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 final 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 the fifth & final to go it will be a three way battle for the overall TQ between Sobue, 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.

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 as good and I kept it on all four wheels and 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 am might go up in shocks if it gets any warmer.’  Double 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.’

I made a couple of mistakes, first lap was a rough one, and then I had a couple of slower 32s (second laps) but I got into a rtyhym 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 need to go out and just turn some laps.’   On track conditions today, he said, ‘eBuggy was definitely slick, I thought the grip was going to be high, so I kind of help 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 compare 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, ‘not traffic issues 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.

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 real well.’   Asked what different it made, he replied, ‘It just makes it more stable in the rear, its not a huge difference but it makes it a little more 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 said he thinks he has a good finals car but with his opening laps proving slow he things he has something to 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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Kato takes Q1 in Brisbane

The first round of qualifying is in the books at the third round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships and it was Infinity’s Kouki Kato who came out on top in Brisbane.  The Japanese driver claimed the first TQ run of the weekend ahead of last year’s Australian round winner Caleb Noble, the Tekno driver benefitting from mistakes by a number of key contenders.  Winner of the opening round of the championship in New Zealand back in March, Jayden Edmunds completed the Top 3 as the top Mayako, his team-mate Pekko Iivonen, having topped seeding, having a run he summed as ‘bad’.  The Finnish driver said his tyres just didn’t feel right and he struggled ending up with a P12.  Suffering a number of mistakes, Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik had good speed but ended up P4 while having TQ’d the first round of eBuggy, Sparko’s Tyler Jones opened with a P5, the American another with a costly mistake in the run.

‘Lucky’ was how Kouki summed up Q1, as he benefited from a last lap mistake by Bernadzik but then had a mistake of his own on his last lap.  Holding on for the TQ by 1.864 from Noble, he explained, ‘I had a mistake maybe 4-seconds but Alex’s mistake was bigger he lost about 8-seconds.’  Feeling Bernadzik is slightly faster in terms of overall pace, asked what was the reason for the mistakes, the Japanese driver laughed and replied, ‘I relaxed too much on the last lap trying to keep it safe.’  For Q2, the ABC Indonesia and Philippines race winner plans to test a set-up change on his eBuggy and if that works will copy it on his nitro buggy for the final run of the day.

Producing a clean sweep of wins here 12-months ago, Noble, who lives a 15-hour drive away, described his car as ‘not too bad’ adding ‘we are getting closer.’  Trying a different compound for Q1, he said, ‘we were running 5th, jump up to 4th, and then I was lucky that Alex and Tyler made mistakes on their last laps which bumped me to second.  It was pretty solid.  I drove really clean and just tried to drive consistent with what I had.’   Asked what he is still searching for in the car, the 18-year-old said, ‘we’re trying to find a bit more stability in the cornering.  I was picking up the inside really bad, not allowing me to push as hard as I wanted to, we fixed that for Q1 but came across a bit of understeer now so we are trying to chase that a little bit but the car is much easier to drive, not quite fast enough but easy to drive so we’ve got that in our pocket.’   Running the TZO 500 tyre, he will try their 202 for the cooler Q2 conditions and expected lower grip.

‘Not the cleanest run but it was pretty good’ was how Edmunds described his P3 performance.   The 19-year-old Australian, for whom the Pine Hills track is a fly away race, continued, ‘I made one mistake on the second to last lap but the whole run I was in traffic with 2 cars around me the whole time.  They were a bit quicker so I was letting them go but then they’d have a mistake I then I had to let them go again so I lost a little bit of time and rhythm.  The car felt good, no major problems there.’  For Q2, a threat of rain tomorrow meaning an earlier start to quali than scherduled, he said, ‘I think I am going to make a tyre change for the next one.  I am just going to go to a different thread pattern cause the temperature is going to drop and the track will get a little bit slick so going from the new Napoli to the Sahara which we found generates a little more grip here this weekend.’

A little frustrated with his driving in the opening qualifier Bernadzik said, ‘It was OK, I think my motor was a bit too lean and it was a bit hard to hang on to but the car speed was right there.  I just need to clean it up the next one’.   Suffering ‘three or four bad ones’ (crashes) over the 5-minutes he said one ‘was upside down’ and another ‘I had to fully readjust the car’.  Looking to Q2, the 2023 winner of the event said they plan to change the tune on the engine and then its up to him to drive it and ‘keep it on all four wheels.’

Opening qualifying with the TQ in Electric Buggy, in nitro the first lap put Jones on the back foot.  He explained, ‘I started out with a wreck on my first lap and then I was trying to play catch up and then caught up to Alex (Bernadzik).  It was just a racing deal, we are both fast and you can’t really pass so I tried to kind of make a move and then he was faster so I kind of let him back, we were just racing.’  On his car, the American said, ‘It was good, I just made too many mistakes.  The speed is there and I just need to drive better.  I need to calm down and drive’.  Asked if he planned any changes for Q2, he replied, ‘I am going to stick to the same, I have wrenched a lot today so I am kind of taking a mental break.  I think I will be alright.’