Kato takes thrilling last lap SIGP victory in China

Infinity’s Kouki Kato has just taken one of the most exciting wins of his career, the Japanese driver winning the Sunpadow International Grand Prix after a thrilling last lap duel with Top Qualifier & majority race leader David Ronnefalk following 45-minutes of racing around the very challenging 3 Circles track in Xiamen.  With Chinese host track of the 2017 1:10 Offroad World Championships famed for its challenging bumpy conditions, it looked like Ronnefalk had taken control of the race with the main battle being for second place between Kato and his team-mate Bruno Coelho.  However a track that even the world’s best respect as being one of the most challenge there is, it didn’t take much for Ronnefalk’s lead to be eroded.  Passed by Kato on lap 56 of 80, the 19-year-old with hold the former World Champion at bay for 9-laps until a mistake with 7-minutes remaining, the local crowd invested in the racing and providing exciting audio as the leading drivers fell foul of track conditions.  Back in front and with the clock ticking down, Ronnefalk would again get tripped up by the track on the penultimate lap.  Coming of the main straight side by side to start the final lap, just as the computer signalled the finish of the 45-minutes, the pair took the jump on to the back straight and touched in the air both buggies tumbling but Kato having the better luck landing on his wheels.  While Ronnefalk tried to get back in touch over the remainder of the 34-seconds lap it wasn’t to happen and Kato took the win, the crowd appreciative of the thrilling finish.  Behind, by over 8-seconds, it was once again Coelho, winner of the eBuggy finals, who completed the nitro podium while Pekko Iivonen and Jung Hyunkyu were best of the rest in fourth & fifth.

Picking up over $2,800 for his win, which is put up event organiser Sunpadow batteries, giving his reaction to the race, Kato said it was ‘Very exciting, the last 2-laps everything changing.  We had a good weekend because Bruno win EP and I get Nitro, so a wonderful weekend.’  Running through his race, the 19-year-old said, ‘the car felt the best of the weekend in the final so they gave me the best car for the race.  Also, I did have some mistakes, but I also have good pace so I just kept trying for the win.’  On his fuel stops, the Japanese National Champion phrased his father and team-mate Coelho’s mechanic Ricardo Monteiro for their role in his win saying ‘they did a very nice job’.  Asked the significance of today’s win, him winning the final Philippine Masters Race to be run at the famed Circulo Verde track earlier this year, he replied, ‘here is probably one of my best ever races.’

Asked for a run down on what from a spectators point of view was a very exciting race finish, Ronnefalk replied, ‘I wish I had of been on the other side of that finish of course but it was Kouki’s day, he had more luck when he needed to there towards the end.’  He continued, ‘It felt like he crashed a couple of times and landed on his wheels and every time I had a roll out there I was on the roof so that’s what you need to win the races and the luck wasn’t on my side in the last 5-minutes.’  His second time attending the SIGP Offroad race, he added, ‘this is not a track you can step down in terms of driving because you are going to miss your marks out there and lose a lot of time.  You have to push, I tried, but I had a tap there on the second to last lap on the pipe, saved it, he got by, and on the last lap he went a little wide on the difficult jump section coming on to the back straight.  I dived on the inside and we went side by side over the first jump and we both tumbled.  I ended up on the rough and he was the wheels, that’s it not much I could do.’  One the gap he had established in the middle of the race he said, ‘Everything was working very well but I had two rolls two laps in a row after building up like a 10-second cushion and both of those times I was on the rough so I needed a marshal and brought them back into the game.  It is frustrating when you lead like 95% of the final and then you don’t come out on top but it was a good race and it’s intense when you have that close of a battle.  You’re not justing battling the other guy, I feel like more here you are battling the track out there so that’s offroad.  It’s not many times you race on a track like this anymore so it’s good to feel what it used to be like in the old days I guess.’

Summing up his race as ‘tough’ Coelho explained, ‘I had some very good momentum in the final and some bad.  I felt like sometimes the car was really good and on rails but then I would grab some hole or something and I’d flip and then it was difficult to get back to the pace.  It was very difficult to keep that momentum during the 45-minutes and I think that is what cost me the fight for the win because I can’t say I would have been in front of everybody but I am sure if I didn’t make the 10 or 12 mistakes I made in the final I would have been with them in the front.  I was still not far away from them 5-6 seconds from them.’  With himself and Kato running together for much of the race, on this he said, ‘I would make a mistake and was able to catch him, and then another mistake and able to catch him all the time like this, until I make 2 or 3 mistakes in a row that pushed me back a lot.  My last 15-minutes were very good but not enough to catch back up.’  Also finishing third last year behind Italian duo Davide Ongaro (winner) and Top Qualifier Mattia Polito, asked how this year’s track conditions in the final compare, the reigning Touring Car World Champion replied, ‘It was probably a little bit easier to this year because last year was super slippery.  It was even more difficult to jump more jumps and this year you were able to jump so I would say a little bit easier than last year but still challenging.’  He added, ‘This is a very old school track so it’s the kind of track where the tyre doesn’t really make a huge difference but everyone was actually on the same tyres so it looks like a controlled tyre which is very good because that is were comes the pace.  The track is very rough and you need to be very calm but at the same time you want to capitalise and move forward but sometimes you pay for that.  I like it a lot and it is really challenging and always very difficult.’

Asked about his race to fourth, SIGP first timer Iivonen said, ‘It started quite bad, I made a couple of stupid mistakes.  After that I couldn’t really catch the guys and made some other other mistakes and then I stated to hear that my gears were cracking so I just wanted to save it til the end.  At least that paid out’ – the Finn collecting 3,000RMB in prize money for his efforts.  Summing up his first experience of the SIGP, the 19-year-old said, ‘it’s a tough track so I think I did quite good overall.  My pace was there but I had a couple to many mistakes and maybe the cars were slightly too hard to drive.’   Asked if it was a track he would like to take on again, he said, ‘I think I would be happy to come back here for sure.  I would say like David (Ronnefalk) this is old school kind of racing.’

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