Kaerup takes Q2 in Portugal

Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup has taken the second qualifier at the 1:8 eBuggy World Championship, the Dane redeeming himself following a disappointing first effort to top the times from Top Seed Elliott Boots.  Ending up with a 41 for Q1, Kaerup would take Q2 in a new fastest time bettering David Ronnefalk’s opening TQ time by over 1-second.  Ronnefalk would back up his TQ run with a P3 for the round with Boots just getting the better of him by 0.049 of a second after the British driver produced a better final lap.  Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski posted the 4th fastest time ahead of young French talent Noha Ben Mohamed who steered his Sparko into the Top 5.   It was a frustrating run for a number of leading title contenders.  Davide Ongaro lost almost 3-seconds with a mistake on lap 7 of 9 but still salvaged a 6th such was his pace, Juan Carlos Canas had a final lap mistake that cost him 4-seconds, and Dakotah Phend lost any chance of a strong Q2 with a mistake on his second lap.

Describing his TQ run as ‘really good’, Kaerup said, ‘I found my ryhthm right from the first lap and just keep it on and made it work.’  Asked about Q1 the 17-year-old replied, ‘the less said about that the better’ before continuing, ‘I got off to a really good start but overshot a jump and then I just lost my head.’   Overall, the 1:8 Nitro Buggy and 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championship finalist said he has the car and package to get the job done and it is just a matter of him putting it together with the goal for Q3 to repeat what he did in Q2.

Commenting on his run to the second fastest time for the round, Boots said, ‘That was a bit better, super close, just a little time off him (Orlowski), less than half a second but I had a little traffic I had to get through so I lost a few tenths there.’  The Sworkz driver continued, ‘Its still a second which is a good counting round and well just go again and hopefully have better luck with traffic, it would be nice.’

‘Not a good run I though the car was a little looser that time but overall a pretty consistent run.  He added. ‘I had Canas behind me starting the clock and we were pretty much dead even, I think I was a little faster the first 2-3 laps and then I caught traffic so he gained on me and probably ahead and then he caught the traffic I had to go through and he kind of slowed down the last couple of laps.  Unfortunately this traffic cost me a possible TQ, I didn’t feel I had any clean laps out there.  It’s the same for everyone but its what happens when you divide 36 people in the three top heats.’  The subject of the heat make-up following seeding has been a point raise by a number of drivers, the current process effecting both fast drivers as they caught traffic and slower drivers as the have to open to let drivers through.  Looking to the day’s final qualifier, 3 more on the schedule for tomorrow, Ronnefalk said, ‘I am going to adjust a little bit to see if I can get a bit more grip.  I don’t know if it as a bit more dusty but I felt my car being a little bit loser so I need a little bit more traction for the next one and it will be all good.’

‘OK, small mistake’, that was how Orlowski summed up his second qualifying effort.  The Pole continued, ‘Now I need to try and find more comfortability and speed from the car because I need to fight for the first win.  We’ll test something now for Q3 as I have driven two good scores and I know I have the pace to be there but we need to find something to drive and be there in the Top 3.

Asked about his impressive Q2 run, Ben Mohamed responded with ‘zero mistakes’.  Having had a less competitive Q1 due to driver errors, he himself describing that run as ‘bad’.   The 16-year-old is pleased with how his buggy is working and having changed nothing between Q1 and Q2 he said that is the plan again for today’s third & final qualifier.   Pleased with his Top 5 run he hinted he believes he has more to come.

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Ronnefalk TQs opening qualifier at eBuggy Worlds

Xray’s David Ronnefalk has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship in Portugal.  Winner of his fourth European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championships title at the Barcelos track earlier this month, the Swede took the first of the six qualifiers from the similar car of Michal Orlowski, the Schumacher team driver only half a second off at the end of their respective 5-minute qualifying efforts.  Having been missing from the radar over the previous 2-days of practice, qualifying would see Davide Ongaro turn up with a Top 3 run ahead of Top Seed Elliott Boots, the Sworkz driver having a late issue with traffic on his run.  Boots’ team-mate Juan Carlos Canas opened his account with the fifth fastest time with Dakotah Phend continuing to be the top non-European as he steered his Xray to P6 ahead of Infinity’s young Japanese protege Kouki Kato.

