Red RC

September 18, 2025

Mazzeo crowned inaugural Electric GT World Champion

Raptor’s Alessio Mazzeo is the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric GT World Champion, the Italian claiming the title in Chile this evening after he backed up his A1 win with another controlled winning performance in A2 ahead of fellow countryman Natanaele Senesi. Having secured the TQ honours for the class, topping 5 of the 6 qualifiers, the 33-year-old finally achieved the sport’s greatest prize. An Italian National Champion, a European Champion, and a Worlds podium finisher, after many years as one of nitro onroad’s top international racers he now completes the set with a World title. While acknowledging himself the low entry in Santiago, Mazzeo joins Italy’s World Champion role of honour and an even more elite group of World Champions, namely Davide Ongaro and Lamberto Collari, who achieved success with a Sanwa stick radio. Securing the title early, A3 set to take place tomorrow, Mazzeo can now firmly set his sights on doing the double at the the Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track as he line-up second for the 1-hour Nitro GT final having shown in qualifying today he can dig deep when he needs too. Giving Raptor the right to now call itself a World Champion manufacturer, Mazzeo’s car was fitted with Hobbywing electronics with power coming from Nosram batteries.

September 18, 2025

Catanzani is GT Worlds Top Qualifier as sterling Mazzeo effort just comes up short

Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani is the Top Qualifier at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships in Chile, qualifying coming to thrilling climax at the Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track after a sterling effort in the final qualifier by Raptor’s Alessio Mazzeo. After taking three of yesterday’s four qualifying rounds, Catanzani held the overnight TQ from Q1 winner Mazzeo who needed to TQ today’s two remaining rounds to deny his fellow Italian pole position for Friday’s 1-hour final. Rising to the challenge by ticking the first box and topping Q5, the 33-year now needed to not only TQ the sixth & final qualifier but also to better Catanzani’s Q4 time. With engine his sponsor Gimar fitting a new engine for Q6, Mazzeo earlier saying they had nothing to lose, he put together a brilliant drive and as the 7-minutes started to come to a close it looked like he was about to pull off the impressive feat, his projected time just ahead of Catanzani’s best. It wasn’t to be however, Mazzeo’s engine going lean right at the end and losing power, costing vital 1/10ths of a second. Still taking the TQ for the round and forcing the tiebreaker, unfortunately he was 6/10ths of second short with Catanzani, who has struggled today, securing the honour of Top Qualifier for the 3rd running of the GT World Championships 2-years on from when he announced the arrival of his talent on international stage at the GT Worlds in Sydney. Behind the fight for the TQ there was also a battle for the order of the other two direct spots in the final, Super Pole no longer a thing. It would be Natanaele Senesi who got the better of Alex D’Angelo concluding qualifying with his fastest run that gave him a P2. With it an all Italian Top 4, best of the rest at the end of qualifying in Santiago would be Brazilian WIRC driver Elias Flavio who will lead away one of the Semi Finals while Raptor driver Carli Lopez from Puerto Rico starts on pole in the other Semi.

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September 18, 2025

Team Cayote Crest X Evo

Team Cayote has officially released their all new Crest X Evo speed controller which compared to the Crest X can achieve 5 times higher computing power. The Crest X EVO is equipped with a high-performance ARM architecture, featuring a 32-bit Cortex-M4 core processor with a clock speed of up to 108MHz. Enabling faster processing of complex calculations it therefore increasing acceleration and braking performance. This significant performance boost ensures stronger ability for high-speed response and multi-task controls, as well provides enhanced reliability and precision in high demand power applications.

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September 18, 2025

Mazzeo tops Q5 to remaining in the hunt

Raptor’s Alessio Mazzeo remains in the hunt for the overall TQ at the 1:8 GT World Championships in Chile, the Italian delivering his second TQ run in the fifth & penultimate round of qualifying this morning. With fog delaying the start of Day 2 of qualifying at the Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track by an hour, once the action got underway the sun would come out in force. While it was overnight TQ holder Andrea Catanzani who set the initial TQ pace for the first 6-laps, once Mazzeo’s tyres came in the 33-year-old took charge of proceedings. With Catanzani’s Serpent losing pace in the later part of the run, setting the fastest lap Mazzeo would take the all important TQ by 1.6 seconds forcing the battle to become the Top Qualifier to go to the sixth & final round. While always saying his car worked better in the hotter conditions unfortunately today noticeable increase in temperatures could hamper Mazzeo quest for the overall TQ honours as he needs another TQ run to match Catanzani but needs to do it in the fastest time to deny his fellow Italian the top spot. Catanzani’s Q4 run from yesterday is the fastest so far and Mazzeo’s latest TQ run was some 4-seconds shy of the pace needed. While all the attention was on the Mazzeo/Catanzani battle, behind them it would be Natanaele Senesi who completed the Top 3 after Alex D’Angelo’s Capricorn ran out of fuel on the last lap.

