3-in-row as Bernadzik is Top Qualifier again ‘Down Under’

It’s the third season of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, the third time Pine Hill Dirt Racing track has hosted the Australian round, and completing the hat trick Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik has just secured the overall TQ for the third year in a row.  With this year’s event attracting its biggest ever international entry, it was the Australian who delivered in the deciding fifth & final round of Nitro Buggy qualifying.  With Japan’s Kouki Kato and American Tyler Jones the other TQ contenders, having taken the first two rounds of qualifying on Thursday, Infinity’s Kato would be the first to bow out as he crashed on his first flying lap and suffered a flameout.  Sparko driver Jones also crashed on his first lap giving Bernadzik, who already had the fastest qualifying run from Q4, the breathing space for a second TQ run.  This time his closest challenger was Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen, the gap 1.531-seconds at the end of the 5-minutes.  Overall, behind Bernadzik it will be Kato who lines up second on the grid followed by Jones, Iivonen and last year’s winner Caleb Noble.

Pleased to turn around his qualifying, having lost out on earlier TQ run due to late driver errors, on becoming the Top Qualifier, Bernadzik said, ‘That was really clean.  I haven’t checked the times but I was told my times were pretty much 31-seconds every single lap.  The car was the easiest its ever been to drive.  A nice & safe run and got it done’.  Converting his 2023 TQ into a win, but comingup one place short last year, on tomorrow’s 45-minute Main he said, ‘I think it is all just tyres now.  I was running a slightly newer set of tyres there.  I ran them in EP first and then by the end of the EP run they were coming on good so for nitro they hit the ground running straight away.’  Also securing the eBuggy TQ, he will now use those tyres for the electric triple mains and plans to brake in a new set of tyres for the Nitro Buggy Final.  With tyre wear of no concern, the wear minimal on the oil treated dirt surface, in terms of fuel he said, ‘it’s quite a slow entry into pit lane so if we can get away with doing 9-minute stops we can probably save 8 or 9 seconds.  We’ll do a full test run tomorrow in practice, but if we can we’ll do 9-minute stops.’

Despite his crash/flame-out denying him a chance of the overall TQ, Kato said once he got his buggy back on track ‘it was not so bad’ following changes made between rounds.  Changing the rear shock position, the Japanese 1:10 Buggy Champion said it was slightly better and in the practice tomorrow they will go more in that direction with set-up to try further improve the buggy.  On the subject of run time, the two Asian Buggy Championships race winner replied, ‘for me 7 & a half is easy’ before adding ‘9-minutes maybe not.’

‘Disappointing honestly’ was how Jones described the final qualifier.  He explained, ‘I put a new set of tyres on to scrub in for eBuggy, they were pretty good straight off the bat but I hit the tube on the back stretch and had a super long marshal so that pretty much ended the run right there.’  He continued, ‘When I got marshalled I got put right in front of Alex and he was on a good run so I kind of moved over and followed him for the rest of the heat.’  Trying Hotrace’s new Napoli tyre in the final eBuggy qualifier he said, ‘On my car it was too numb.  I probably could have changed my car.  They weren’t bad, they were just slow and didn’t really turn so I’ll stick to Sahara which is what I have been running all week.  I had the Napolis mounted so I just wanted to try them to see and now I got that out of my head,’  On the final, he said, ‘my car is really good and I am super comfortable going into the final tomorrow so I’ll just mount some tyres and hangout with the boys.’  Running 10-minutes in the last qualifier, on run time he said, ‘I think we can go comfortably on 9s (minutes)’.

One of the success stories of the Mayako Youth Mentoring Program, on his final qualifier Iivonen said, ‘It was better, the car felt better again.  It was a bit uncomfortable, and a bit sketchy but still we need to work on the car for this tyre’.  With that tyre being Jetko, the Finn having started out on the event on 6mik, he said, ‘It has much more forward traction and the pace looked better so will stay with the tyres and figure out the car in the practice tomorrow – I think I can find something.’  On the final he said, ‘Starting fourth is not too bad, any thing can happen in the final and people are making mistakes so well see.’  Another who believes his ‘run time should be fine’, the 22-year-old plans to use the Main Final practice session to make a final call on his fuel stop strategy.

‘Besides crashing on the first lap the last one wasn’t too bad’, joked Noble when asked about final qualifier, the Tekno driver setting the third fastest time to go with his P2 from the opening qualifier.  He continued, ‘It was pretty clean after that, we are chipping away at the car and it’s getting closer.’  Asked if can be in the mix from 5th on the grid, he replied, ‘I think if the car is a little better I think I can be in the mix for at least a podium, which I would be pretty happy with.’  On what he is thinking to change on the car to find a little more speed he said, ‘Maybe a little thicker shocks and maybe go up in the diffs a little bit.  I don’t want to do too much cause the car is pretty close, its just I can’t really push it but it is better than it was this morning so that a good sign.’  On run time, the 18-year-old said, ‘my run time is actually better than its ever been.  We reckon I can do towards 9-minutes, we’ll double check that in the warm-up tomorrow.’

