine place, and we discussed some stuff and we made a big change but I don’t think the boss allows me to mention this.’  Asked what the change was like for him in terms of car feel, the 17-year-old said, ‘the car became a lot more comfortable to drive and was fast still.’  On the track’s infamous quad, which he planned to attempt today, he said, ‘I didn’t try it.  Some people are quading, some are tripling, but I am still tripling, singling, and I think it will do.’

Reacting to his run Kobbevik said, ‘the pace was already good yesterday and I did some changes for today and they improved the car’.  Asked about the changes, the Norwegian said, ‘I made changes to the diffs and to harder shocks and it made it easier to drive.  My 3-laps in the morning was 3-seconds faster than yesterday so I am very happy.’  Ask his thoughts on the track layout, he replied, ‘It is good fun, it is difficult with the quad in the middle but the rest is good flowing so it is enjoyable to drive.’  Moving in to seeding next, the 20-year-old plans to keep his car ‘mostly the same’ and ‘just try to do three laps again’.  With much interest in the Schumacher team attending these inaugural eBuggy Worlds with their star drivers Michal Orlowski and Kobbevik despite not having their own car, speaking to Schumacher engineer Trish Neal about the project he said the British manufacturer is working towards its own car for sometime in 2026.  Racing himself here in Barcelos, Neal said the are working on suitable parts supplier adding while touring car and 1:10 Buggy is easy for them in terms of production, 1:8 Buggy is different and new so they need time to get the supply chain right.  He emphasised the focus is on a eBuggy first chassis, the eBuggy market while less popular in high end competition, an important one in terms of sales for all manufacturers.

Pleased with how his morning had gone, Iivonen said the big improvement for him came with a shock change on his Mayako for the final practice.  He added, ‘the change worked well, the tyres were spot on, and it was nice to turn some laps and get clean ones in.  I almost drove the whole run clean so it’s looking really good’.  Asked about the significance of the shock change, the Finn said, ‘I think it made a big difference and now the car is more settled, easier to drive, and it just goes around the track faster.’  He continued, ‘the only thing now is the quad but I made it in my run when I made my best lap, I did the quad perfectly, it took 1-second off my time but it is hard to make the quad every time so well see in the seeding which is the best way to do it.’

Still using practice for what it is intended, summing up his morning, Phend said, ‘I think it went decent, like I said we are just tinkering with the car and making small changes.  I am feeling pretty comfortable out there, pace wish as far as qualifying and the 10-minutes for the mains.’  The American added, ‘we are keeping an eye on the weather as it is to be cooler the rest of the week compared to yesterday.’  To start seeding he plans to run his car unchanged but just switch to a softer compound because of the weather.

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Phend fastest as Day 1 of eBuggy Worlds concludes

Xray’s Dakotah Phend has set the pace on the opening day of the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship, the American topping the times after 5 rounds of free practice at the Barcelos Buggy Arena in Portugal.  Setting his fastest 3-consecutive laps in the penultimate round of the day’s free practice, many drivers feeling they made the wrong call on tyre compound for the cooler evening’s final run, Phend was fastest from Juan Carlos Canas, the Sworkz driver topping that final round to record his best time of the day.  The pace setter after the first three rounds, David Ronnefalk finished the day out in P3 ahead of Sworkz’ Elliott Boots.  With reigning Nitro Buggy World Champion Davide Ongaro having a challenging day, which ended in him being only 13th fastest, it was his younger team-mate Marcus Kaerup who led the way for Team Associated.  Second fastest in FP5, which was 10-minutes long with the previous four rounds having been 5-minutes each, he ended the day fourth fastest.  Another improvement in FP5 came from Tekno’s João Figueirdo, the Nitro World Championship finalist, whose family are the hosts of these World Championships, completing the Top 5.

Asked to sum up Day 1 in Barcelos, Phend replied, ‘I’d say Day 1 was a success.  We got some good speed so I am just trying some stuff with the car.  I think going out on the right compound tyre depending on the weather will be really important.’  Running JConcepts Dirt Web 2, he said the harder compound he had been running was too hard for the final run so he will go out on a softer compound in the morning and see how that is.  Doing ‘just little stuff’ in terms of changing car set-up, he said ‘the car already feels comfortable and has good speed’ so the changes are very much ‘fine tuning’.  On how the track evolved over the first day of action, he replied, ‘I think the last few rounds it stayed pretty similar, it really just depends how they blow the track off, and how much dust is out there makes a really big difference.  The groove is getting a little bit wider but it’s still pretty narrow.’  Regarding his own driving the ROAR eBuggy National Champion felt, ‘there is definitely room for improvement and I can get better by tightening up a few spots I am struggling with but overall I feel I am driving decent and adapting to the track.’

‘Finally, that was a hard day’, that was Canas’ reaction after his Q5 effort.  The Spaniard added, ‘I didn’t find the speed quickly and had to work a lot on the car but finally I feel a little bit of speed and good pace for the long runs.’  Asked if he found something in particular to improve his pace, the Top Qualifier from the recent European Nitro Championship at the same track, explained, ‘I changed a lot of things over the day and they all helped in a good way and that is why the last one was good.’  Running the medium JConcepts Dirt Web tyre for FP5, he said, ‘maybe it was too hard for that one but it was good to see the wear over the 10-minutes.’  ‘Finally happy with the car’, he said explained, ‘now with the good set-up you can take more risk at some corners and I want to learn if I can do the quad as I can see some guys are doing it.  I will test this in the two free practices tomorrow.’