Reacting to his TQ run, the reigning European 1:8 and 1:10 Offroad Champion running in Group 8 of 10, Ronnefalk said, ‘That was a good start and what you want from the first couple of runs of qualifying to have points that count for the overall early on so you have room for set-up changes or improvement towards the end.  It give you a bit more margin and you can drive a little more relaxed towards the end of qualifying.’  The former European eBuggy Champion continued, ‘It is not normally my strongest part of the race, qualifying, but I think I have improved a little bit in the last month or so.  The car and everything has been feeling really good so I just had to keep it on the wheels and step back a little bit to do that and luckily it was enough for TQ.  They were not far behind but it worked out in the end.’  For Q2, he said, ‘we are keeping it the same, gluing up a new set of tyres, the same ones, and it should be good.  I haven’t touched that much from the start of the race up until now and I don’t think I am going to have to either as the track is fairly consistent now that they put some concrete in the jump section.  The landing after the quad is a little more grippy than before.  The car balance felt like it was right where I wanted it now and I can just work on my driving.’

Orlowski wasn’t overly impressed with his own performance for the midday qualifier, saying, ‘It was OK, the car is really good, the whole balance, everything is good, but I drove better in the morning practice.  Now I started off pretty OK had a slightly slower second lap and I had three really slow laps in a row without any major mistakes’.  The Polish ace continued, ‘It was clean run but maybe I think a little too clean.  I wasn’t pushing enough.  I don’t want to push much but in the morning (practice) I did a lot better.’  For Q2 the reigning 1:12 World Champion said, ‘as the race goes on we are not making changes now, we are happy with where we are, I was just driving way too cautious this time round.  I am sure I have the pace to top some rounds.’

A much happier looking Ongaro reacted to his P3 with, ‘Definitely way better, we found some speed finally.  Now that the base set-up is good we need to find some little things that can help me more but I’m super happy.’  The Nitro Buggy World Champion continued, ‘I think my pace was the same as David (Ronnefalk) but I crashed on the warm up lap so I had to let everyone go and I was last so the last 4-laps I found like 5-cars in front of me so instead of crash and make some mistakes I stayed behind them and lost maybe one second or more.’  Planning to change the centre diff oil for Q2, asked what the big change was that brought him into contention today, the Team Associated driver explained, ‘When I built the car I put a thing on the car that was supposed to be the same but it was different and that thing changed the caster, camber, everything.  So when I say ok this is different I put the original one on and the car from then started to work.’

Boots felt his run ‘could have been a bit better’.  The British driver explained, ‘We just wanted to go for a steady run and start off on the right foot and got a fourth which is not terrible but I think we were on pace for TQ, there or thereabouts, but I had a problem with traffic.  Pekko (Iivonen) crashed a pipe and bounced out and hit me, just one of those racing things.  Without that I think it would have been Top 2.’  For the next round he will not change anything saying ‘the car felt good and I just need to try be a bit luckier with traffic and get called through.  Hopefully I can get a clear space for most of the run which would be great.’

‘I don’t expect that was P5 when I came off the driver stand’, was Canas’ reaction after Q1.  The Spaniard continued, ‘I feel that my driving is not really good so it would be slow but finally it was Top 5 and that’s good, it’s less work for the next one.’  On his buggy set-up he said, ‘this morning in practice I tried some things and it didn’t work so I went back and tried to make a safe run to get some points’.  For Q2, based on the rising temperature, he will change tyres and ‘some little things’ on the car but he feels the biggest area for improvement will come from his own driving.

Summing up the first qualifier, Phend said, ‘It was a pretty clean first round, I had a couple of small bobbles and probably lost around a second, a second & a half, or so but good to have a first clean run in and a decent point but yeah I just need to find a little more speed for today,’  On the track, the ROAR National Champion said, ‘I think it has a little less grip than it did the last couple of days so I think everyone is going a little bit slower.’

