Chassis – Team Associated RC8 B4.1
Engine – O.S. Speed B2104
Fuel – VP Pro
Tires – Hotrace Bangkok (fitted for photos), racing on Amazzonia
Radio/Servos – Futaba 10PX / OZ RC McBride Series
Body – Xtreme Aria
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Kyle McBride is the Top Qualifier at the season opener of the Cayote supported Asian Buggy Championships. The Australian secured pole for tomorrow’s 45-minute Nitro Buggy A-Main when he took the fourth & final round of qualifying in New Zealand this morning. After yesterday’s 3-rounds of qualifying at the Counties RC Car Club track produced three different winners, it set the stage for a four way battle for the overall TQ between McBride, Sworkz’s Jayden Jamieson, Mayako’s Jayden Edmunds and WIRC’s Kasey Dawson. Having ended yesterday with a TQ run in Q3, mistakes costing him dearer in the opening two heats, McBride would make his intentions for Day 2 of qualifying very clear early on as he kicked things off with his first TQ run in the final eBuggy round. With the top heat of Nitro Buggy bringing a close to qualifying, McBride delivered the only 10-lapper to take Q4 ahead of Tekno’s Caleb Noble, Edmunds and Jamieson. Overall it will be Jamieson who will start from P2 ahead of Edmunds, Noble and Dawson with Logan Toia’s HB Racing buggy completing the top half of the starting grid which features buggies from 6 different manufacturers! While it was a double TQ run morning for McBride, Noble again his closest rival, the honour of Top Qualifier for the triple A-Main of eBuggy goes to Logan Toia with McBride starting P2 and Top Seed Dawson third.
A podium finisher at the season opener last year, Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz taking the win, on his Q4 run McBride said, ‘It was a solid run. I had one mistake over the double but apart from that it was clean. The track definitely felt like it got a bit of grip this morning. The car was good, it probably started to get a little edgy on the rear so we’re maybe going to have to adjust that a little and try something for tomorrow but overall it’s good and I’m happy.’ Asked his thoughts for the final, the former factory AE driver said, ‘honestly, just get out there and get a clean first 5-minutes. I know my car is fast and it’s just about not making mistakes at this track. The track is definitely starting to get rough in some sections, don’t know how much worse it will get from here. Obviously there are lower finals today and more tomorrow so that could change definitely. I think the grip will probably stay the same, we’ll just have to wait and see if it gets dustier with the longer finals.’ Asked about tyres wear he said, ‘tyre wear is very low here. The first day we ran one set of tyres on both cars all day and they were completely fine. Our run time is very good, our engine program is fantastic so no changes need to be made there.’
Feeling under the weather today having all but lost his voice, getting a quick run down on his Q4 effort Jamieson said, ‘It was a bit slow. I chose too soft a tyre as I thought it was a bit more damp than it was and then lacked a bit of steering cause the rear was so gripped up. So I will make a few little tweaks and hopefully we get some steering.’ He added, ‘feeling real shit didn’t help’ his performance either and the plan between eBuggy A-Mains was to sleep most of the day in the hope of feeling better for tomorrow.
Summing up his Q4 effort, Edmunds said, ‘One mistake cost me the TQ but still I start 3rd and anything can happen in a 45-minute main’. Asked his approach for the final he said, ‘I normally settle into a rhythm, I sort of struggle with the short stuff and little mistakes really cost you where as in a 45-minute they are not a massive deal.’ On his car, the Mayako Youth Mentoring Program driver said, ‘I think I’ll leave it pretty much the same. I’ve got a harder set of tyres so that’s what I’ll do for the Main, I’m happy with the car.’ On tyre wear and run time, the 19-year-old explained, ‘there is not much tyre wear here at all really so that’s not a problem and we’re good on run time.’
