Red RC

May 3, 2025

Iivonen wins A1 eBuggy thriller at Philippine Masters

Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen pulled of one of the highlight drives of his career today in Manila as he took the opening round of eBuggy at the Philippine Masters after an epic final lap showdown with Top Qualifier Davide Ongaro. Having started the day by claiming a TQ run in the fourth & final round of qualifying at Round 2 of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, the Finn would like up P2 on the grid sandwiched between the two Team Associated’s of Ongaro, in front, and Alex Bernadzik, behind. At the start Iivonen and Bernadzik would come together and it looked like Ongaro was on for an even easier win than expected but the Italian would have a moment on lap 4, that for him proved costly. For the race’s record entry all watching on it would lead to them being entertain by a thrilling final lap, Scotty Ernst rising to the occasion on the mic and adding to the intensity. After Ongaro’s error at the end of the straight dropped him behind Iivonen, the two making contact, Bernadzik found his way to the lead to the cheers of the huge Australian contingent. It was short live however as a roll at the end of the straight allowed Iivonen to go to the front chased by Ongaro. As the clock ticked down, on starting their final lap Ongaro would go all out in on the front jump section sending it and jumping over the leader but at the next corner Iivonen made the inside line to hold the lead with a moment from the World Champion allowing hm to breath again if only momentarily. As they reached the back jump section Ongaro again tried tp pass in the air but contact sent the two tumbling. With Ongaro waiting for the leader to get turned around again in the right direction, they resumed for a 7-second dash to the line with Iivonen managing to stay in front to take a hugely popular win.

Continue reading report here

May 3, 2025

Kilic takes final qualifier at Philippine Masters

Burak Kilic has taken the fourth & final round of qualifying at the Philippines Masters, the Mugen Seiki/Nova Engines driver finally ending Davide Ongaro’s reign at Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race. While yesterday threatened the possibility of rain, the record entry of drivers from 21 countries arrived Saturday morning to a dry & very hot track for one last qualifying effort and it would prove to be the fastest and most exciting of the four. With Ongaro having already secured the overall TQ in the penultimate round yesterday, an early mistake from the World Champion gave his rivals the chance to go the top with Infinity’s Kouki Kato topping the timing screens and looking like he might finally deliver on the outright speed he has shown over the last two days. It wasn’t to be however as he had a bobble on his sixth lap of 9. This promoted Mayako’s Pekko Iivonan to the top of the timing screens but a bad lap dropped him off the top spot before a bobble on the last lap ended the prospect of a TQ run. Having lost over two & a half seconds in the first half of the heat with a bobble, bobble the word of Q4, a recovering Kilic took over from Iivonan and laying down the fastest lap managed to get the TQ by half a second over Ongaro with Ryan Lutz only a further 4/10ths back after putting in his best run of the 4. With Ongaro and Kilic the only two drivers to make 9-laps yesterday, today the Top 6 all broke that barrier. Overall the result means Kilic starts directly behind Ongaro for tomorrow’s 1-hour Main with Kato lining up P3 ahead of his Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura, Lutz and the Sworkz of Mattio Polito.

Continue reading report here

May 2, 2025

Ongaro is Philippine Masters Top Qualifier

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro will go for a third consecutive win at the Philippine Masters as the Top Qualifier, his main rival in Manila Burak Kilic unable to force the battle for the overall TQ to go to tomorrow’s final qualifier. Originally two qualifiers were scheduled to make up Friday’s timetable but with a chance of rain effecting the rest of the weekend, race control pushed through with getting a third round in the books. With Ongaro having taken the opening 2 qualifiers, Kilic had to deliver a TQ run having come close in the previous round, but it wasn’t to be. The Mugen Seiki would get caught out on his penultimate lap by light rain that started as the third round concluded. Going off the track, Kilic would retire to the pits as Ongaro took the round ahead of Infinity pairing Kouki Kato and Naoto Matsukura. Behind them, despite a mistake, Ryan Lutz maintained his run of Top 5 times taking his Kyosho to the fourth fastest time ahead of Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik and last year’s podium finisher Atsushi Hara. With the TQ settled the focus of Q4 will be on the battle for second between Asian Buggy Championship debutant Kilic and last year’s season finale winner Kouki.