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Boots is eBuggy World Championship Top Seed

Sworkz’s Elliott Boots is the Top Seed at the first ever IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship, the British driver set to carry the No.1 sticker on his buggy in the top heat as qualifying gets underway in Portugal tomorrow.  The former Nitro Buggy Worlds Top Qualifier claimed the Top Seeding ahead of Michal Orlowski after he bettered the Schumacher team driver’s first round time by 6/10ths of a second.  Fresh from winning the European Championship title in 1:10 Electric Touring Car for the very first time over the weekend, Orlowski couldn’t better his opening time ending up fifth fastest for the second round.  Behind Boots it would be the Xray of David Ronnefalk who set the second fastest time to end seeding in P3 ahead of team-mate Dakotah Phend.  Completing the Top 3 times for CP2, Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup completed Day 2 of the championship in P5 ahead of the Sworkz of Juan Carlos Canas.  Reigning back to back Nitro Buggy World Champion & back to back European eBuggy Champion Davide Ongaro ends practice seeding P8 behind Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen.

Reacting to topping seeding, Boots said, ‘It was good in the end.  We made a few little changes throughout the day.  We’ve kind of been there or thereabouts and it was just finding that time of between half a second and 8/10ths over 3-laps really and then I think we found even more on the overall time so that was really good.’  Asked about his set-up and if he made any significant changes the multiple European Champion and reigning British Champion replied, ‘Not really, I mean we kind of drifted back to our original kind of set-up.  We’ve done like the usual try some stuff and then go back to what we know so I am glad we have done that going into qualifying.  The car was fast, some places it was a bit edgy but I was watching a lot of cars and I think the track changes depending on the sun.  Other than that I’m very very happy.  We found a bit of pace so I’ve got time that I can back off the car and still have good pace.’

On his performance Orlowski explained, ‘We tried something since we already had one good round and I thought maybe we could find some more speed but the car became really edgy so we are just going to go back’.  Asked what the change was, the 2023 European eBuggy Champion said, ‘I tried different rims and they made the car really difficult so we will go back to the one we know works well and it should be good.’  He added, ‘In the morning we have an 8-minute practice so maybe we can try something in that but also it would be nice to have a good run just for confidence going into qualifying.’

Summing up CP2 Ronnefalk said, ‘I struggled a lot at the start of that one.  I changed a few things on the car and it drove really different to the run before and I guess I didn’t realise that I had to drive different so I crashed a couple of times.’  Securing the 2025 Nitro Buggy European Championship title for the fourth time last month at the Barcelos track, he continued, ‘I reset and drove a lot better towards the end and was able to ticked off 5,6 laps.’  Asked if once he adapted his driving to the set-up if he liked it, the Swede said, ‘I definitely liked some of it.  I think now I had a different kind of issue, I was missing a little bit of rotation in the middle of the corners so when I was on power it was pushy on the exit.’  He concluded, ‘A little more mid corner rotation for tomorrow and I think we’ll be good.’

So far the only driver taking the challenge to the Europeans, on his CP2 performance Phend said, ‘Not as good but I learnt which was the important part.  I went a little bit too hard on the tyre but now I know with this weather where I need to be at tyre wise so that’s good.’  The American continued, ‘I think I kind of know now a little bit car wise a couple of things I need to do from the team and things they tried so we’re going to make some small changes to the car for tomorrow and we will be in a good position.’  Looking to qualifying he said, ‘I feel it is a little bit different the 5-minute qualifiers versus a 10-minute qualifier, you kind of have to have that intensity right away and be on pace really quickly.  Keeping that in I’ll keep an eye on that in the practice in the morning and how quickly we get out of the gate compared to the others and go from there.’

‘It wasn’t eating the ground this time’, a reference to his CP1 ride height error, Kaerup was pleased with his second effort.  Also changing shock oil to make it softer, he said ‘it was better’ adding ‘we may even go softer but the package is working really good and I am pretty satisfied so we don’t want to make too many changes.’  On his approach for the first of the five rounds of qualifying he said, ‘we’ve tried different compounds (of tyres) and I am pretty sure we can push it out of the gate so we have a good chance for a Top 3 tomorrow or TQ, but it is going to take a hell of a lot of concentration.’  The 17-year-old explained, ‘the track is easy but it is hard to go fast without crashing.’