With Q4 his best result of the weekend, reacting to the run Noble said, ‘It was going really well ’til I got trafficked, that’s what I am going to call it. Someone didn’t move, they came off the line and as I went to go past they came back on the line and I drove into them which cost me 3-seconds or what ever but it cost me a 10-lapper again.’ A race winner in the Asian Buggy Championships last year, but somewhat struggling here this weekend, on his buggy he said, ‘the car was little better and I was somewhat in the hunt for the TQ but I can’t help other people’s decisions I guess. For the final I think we will maybe go a little stiffer in the shocks, the car was a lot better so I guess I can’t ask for too much more. We’ll see if we can make some progress in the final, it’s 45-minutes long so consistency will be key.’
‘Stoked with the TQ and the first Kiwi to TQ a class at ABC so I couldn’t really be happier’, was Logan Toia’s reaction to securing pole for eBuggy. Asked about the final qualifier, the 17-year-old replied, ‘It was horrible. I kind of confirmed my suspicions of what was wrong with my nitro buggy after trying some stuff on my eBuggy and it made the eBuggy pretty bad so I’ll just go back to how its been all weekend.’ On nitro, him starting P6 directly ahead of his younger brother Dylan, he added, ‘I feel am getting there. I feel like I have got a good race car so I am confident for the final. What I tried on the eBuggy helped to improve the nitro buggy and in the last qualifier I was able to hit my marks all the time. I had one mistake, I tried to change my line to pass a car and hit a rut and endoed over the jump but other than that it was a flawless run. There is no issue with the car.’
Chassis – WIRC SBX-3
Engine – Protek RC Samurai RM
Fuel – GKR Prospec
Tires – JConcepts Falcon
Radio/Servos – KO Propo Hara Edition / Power HD GTS-6
Body – JConcepts S15
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Kyle McBride finally delivered on the speed he has shown all day at Round 1 of the Asian Buggy Championships in New Zealand by closing out the first day of qualifying with a TQ run in Q3. Opening Friday’s action with a P2 and then a P3 in Q2, mistakes dropping him of the top of the timing screens in both, the former pro racer again didn’t have a clean run however on the third time of asking he had the pace to snatch back the TQ on the final lap. Behind the Aussie, the WIRC of Kiwi Kasey Dawson would also end the day with his best nitro run for a result that makes him one of four remaining contenders for the overall TQ going into Saturday’s fourth & final qualifier. An impressive drive by Mayako’s Dylan Toia saw him complete the Top 3 ahead of Q1 winner Jayden Jamieson. Having taken Q2, Jayden Edmunds was unable to back that up after he made a tyre change that resulted in his Mayako having too much grip and he was only P7 for the round. In eBuggy, HB Racing’s Logan Toia backed up his Q2 performance to claim another TQ run and only Q1 winner Dawson can deny him the overall TQ but in order to do so he needs to top Q4 in the fastest time of the weekend.
‘The car was good, the driver still needs some work, I made it hard for myself that win’, was McBride’s reaction to his TQ run. He continued, ‘the car is really getting good so we are moving the right direction there, I just need to clean myself up. On this track it is so easy to overdrive and just try to push too hard and that is when the pipes suck you in and you make mistakes.’ Asked his plans for Q4, he said, ‘get a good sleep. Probably not going to change too much, tried some different tyres and they work really good so we’re going to stick with those.’
‘Almost’ was Dawson reaction at the end of Q3. The local racer explained, ‘we made a small shock change at the rear which made the car noticeably better. I think the tyres were just a bit too old for that one but I definitely picked the right compound for the conditions, the track was half in the shade. I had good consistency through the run but it was tough with Kyle. He crashed 2 or 3 times and went back behind me and I let him go and the last one with about a minute to go I didn’t know what to do so I drove around for 2 or 3 laps and eventually let him go because it didn’t feel right but it’s a tough one. I mean you’re battling for the lead and they’ve crashed multiple times, it’s not in your best interest to keep waiting and allowing third to catch up. It’s a strange one. It’s qualifying and you let the fast guy go but in that situation when you are battling for the lead you kind of dig your own hole but I still felt I needed to let him go but it is gutting to get to the second last lap and still have the lead and I just have a slight messy last lap and lost that.’ Looking to tomorrow’s final qualifier as one of the drivers who could secure pole for the 45-minute A-Main, Dawson said, ‘this wasn’t a situation I expected to find myself in having had a 7 in the first round and DNF in second’, that retirement coming after he pushed too hard and fired it into the fence and broke a link.
