Chassis – Infinity IFB8E Prototype
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR8 Pro G3
Motor – Hobbywing Xerun 4268 2200KV
Battery – Sunpadow 5400mAh Shorty
Tires – Hot Race Sahara
Radio/Servo – Futaba T10PX/MKS HBL566 X6
Body – Infinity
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Chassis – Tekno RC EB48 2.2
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR8 Pro G3
Motor – Hobbywing 4268 G3 2200kw
Battery – Protek RC
Tires – Hot Race Sahara
Radio/Servo – Sannwa M17S / Protek RC 170SBL
Body – JConcepts P2
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Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup is the Top Qualifier for the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship, the Dane securing the honours in Portugal with a round to spare after Michal Orlowski TQ’d the penultimate round at the Barcelos Buggy Arena track. With three consecutive TQ runs in Q2, 3 & 4, only Xray’s David Ronnefalk could deny the talented teenager from leading away the 12 buggy grid that will battle it out tomorrow to become the first ever eBuggy World Champion. Going in the first group of potential title contenders, Ronnefalk couldn’t deliver the required TQ as last year’s Nitro Buggy Worlds Top Qualifier Juan Carlos Canas topped that heat with a time that was eventually be good enough for the 3rd fastest time. With that result confirming Kaerup as the overall TQ, Q5 was now just an opportunity to chase 4-in-a-row as he was next up to run, but a mistake would bring an end to his very impressive run. In the end Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski finally delivered his promised TQ run ahead of Ongaro, giving them the Top 2 for the round. With the tension levels palpable going into sixth & final qualifier, many leading drivers desperate for a good result to make the A-Main cut, the focus was on who would line-up behind Kaerup, that battle for P2 between Orlowski, Ronnefalk and Ongaro. In the end, Orlowski backed up his Q5 TQ with another, this time ahead of Kaerup. Overall, Ongaro will start third ahead of Elliott Boots and Ronnefalk with Cement Boda completing the top half of the grid. While currently an all European final line-up, there is still an outside chance for a US driver to fill the 13th spot via the B-Main LCQ race. Ryan Cavalieri starts pole on that grid as the best American qualifier with P13. The offroad racing powerhouse nation will get an opportunity for a stronger showing at the 2nd edition of eBuggy Worlds which it was announced will take place in the United States in 2027.
On his first World Championship TQ, Kaerup said, ‘I am happy with being in front and will try and drive away if possible but it is so close out there. There are so many strong contenders so I feel it is going to be a long 10-minutes.’ With the TQ wrapped up allowing him to use the final qualifier to test ahead of the triple 10-minute finals, he said, ‘we changed some stuff but it didn’t work as we thought it would so we are going to go back.’ On how the track has evolved after the overnight rain and with the completion of Day 2 of qualifying, the 1:10 Offroad World Championship finalist said, ‘It is getting pretty bumpy out there, and there are some pretty big holes that unsettles the car. I think if it is going to get patches for tomorrow I think it is going to be ok for us.’
‘Second is a nice starting spot, no pressure of the whole field behind me but now I am just curious what the track will be like for the finals tomorrow’, that was Orlowski’s reaction at the conclusion of qualifying. The Schumacher team driver continued, ‘It is nice that the car is competitive in the high grip conditions, and now when it’s lower grip, without making many changes. I saw many guys were thrashing on their cars changing stuff, we kind of decided to chill out and just drive what we have.’ Looking to the finals the former European eBuggy Champion said, ‘We just need to stay on top of the tyre choice for tomorrow. We have such a big variety of tyres and we don’t know what the track might do. It is meant to be quite warm tomorrow so we need to make the right choices and drive like I have been driving so far.’
Summing up his third place on the grid, Ongaro said, ‘Finally qualifying is over. P3 is not bad a starting position, any thing can happen in the main so we are confident. Considering from where we start I’m pretty happy.’ The Italian continued, ‘We have practice this afternoon so we will try something with different tyres, the car is actually pretty OK, we are just missing some grip.’ An interesting fact highlighted by the reigning Nitro World Champion is that he has never won any of his 1:8 World titles from pole position and as the current European 1:8 eBuggy Champion, the title was achieved from second on the grid.
‘One word, traffic’, that was how Top Seed Boots response when asked to sum up qualifying. On his P4 starting position the former Nitro Buggy Worlds Top Qualifier continued, ‘yeah anything can happen from there, were kind of in the mix but would have been nice to be starting P2 which could have happened if I TQ’d that round but the same guy again cost me the TQ. The car, everything, is feeling good. We made a lot of changes to adapt to the conditions.’ On how he found today’s track, he said, ‘it wasn’t better for us, not with the set-up I was using from yesterday, it was completely different, but now we are on top of it and I was feeling good then. They were saying I was quite a bit ahead of the TQ pace & comfortable, without that who knows but feeling good going into the finals.’