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Orlowski tops first seeding round at eBuggy Worlds

Michal Orlowski has topped the opening round of seeding practice at the inaugural eBuggy World Championship, the Schumacher driver fastest from the similar car of Xray’s Dakotah Phend.  Over the first of the two 10-minute seeding rounds, the Polish driver improved on his P6 Free Practice pace by half a second with Phend just 0.15 of a second off over his best 3-consecutive laps of the Barcelos track.  Sworkz’s Juan Carlos Canas would complete the Top 3 ahead of David Ronnefalk with Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen backing up his strong final free practice run to set the 5th fastest time.  Having topped free practice, Marcus Kaerup would open seeding with a P6, the Team Associated driver unable to match his FP7 pace and putting the 0.8 of a second lost down to not driving as well.

Summing up his first appearance at the top of the timing screen so far here in Portugal, Orlowski said, ‘We’ve been making small changes from the very beginning of the race and FP7 was a very positive run and now I just got a bit more used to the car and put some good laps in.  I was doing the triple single for the first part of the run and that is when I did the fastest 3-laps and then I thought should have good enough 3-laps and I tried the quad but it wasn’t working out in the dusty conditions we have now.’  Asked what he had done to the car in term of set-up changes he replied, ‘Not much’.  He continued, ‘we had our experience from the Nitro Euros and the looked at the set-up from the other teams and started with that.  We have been playing with diffs, pistons, just stuff like that.  The geometry of the car is same as we started.’  On the track layout revisions from the European Championship, ‘I really like it, it is an awesome track. It is a much better layout than the Nitro Euros I think.  I hate the quad, I think it is horrible for racing and for marshalling I am marshalling number 10 and I am scared ever time a car goes over there.  These two jump sections should have been changed from the Euro, other than that I really like the layout.’

‘Solid’ was how Phend summed up his first seeding effort.  He continued, ‘I thought I had a good 10-minute pace, I thought was pretty consistent and stuff, so yeh I think we are in the ballpark with everything.’  The leading non-European so far, the American said, ‘The car is comfortable but I wouldn’t mind getting more speed in the beginning but we do have that 3-minute warm-up for the the qualifiers so that is good. It just gives time for the tyre to warm-up, shocks, diffs, and that stuff.’   Planning some changes for the second seeding he said he wasn’t sure yet what those changes would be.

Giving his thoughts on his first seeding run, Canas said, ‘I think that as the best car we had so far.  It is still a little bit difficult but the pace was pretty good over the 10-minutes.  I know 4 or 5 guys have faster lap times but only one lap, that why I am third, but we will keep working on the car and make me more confident with it.’  Making a shock change this morning that ‘worked good’, he said it ‘made the car more easy but I want to have it a little more easy so I will work on that for the next one.’  On the quad, the Nitro Buggy World Championship Top Qualifier is still sticking with the safer option of triple single saying ‘I know the guys ahead of me I know they make the 4 but I think it is a risk for the qualifying.’

Reacting to his P4 in the first seeding, Ronnefalk said, ‘It was OK I would say, I kind of started doing the triple single in the beginning. I got three decent laps and I went over to try quad and had a couple of rough landings lets say like we all had.  It’s not easy in that section especially when it gets as broken as it was in our heat or the last couple of heats that round.’  He continued, ‘It was very broken at the fourth jump there so it’s super dusty and even if you quad and nail the landing it’s super dusty and your car will push wide to the outside. I’m not really sure which one is the best one.  I think triple single is obviously a little safer but in term of the car and everything it felt very good and the clean laps were fast.’

Asked about his run Iivonen said, ‘The actually felt better than in the last practice and I was super comfortable driving around the track.  Only thing was that I went out with used tyres and the went completely bald at the end so I was maybe loosing a bit of grip but still I got the best laps at the end.’  For his second seeding effort the Finn will put on new tyres and just check over the car but is planning leave it the same as the first round.

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Kaerup goes fastest in final practice

Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup has wrapped up practice at the 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship, the Dane laying down the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the Barcelos track in Portugal in the 7th & final free practice.  Ending Day 1 of practice fourth fastest, in this morning’s two final free practice runs Kaerup bettered that time ending up 1-second faster with his FP7 time.  Behind it was Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik who set the second fastest time just ahead of another of the morning’s big improvers Pekko Iivonen for an all Scandinavian Top 3.  Setting the pace yesterday, Dakotah Phend would not improve on his FP4 time but the Xray driver still ends free practice in P4 with the that time ahead of Polish duo Bartek Zalewski and Michal Orlowski.