Ronnefalk was another pleased with his Day 1 efforts.  He explained, ‘I am very pleased how it went. I had a brand new car so it took the first two runs to bed in the drive train but after that I felt very good and very similar to the feeling I had here at the Nitro Euros, obviously I started with a set-up very close to that.’  Trying different compounds of tyre over the day, the Swede said he is ‘between medium and soft Saharas and it just depends what kind of feeling you want out there.  The mediums they feel like the car is a little bit lighter on track but the soft obviously has a little more grip.  It just depends how you set-up the car and the driving style’.  With 2 more free practices before the two timed seeding rounds on the Day 2 schedule he added, ‘We will keep trying tomorrow with the track.  I must say in the last one it was kind of dusty and you started to see some bigger holes out there which I have never seen on this track before.  It’s still free practice so they are probably going to repair it tonight so once they add more glue on those spots we will be good with a clean track again.  I don’t think the track was faster the last one, those who went faster was because they improved their cars.  I think the sweet spot was FP3, FP4 in terms of the when the track was fastest.’

‘We have been pretty fast and consistent all day’ was how Boots summed up setting the fourth fastest time.  He continued, ‘the last one I was on medium tyres and I think as the temperature dropped they weren’t quite right’.  Running Hotrace’s Sahara he said, ‘the temperature drop effects the track quite a bit and that was the only difference that run really.  The tyres went slick at the end cause they were just spinning on the surface.’  Asked his thoughts on the layout comparing it the Nitro European Championship last month, he replied, ‘I like the layout that’s cool but obviously it is different to drive with electric being quite a bit different, but I think it’s better.  It is a bit slower, a bit more technical, but I think it drives better’.

One of the stars of last year’s Nitro Worlds in Spain, 17-year-old Kaerup was content with his practice pace.  The Dane explained, ‘I am not doing the quad, I wanted to keep it safe and know what line I am doing every single lap.’  Asked if he felt the risk was too high, he replied, ‘I think so but I think I am going to practice it tomorrow so if I need to go for it I can.  The main thing for me is stability and I know I have the pace by just doing triple, single.’  On his buggy set-up, he said, ‘we did a lot of stuff on the car over the day but we’ve hit it now and I think we are in the window for something good.  I think I will have a chat with Brent (Thielke) to see if he has any ideas for more changes for tomorrow.’

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First ever 1:8 Electric Buggy Worlds is go in Portugal

eBuggy is now officially an IFMAR World Championship class with free practice for the inaugural 1:8 Electric Offroad Worlds getting underway at the beautifully presented Barcelos track in Northern Portugal today.  Arriving this morning to foggy conditions, which caused an hour delay to the start of the day’s five rounds of free practice, once drivers got on track they quickly gave the fresh surface and new layout plenty of abuse, even the top title contenders looking somewhat rookie level as they tried to put early laps together.  With the second round of practice completed, drivers’ general feedback on the track was positive with many of those who raced here at the European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championship last month saying track builder Miguelo Izquierdo Rodriguez’ latest build was more technical and difficult.  With the lack of noise being something that takes getting used to when you walk around the pits surrounded by the best 1:8 Nitro Buggy in the World, in terms of early pace it was Xray’s David Ronnefalk who led the way after 3 rounds ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Bruak Kilic, fastest after Round 2, with Sworkz’s Elliott Boots completing the Top 3.

Coming into the event fresh from racing at the EFRA 1:10 Electric Touring Car Championships in the Netherlands, Ronnefalk described the track as ‘nice’ adding that once they blew the dust off after the first practice ‘everything felt pretty similar to what I felt here a couple of weeks ago at the Nitro Euros.’  The Swede added, ‘I felt the track is a little more slow paced and a little more technical this time compared to Nitro Euros which I would say was a bit more high speed, but the conditions are fairly similar which is good as I feel I have a good base to start from.  So it’s all good so far and we’ll see how the track develops.  I think it is going to be a little different from Nitro because we don’t have the oil from the exhaust laying down on the track.  I expect the track to be very grippy for the most part of the week where as at Nitro Euros it kind of faded with more oil getting put down.’  While a 2-time European Champion in 1:8 eBuggy, asked about the mindset change needed for eBuggy compared to Nitro, the former World Champion replied, ‘It definitely changes a little bit, the qualifying is very important in order to be able to have a good chance at winning it come main day.’  Acknowledging last weekend’s Touring Car action was good practice even if he did get knocked down to BQ by his team-mate Alexander Hagberg when his fellow countryman surprised everyone with a TQ run,  he continued, ‘I always feel more relaxed in nitro qualifying for the reason that you don’t need to TQ to have the best shot at.  You can say qualify Top 5 or 6 to start Top 3 in the Semi and then you take it from there.’  On the potential for good racing in the finals, he said, ‘The big jump section in the middle I think is definitely going to be a decider when it comes down to the mains.  The rest of the track is kind of one line but that the nature of all the tracks with so much grip now.  It is very hard to pass so starting position is key as it always is in electric classes so I need to be on top of my game already for qualifying.’