Asked about his qualifying Ronnefalk said, ‘I would sum it up as very disappointing to be honest. Obviously I had the two good runs to start qualifying with, then I was on a very good run also in Q3 until the very last corner. Today the weather has completely changed the track for everyone and I think in the first one my heat being the first top heat it definitely was the slowest, it was still wet out there. The track was drying all the time so I think the fair thing for the qualifying today would have been to have a short practice round and run all the heats one time and then it would have been a little more equal’. The former Nitro Buggy World Champion continued, ‘Our heat was always going to be a slower one being first out so that kind of cost me the possibility to do something today. Basically the other two heats they had our heat to judge which tyre and compound they wanted to go with.’ Feeling he ‘probably picked the wrong tyre’ for Q5 he ‘just didn’t have the drive’. For Q6 he went back to the soft compound that he ran yesterday and made some other changes he thought was going to be in the right direction but while the car was ‘pretty fast’ it was ‘difficult to drive’ that compounded by contact with Brandon Rose which cost him a potential fourth on the grid. On the finals, the reigning European Nitro Buggy Champion, who won that title here at Barcelos starting from P5, said, ‘I think it is difficult in terms of it’s like pretty much one line. I think it is going to be hard to pass unless someone makes a mistake so its all going to come down to whether you can keep you line or not with the guys behind you. Fifth is not terrible but obviously with the speed I had in the dry before the rain today and all that happened today I’m disappointed for sure.’
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Chassis – WIRC SBX4-E
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun SR8 Pro G3
Motor – Hobbywing 1900 KV
Battery – Sunpadow 8000mAh
Tires – Matrix Blackhole
Radio/Servo – Futaba T10PX / Sanwa PGS XBII
Body – WIRC
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With overnight rain delaying the start to Day 2 of the qualifying at the eBuggy World Championship and presenting drivers with very different track conditions, it still wasn’t enough to prevent Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup from making it three TQ runs in a row in Portugal. With the start to the fourth round of qualifying delayed by an hour, Kaerup topped the times from his team-mate Davide Ongaro, the TQ pace over 17-seconds slower than the Dane’s best from yesterday. With Q1 winner David Ronnefalk and Top Seed Elliott Boots both having bad runs, it would be the Schumacher pairing of Michal Orlowski and Daniel Kobbevik who completed Top 4. Playing a pivotal role in Kaerup’s third TQ run, French eBuggy Champion Clement Boda enjoyed his best run so far with the fifth fastest time ahead of Tekno’s João Figueiredo whose time saw him top the fastest heat group.
Summing up his latest TQ effort, Kaerup said, ‘It couldn’t have been better could it. It was a bit of a rough morning, I was here early to make sure that I had everything prepared for the rain but thankfully before my run Clement (Boda) won his run and gave me his tyres and I was able to TQ my heat.’ In turn giving his tyres to Joona Haatanen, he said, ‘for his (Haatanen) run they had too much running, they’d already done 15-minutes and normally we do only 10-minutes on mediums and these were three compounds softer.’ Regarding the track conditions, the 17-year-old said, ‘It was way more difficult now. You had to be so precise to be fast but also not make the car slide. The two last corners before the line were critical, if you went too wide the car would just push out. If you pushed it too much around the corner it would slide out, it was about getting it right.’ With Ronnefalk the only remaining driver that can deny him the overall TQ here in Barcelos, he said, ‘David can still take my TQ but I will for sure go for the TQ in the next one.’
Ongaro explained, ‘that was completely different from yesterday but the tyre wear was ok. I lost say 1 second and a half with a car that was crashed outside the track and when he come back on the track he put dust every where so my car just starting spinning.’ The Italian Matrix tyres back drivers continued, ‘I think we are now on our side with tyres because the track is losing a little bit of grip’, something he said is to their tyres benefit. Looking to the penultimate qualifier, the reigning European eBuggy Champion said, ‘It will be a challenge again but we will try.’
‘Again one or two small mistakes and I cased a jump and lost around a second and that was the difference to TQ’, was how Orlowski summed up his first round of the day. He continued, ‘We are always there, always in the Top 3, it’s good but the track turned upside down from yesterday and it was pretty hectic so I am glad to see us still at the top, now we just need to stay on top of the track development and how its changes.’ Asked how the track had changes after the light rain, he replied, ‘its really loose and its crucial to staying on the racing line.’ For the remaining two qualifiers, 3 of the 6 to count, the Pole said, ‘we will try and get some good scores to try and be in the Top 3 on the starting grid.’
‘Finally a better run’, that was Kobbevik’s reaction to his P4 run. The Norwegian continued, ‘the track was totally different with the slippery conditions but finally a Top 5 run. I think the track suited me and I enjoyed the grip. Yesterday I was always a bit scared because of the grip, I could sometimes traction roll so I was probably driving too safe. Today I could be more myself.’ Looking to Q5 he said while he expects the track to get better he will keep the car as is and try get another good result to add to his counting rounds.