Announcing after his strong FP5 run yesterday evening that he planned to talk with Team Associated Team Manager Brent Thielke about potential changes for today, asked if he did, Kaerup replied, ‘We had a dinner at McDonalds, a very fine place, and we discussed some stuff and we made a big change but I don’t think the boss allows me to mention this.’  Asked what the change was like for him in terms of car feel, the 17-year-old said, ‘the car became a lot more comfortable to drive and was fast still.’  On the track’s infamous quad, which he planned to attempt today, he said, ‘I didn’t try it.  Some people are quading, some are tripling, but I am still tripling, singling, and I think it will do.’

Reacting to his run Kobbevik said, ‘the pace was already good yesterday and I did some changes for today and they improved the car’.  Asked about the changes, the Norwegian said, ‘I made changes to the diffs and to harder shocks and it made it easier to drive.  My 3-laps in the morning was 3-seconds faster than yesterday so I am very happy.’  Ask his thoughts on the track layout, he replied, ‘It is good fun, it is difficult with the quad in the middle but the rest is good flowing so it is enjoyable to drive.’  Moving in to seeding next, the 20-year-old plans to keep his car ‘mostly the same’ and ‘just try to do three laps again’.  With much interest in the Schumacher team attending these inaugural eBuggy Worlds with their star drivers Michal Orlowski and Kobbevik despite not having their own car, speaking to Schumacher engineer Trish Neal about the project he said the British manufacturer is working towards its own car for sometime in 2026.  Racing himself here in Barcelos, Neal said the are working on suitable parts supplier adding while touring car and 1:10 Buggy is easy for them in terms of production, 1:8 Buggy is different and new so they need time to get the supply chain right.  He emphasised the focus is on a eBuggy first chassis, the eBuggy market while less popular in high end competition, an important one in terms of sales for all manufacturers.

Pleased with how his morning had gone, Iivonen said the big improvement for him came with a shock change on his Mayako for the final practice.  He added, ‘the change worked well, the tyres were spot on, and it was nice to turn some laps and get clean ones in.  I almost drove the whole run clean so it’s looking really good’.  Asked about the significance of the shock change, the Finn said, ‘I think it made a big difference and now the car is more settled, easier to drive, and it just goes around the track faster.’  He continued, ‘the only thing now is the quad but I made it in my run when I made my best lap, I did the quad perfectly, it took 1-second off my time but it is hard to make the quad every time so well see in the seeding which is the best way to do it.’

Still using practice for what it is intended, summing up his morning, Phend said, ‘I think it went decent, like I said we are just tinkering with the car and making small changes.  I am feeling pretty comfortable out there, pace wish as far as qualifying and the 10-minutes for the mains.’  The American added, ‘we are keeping an eye on the weather as it is to be cooler the rest of the week compared to yesterday.’  To start seeding he plans to run his car unchanged but just switch to a softer compound because of the weather.

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Phend fastest as Day 1 of eBuggy Worlds concludes

Xray’s Dakotah Phend has set the pace on the opening day of the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship, the American topping the times after 5 rounds of free practice at the Barcelos Buggy Arena in Portugal.  Setting his fastest 3-consecutive laps in the penultimate round of the day’s free practice, many drivers feeling they made the wrong call on tyre compound for the cooler evening’s final run, Phend was fastest from Juan Carlos Canas, the Sworkz driver topping that final round to record his best time of the day.  The pace setter after the first three rounds, David Ronnefalk finished the day out in P3 ahead of Sworkz’ Elliott Boots.  With reigning Nitro Buggy World Champion Davide Ongaro having a challenging day, which ended in him being only 13th fastest, it was his younger team-mate Marcus Kaerup who led the way for Team Associated.  Second fastest in FP5, which was 10-minutes long with the previous four rounds having been 5-minutes each, he ended the day fourth fastest.  Another improvement in FP5 came from Tekno’s João Figueirdo, the Nitro World Championship finalist, whose family are the hosts of these World Championships, completing the Top 5.

