Red RC » Events

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 1, 2025

Ongaro tops seeding at Philippine Masters

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro goes into qualifying at the Philippine Masters tomorrow as the Top Seed, the Italian being one of three different drivers to top each of the seeding rounds today at Round 2 of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships. With Infinity’s Kouki Kato laying down the opening pace, Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic topped the second round but fell short of bettering Kato’s fastest 2-consecutive laps. With Ongaro somewhat off the pace in SP2, he would bounce back for the final round being the only one of the Top 6 to improve finding 8/10ths of a second on his previous best to better the Japanese driver’s time by a 1/10th. Overall Kato, winner of the 2024 Asian Buggy Championship season final in Indonesia, will be the No.2 seed ahead of Kilic. Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik ended the day P4, the 2023 ABC Australia race winner’s best run coming in SP2, followed by Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura and Sworkz’ Mattia Polito.

Continue reading report here

May 1, 2025

Kilic fastest in SP2, Kato maintains top seed status

He said after SP1 he felt his car would be faster for the second seeding round at the Philippine Masters and that turned out to be the case as Burak Kilic took his Nova Engines powered Mugen Seiki to the fastest 2-consecutive laps. Going one better than he did in the morning’s opening round, Kilic’s time however would not better than that set by Kouki Kato, that time still more than 2/10ths of a second faster around the technical track where currently 36.8-seconds are the benchmark lap times. Behind Kilic, Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik set the second fastest time with an improvement of 5/10ths on his SP1 effort. Almost half a second off his morning time, something he put down down his tyre prep, Kato would complete the Top 3 ahead of his Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura who was much happier with his latest effort. Fifth fastest in SP1, Sworkz’ Mattia Polito again rounded out the Top 5 of the high qualify field ahead of the race’s defending champion Davide Ongaro.

Continue reading report here

May 1, 2025

Kato sets early pace at Philippine Masters

Infinity’s Kouki Kato has set the pace in the opening round of seeding practice at the Philippine Masters, the Japanese driver fastest by a decent margin over 2-consecutive laps of this year’s more technical Manila track layout. The second round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, Kato was the winner of last season’s championship finale in Indonesia but this weekend marks his first trip to the legendary Philippines race and it was another of the race’s first timers, Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic, who was his closest rival 7/10ths of a second back with the rest of the Top 5 covered by just 2/10ths. The first of the three seeding rounds that make up Thursday schedule would see Team Associated’s reigning World Champion Davide Ongaro complete the Top 3 ahead of team-mate Alex Bernadzik with Italy’s Mattia Polito fifth as the leading Sworkz driver.

Continue reading report

April 30, 2025

IFMAR drops Superpole from IC World C/ship format

IFMAR, the World governing body of RC racing, has announced that for all IC track classes the decision has been taken to retire Superpole from the race format and return to 4 direct qualifiers. The format, in which the participating 4 drivers can book a direct spot in the final alongside the Top Qualifier, had both its fans and its detractors and had its controversies too such as at the 2019 200mm Worlds in Miami. They have also announced for IC Onroad Worlds the introduction of a ‘Last Chance’ final for an 11th spot on the main final grid which is already a feature of the 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship race format. In its latest website update, IFMAR have also published updated rules for the upcoming inaugural 1:8 Electric Buggy World Championships set to take place in Portugal from August 26-30 and the 1:8 GT World Championships in Chile which will happen from September 14-20th. Drivers can familiarise themselves with the rules for 1:8 eBuggy here and 1:8 GT here.

Source: IFMAR [ifmar.org]

April 28, 2025

Fuller hits the big time with clean sweep at Silver State

Sworkz’s Mason Fuller hit the big time as he completed a clean sweep at the 2025 Silver State Indoor Championships, the young American talent taking his first major win in style to come away from the Las Vegas event with four winners trophies. With latest edition of the Joey Christensen event attracting just over 700 entries, qualifying saw Muller lay down his intentions as he took two of the three qualifiers to secure the TQ for the blue ribbon Nitro Buggy final. Behind him, team-mate Juan Carlos Canas was fastest in Q2 to secure the P2 starting position for the defence of the title the Spaniard won last year. Kyosho’s young talent Phi-Long Nguyen qualified P3 ahead of Tekno’s Dirt Nitro Challenging winning duo Seth VanDalen and Ryan Maifield. In the final, having already taken the wins in Nitro Truggy, Electric Truggy, and eBuggy, Muller delivered the big one to win the 45-minute encounter by 23-seconds from Canas. FEMCA Champion Nguyen took the final step on the podium ahead of Team Associated pairing Spencer Rivkin and Brandon Rose.

Image: TheDirt Racing [Facebook]

April 23, 2025

Coelho confirmed for SIGP Onroad Race

Sunpadow Batteries has confirmed that 3-time Touring Car World Champion Bruno Coelho will return for its annual Sunpadow International RC Onroad Grand Prix in China having won the event on its return last year. Taking place in Xiamen from June 18-22, Infinity driver Coelho will chase his third consecutive touring car win at the event which continues to offer one of the biggest prizes in the sport. The race hands out a total prize fund of $25,000 over the categories that include 1:10 Modified Touring Car, 1:10 Stock Touring Car, 1:8 GP onroad, and 1:8 GT. The SIGP Onroad Race, the track also hosting a separate SIGP Offroad event later in the year, takes place at the 2017 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championship ARC Track with both the onroad and offroad tracks built side by side next to Sunpadow’s battery production facility.

Source: Sunpadow [sunpadow.com]

April 22, 2025

ABC winners Lutz & Kato bolster Philippine Masters entry

Two of the winners from last year’s Asian Buggy Championships are both set to return at the Philippine Masters later this month with Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz and Infinity’s Kouki Kato bolstering the Manila events already impressive international entry. The biggest edition Philippine Masters yet is the second round of the four round Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships with last year’s New Zealand round winner Lutz returning to the Circulo Verde Race Track while ABC Indonesia winner Kato will get to experience the famed track for the first time. The 13th running of Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race meeting, Lutz said, ‘I am so excited to be returning to the Philippine Masters for a second time. Now knowing what to expect, I can arrive with a set-up that should be very close and with the correct tire compound and tread pattern that I will need to succeed. I can’t wait to compete again with some of the World’s best on one of the most beautiful R/C tracks in the World.’ Ahead of the Japanese driver’s Philippine Masters debut Kato said, ‘I’m excited to race on that amazing track for the first time! I look forward to seeing you all there.’

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]