Fresh from being crowned German 1:8 eBuggy National Champion over the weekend, Kilic was happy with his first laps of the track.  The Turkish driver said, ‘for me the layout is really really fun although the dust out of the jumps as the track gets broken is making it a bit difficult.’  Overall he said, ‘I feel the track has more grip than the Euros cause there is no oil from the fuel and I prefer this because my car just works a little bit better.  I am doing ok right now.’  Asked about his buggy set-up, he responded,  ‘I didn’t change anything yet, I just drove around to see how the track is changing, the set-up is straight from the German Nationals.  I just put it on track and drove it.’

One driver getting his very first experience of the Barcelos Buggy Arena track is Phend.  The US driver said, ‘I think the layout is fun and has a good flow to it.  There is good grip, so it’s good.’  Asked if there was anything in particular he was working on, the ROAR Champion replied, ‘I think I just need to tighten the lines up.  I was a lot better the last run compared to the first runs so I’ll just keep plugging away there.  We had a really good base set-up with the team so kind of just working on my driving and tyre stuff.  The groove is pretty narrow right now so you go a little wide and you lose a lot of time but I think it will widen up as the race goes one.’  He concluded,  ‘The pace is decent for how early on we are.’

Widely recognised as one of the outright fastest drivers in 1:8 Nitro buggy, last year’s World Championship Top Qualifier Juan Carlos Canas described the track as ‘more hard to drive’ adding ‘maybe that will suit one driver and not another, we will see.’  The Spaniard, a multiple winner of the track’s annual International Buggy Challenge, said so far the grip feels strange but he expects it to get closer to that of the Euros after more running on it.  Asked how he finds driving electric over nitro, the Spaniard said, ‘the power is completely different, also the driving style and where you brake is also completely different.’  With no lower finals as a buffer should qualifying not go a drivers way, he said, ‘you need to give everything for qualifying’, something that usually isn’t an issue for the 23-year-old.  In terms of racing, he feels the new layout will make overtaking ‘very difficult.’  In terms of set-up he said his Sworkz is quite similar to his Euros Nitro set-up with his current focus on getting the best steering set-up for the tighter layout.

Asked about his first impressions of the track, Davide Ongaro replied, ‘that was probably my the worst practice ever’ adding ‘it is difficult to find a balance and in the first two I almost understand nothing about what I test.  Sometimes if the car is not perfect I can drive it maybe a little bit slower but this time no.’  His worst practice aside, answering the original question the reigning back to back Nitro World Champion said, ‘I prefer the one from the Euros but this one is fun.  90% of the jumps are the same as the Euros and they just changed the layout but the feeling of how you arrive on the jump is completely different.  I don’t know if it was good or bad to race the Euros for this race.’  He explained, ‘after the straight there is a small double but at the Euros it was a right side corner and the first laps I was thinking about that corner, so you know it’s still in the memory.’

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1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship coverage presented by Team Cayote

The week on which IFMAR will crown a brand new World Champion has finally arrived and thanks to electronics manufacturer Team Cayote, Red RC are travelling to Barcelos in Portugal to tell the story of how the inaugural 1:8 Electric Offroad World Champion is crowned.  Having run in the shadow of 1:8 Nitro Buggy, which since crowning its first World Champion back in 1986 has established itself as the ‘Rock Star’ category of all RC racing classes, this week is eBuggy’s moment to shine on the world stage.  Revealing over the weekend the layout on which all the leading buggy manufacturers will battle it out to go down in history as the first ever eBuggy World Champions, the Barcelos track in North Portugal will play host to almost 120 drivers from around the globe.  With Europe’s governing body EFRA enjoying crowning 1:8 eBuggy Champions over the last decade with their stand alone championship event, the reigning champion is none other that three time back to back Nitro Buggy World Champion Davide Ongaro.  Despite the European Nitro Buggy title still eluding the Italian, he is the back to back Champion of eBuggy having also won the title previously in 2019.  With Barcelos hosting the 2025 EFRA European Nitro Buggy Championship back in early July of this year, the European’s should have slight home advantage.  David Ronnefalk lifted the title for a fourth time, and the Swede would love nothing more than to complete the set by adding an Electric World title to the Nitro Worlds win he took in 2016 in Las Vegas.  While the US team is relatively small by their standards, they do have their defending eBuggy Champion Dakotah Phend making the trip.  Unlike 1:8 Nitro Buggy, in which fuel stops and tyre changes come into play over the long races, 1:8 electric is more heads up racing and we are excited to see how things unfold over the next 5-days.  Our coverage presented by Team Cayote, who offer competition spec ESC’s, Motors, and Batteries, will begin on Day 1 of the event, Tuesday, when drivers start off two days of practice, followed by 2-days of qualifying with the finals on Saturday.

Track Image: International Buggy Challenge [Facebook]