Asian Buggy Championships Round 3 Results

Press Release From Asian Buggy Championships:
www.facebook.com/asianbuggychamps

47 minutes. That’s all that stood between us and the end of what was shaping up to be an extraordinary Nitro Buggy A final here at Pine Hills Dirt Racing. 47 minutes to cap off an outstanding week of racing for Round 3 of the 2025 Asian Buggy Championship series.

And then the rain came.

We were keeping an eye on a rain-band further offshore. What stopped us in the end was a small storm that popped up almost out of nowhere, unforecast, unexpected, unfortunate. Race Director Scotty Ernst was left with no choice but to call the race, approximately 13 minutes in, with the track quickly becoming undrivable.

Even for Alex Bernadzik, the man holding the lead when the race was called, the man deservedly crowned the winner, this was a sad way for the day to end. For Kouki Kato, who had spent those 13 minutes recovering from a first lap tangle with Tyler Jones that buried him in the field, it was even more difficult. He’d driven back to Bernadzik’s rear bumper, and we looked set for the race we’d been anticipating since Thursday’s first qualifier: Bernadzik’s speed vs Kato’s persistence.

That’s sometimes how sport rolls. Mother nature holds the cards, and plays them how she feels.

The result? Bernadzik for Team Associated takes his first Asian Buggy Championships win since 2023, Kato 2nd for Inf1nity (his undefeated ABC streak finally broken), and Pekko Iivonen completed the podium for Mayako. Caleb Noble was looking like overcoming a tough week, and finished fourth, Jones recovering to fifth ahead of Truggy winner Jackson Beale.

It might not have been a satisfying conclusion, but it was a deserved result. Bernadzik was fastest in qualifying, dominant at times, and led the final from the get-go. We missed out on the battle, but Alex did not miss out on the win.

EP BUGGY: KATO!
Elsewhere this was a day that contained some great racing. Kouki Kato had earlier annexed EP Buggy, taking the A3 win to back up his Saturday A1 victory in a battle that went down to the wire between he, Bernadzik (AE) and Jones (Sparko). It was a fine performance with the prototype Inf1nity – the buggy he will pilot at the inaugural E-Buggy IFMAR World Championships in Portugal this August.

EP TRUGGY: STERLING SUPERB
Ben Sterling, to nobody’s surprise, was crowned EP Truggy Champion. It was domination from start to finish this week, and he completed the task with an A2 win this morning after winning the opener yesterday. Mitchell Pratt’s A3 win in a borrowed Truggy made it a Sparko 1-2, with Simon Healy 3rd for Tekno – the third year in a row that a member of the Healy family has graced the podium in this class.

MASTERS: PANIC / PERRY 1:1
Masters finals also featured on today’s billing, and almost from start to finish it was Ben Panic vs Darren Perry across both Nitro and EP. It’s always these two – a battle rejoined from Round 1 back in March at Counties R/C in NZ. Today, Panic was too strong in Nitro, getting around Perry on the final lap, while Perry made it 1-1 with the EP Buggy Masters win. It seems fitting that the honours were shared. Simon Healy rounded out the podium in EP, Darren Cains in Nitro. As always, the Masters races were hard fought and thoroughly enjoyed.

FULL RESULTS ONLINE
Full results are online, over at https://abcrc.liverc.com/. And head to the Scotty Ernst Productions YouTube channel to replay all the live coverage of the whole week: https://www.youtube.com/@ScottyErnst

BIG THANKS
As we wrap the week, huge thanks to Ty, Zac, Louisa, and the whole Pine Hills Dirt Racing crew. They’ve once again turned on a world-class race, at a world-class facility, with world-class hospitality. Kudos to you all. We can’t wait to do it again in 2026.

To Team Cayote, XRAY, Inf1nity, VP-Pro, and all our other sponsors, a huge thanks for the ongoing support.

Most of all, to the racers of the Asia Pacific, thanks for supporting this event. We hope you’ve loved every part of it, except those missing 47 minutes.

ROUND 4: INDONESIA
Round 4 of the 2025 series takes place September 10-14 at West Side RaceWay in Jakarta, Indonesia. Adrian Wickacsono and his team have built a fabulous layout for the 2025 race – one that we can’t wait to show you. Join us in Jakarta for what is rapidly becoming a bucket-list venue. Entries will open this week and we’ll post a link here as soon as they are live.