Asked to sum up Day 1 in Barcelos, Phend replied, ‘I’d say Day 1 was a success.  We got some good speed so I am just trying some stuff with the car.  I think going out on the right compound tyre depending on the weather will be really important.’  Running JConcepts Dirt Web 2, he said the harder compound he had been running was too hard for the final run so he will go out on a softer compound in the morning and see how that is.  Doing ‘just little stuff’ in terms of changing car set-up, he said ‘the car already feels comfortable and has good speed’ so the changes are very much ‘fine tuning’.  On how the track evolved over the first day of action, he replied, ‘I think the last few rounds it stayed pretty similar, it really just depends how they blow the track off, and how much dust is out there makes a really big difference.  The groove is getting a little bit wider but it’s still pretty narrow.’  Regarding his own driving the ROAR eBuggy National Champion felt, ‘there is definitely room for improvement and I can get better by tightening up a few spots I am struggling with but overall I feel I am driving decent and adapting to the track.’

‘Finally, that was a hard day’, that was Canas’ reaction after his Q5 effort.  The Spaniard added, ‘I didn’t find the speed quickly and had to work a lot on the car but finally I feel a little bit of speed and good pace for the long runs.’  Asked if he found something in particular to improve his pace, the Top Qualifier from the recent European Nitro Championship at the same track, explained, ‘I changed a lot of things over the day and they all helped in a good way and that is why the last one was good.’  Running the medium JConcepts Dirt Web tyre for FP5, he said, ‘maybe it was too hard for that one but it was good to see the wear over the 10-minutes.’  ‘Finally happy with the car’, he said explained, ‘now with the good set-up you can take more risk at some corners and I want to learn if I can do the quad as I can see some guys are doing it.  I will test this in the two free practices tomorrow.’

Ronnefalk was another pleased with his Day 1 efforts.  He explained, ‘I am very pleased how it went. I had a brand new car so it took the first two runs to bed in the drive train but after that I felt very good and very similar to the feeling I had here at the Nitro Euros, obviously I started with a set-up very close to that.’  Trying different compounds of tyre over the day, the Swede said he is ‘between medium and soft Saharas and it just depends what kind of feeling you want out there.  The mediums they feel like the car is a little bit lighter on track but the soft obviously has a little more grip.  It just depends how you set-up the car and the driving style’.  With 2 more free practices before the two timed seeding rounds on the Day 2 schedule he added, ‘We will keep trying tomorrow with the track.  I must say in the last one it was kind of dusty and you started to see some bigger holes out there which I have never seen on this track before.  It’s still free practice so they are probably going to repair it tonight so once they add more glue on those spots we will be good with a clean track again.  I don’t think the track was faster the last one, those who went faster was because they improved their cars.  I think the sweet spot was FP3, FP4 in terms of the when the track was fastest.’

‘We have been pretty fast and consistent all day’ was how Boots summed up setting the fourth fastest time.  He continued, ‘the last one I was on medium tyres and I think as the temperature dropped they weren’t quite right’.  Running Hotrace’s Sahara he said, ‘the temperature drop effects the track quite a bit and that was the only difference that run really.  The tyres went slick at the end cause they were just spinning on the surface.’  Asked his thoughts on the layout comparing it the Nitro European Championship last month, he replied, ‘I like the layout that’s cool but obviously it is different to drive with electric being quite a bit different, but I think it’s better.  It is a bit slower, a bit more technical, but I think it drives better’.

One of the stars of last year’s Nitro Worlds in Spain, 17-year-old Kaerup was content with his practice pace.  The Dane explained, ‘I am not doing the quad, I wanted to keep it safe and know what line I am doing every single lap.’  Asked if he felt the risk was too high, he replied, ‘I think so but I think I am going to practice it tomorrow so if I need to go for it I can.  The main thing for me is stability and I know I have the pace by just doing triple, single.’  On his buggy set-up, he said, ‘we did a lot of stuff on the car over the day but we’ve hit it now and I think we are in the window for something good.  I think I will have a chat with Brent (Thielke) to see if he has any ideas for more changes for tomorrow.’

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