September 12, 2024

Welcome to my World (Quali Day 2) – Marcus Kaerup

In 1:8 Offroad the journey to the World Final starts at best with securing a spot on the grid in the Semi Finals, so making the Top 16 is Stage 1 successfully completed for Ruddog Racing supported driver Marcus Kaerup.  From 180 starters in Spain, the 16-year old Dane completed 2 days of qualifying with 13th position ahead of former World Champion Robert Battle which ain’t to shabby for a guy who is more an 1:10 Electric Offroad specialist.  Set to line-up in the same Semi Final as Top Qualifier Juan Carlos Canas,  he will carry the number 7 on his Ruddog powered Team Associated RC8 B4.1.  Catching up with Marcus at the end the second & final day of qualifying, he summed up his performance with ‘it’s being pretty good’ adding, ‘I had four consistent runs in a row so that is pretty good.  Then because I knew I was safe (into the Semis) we just tried some different stuff coming into the last 2 qualis which didn’t go very well but we have the data and know how to change to what ever track conditions we drive’.

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September 12, 2024

Canas is Top Qualifier as Coelho sets blistering Q5 pace

For months he has been widely tipped to become the new 1:8 Offroad World Champion, and living up to the well justified hype Juan Carlos Canas has completed the first stage and locked himself in as the Top Qualifier in Spain.  The Sworkz driver topped Q2, 3 & 4, giving him the perfect score with only reigning Champion Davide Ongaro left in the TQ race going into the penultimate round.  Having thrown away a potential TQ run a round earlier in Q4, Xray’s Bruno Coelho managed to omit the last lap error this time to take his first TQ and by default hand Canas an early overall TQ.  Having already switched to using the remaining two rounds of qualifying as testing for the Semi Finals, Canas would still get a P2 for the round although the gap to Coelho was a massive 5.4 seconds.  A rocket round, Coelho’s time almost 6 seconds better than the previous best from Q4, Ongaro would finish 3rd 0.154 off Canas with Elliott Boots having his best run in P4.  The Top 6 was completed by David Ronnefalk and the TLR of top American challenger Dakotah Phend.

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September 11, 2024

Canas holds overnight Worlds TQ

Day 1 of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship is complete and it is Pre Race favourite Juan Carlos Canas who holds the overnight TQ in Spain.  The Sworkz driver made it 2 out of 3 when he backed up his Q2 TQ performance in the final run of the day, however it wasn’t a perfect Q3 from the Spaniard.  In the end however he took another max points haul ahead of World Champion Davide Ongaro.  Opening qualifying with a TQ run, Ongaro’s Team Associated holds P2 overall with Bruno Coelho with a pair of Top 3 times from Q1 & 2 sitting 3rd.  It wasn’t a good Q3 for the former 1:10 Offroad World Champion, a number of errors after a wrong tyre choice leaving him with the 6th fastest time.  Instead the Top 3 for the round was completed by Dakotah Phend, the TLR driver continuing his rise to the front as the top US contender sitting fifth overall behind 2016 World Champion David Ronnefalk.

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September 11, 2024

One a piece as Canas takes Q2

It is one a piece for the World Champion and European Champion in qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship, the later, Juan Carlos Canas taking the second round of qualifying ahead of Round 1 TQ winner Davide Ongaro.  Posting a new fastest time, Canas’ Sworkz would stop the clock 3/10ths up on the World Champions Team Associated as Xray pairing Bruno Coelho and David Ronnefalk joined them on 13-laps runs.  While it has been the European drivers leading the way at RC Redovan, TLR’s Dakotah Phend continued to close the gap, the American posting a P5 for the round.

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September 11, 2024

Welcome to my World (Practice) – Marcus Kaerup

At 16-years of age he is already a double European Champion and 12-months ago on his World Championship debut he made both the 2WD and 4WD finals in Arizona but that’s in 1:10 electric.  This week however Marcus Kaerup is in Spain for the larger and noisier IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship, the power and noise for the Dane’s efforts coming his Ruddog RNX22.3 engine, the German brand also supporting Red RC’s coverage from the event.  In the first of our daily columns following his progress at the spectacular sloping RC Redovan track, we caught up with Marcus to get a quick round up of how the first 3-days of practice has faired for him in his ‘second class’.

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September 9, 2024

MonTech S1 Quattro 1:10 Body

New from Italy’s Mon-tech Racing is this S1 Quattro, a new addition for the 1:10 rally category.  Based on the legendary car from the Golden Era of the World Rally Championship, the S1 is one of the icons of rallying.  The S1 Quattro is a faithful reproduction of the original, detailed in every aspect.  Made from high-quality polycarbonate, it comes with a full set of decals and graphics for precise and professional customisation.

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September 8, 2024

‘I feel that I am in the right place again’ – Ronnefalk

In the same year that his official status got upgraded from ‘Kid’ to ‘Teenager’, a then 13-year-old from Sweden would showcase driving skills that marked him as having a talent that was going to take him places.  Attending the European Championship that year, his speed on track was enough for US Offroad star Richard Saxton to state to Red RC during our coverage from that Austrian event that EFRA was about to get its first ever B and A Champion.  While he didn’t make the Main on that occasion, that hotly tipped talent would go on to become a European Champion not once but three times as well as taking home the greatest prize our sport offers – World Champion.  That year was 2009 and that talent was David Ronnefalk and now 15-years on from making that memorable first impression, he goes into the 19th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship confident he is in the hunt to add a second World title to the one he claimed in Las Vegas in 2016.  Just before David made the trip Redovan, Spain, where today (Sunday) drivers hit the track for the first of two days of free practice, we chatted to him to get his take on the race that only comes around every 2-years and that last time round he came rather close to winning.

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September 6, 2024

Avid B7 Machined Idler Gear Set

New from Avid Racing Concepts is this machined idler gear set for the Team Associated RC10B7 2WD Buggy.  Machined out of self-lubricating plastic so they are perfectly true, they allow the transmission to spin much more freely.  Having tested the gears for a couple of months with huge success, the only time they could strip them was on a very high bite carpet track, with a direct drive, and the gear diff in the highest 3 position.  The way the AE transmission is designed is that in the higher positions you are increasing the gear mesh gap and the removal of the slipper put a lot of strain on them when landing at full throttle.  They were also tested on the same track in Mod with a slipper and there were no issues.

Source: Avid [avidrc.com]