Asked about his first Top 5 run, Boda said, ‘It was good, I think I am 9th overall so we need to do one more to get the Amain. It was a clean run without mistake.’ Asked about his first day of qualifying the 20-year-old said, ‘the last qualifying of yesterday was good, P7. The first one was super good, like Top 3, but on the last lap in the triple I made a mistake, I don’t know why, and in the second one I made a mistake so I have a 21 and a 24. We need to do the best in the next two.’
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Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup produced another TQ run at the eBuggy World Championship to hold the overnight TQ in Portugal after backing up his TQ from Round 2 with another fastest time of the event in Q3. The Danish teenager topped the final round of Day 1 of qualifying at the Barcelos track from Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski, his advantage over the Pole 1.5-seconds. On a potential TQ run in the previous round until a late driver error, Sworkz’ Juan Carlos Canas posted his first Top 3 of qualifying just 0.034 shy of Orlowski. The big surprise of Q3 was Ryan Cavalieri, the multiple 1:10 Offroad World Champion steering his Mayako right into the mix with the 4th fastest time. Behind the American, Noha Ben Mohamed showed his run to the fifth fastest time in Q2 wasn’t a one off as he again recorded a P5 with Davide Ongaro completing the Top 6, the Italian again suffering a mistake over the 5-minutes. Taking the opening qualifier, David Ronnefalk ended the day with a 10th after a mistake on the final run to the loop. Despite this, the Swede sits P2 in the overnight qualification ranking thanks to his third fastest time in Q2. For his Xray team-mate Dakotah Phend it was a tough day, the American having started out the day with a 6th in Q1 but ending up 20th for Q2 after a mistake and then suffering a DNS in the day’s final round due to a mechanical.
‘Definitely a great run, I lost a couple of tenths in traffic but I managed and brought it home’, that was how Kaerup summed up his latest TQ run. With little else to report on his run or buggy set-up, asking him how he felt the track is developing, he replied, ‘the quad is getting quite beat up so you got to adjust the line because the tyre we are running on is not suited for a lot of dust so you have to watch you line because if you hit the dust the car is going to feel different for the next couple of corners.’ With the forecast showing a 20% chance of rain in the morning, asked about that Kaerup said, ‘I’m not too worried because we have a good rain tyre if it comes down to that.’
While most drivers would say they had an unlucky mistake, Orlowski said he had ‘a really lucky mistake’. He explained, ‘We made a change and definitely had more pace but we had a really lucky mistake. I tumbled over and it could have been a marshal and 3 or 4 seconds lost but it was a second or maybe less so I was really lucky. I had another bad lap so if it was perfectly clean I would have been close to Marcus but the car is too difficult to drive and I see from the drivers stand it is not doing what we want it to do. The track developed a little bit and went away from where the set-up was in the morning and yesterday evening so we need adjust the car for tomorrow. We have some good ideas we are confident about but let’s see what the weather does.’
Happy with his finish to the first day of qualifying after the disappoint of Q2, Canas said, ‘Q2 was my mistake, I think the pace was exactly the same and the time without the mistake would have be the same (as Q3), but I can do nothing about it now.’ On his car performance the 2024 Nitro Buggy Worlds Top Qualifier said, ‘I’m going slow but finally I am getting confidence. I am driving the car at about 95% so I will try something on the car for tomorrow.’ He added, ‘I also need to improve a little bit my driving so I will watch videos tonight and see how the other guys are driving.’
Asked where his surprise turn of speed came from Cavalieri replied, ‘Honest I don’t know. Yesterday was in the right direction just missed a little bit of set-up from Pekko (Iivonen) and we’ve all been working really really hard and been sharing as much information back and forth. I just felt like yesterday and the day before we were strapped on time. We could never really prepare the every time and we missed a few laps on each run so today we went through the car and I had a few things in the rear end that was a little bound up so I freed up the rear end and the car honest from then has been awesome. We made a small change now that I got comfortable with the driving I said I need a little more steering, a little more responsive, and the pace was good. It took me a few laps to get adjusted to it but overall it was just overall fast. I was 60th the first day on the track, got down to 24th yesterday and we shot up today quite a bit. It’s good to show up today.’
The leading Junior driver here at the inaugural eBuggy Worlds, Ben Mohamed summed up his latest effort as ‘another good run’ adding, ‘it was a little better in the 5-minutes so it was very good.’ The 16-year-old electric racing specialist, who joined Sparko at the beginning of the 2025 season, is happy with his Buggy set-up opting to leave it unchanged all day and that is his plan again for tomorrow adding he will just try and keep doing what he is doing, a formula that has worked well for the French driver today.
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