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July 19, 2025

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.

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July 18, 2025

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.

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July 17, 2025

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.

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July 17, 2025

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.

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July 17, 2025

Iivonen tops seeding at Asian Buggy C/ships Australia

Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen has got his first ever visit to Australia off to a strong start, the Finn topping seeding for Round 3 of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships in Brisbane. Racing on the oil treated Pine Hills track, Iivonen set the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the two seeding rounds ahead of another track first timer Kouki Kato, the Infinity driver 3/10th of a second off his rival. Heading the local challenge was last year’s Top Qualifier, the Team Associated of Alex Bernadzik just 8/100th off the Japanese visitor with the Tekno of fellow Aussie Jackson Beale fourth fastest. With 2025 the attracting Australian round of the championship’s biggest international entry, it was another visitor who completed the Top 5 with American Sparko team driver Tyler Jones travelling 29-hours for his first ever race outside of the USA. With a threat of rain showers tomorrow, the oil treated surface being very slick in the damp, drivers are in for a busy first official day of action in Brisbane as Race Director Scotty Ernst pushes to get two rounds of qualifying in the books today in case.

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July 13, 2025

Sobue reigns in Singapore to win eSIC 2025

Axon’s Akio Sobue reigned over the third edition of the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC), the Top Qualifier backing up Saturday’s performance with a dominant Sunday. Taking the A1 win ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg, the Japanese driver would repeat the result in A2 to secure an early overall win in Singapore. Debuting the first production example of Axon’s upcoming TC10/4 Touring Car release the result was the perfect launch for the Japanese manufacturer’s new car. While Sobue had the perfect weekend his team-mate Hayato Ishioka would be less fortunate. Securing P2 in qualifying after topping Q3, he suffered an electrical issue in A1 and A2, but with Sobue able to sit out A3 and watch he gave Ishioka his electrics for A3 and that led to the most exciting of the three A-Main encounters. With the power setting of Sobue’s ESC a little more aggressive to his own, leading away the field Ishioka would overshoot the back straight and drop down the order as Nicholas Lee took over the lead. Shadowed by Hagberg the Xray duo looked to have the race under control until Lee spun out. Having to change car for A3 after an off destroyed his car in A2, Lee was at a loss to explain why he spun out when he ‘wasn’t under pressure’ from his team-mate. With Hagberg now leading and Ishioka seemingly some way back, the Japanese driver came out of nowhere in the last two laps setting up a perfect show down of a drag race to the finish line – Hagberg just getting it by 0.027 to secure second overall. With Atsushi Hara backing up his P3 finish from A1 with another in A3, A2 not going his way, the former World Champion completed the podium at RCMC.

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July 13, 2025

Sobue cruises to eSIC A1 win ahead of Hagberg

Having feared they might wake to rain, racers at the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) have instead been greeting by the hottest day of the week in Singapore however the hot humid conditions still weren’t enough to stop the reign of Axon’s Akio Sobue at RCMC as he took a convincing A1 win ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg. Leading away the international field, Top Qualifier Sobue and his team-mate Hayato Ishioka pulled clear with Hagberg getting by team-mate Nicholas Lee early on. While running on used tyres, Lee was holding fourth but then a mistake half way into the race dropped the home hero to last. While the race was ticking off laps, Hagberg would suddenly find himself with Ishioka. Unfortunately the hot conditions causing the Japanese driver to lose power resulting in Hagberg making a little contact as the came onto the straight. Once into P2, Hagberg could do nothing about Sobue who took the win by 2 & a half seconds. Benefiting from Ishioka and Lee’s issues, having lined up P6 Atsushi Hara came through with his Schumacher to complete the Top 3 just ahead of E.C Kim’s Awesomatix.

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July 12, 2025

Sobue is eSIC Top Qualifier as Axon claim 1-2 in quali

Akio Sobue is the Top Qualifier at the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC), the Japanese driver leading an Axon 1-2 in qualifying today at the country’s RCMC track. Making his debut at the third & biggest eSIC race to-date, Sobue took early charge of today’s first official day of action by topping seeding and carrying that momentum into qualifying. Taking the opening two encounters, when team-mate Hayato Ishioka took Q3 it was assured a TC10/4 would start on pole. With Xray’s Nicholas Lee finally managing to break the Axon stranglehold in the fourth & final qualifier, taking the round ahead of Atsushi Hara, Sobue was confirmed the Top Qualifier. Trying to split the Japanese pair, unfortunately for Lee he came up 6/10ths of a second shy of bettering Ishioka’s TQ time meaning a 1-2 on the grid for the eSIC debutant Japanese manufacturer. With 2025 also marking Xray’s factory team debut at the international race, their new for 2025 driver Lee one half of the driving force behind the event, it will be the Singapore driver who starts P3. Team-mate Alexander Hagberg lines-up P4 with the top half of the grid being completed by E.C Kim, the leading Korean driver spinning out of a potential TQ run in Q4.

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