McBride wins eBuggy at Asian Buggy Champs

He may have got off to a slow start in eBuggy, but Kyle McBride came away with the win at the opening round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships in Pukekohe, New Zealand.  After two exciting A-Main encounters on Saturday, it was a three way battle for the overall win going into A3 on Sunday – McBride having won A1, Top Qualifier Logan Toia winning A2, and a second place in A1 putting Caleb Noble in contention.  With Toia leading them away, he and McBride would tangle on the opening lap causing chaos in the chasing pack.  Starting from the 3rd spot, it was WIRC’s Kasey Dawson who came through that the best to lead at the end of the first lap.  From there the top seed & Q1 winner managed to see off the challenge of Mayako’s Jayden Edmunds to take the win with McBride crossing the line in third.  Overall with his A1 win and second in A2 it was McBride’s victory ahead of Toia, who pulled off in A3 in frustration of the driving standards, while an over the moon Dawson completed the podium at his home track.

Summing up A3, McBride described it as ‘extremely hectic’ adding, ‘it was a crazy start, everyone was going for it.  I think I got into the back of someone then had to wait and then I got cleaned out after that and then yeah, I don’t know what was happening, it was a crazy run.’  The Australian continued, ‘about half way through I got to settle down a little bit, everyone sort of got in their places, and I ran smooth race from there and I got a third place.’  Asked if he was aware of what was going on in the overall in terms of points he explained, ‘I knew as long as I beat Logan and Caleb I was sweet.  They were ahead after the start and all the carnage, then I think Logan crashed, same with Caleb, and yeah I just ran clean from there.  As soon as I got in front of them I was like alright just calm down and finish the race.’  On the overall result he said, ‘I’m pretty happy with the win.  I pretty much never run eBuggy only at big events so I haven’t run it in a long time.  It was a bit of a learning curve coming back into it.  Considering how my qualifying went, which was pretty average, it was a pretty good improvement and we got it figured out in the end.’

Asked about the hectic start to A3, Toia said, ‘I don’t really have much to say about it.  I’m quite angry about it so yeah, the car was good but I got driven over the top of’.  On his second place overall, the 17-year-old said, ‘I’m happy, I definitely wanted more but that’s the way racing goes.  I’ll go again in nitro.’

One of the happiest drivers of the weekend, asked about the deciding A-Main, Dawson said, ‘She was a hectic start with pile up in the top right hand corner that I did end up getting stuck into.  I tried to go round and got taken out as well, and then somehow we got to the apex and I’d muscled my way past and got to the lead.  We towed around for a couple of laps and I started to get a gap but everyone started crashing so I had a huge lead there at one point until Jayden (Edmunds) slowly reeled me in.  After that I just tried to keep my lines tidy and drive good and managed to do that.  Jayden caught right up to me right at the end and I tell you what I was rattled.’  He continued, ‘I knew before the race that if I won it would put me on the podium no matter what happened anyone else.  Top Seed, a TQ run and then a Main win wasn’t on my bingo card for this event.  I was hoping for Top 5 in both classes and a podium was a very far cry.  Dreams do come true’.  Admitting to tearing up on the drivers stand after winning A3, he said, ‘I put some much time, effort and money into this, for me but also the Rouge RC boys to give them something back is a great feeling.  All the time Ben Young puts in with me especially on practice days its great to thank them for that with this result.’

Win apiece for McBride & Toia as eBuggy goes to A3

eBuggy at the Asian Buggy Championships season opener produced two exciting A-Main encounters on Saturday that resulted in Kyle McBride and Logan Toia taking a win apiece to send the decider into Sunday’s A3 in New Zealand.  With HB Racing’s Toia securing the TQ, the Kiwi’s stint at the front was short lived in A1 as a first lap mistake dropped him right to the back of the field.  Up front it seemed for a time that no one wanted to lead the 10-minute encounter with Kasey Dawson, Jayden Edmunds, Caleb Noble and Kyle McBride all throwing away the lead when they got a chance at the front.  As the race reached half distance things settled down with McBride hitting the front again but this time the Aussie stayed there for the win ahead of Noble who saw off a number of challenges from Toia as he made an impressive recovery drive.  In A2, second place qualifier McBride got by Toia on lap 1 but quickly gave it back before Noble took a turn at the front for 4-laps.  Chased down by McBride, the Australians would come together resulting in both getting stuck in the piping.  As they got marshalled, Toia went back to the front and despite McBride’s best efforts stayed there for the win with Noble third – the Tekno driver clearly not impressed by McBride’s driving.  With his second in A1, Noble still however has a chance at the overall win in A3.

Summing up A1, Toia said, ‘I had mistake on lap 1 and then I got caught up with Kyle again in the whoops, that was just unlucky, wrong time, wrong place.  I was dead last on the second lap and clawed my way back to third, my last lap pass was awesome.  Clearly delighted and at the same relieved after his A2 win he described the race as ‘phenomenal’.  The 17-year-old continued, ‘racing with Kyle and Caleb and all those guys is awesome fun.  I was nervous which I don’t get that often and trying to keep it all together for 6-minutes felt very long.  It’s all to play for tomorrow.  I have a 1 and a 3, Kyle has a 1 and a 2 and then Caleb has a 2 and a 3.  On the amount of driver errors in particular in A1, Toia said, ‘you can just make small mistakes and it will push you all the way over to the pipe, there are so many off cambers you just slide if you are anyway off the apex.’

Summing up his A1 win McBride said, ‘I had a super clean run, I had one little mistake at the start but got back in the lead and it was pretty much like flawless from there, no mistakes.  The car felt amazing, I did my fastest lap I think probably of the weekend for myself in eBuggy.’  Having taken the final eBuggy qualifier in the morning, asked what the turn around in performance today was after a so so day in the category yesterday, he replied, ‘I changed a couple of settings in my ESC which made the car a little bit easier to drive and gave it that feel closer to my nitro buggy.  We were testing stuff in electric yesterday, so using that as a bit of a test class because nitro is my main focus, but I think today I am getting more confidence and for sure the with the rough conditions dialling back the ESC made a big different.  Some suspension stuff we found in Q3 with Nitro we just put the exact same on electric and that was it.’  On A2 he said, ‘that was a lot more complex, my car was good but I think the track was a lot dustier,  I would have to double check but my lap time was almost half a second slower so going probably have to look at that tomorrow because my car felt more skittish and skatey in the back.  I probably could have snatched the win but I crashed to much and yeah Logan ran a great race.’