Bernadzik reigns as rain halts Asian Buggy Championships Australia
Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik converted TQ honours at the Australian round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships into the win but unfortunately Mother Nature put an early halt to what was building into an epic battle in Brisbane. Having TQ’d all three hostings of the Asian Buggy Championships at the Pine Hill Dirt Racing track, Bernadzik led away the race’s most stacked international field yet for what was original scheduled to be a 1-hour final. While the intimidating dark clouds started to gather in the distance, racing got underway in the sunshine and the early pace was hot but all the time the darkening skies were moving in. Unfortunately for Kouki Kato and Tyler Jones, the latter got into the eBuggy winner Kato on the opening lap sending the Infinity and Sparko drivers dropping to the back of the field. The American did show great sportsmanship in waiting after the contact with the talented Japanese driver. Up front it was Bernadzik who led from Pekko Iivonen, but 6-laps in, the home favourite made a mistake allowing the fourth place starting Finn to take over at the front. From there he looked very strong as he led the field into the first round of pit stops just after the 7-minute mark. While touching the wall on the tight pit lane entry, once the first & only stops were completed, it was still Iivonen who was in charge. Coming up on 10-minutes however a mistake would hand the lead back to Bernadzik with Kato, who briefly took over the lead during the fuel stops and was now firmly back in the game, also going through for second. Locked into their intense battle, Jones having worked his way up to fifth behind 2024 winner Caleb Noble, little did the drivers know they had less than 3-minute left to play things out. A track that drew huge compliments from drivers for both it surface and size, unfortunately one of the downsides of its oiled dirt surface is that oil & water don’t mix! As soon as the lightest of drops started falling the effect on the cars was immediate forcing Race Director Scotty Ernst to call the race just shy of 13-minutes – the heavens opening up shortly after. While the disappointment of having their entertainment cut short clear on everyone’s face, including Bernadzik, a result is a result and Bernadzik goes down as the third different winner of the 2025 Asian Buggy Championships season. Less than a second back Kouki had to settle for second while Iivonen completed the Round 3 podium.