One of the young guns impressing here this weekend, Dylan Toia, who set the fastest lap of Q3, said, ‘I had a good start, the tyres were amazing, they caught on just as I went out for my first lap, the Green Falcons (JConcepts) are an amazing tyre out here. So yeah we got off to a good start, I had a few little bobbles in the middle of the run and then I had a roll on the first corner and got stuck in the pipe which I think cost me 3 or 4-seconds so that dropped me down to I think third, I was leading before then. From there I sat in third for the rest of the run and came out with a P3.’ Asked about the improvement in performance the 11-year-old said, ‘it came mostly from my driving. I wasn’t driving too good this morning and in the middle. I think also as it got later the car hooked up more. Me and my car are better at the rougher tracks rather than the smoother tracks its just my driving style. As the track gets bumpier its suiting me better.’ Asked about changes for Q4, he replied, ‘I will see what it is like in the morning and go from there but mostly we’ll just rebuild the shocks and the diffs.’
On his Q3, reigning New Zealand National Champion Jamieson said, ‘I was on target to go good but as I took the lead I clipped the pipe and rolled over so unfortunately that put me out of the TQ position for that one but I think being only 4-seconds off the lead at least I know the pace was there to potentially take that one.’ Asked about tyres having announced early he would have to change pattern to save the last set of tyres he had been using he said, ‘because of how late we ended up running I ended up going on a supersoft 500. I was about to go on a soft 200 like I did on the last eBuggy one but I seen the track got colder because the sun dropped so I got to run supersoft.’ Asked if he planned any set-up changes for tomorrow he said, ‘not at this stage no unless I think of something in my sleep’. On the track, the regular visitor to the Counties RC Car Club track said, ‘It’s getting a little bumpy here and there and in that one it was a little hard to see the bumps with the sun especially the whoops because there were shadows all through them so it was a little bit tricky other than that it’s not too rough yet.’
Asked about his eBuggy TQ, Logan Toia replied, ‘awesome eBuggy, terrible Nitro Buggy’. The 17-year-old driver continued, ‘I left the eBuggy as is and just threw a battery in it and drove it, the car is awesome. Nitro I went with too soft a tyre and the car was real edgy to drive and I got caught up with traffic that was about it.’ Asked how he could improve his nitro buggy, he replied, ‘my car pretty much works here, it’s just putting the right tyre on at the right time and I picked the wrong tyre then and then I was just getting angry with myself for making mistakes. Its frustrating.’
Chassis – Mayako MX8 25 Limited Edition
Engine – Corsatec CTN7
Fuel – Sidewinder
Tires – Matrix Nebula
Radio/Servos – Sanwa M17 Limited Edition / Mach1 M81SR
Body – Mayako 2.0
Notes – Jayden’s buggy is fitted with a T-works screw kit and a bearing set from Australian’s Plaig Bearings.
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Mayako Youth Mentoring Program driver Jayden Edmunds has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the Asian Buggy Championships in New Zealand, a switch of tyre completely elevating the Australian’s performance after he opened with a P8 in Q1. While a slower track, no one making 10-laps as they did in Q1, the second of the four qualifiers would prove a super close battle with the Top 3 covered by 6/10ths of a second. Once again it was Kyle McBride who had the fastest car around the Counties RC Car Club track but again it was a mistake that denied last year’s podium finisher from registering a TQ run he certainly has the speed for. Having taken the opening qualifier, Sworkz’s Jayden Jamieson backed that up with a strong P2 0.492 off Edmunds and a 0.099 ahead of McBride. In eBuggy, HB Racing’s Logan Toia went one better than Q1 to TQ the second round as WIRC’s Q1 winner Kasey Dawson ended up overheating his tyres dropping him back to P4. Tekno’s Caleb Noble would be second fastest in eBuggy with McBride completing the Top 3.
