diff --git a/ci-automation/ci-config.env b/ci-automation/ci-config.env
index d061a9bf8f..2b3289283b 100644
--- a/ci-automation/ci-config.env
+++ b/ci-automation/ci-config.env
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ CONTAINER_IMAGE_ROOT="/home/sdk/build/images"
 
 # -- QEMU --
 
-QEMU_IMAGE_NAME="flatcar_production_image.bin"
+QEMU_IMAGE_NAME=${QEMU_IMAGE_NAME:-flatcar_production_image.bin}
 QEMU_PARALLEL="${PARALLEL_TESTS:-20}"
 
 # BIOS path within the SDK
diff --git a/ci-automation/test.sh b/ci-automation/test.sh
index 18b2ffdacd..9162aecfaf 100644
--- a/ci-automation/test.sh
+++ b/ci-automation/test.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/bin/bash -x
 #
 # Copyright (c) 2021 The Flatcar Maintainers.
 # Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@ function _test_run_impl() {
     fi
 
     local retries="${MAX_RETRIES:-20}"
+    local skip_copy_to_bincache=${SKIP_COPY_TO_BINCACHE:-0}
 
     source ci-automation/tapfile_helper_lib.sh
     source ci-automation/ci_automation_common.sh
@@ -216,14 +217,19 @@ function _test_run_impl() {
         echo "########### All re-runs exhausted ($retries). Giving up. ###########"
     fi
 
-    # publish kola output, TAP files to build cache
-    copy_to_buildcache "testing/${vernum}/${arch}/${image}" \
-        "${tests_dir}/_kola_temp"
-    copy_to_buildcache "testing/${vernum}/${arch}/${image}" \
-        "${tests_dir}/"*.tap
-    copy_to_buildcache "testing/${vernum}/${arch}/${image}" \
-        "${tap_merged_summary}"
-    copy_to_buildcache "testing/${vernum}/${arch}/${image}" \
-        "${tap_merged_detailed}"
+    if [ ${skip_copy_to_bincache} -eq 0 ]
+        # publish kola output, TAP files to build cache
+        copy_to_buildcache "testing/${vernum}/${arch}/${image}" \
+            "${tests_dir}/_kola_temp"
+        copy_to_buildcache "testing/${vernum}/${arch}/${image}" \
+            "${tests_dir}/"*.tap
+        copy_to_buildcache "testing/${vernum}/${arch}/${image}" \
+            "${tap_merged_summary}"
+        copy_to_buildcache "testing/${vernum}/${arch}/${image}" \
+            "${tap_merged_detailed}"
+    fi
+    if ! $success; then
+        return 1
+    fi
 }
 # --
diff --git a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh
index 8977f254eb..c739fb8bc3 100755
--- a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh
+++ b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ fi
 
 # Fetch image and BIOS if not present
 if [ -f "${QEMU_IMAGE_NAME}" ] ; then
-    echo "++++ ${CIA_TESTSCRIPT}: Using existing ./${QEMU_IMAGE_NAME} for testing ${CIA_VERNUM} (${CIA_ARCH}) ++++"
+    echo "++++ ${CIA_TESTSCRIPT}: Using existing ${QEMU_IMAGE_NAME} for testing ${CIA_VERNUM} (${CIA_ARCH}) ++++"
 else
     echo "++++ ${CIA_TESTSCRIPT}: downloading ${QEMU_IMAGE_NAME} for ${CIA_VERNUM} (${CIA_ARCH}) ++++"
     rm -f "${QEMU_IMAGE_NAME}.bz2"