Red RC

February 9, 2026

Mod Champion to be decided at EWS Finale – R4 Report

The penultimate round of the Essex Winter Series took place this Sunday, and confirmed that the LRP Modified champion would once again be crowned in the Series Finale next month! Kyle Branson opened proceedings, setting the best times in Q1 and Q2. The ToniSport-backed driver had now chosen to run a Mugen MTC-3 chassis for the rest of the winter, and it was a Mugen 1-2 as he led Alex Thurston in both the opening runs. Chris Grainger seemed to have re-found his form after a tough start to the winter by taking third in the first round and fourth in the second qualifier. Elliott Harper, a championship contender alongside Kyle and Alex, seemed on the back foot after a fifth and third place scores. However, for Q3, Elliott found some pace with his Schumacher, posting a new fastest time to top the round ahead of Kyle and Alex, before a tight final qualifier again saw Elliott lead Kyle and Alex to secure the overall pole position. Chris would line up fourth with his Reedy Power-backed Schumacher, with Bailey Graves (Schumacher) rounding out the top five. The A Final ultimately turned in to a dominant drive from Elliott, with the top three breaking away from the rest of the field in the opening laps, before Elliott then pulled away further to leave the two Mugen cars to fight over second and third. At the half-distance mark, Kyle made a small mistake, leaving just enough space for Alex to pounce and move up to second. However, a few laps later, a lapped car then took out Alex, allowing Kyle back up into second in the race. That was the order they finished, with Elliott making it back-to-back wins and moving into the championship lead. However, Kyle’s gift of second place leaves him tied with Elliott, and now Alex two points behind – meaning the championship will be decided in March.

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February 9, 2026

Takashima D-13 SkyRC Tyre Warmer Portable Case

Building on its previously successful 3D printed accessories, Takashima D-13 has released a new portable case designed for the latest SkyRC tyre warmer. The case allows drivers to mount an external battery directly inside the tire warmer housing, making it possible to carry the tire warmer and chassis together with one hand when moving from the pit table to the track, while maintaining tire temperature. A distinctive diamond-pattern surface with 90-degree indexed flat faces allows the chassis to be placed either lengthwise or sideways, helping with efficient pit table organisation. The package also includes a DC power cable for connecting an external power supply to the tire warmer, addressing an item not supplied with the original SkyRC unit.

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February 9, 2026

Lemieux doubles at JConcepts INS16 opener

Xray’s Chase Lemieux has opened the 16th season of the JConcepts Indoor National Series with a double win at his home track of Trackside Hobbies in Wisconsin. The first stop on the 5 round calendar, Lemieux would secure the TQ in both 2WD and 4WD. In 2WD his closest challenger would be Team Associated’s Aydin Horne, winner of the race 12-months earlier, and Xray team-mate Dakotah Phend, each driver posting a TQ run over the three quali rounds. In 4WD, it was Schumacher’s reigning double INS Champion, and winner of the race in 2025, Broc Champlin who lined up P2 with Phend again P3 ahead of Team Associated’s Spencer Rivkin. In the finals Lemieux would need just the opening two A-Mains to wrap up both overall wins. In 2WD Horne won A3 to finish second with Phend completing the podium ahead of Tom Rinderknecht. In 4WD Champlin took A3 to finish second with Rivkin getting onto the podium with P2 finishes in A2 & 3. Round 2 of the JConcepts INS16 takes place on May 1-3 at RC One Racing in Macomb Township, Michigan.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

February 9, 2026

RC Atomic MRX Ultra 1:28 2WD Competition Kit

1:28 specialist manufacturer RC Atomic has presented its new 2WD Link-less Competition kit the MRX Ultra. The Hong Kong manufacturer’s third generation of 2WD Link-less 2WD Pan Car they have made significant changes with the latest car. The Ultra comes with a one-piece 7075 integrated chassis with the front bulkhead, central pivot mount, and rear guide rail all prefabricated into main chassis and offering perfect alignment of them. This kit also allows users to choose between from the traditional horizontal battery and “inline vertical” battery configurations. To further lower the centre of gravity of the car, they have relocated the mid damper to the rear and no more heavy weight sling over the battery. They have also made a opening on the chassis to allow servo to sit lower. New front suspension system allows you to finely adjust the roll centre and camber gain by adding shims to the pivot joint of the arms.

