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.

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 falling 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 and then for nitro they hit the ground running straight away.’  Also securing the eBuggy TQ, he plans to use those tyres for electric triple mains and plans to bed 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 cab get away with doing 9-minute sport we probably save 8-9 seconds.  We’ll do a full run tomorrow 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 Electric 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, he 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.  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 Hotraces 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, the 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 mount so I just wanted to try them to see and 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, he so ‘I think we can go comfortably on 9s (minutes).

It was better, the car felt better again. It was a bit uncomfortable, and a bit sketchy but still needs to work on the car for that, the brand being Jetko.   ‘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 .’  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 Finnish visitor plans to use the Main practice session to make a 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 shock, maybe go up in the diffs a little bit.  I don’t want to do to much cause the car is pretty close, its just and 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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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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Jones TQs third qualifier at Asian Buggy Championships

With intermittent rain throughout the day interrupting the second official day of action at the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships in Australia, when Round 3 of qualifying finally concluded it was the Sparko of Tyler Jones who came out fastest.  The American took the day’s only round, two originally on the schedule, ahead of last year’s Top Qualifier Alex Bernadzik by 0.273 of a second.  Struggling with traffic throughout his run, Top Seed Pekko Iivonen took his Mayako to the third fastest time ahead of yesterday’s Q1 & 2 pace setter Kouki Kato – a 3-second mistake in the middle of the run denying the Infinity driver from three in a row at the Pine Hills Dirt Racing track.  The big winner at last year’s Australian round of the Scotty Ernst promoted championship, Tekno’s Caleb Noble claimed a P5 with Atsushi Hara completing the Top 6.  With rain affecting the running of the top heat of eBuggy, a rerun at the end of the day saw Bernadzik go one better than nitro to take his second TQ run of the event with Kato and Hara competing the Top 3.

‘Pretty good’ was Jones reaction after posting his first and the fastest Nitro TQ run so far.  The 25-year-old, who is on his first trip outside of the US and TQ’d the opening round of eBuggy, continued, ‘I took advantage of that rain and changed a bunch of stuff this morning and figured out some stuff with my shocks.  I knew I probably wasn’t the fastest but my car felt good and was consistent all run.  I think I had more of a 45-minute car than a 5-minute car and I kind of prefer that.’  Also going up in the diff oils from 80/80/10 to 100/100/15, this probably making the biggest difference in getting a car that ‘works really well’.  He added, ‘Ben (Sterling) actually went up to 150/150 so he went up even higher than me and he got a 10 for the round in nitro so I am going to go up and match his diff oil for Q4 and again drive smart.’  On his eBuggy third round he said, ‘the eBuggy just drives a lot different from my nitro buggy for some reason.  I can’t seem to get the thing to steer.  To go from off my nitro buggy with a bunch of steering and straight to the eBuggy that doesn’t want to steer is kind of challenging.  Nothing to blame on the car, I just wrecked.’

Reacting to his run, Bernadzik said, ‘I kept it on all four wheels for the most part.  It was a nice consistent run.’  A previous winner of the event, he continued, ‘The car was really good.  I made a few changes to suit the high grip, I saw the sun coming out so went back up in my shock package.  It was a little bit edgy but I re-tuned the motor to make it a little bit easier to drive and it definitely helped.’  For Q4 he said, ‘I might go to a longer rear link just to give the car a little more support but other than that I’ll stay the same.’  Posting his second consecutive TQ in eBuggy, the Australian said, ‘eBuggy is dialled but I am struggling a little bit on the option line coming onto the front straight and keep having a few little crashes there.  I also had one coming together with traffic but other than that it was a nice clean run.’

