Red RC » Team Associated

June 8, 2025

Ongaro defends European eBuggy title in Spain

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro has defended his EFRA European 1:8 eBuggy title winning the 9th edition of the championship at Valladolid in Spain. Qualifying would kick off with Bruno Coelho and his prototype Infinity eBuggy topping the first of the four rounds but fastest in the next three qualifiers it was reigning European Nitro Buggy Champion Juan Carlos Canas who secured the TQ with his Sworkz. Behind the Spaniard it was Ongaro, last year’s Top Qualifier in France, who lined up second ahead of Coelho. Italian Sworkz driver Mattio Polito secured P4 with the Sparko of young French talent Noha Ben Mohamed in fifth as David Ronnefalk completed the Top 6 as the leading Xray. In the first of the 10-minute triple final encounters, late contact between Canas and Ongaro handed Coelho the win. In A2 a mistake from Canas early on saw him give the lead to Ongaro who would lead home Coelho and Ronnefalk. Unfortunately Canas’s hopes of retaking the title he last held in 2022 were over after he suffered a DNF trying to make his way back up the order. While Canas finally delivered a win in A3, second was enough for Ongaro to take his third eBuggy Euros title with Coelho the runner-up as Canas completed the podium. Finishing P4, Ben Mohamed took the European Junior title. A big year for 1:8 Electric Buggy, drivers will now turn their attention to the first ever IFMAR World Championship for the category which takes place in Portugal in August.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

June 3, 2025

Phipps claims first BRCA 1:10 Offroad National win

Team Associated’s Thomas Phipps claimed his first BRCA British 1:10 Offroad National Championship win over the weekend when he won 2WD at Round 2 of the championship. Racing at Boughton Raceway in Norfolk in the East of the country, in 4WD it was Schumacher’s Ben Smith who took the win. Topping 3 of the 4 qualifiers, Neil Cragg managing the fastest time in Q2, Phipps secured the overall TQ ahead of the similar buggies of Cragg and Round 1 double winner Tommy Hall with Smith securing P4. In the finals an incident filled A1 saw Hall win from Smith as Phipps finished P4. In A2, the 20-year-old was able to convert pole into victory finishing 2-seconds ahead of Cragg. In A3 having pulled an early lead, Phipps was then chased back down by Hall but as the reigning champion attempted a pass the pair tangled handing the lead to the Schumacher’s Josh Holdsworth. Holdsworth stayed out front to win the leg ahead of Phipps and Smith but P2 was enough for Phipps to claim his first National race win. Josh Holdsworth (2nd) and Hall joined him on the podium. In 4WD, Smith would take the TQ and win ahead of Martin, who won A1, with Josh Holdsworth competing the Top 3 ahead of back to back champion Hall.

Image: Thomas Phipps [Facebook]

May 29, 2025

Team Associated RC10T Cliff Lett Edition

Yet another old school kit release from Team Associated as they present the RC10T Cliff Lett Edition. A tribute to the stadium truck that made its mark at the 1991 Florida Winter Champs, this special edition faithfully recreates the look and performance of the original RC10T that Cliff drove to victory at the debut race of this iconic platform. At the heart of this release is the striking powder-coated fluorescent red chassis, a signature feature that not only catches the eye but also pays homage to the truck that dominated the competition more than three decades ago.

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May 20, 2025

Ongaro again at Round 2 of Italian Nationals

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro made it 2 from 2 in the AMSCI Italian National Championship over the weekend taking the win at his home track, the Ongaroring. The World Champion and reigning Italian Champion topped 3 of the four rounds of qualifying to secure the TQ ahead of Kyosho pairing Marco Baruffolo, who topped Q4, and Riccardo Berton. Starting the 45-minute from pole ahead of Berton and Sworkz’s Mattia Polito after winning the faster of the Semi Finals, Ongaro would secure his second win of the 4-round championship by a lap over Berton, who suffered a DNF at Round 1. With the Top 3 finishing as they started the final, Polito claimed his second podium finish of the season having finished P2 at the season opener at River Park RC track back in March.

Image: Mattia Polito [Facebook]

May 14, 2025

Team Associated RC10 Graphite

Continuing to roll out iconic kits from its past, Team Associated has re-released the RC10 Graphite, an authentic replica of their 2WD Buggy kit originally released in 1989. Featuring a 2.5mm Carbon fibre graphite chassis, the RC10 Graphite when originally released was Associated’s first graphite offroad chassis and was unique in being specially fabricated to their specifications to perfectly suit the Graphite’s fully independent suspension. 100% carbon fibre, the Graphite was laminated with unidirectional graphite cloth and then precision drilled on CNC equipment. The RC10 Graphite is availablr for pre-order with a limit of two kits per order and is due to ship at the end of the month.

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May 13, 2025

Associated RC8B4 18mm | 19mm HTC Diff Gear Sets

Team Associated has added 2 new HTC Differential Gear Sets for their 1:8 Buggy. In development during 2024, and used by several team drivers at the IFMAR Worlds, the 2 smaller size HTC gears provide tuning advantages to dial more grip and corner speed into the buggy for tighter tracks and looser conditions. The lower the grip, the smaller diameter gearsets help distribute power without locking and spinning the tires. The sets are offered in 18mm or 19mm options.

Source: Associated [associatedelectrics.com]

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.

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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.

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