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February 9, 2026

Bruneau wins 50th anniversary Florida WinterNats

One of the world’s longest running nitro onroad races and celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026, Joachim Bruneau has taken the 1:8 Open win at the end of the high rate of attrition 45-minute Florida WinterNats final. Hosted at Greg Esser’s Nuggets Ranch Raceway in Arcadia, after the four rounds of qualifying it was Infinity’s Teemu Leino who secured the TQ honours ahead of new Mugen Seiki signing Diego Morganti, Lazaro Alonso JR, former 1:10 Nitro Touring World Champion Ralph Burch and 2017 WinterNats Champion DJ Apolaro. With Morganti getting an early lead over Leino, the Finn having issues with his brakes, while pair would be the only drivers to run 13-seconds lap times during the race, unfortunately neither would go the distance. After just 5-minutes Leino was out with a throttle servo failure with Alonso JR next to go out 3-minutes later. Winner of November’s Cow Patty Classic, Apolaro wouldn’t get back to back wins at the track, the former ROAR Champion out at the 20-minute mark. He would be followed to the sidelines at 36-minute by another contender Burch. All the time it was Morganti who was out front and looking on target to add a 6th title to the family name, his father Paolo a 5-time Winternats Champion. With just over 5-minutes to go however a rear belt failure would put the 21-year-old out handing Cow Patty Classic podium finisher Bruneau the win. Some distance back Rafael Angula and Dutch visitor Gertjan Van Schaik completed the podium. In 1:8 Masters it was a Dutch win, as Infinity driver Arie Manten took victory from P5 on the grid. The 1:8 GT win went to Serpent’s Jose Almonte, Top Qualifier & World Championship Podium finisher Carlie Lopez having issues and dropping out of contention eventually finishing P10 with his Raptor. In 1:10 Nitro Touring, Apolaro brought home the win after getting passed Top Qualifier & defending Champion Michael Palazzola with Jerry Guerra completing the podium.

Image: Joe Kimble

February 9, 2026

T-Works MP11 Black Hard Coated Alu Shock towers

Aftermarket parts producer T-Works continues to grow its line for the Kyosho MP11 with the release of Black Hard Coated 7075-T6 Aluminium Front and Rear Shock towers for the 1:8 Buggy platform. The CNC machined towers feature additional caster angle holes & shock mounting options for greater shock position adjustments. Additionally the rear shock tower has added rear wing mount holes for greater options on setting wing height. With each tower sold separately, the rear tower comes with screws for rear wing mount installation.

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February 8, 2026

Clean sweep for Zalewski at MKGP

Having taken the 4WD win last year, Xray’s Bartek Zalewski has completed a clean sweep of this year’s MKGP winning both 2WD and 4WD at the British Radio Car Association promoted event. The annual 1:10 carpet track event takes place in the Centre:MK shopping centre in Milton Keynes and showcases RC racing in front of weekend shoppers. In 2WD qualifying it would be Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik who took the opening round but it would be Zalewski who would go on to secure the TQ before dominating the remainder of the event. Winning the 2WD final ahead of Kobbevik, with Schumacher’s Ben Smith completing the podium, in 4WD the young Polish talent was untouchable. Topping all four rounds of qualifying, he would again start on pole ahead of Kobbevik, Smith, Sw0rkz’s Micha Widmaier and the Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen and World Champion Marcus Kaerup. In the triple finals, Zalewski wrapped up the perfect weekend with wins in a A1 and A2. Winning A3 ahead of Kaerup, Kobbevik claimed second with the Dane completing the podium.

Image: Bartek Zalewski [Facebook]

February 8, 2026

Anderson & Ratheisky claim Mod wins at Snowbirds

Awesomatix’s Kemp Anderson and Xray’s Jan Ratheisky took the main Modified wins at the 32nd running of the world famous Snowbird Nationals in Florida, Anderson taking the 1:12 title while Ratheisky took Touring Car honours. With long time Snowbirds stalwart and 2025 double winner Alexander Hagberg missing this year’s edition due to the earlier running of the legendary TITC race in Thailand, qualifying would see Xcelerate RC’s Ollie Payne and Ratheisky dominate the time sheets in Orlando. British driver Payne would top both 1:12 Modified, ahead of Anderson and Xray’s Keven Hebert, and 13.5 Super Stock, ahead of Awesomatix pairing of Jeff Dayger and Team EAM owner Eric Anderson. In Modified Touring Car, German Ratheisky secured the TQ from Hebert, Kemp Anderson and Xray’s Drew Ellis, a feat he would repeat in 21.5 Super Stock ahead of Eric Anderson, Ellis, and Clayton Young. Attracting 246 entries, in the single A-Main finals Payne would lead Modified for 51 of the 68 laps before relinquishing the lead to Anderson and having to settle for second with Canadian Hebert completing the podium. He would redeem himself in Super Stock but only after getting back passed Dayger. The podium was completed by fellow Brit & fifth place qualifier Morgan Williams. Ratheisky would convert both his TQ’s in to tone to tone wins, taking Super Stock ahead of ROAR President Young and Michael Hanulec while in Mod it won by almost 2-seconds from Hebert while Kemp Anderson completed the podium.

Image: RC Discharger [Facebook]