2024 Philippine Masters Podiums and Sunday Recap

Press Release From Asian Buggy Championships:
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By now you know the results, and/or have watched the finals. As we draw our week here in Manila to a close, rather than re-tell the race story we’ll reflect on two observations from today’s action.

To watch the best in the world – no matter the endeavour – is always a special thing. Today Davide Ongaro, as on many other days, was in a class of his own. A slashing win in EBuggy set the scene for what seemed destined from lap one to be a dominant Nitro Buggy win in the big one. An engine cut coming into the second round of stops dropped him a lap-and-change off Atsushi Hara’s front-running SWorkz buggy. While the fight between Hara, Bernadzik, Neumann and a recovering Pavidis raged up front, Davide put his head down and reeled off a sequence of astonishing laps. He was head and shoulders clear of a quality field, taking 40 laps to make up the deficit – a speed advantage of almost a second a lap at times. It was pretty to watch, the RC8B4.1 dancing to the tune that Ongaro played. Nobody here will forget it.

The second happened in Atsushi Hara’s fight to hold on to second place over the last ten minutes. Exhausted in his first 60-minute main for many years, the Japanese driver tried to hold off a fast-finishing Ryan Pavidis. Those who have been around the sport a long time couldn’t help but marvel at yet another Hara vs Pavidis battle – this time not between Hara and Mark Pavidis, but Hara and Ryan, himself climbing the international ranks. To hear the commentary of Pavidis stalking Hara brought back memories. To watch Hara re-discovering the extraordinary ability and passion that took him to the 2008 World Championship some 16 years later was hugely popular. R/C racing now has a long enough history that these kinds of moments, stories of generational change, or amazing longevity are becoming more common.

Today, for both these reasons and more (how about Bulgarian Plamen Petrov crossing the world to tick off a bucket-list race and winning Truggy, or super-host Edward Sio taking home the 45+ win, or Alex Bernadzik's break-out international performance?), was a day to remember.

There seems to be something about this race. Edward, Ricky, the Philippine Masters and Dogbone RC teams put together an extraordinary track and the whole community extends generous and gracious hospitality. Racers respond from across the world and the addition of the race to the Asian Buggy Championship series seems only to have expanded that appeal. It’s a race filled with history, stories, and most importantly with friendships and community. The 2025 edition seems destined to be bigger and better again.

We look forward to Round Three of the Asian Buggy Championship coming from Pine Hills Dirt Racing in July, and then wrapping up the four-round series in Indonesia in September. Join us in person, or join us online for both those races.

There will be a bunch more photos and other content out over the next few days. From the team at Scotty Ernst Productions, thanks for joining the fun this week.

And one final thanks to our partners who help make this possible:
Matrix Racing Tires
XRAY
Inf1nityofficial
Team Losi Racing
Beach RC & Hobbies
JConcepts Inc
Sweep Racing
Coast2coastrc
Mach-1 RC Products
Power HD

CHAMPION ALERT: Unstoppable Ongaro!

Davide Ongaro is the Philippine Masters 2024 Champion, a masterclass in raw pace enough to overcome a flameout coming into the second round of pitstops. The back-to-back Nitro Buggy World Champion put his head down, taking just 25 minutes to catch a full lap on the field and regain the lead. From there he continued to build, going to the line well clear.

Ongaro’s recovery aside, it was a fascinating race – Atsushi Hara settling into second then taking over up front with Davide’s trouble. Hara was strong for the bulk of the race, seemingly destined for second until he seemed to run out of steam with ten to go…just as Ryan Pavidis finally broke clear of a race-long recovery of his own from a first lap disaster. Pavidis was dynamite over the last ten, closing on the exhausted Hara – match fitness perhaps at play – to take over the #2 spot with just a couple of minutes to go.

Neumann was in the battle with Pavidis all race to finish fourth, Christian Wolhuter a typically persistent run to fifth, and Alex Bernadzik rueing two separate engine cuts in sixth and left to wonder what might have been. Ryan Lutz another to suffer engine cuts, with hot conditions, and a slicking-off track causing mileage issues for multiple drivers.

WINNER ALERT: Petrov the Truggy Master!

Bulgaria's Plamen Petrov has completed a fairytale, winning the Truggy class here at the Philippine Masters 2024 for Round 2 of the Asian Buggy Championship.

First discovering the track when seeing a race video from Circulo Verde several years ago, Petrov made the long trek to Manila to complete a personal bucket-list race. He cut a swathe through qualifying and then got the better of Australia's Jackson Beale in a feisty 30-minute long battle between the pair, Beale mounting a big fight=back after a tough first lap. Denmark's Oliver Fischer ran strongly, staying in the top three until a late servo failure took him out, promoting experienced Kiwi Shane O'Connor. Shane was superb over the closing laps to round out the podium. Clemente Pancho was the best-placed local driver in fourth, Apex Kim fifth.

Only one race remains: the 60-minute Nitro Buggy Championship final.

We have our first winner here at the Philippine Masters 2024 for Round 2 of the Asian Buggy Championship.

Italy's Davide Ongaro has been on a mission since midday Saturday and demolished the field in A2 with his Team Associated RC8B4.1e. That 10-second win, with his A1 victory, seals the deal for Davide.

A perfect start and stunning lap times - including the first 34-second lap of the weekend - gave his rivals little opportunity. Behind, it was frenetic. Mistakes from first Bernadzik, then Pavidis, and finally Neumann promoted an ever-present Atsushi Hara to the #2, Neumann to P3. The final podium is anybody's guess with A3 to run later this afternoon.

Track conditions continue to be tricky today, a gusty headwind on the front jumps that becomes a tailwind on the long EBuggy triple bringing several drivers to grief.

Racing continues in the lower Nitro finals.