Ongaro takes dominant Philippine Masters win

Back to back World Champion Davide Ongaro gave a master class performance today in Manila to become Champion of the Philippine Masters, Asia’s premiere Offroad race making its return this weekend after a Covid hiatus.  The Team Associated driver’s third trip to the Circulo Verde track, the win of today’s 1-hour final gives the Italian a 100% winning record in the Capital City.  Starting from the TQ, having topped all four rounds of qualifying, with Mayako’s Robert Batlle lining up  second, the huge crowd of onlookers were anticipating an intense battle between the two World class drivers based off Batlle’s faster pace but lack of luck in qualifying.  Unfortunately the finals day wasn’t to be a luckier day for the Spaniard.  Early into the race, his buggy stopped on track as if he had flamed out before throttling up again but this was the start of the failing of his throttle servo.  He would retire just as the race entered the second half.  While Ongaro was in control out front, despite having of moment himself when he flamed out during second fuel stop, it would be freshly crowned Truggy Champion Micha Widmaier who came through for second while a delighted Christian Wolhuter made it two Sworkz on the podium after a good battle with fellow Australian Aaron Dexter.

Summing up his race, today being the hottest of the event, Ongaro said, ‘It was good. It was also long’.  Switching to Matrix’s Nebula tyre for the final to give him a more comfortable car for the hour, he said the tread was the same as he used at the World Championships so he knew what to expect.  Explaining his flame out during the second refuelling he said, ‘My dad had a problem with the fuel gun but for the other stops it was all ok’.  While he always had a comfortable lead, the 22-year-old added ‘it was not easy, there was a lot of traffic’, the race having 15 starters.  Conscious of the high temperatures, he said he had established a lead he was driving safe and cruising so as not to risk overheating the servo or battery pack.

Commenting on his race, Widmaier said, ‘I always knew Davide and Robert were going to be faster than me so I just drove my own race’. Having had a late night as a result of going to the hospital following an insect bite that became infected, this meant he missed the A-Main practice as he tried to catch up on sleep after his overnight ordeal.   The German said this led to his flame out on his first stop as he hadn’t been able to calculate his run time for today’s noticeably hotter conditions.  Adjusting his timings for the rest of the final he said they had no issues after that.  While his ‘whole package worked great’, he said the second half of the race was somewhat of a physical struggle with his leg on which he got the bit starting to hurt and for the last 20-minutes he struggled with his concentration so he was pleased to reach the finish in second.

While his race didn’t get off to a good start, Wolhuter switched to playing the long game and it paid dividends.  Starting from 8th on the grid, he said he got caught in traffic and lost focus resulting in him finding himself quickly down in last position.  With his dad reminding him over the pit radio that there was a long race ahead, the 16-year-old said he focused on consistency rather than speed and this helped him climb back up the order to make the podium and finish top of the large contingent of Australians who made the trip to the Philippine Masters.

Missing out on the podium having finished on the same lap as Wolhuter, Dexter still summed up his race as ‘pretty good’.  Staring and finishing 4th, the Team Associated driver had a unfortunate tyre issue when he lost the insert from the front right tyre.  Running 8:45 between stops, meaning he had one less stop, the 21-year-old was in the battle for the podium until this but overall he was happy with his showing over the past few days.

PHILIPPINE MASTERS 2023
A-MAIN BUGGY
RESULT

1. DAVIDE ONGARO (1) – 90/1:00:31.702
2. MICHA WIDMAIER (3) – 86/1:00:01.964
3. CHRISTIAN WOLHUTER (8) – 85/1:00:17.448
4. AARON DEXTER (4) – 85/1:00:40.106
5. JACKSON BEALE (5) – 84/1:00:19.857
6. ZAC RYAN (12) – 84/1:00:31.393
7. JOMIL DELA CRUZ (9) – 84/1:00:34.718
8. DINO JACINTO (7) – 83/1:00:15.031
9. ADRIAN WICAKSONO (10) – 83/1:00:25.428
10.BEN PANIC (14) – 82/1:00:18.689
11.DANIEL MIRANDA (6) – 81/1:00:03.861
12.JASON NUGROHO (11) – 79/1:00:06.655
13.CLEMENTE PANCHO (13) – 76/1:00:45.236
14.HARRY SIMMS (15) – 75/1:00:11.973
15.ROBERT BATTLE (2) – 47/32:58.839

Video – Philippine Masters Truggy A-Main

Widmaier crowned Philippine Masters Truggy Champ

Sworkz’ Micha Widmaier has been crowned Truggy Champion at the Philippine Masters.  Taking the TQ honours having topped all four rounds of qualifying, the German dominated the 30-minute final despite loosing a front wheel.  One driver expected to push Widmaier for the win, unfortunately young Australian Jackson Beale’s challenge was over before it had really ever had a chance to happen.  The only driver to match Widmaier’s 40-second lap time in the final, the 17-year-old suffered very early troubles, an electrical lead issue eventually leading to his retirement.  With fellow Aussie Jordan Van taking over as the leading challenger behind the German, he too would have issues eventually dropping down the order to finish 9th of the 15 starters.  In the end, having opened up a comfortable lead, Widmaier cruised home for the title.  Behind, local racer Daniel Miranda took his HB Racing Truggy to second with the similar chassis of Kiwi Shane O’Connor completing the podium on the return of the Philippine Masters following a Covid forced hiatus.

Commenting on his win, a very pleased Widmaier said, ‘the car was on point, we just a small problem with loosing a wheel’.  Asked what happened, he replied, ‘I think it stripped the hex which made it loose and then the nut came off.   Luckily I had a big gap so I drove slow to get back to pit lane and make sure I didn’t damage the car.  I also wanted to complete the lap’ – the loop positioned just before the pit lane entry.  Still managing to rejoin in he lead with four wheels back on his Truggy, he said for the rest of the race he ‘didn’t push too much’ so as to have ‘no mistakes’.

