Edmunds takes Q2 at Asian Buggy Champs

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.’