Summing up his run to the 3rd fastest time, Iivonen said, ‘The pace was super good, the car felt super good, the tyres were also working well.  The pace was right there but I just couldn’t get clean laps because there was lapped traffic almost the whole race for me.  I got a bit unlucky there and I couldn’t really show my pace.  I think I lost 3-seconds to Tyler.  I could have been somewhere there for sure.’   Looking to the final two qualifiers tomorrow, and very much still in the hunt for the TQ, the Finn said, ‘I will leave the car the same for tomorrow and just figure out the tyres and what will be the best one’.  He explained, ‘I tried a different compound in eBuggy cause I thought the one I was driving with in nitro was too soft but really it wasn’t and the tyre (in eBuggy) was too hard so the car was pushing too much.’  Despite the tyre choice, on his Round 3 eBuggy run to the fourth fastest time, the Philippine Masters podium finisher said, ‘It was a fine run for me, it was not so bad.’

Asked about his Q3 effort having enjoyed two TQ runs yesterday, Kato replied with, ‘I made one mistake and it cost me 3-seconds’.  Chasing a third Asian Buggy Championships win in as many appearances, the 19-year-old added that after the on & off rain today that the, ‘traction was higher and maybe we need to change the car a little for tomorrow’.  With Jones the first to deny him a TQ run, the US driver now having the fastest time so far which could be crucial in a tie break situation for pole for Sunday’s 1-hour main, Kato said they might look at making a spring change for the fourth round of qualifying tomorrow morning.’  Running a prototype eBuggy from his Japanese chassis sponsor, on his second fastest time in Q3, he said, ‘the last round my eBuggy was super nice but I also had a mistake.’

Noble was upbeat about his nitro buggy run saying, ‘The last run, the only run today I guess, I felt I had a bit more pace and I was a bit closer to where I wanted to be.  I still have a little bit of work to do but the electric (buggy) was quite fast so we just need to transfer a bit of that on to the nitro and we’ll be even closer.’  The 18-year-old added, ‘I don’t know if I can TQ’d but I can be close.  In electric I think I had a shot and I had two crashes on the same lap.  I did the fastest lap of the race and the car was pretty good, a little nervous, but we can do something about that.’

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Kato again in Q2 as Iivonen throws it away under the lights at Pine Hills

Racing under the flood lights at the Pine Hills track in Brisbane, Infinity’s Kouki Kato made it two from two in qualifying at the third round of the Asian Buggy Championships.  Again it was a last lap mistake that promoted Kato to the top of the timing screens, this time top seed Pekko Iivonen with the costly error.  With driver errors the talking point of qualifying so far, Iivonen dropped two & a half seconds as a result of his mistake allowing Kato to back up Q1 with another TQ run by 1.358-seconds over the Finn’s Mayako.  Racing under flood lights in order to get a second round of qualifying in the books as the forecast is giving rain for the morning, Jackson Beale would complete the Top 3 for Tekno.  After an error in Q1 that left him P10, a clean run in Q2 allowed the 19-year-old to back up his strong showing in seeding.  After a P2 in the first round, last year’s race winner Caleb Noble had two bad laps and ended up P5 behind Pine Hill Club President Zac Ryan.  Opening with a P3, Jayden Edmunds again had traffic issues but this time it lead to a costly error and he ended the day with a P6. Opening the second round of qualifying with a TQ run in eBuggy ahead of Iivonen and Tyler Jones, Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik couldn’t repeat in Nitro ending up 7th.

‘Same as Q1, the last lap it changed and I was at the top’, was Kato’s reaction after the second of the currently scheduled four rounds of qualifying.    Having made a major mistake himself on the last lap of Q1, asked about his driving this time round and if it had improved he laughed and responded with, ‘no, it was the same’.  This time however he said the mistake was earlier in the run.  Finding track conditions more loose due to the cooler conditions of the after dark evening run, asked if the set-up change he tested in earlier still bright 2nd eBuggy qualifier worked he said it hadn’t so he ran his nitro buggy unchanged.  Should tomorrow turn out to be dry, he said they still need to work on improving the current set-up.

That was much better than the last one. I think i found out the problem I had in Q1, my car was  too soft and that’s why it was doing some weird thing.  Now it was quite good but I tuned the engine a little bit and it came out too lean and I wasn’t that confident with the throttle so that probably cost me some time and the last lap mistake was probably because of that.  Looking to Day 2 of the qualifying, he said, ‘the car feels super good  so I think when I get the engine done right it will be quite good.’

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