PHILIPPINE MASTERS 2023
A-MAIN TRUGGY
RESULT

1. MICHA WIDMAIER (1) – 43/30:37.107
2. DANIEL MIRANDA (6) – 41/30:00.224
3. SHANE O’CONNOR (5) – 40/30:08.064
4. APEX KIM (4) – 40/30:20.766
5. BEVAN BURNEy (11) – 39/30:39.717
6. JACKSON LOVELADY (7) – 38/30:21.391
7. MARK JOHNSTON (8) – 37/29:11.575
8. OGGIE TIU (14) – 37/30:20.024
9. JORDAN VAN (3) – 36/30:33.127
10.ANDREW GILLESPIE (13) – 36/30:40.874
11.RICKY TANGAN (10) – 35/30:03.012
12.RITCHIE SIA (15) – 26/23:57.510
13.SCOTT YANG (9) – 11/9:15.573
14.JACKSON BEALE (2) – 4/3:20.859
15.VINCE EDWARD FLORES (12) – 0 laps

Q4 Update – Ongaro clean sweep

With the overall TQ having been decided in Q3, Davide Ongaro securing pole position for the Philippine Master’s 1-hour A-Main final,  the fourth and final qualifier saw the Team Associated driver complete the clean sweep.  Once again it was Robert Batlle who had the fastest outright pace being for the only driver to put in a 38-second lap but the Mayako driver had two bad laps compared to one bad lap from Ongaro leaving them separated by just over 2-seconds at the end of the 5-minutes.  Behind Sworks’ Micha Widmaier completed the Top 3 for the round, a result that will see the Truggy Top Qualifier line up third on the Buggy grid.  Behind the Europeans, Australia’s Aaron Dexter will lead the challenge from the rest of the world.  The Team Associated driver had had a difficult second half to qualifying but two P4 runs in the opening two rounds secure him 4th on the grid.  Fellow country Jackson Beale, who had an impressive P3 in Q2 starts 5th with his Tekno.  Leading the home challenge, P6 in Q4 together with a P5 in Round 2 sees Daniel Miranda complete the Top 6 on the grid.

View final qualifying ranking here

Ongaro locks in overall TQ at Philippine Masters

Davide Ongaro is the Top Qualifier at the Philippine Masters, the Team Associated driver making it three TQ runs in a row in the third and penultimate round of qualifying in Manila.  With 2023 marking the return of Asia’s premiere 1:8 Offroad race, the former champion looked his strongest in Q3 playing a tactical game of taking the rolling heat start just behind main rival Batlle.  Pushing the Mayako driver, Batlle would have a bobble but worse was to come.  Coming up on the same buggy that cost him the TQ run in the previous round, this time the driver opened but as Batlle went by he raced him and ran into the former World Champion causing him to end up on his roof and rob the event of a potential TQ showdown in the fourth & final round.  After the on lookers got over the disappointment of the incident, their attention turned to Ongaro who suddenly looked to be having issues with his buggy but everyone was looking to be in same trouble, the track turning to an ice rink as an almost unnoticeable light rain shower very briefly fell.  This played into the hands of the driver at the sharp end of the second fastest heat with Jason Nugroho ending up with a P2 for the round in between Ongaro and Batlle with up & coming Australian talent Jak Parsey fourth.

Finally breaking into the 38-second laps, Batlle the only driver managing that pace in Q1 & 2, Ongaro summed up his Q3 effort with, ‘we were close to each other that one.  I had a much better feeling’.  Asked about the improvement, he said, ‘I stayed behind Robert in the warm-up to see where to find the time so then I know what I need to do’.  With mechanics and drivers in a panic at the end of the qualifier thinking they had an issue with their buggy, when it was in fact a super light rain shower, Ongaro explained, ‘I thought the car was broken.  The lap was 10-seconds slower, it was like complete ice’.  With Q4 effectively a practice session for the World Champion now the overall TQ is sown up, the Italian will use it to test a different tyre thread option from his sponsor and offroad market newcomer Matrix Tires.  After running their Black Hole clay compound tyre he will give the Nova tyre a run having not had the time to do so in practice due to only arrive Thursday night after his rival had all spent a day on the track.

Asked about his P2 run, Nugroho replied, ‘I got lucky with the rain’.   The Indonesian Sworkz driver said his first two laps were effected by traffic but the rest of the run was good.  Previously attending the Philippine Masters in 2018,  the 22-year-old said switching from a Jetko Red Devil tyre to TPro’s Matrix had given him more forward traction and better rotation.  Planning to leave his car unchanged for the final round and with a 19th & 15th from the opening two qualifiers, he will be looking for a Top 10 run to try and lock himself directly into the A-Main.

Batlle, who wasn’t dwelling too much on his lack of luck in qualifying, said, ‘Davide started behind me so there was a little more pressure but it was also good to see how we compared to each other.   When he closed on me I could push a pull out the gap again.  I think we have quite a good car we have more in it’.  For the last round he plans to make a change to give the car ‘more easy steering’ adding, ‘the main thing is not to find the unlucky guys like this guy’.  Explaining what happened he said, ‘when he opened for me I thought ok he did it right this time but I didn’t expect him to race me when I had already passed him’.

Summing up his P4 for the round, Parsey said, ‘it started great but the rain was a shock. I radioed to my dad that I had lost steering.  Once we realised what was happening I just got it around’.  Targeting the A-Main before making the trip from Brisbane to Manila, the 13-year-old Mayako driver said if he can get one more good round it should keep him in there.  In terms of car and set-up he declared himself happy, with the two engine flame outs in Q2 not an issue since.