‘It was consistent from the start and I knew I was up in the top few so I just tried to keep it together and keep it on four wheels’, was Edmunds reaction after Q2. Asked about changes made to improve his Mayako, the 19-year-old coyly responded ‘we made a few changes and some invisible speed was added’, a reference to both Mayako’s JQ and his switching of tyres for Q2. He elaborated somewhat on the set-up changes saying, ‘I did go up in rear shock oil because the rear was digging in and bouncing all over the track and that helped plus I also think I drove cleaner.’ For Q3, he said the plan was to run ‘the same again’ adding ‘I think I have been driving well all weekend but was just lacking pace and we sorted that out in that round.’
Jamieson summed up his performance with ‘it wasn’t bad’. He added, ‘we made a change to a stiffer front spring just to help with jumping over the double double after the table top and it helped there but it wasn’t how I wanted it in some of the bumpier sections so we are going back to the softer spring and are then going to try a different tyre pattern.’ Asked which tyre he would use he replied, ‘I only have one more set of the same pattern and compound that I have been on so I am saving those.’ He explained, ‘my alternative at this stage is probably going to be between a (TZO) 202 and a 200 in soft compound so the next one is testing!’
‘Not too bad, I had a solid run’, was McBride’s thoughts on Q2. He explained, ‘we are mucking around with a few different things and a harder compound tyre to see what it felt like. Honestly the speed is there I just need the consistency at the moment as I am just making a few too many mistakes. Probably from a lack of driving and time with the car but we we are getting there slowly but surely.’ Asked if the shock change he made for the qualifier had worked he replied, ‘we are going to go back. Basically we just thickened the shock oil up and in some sections it made the car easier to drive but I lost probably a bit of speed and also it was worse for the rough being a bit more rigid. I will probably keep the harder compound tyres cause they felt pretty good and obviously we are looking more towards the final as well.’ Asked if it was his own driving that would bring the biggest improvement, the World Championship finalist said, ‘I think so, we are changing a few things on the car but probably its more so my driving. Just getting me comfortable, small mistakes is the only thing holding me back.’
‘Stoked’ that was Logan Toia’s reaction topping eBuggy and getting another P4 in Nitro Buggy. He continued, ‘eBuggy was amazing and that’s the fastest its been all weekend and I kept it together almost the whole time. I almost threw it away on the last lap which was a bit scary, I just clipped a rock or something at the front double double and it sent me sideways, but luckily I pulled throttle and powered out of it and yeh got by a 10th and a half in the end.’ On nitro he said, ‘it was OK, I was kind of getting stuck with people. I would let them go and then they would crash in front of me. I kind of got sick of it at the end and just kept going.’ For Q3, which brings the second day of official action to close here in Pukekohe, he will leave eBuggy unchanged but feels there is more speed to be got from nitro buggy and he will try to change it more to his eBuggy set adding, ‘I’d like a Top 2 run, I definitely have the pace for that 10-laps so we’ll mount up new tyres and away we go.’
Opening qualifying with a P3, Top Seed Caleb Noble could only mange a P5 the second time of asking. He explained, ‘We have been chasing an issue all weekend with the nitro buggy rear shocks and we are not really sure what it is specifically but we can’t seem to get any pack in it not matter what we do geometry wise it doesn’t seem to change it. We did a heap of changes to the eBuggy for that round and it was really good. I cost myself the TQ on the last lap with a scruffy lap in the whoops. We got good pack in that but when we did the same to the nitro it just didn’t replicate even though they have the same oil, the same settings. For the next one we just going to try harder oil and see how we go.’