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Chassis Focus – Atsushi Hara (Sworkz)

Chassis – Sworkz S35-4EVO
Engine – O.S. Speed B2105
Fuel – VP Fuel 30%
Tires – VP Pro 801
Radio – Futaba 10PX
Servo – Futaba CB700 (steering & throttle)
Body – VP Pro 8019

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Bernadzik delivers on speed to take Q4 in Brisbane

Having been super quick throughout the first two days of action at the Australian round of the Asian Buggy Championships, Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik finally delivered a TQ run when he took the penultimate round of nitro buggy qualifying at Pine Hills Dirt Racing track.  Opening Day 3 of the event with a third TQ run in eBuggy, last year’s event Top Qualifier finally put together the run we were waiting for, setting a new fastest time as he ended up almost 5-second faster than the Sparko of Q3 winner Tyler Jones.  Taking the opening two rounds on Thursday, Infinity’s Kouki Kato completed the Top 3, and with the just fifth & final quali to go it will be a three way battle for the overall TQ between Kato, Jones and Bernadzik – drivers’ best two to count.  Getting a fourth for the round was Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen, the Top Seed now no longer in contention to be the Top Qualifier in Brisbane.  Leading the Sworkz challenge this weekend, it was another solid nitro effort from Atsushi Hara, the former World Champion & Philippine Masters podium finisher, completing the Top 5 for his best run so far having got his first Top 6 yesterday.

Reacting to his TQ run Bernadzik said, ‘I didn’t really make too many changes, just lengthened my rear link out which made it a bit easier to drive.  I think my shock package was right for the temperature.  It’s pretty cold still but the actual track temp is right there so the car was good and I kept it on all four wheels. I didn’t drive like an idiot and kept it together.’  Looking to Q5, the former Australian National Champion said, ‘I think that TQ has been the fastest time of the weekend so hopefully I get another in around that pace.  I am going to keep an eye on the ambient temperature and I might go up in shocks if it gets any warmer.’  Doing the buggy double for Q4, on his eBuggy he said, ‘both cars are pretty much on the same set-up now, and the track seems to suit the cars when its nice and cold so its all good.’

Jones summed up his run by saying, ‘I made a couple of mistakes, the first lap was a rough one, and then I had a couple of slower 32s (second laps) but I got into a rhythm and starting putting down some laps and came up a little short on Alex but I am getting pretty confident going into tomorrow.’  On his rough start the American said, ‘Yeh I think was just pushing a little too hard, trying just to be ultra perfect when I needed to go out and just turn some laps.’  On today’s track conditions, he said, ‘eBuggy was definitely slick, I thought the grip was going to be higher, so I kind of held on for that one but the track was pretty good for Nitro.’  For the final qualifying round, the 25-year-old will put a new set of front arms & move everything forward 2mm on his eBuggy to try get more steering out of the car and if that works well he’ll do the same on his nitro buggy.

Asked about his run, Q4 being his fastest of his 4 so far, Kato replied with, ‘Alex is very fast, we need to change something and try find more speed’.   The ABC Indonesia and Philippines winner, added, ‘the car feels good to drive but we are missing some speed compared to Alex so we will have to try something different for the last one.’

Having had traffic issues in Q3 yesterday Iivoven summed up his fourth run with, ‘no traffic issues this time but there was some driver issues, I made a couple of mistakes’.  The Finn would switch tyre brand for the round, explaining, ‘I tried different tyres and went on Jetkos and they were way different.  A different feeling with way more forward bit.  I think I will stick with the tyre but now change the car to suit.  The pace is there I just need to get comfortable.’  Proof of that pace came with the 22-year-old posting the fastest lap, his advantage almost 2/10th on Bernadzik and 4/10ths on Kato.

On back to back race weekend duty having podiumed at the eSIC Electric Touring Car race in Singapore last weekend, Hara was happy with his performance now saying, ‘My focus is on good points because the first day I was driving really bad, so many mistakes’.  He continued, ‘the car is good, I don’t change much there, and I have started to drive more calm.  One thing I did change was the rear spring.  I noticed some of the fast guys running a short spring on the rear, so the same front and back, so I was interested to try it and it works really well.’  Asked what difference it made, he replied, ‘It just makes it more stable in the rear, it’s not a huge difference but it makes it a little more easy  to drive so I can push a little harder.  Still I need a little more speed if I want to compete with top guys.’   Asked if that speed was in the car or him he replied, ‘I think both.’  That said he feels he has a good finals car but with his opening laps proving slow he thinks he has something too stiff in his set-up and he believe the diffs might be the issue.

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