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September 18, 2025

Mazzeo leads way in inaugural eGT World title fight

In contention for the overall TQ in the established IFMAR 1:8 GT Nitro World Championship, Raptor’s Alessio Mazzeo leads the way in the inaugural Electric GT World title race which is also running in Chile. While just 10-drivers make up the entry list for the quieter class, it is again proving to be an all Italian battle at the front. EFRA’s inaugural eGT European Champion back in 2023, Mazzeo would post three TQ runs today with the only other driver to top a round being Natanaele Senesi when he took Q3. Behind them it is Capricorn’s Alex D’Angelo who sits third in the overnight ranking. With the final two qualifiers set to run tomorrow, potentially Senesi still has a shot at becoming the Top Qualifier in Santiago but he’ll need the perfect day to deny Mazzeo the TQ starting position.

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September 17, 2025

Catanzani holds overnight TQ at GT Worlds

With the 3rd running of the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships taking place in Chile, it is Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani who leads the way after 4 rounds of qualifying to hold the overnight TQ in Santiago. A driver who came to international prominence at the previous GT Worlds two years ago in Sydney, Australia, after a stressful start to the Day 1 of qualifying when he was briefly disqualified from Q1 this morning, the Italian has since taken charge of proceedings. With a TQ run in Q2, he backed that up with another two TQ runs in rounds 3 & 4 of six although he admitted that Q1 winner Alessio Mazzeo had found something on his Raptor set-up. He also felt his rival would have most like have TQ’d had it not been for another car spinning in of him and resulting in unavoidable contact and 2-seconds lost. The gap at the end of the 7-minutes only just 6/10ths of a second with Natanaele Senesi completing the Top 3 behind Mazzeo. Venezuela’s Diego Morganti capped off his day with his best showing yet to post the 4th fastest time, the best performance we seen so far from any non-Italian driver.

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September 17, 2025

Izsay joins Xray R&D team

Xray has announced that team driver Ádám Izsay has joined their R&D team in a full-time capacity. The Hungarian racer who has brought the Slovakian manufacturer much success on track will now bring his experience to the company’s R&D onroad team and work alongside Martin and Juraj Hudy. On making the announcement Xray said, ‘Adam has already demonstrated his value through his dedication, precision, and strong contributions to testing and racing. His professionalism and commitment to excellence make him an ideal addition to XRAY’s R&D program. Each year, Xray annually updates the majority of the world’s largest portfolio of high-competition model racing cars — a lineup of 20 different models. This extensive process requires not only engineering expertise but also continuous on-track evaluation. With Adam now part of the R&D structure, Xray will further strengthen its ability to innovate and accelerate development especially in on-road field. Together, Martin Hudy, Juraj Hudy and Adam Izsay will form a highly effective R&D on-road team focused on pushing the boundaries of performance and maintaining Xray’s reputation for world-leading design and quality.’

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

September 17, 2025

Catanzani takes control in Q2 & 3

Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani has taken control of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships in Chile, the Italian producing back to back TQ runs as he topped the times in the second & third rounds of qualifying as things warm-up a little in Santiago. With a cold start to qualifying this morning, the sun finally burned it’s way through the earlier fog with the snow capped mountain in the distance making up the back drop to the track as Q3 completed the first half qualifying. Complaining of the cold after Q1, Catanzani would outpace Top Seed and Q1 winner Alessio Mazzeo by 1.1-seconds at the second time of asking, this time three drivers managing to put together 20-lap runs, the third of those being Capricorn’s Alex D’Angelo. With Mazzeo having to pit during Q3 for an engine adjustment, D’Angelo would get a P2 for that round but Catazani’s advantage was now 2.2-seconds as he improved by almost 3-seconds over the 7-minutes despite feeling his car’s performance faded in the later part of the run. Natanaele Senesi completed the Top 3 ahead of the WIRC of Brazilian nitro onroad racing stalwart Elias Flavio which overall means as it currently stands at the half way stage it is an all Italian line-up in the all important Top 4, direct to final, qualification rankings.

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