Continue reading report here

May 2, 2025

Roche P12V2 Option Parts

1:12 manufacturer Roche has some new option parts for its Rapide P12V and V2 chassis releasing a steel rear axle and a Version 2 optional aluminium servo horn for the Xray servo saver. The new material hollow steel axle improves drivability and offer more durability than the kit’s carbon axle. A new design direct to the shaft aluminium wheel & spur gear holder improves weight balance on rotation. The spur gear is mounted by 3 pieces machine cut custom size M2 screw, simple and easy install by 1.5mm hex driver. The Version 2 aluminium servo horn for the Xray servo and other brands of 1:12 chassis with a front mounting servo has an extra 2mm space for steering linkage position to make more ackermann adjustment. And two different steering links mount position, the 7.5mm gives less steering response while the 7mm increases steering response.

View more images here

May 2, 2025

Core RC Pace 100RM 1S Mini Competition ESC

Schumacher brand Core RC has introduced a new 1S Mini Brushless Competition Speed Control called the Pace 100RM which is suitable for a wide range of 1S racing classes including LMP12, and GT12. With a huge range of features the PACE 100RM is Mini sized and at just 31.5x25x16mm is ultra small making it perfect for the tight spaces in chassis for these 1:12 classes. Fully programmable with the Core RC Bluetooth Set Up Module and app based technology, the ESC is BRCA ‘Blinky’ Legal.

View features & specs here

May 2, 2025

Kilic closer but another TQ run for Ongaro

While a repeat of the opening qualifier result, Q2 at the Philippine Masters saw Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic get a lot closer to Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro. With a 1-second buffer over the Manila race first timer in Q1, the defending back to back winner of Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race had just 4/10ths in hand over Kilic in the second round, the later saying afterwards traffic had cost him a the chance of the TQ. Summing up his run Ongaro reported the wind was causing him some issues but added ‘wind is part of the game and you can do nothing. For the rest (of the run) it was good’. On his performance Kilic said, ‘It was really good but just held me up from making the TQ. I mean it was the same for Davide he also had many traffic but we made a good race’. While the original schedule for Friday’s action was just two qualifiers, the event famous driver’s banquet taking place this evening in the capital city, the threat of rain tomorrow means drivers will go at it one more time today with a third round of qualifying. While up front things looked, again the Top 2 the only drivers to cover 9-laps, the second round produced some notable improvements from Naoto Matsukra and Pekko Iivonan who posted the 3rd and 4th fastest times ahead of Ryan Lutz. Having had a Top 3 in Q1, Sworkz diver Mattia Polito could only manage P7, the Italian reporting he had a complete lack of traction this time round.

Continue reading report here

May 2, 2025

Ongaro from Kilic as qualifying gets underway in Manila

With qualifying getting underway at the Philippine Masters in Manila this morning, it was Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro who topped the first of the 4 scheduled qualifiers from Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic. Having topped yesterday’s seeding from Infinity’s Kouki Kato, Ongaro completed 9-laps of the Circulo Verde Track over the 5-minute qualifier with Kilic, the only other drive to make 9-laps, just 1-second off. It was to be a frustrating start to qualifying for Kato as he crashed on his opening lap and needed to be marshal. Losing 4-seconds, the fired up Japanese driver would go on to set the fastest lap by an impressive margin as he recovered to salvage a P5. Making it an all European based Top 3, Italy’s Mattia Polito managed to go ahead of Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz on the final lap. Seeded No.8, the American lost 3/10ths of a second to the Sworkz driver on their 8th lap giving Polito 3rd for the round by just 0.048. Behind them reigning Asian Buggy Championships Champion Christian Wolhuter completed the Top 6, this weekend’s second round of the Cayote backed championship the Australian Sworkz driver’s first outing of the season.

Continue reading report here

May 2, 2025

G-Force ‘Xtrada’ 1:10 4WD Buggy

After a number of successful collaborations with RC legend Masami Hirosaka, most notably the MX-4 Forever, Japan’s G-Force has announced the upcoming release of the ‘Xtrada’ 1:10 4WD buggy. Masami introduced the new belt drive buggy in a video that coincided with the company’s G-Force Competition Cup event that took place at Tsukuba RC Arena, the new name for the world famous Yatabe Arena. G-Force say their newest kit is themed around a ‘neo-classic design’, with Masami going through all the details in the Japanese language video presentation (view video here). The planned release date for the Xtrada is between Summer and Fall this year with pricing yet to be decided.

View additional images here