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May 20, 2025

Harper wins BRCA Round 2 at Stafford – Report

Schumacher’s reigning British Electric Touring National Champion Elliott Harper took the first win of his title defence with a dominant win at Round 2 of the BRCA Championship held at the Stafford track over the weekend. With the Awesomatix of Round 1 winner Olly Jefferies not making the trip to the Midlands track, Harper would dominate qualifying topping four of the five rounds to secure the TQ. Xray’s Harley Eldridge was his closest challenger counting her three Top 2 times to line up second ahead of multiple champion Chris Grainger while the privately enter Awesomatix of Stefan Chodzynski completed the second row. In the triple A-Mains, Harper continued his dominance by taking all three legs for the overall win, Eldridge took second via her two second place finishes with Grainger completing the podium with a second and a third.

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May 19, 2025

Double win for Canas at International Buggy Challenge

The seventh edition of the International Buggy Challenge took place in Portugal over the weekend where Sworkz’s Juan Carlos Canas took a double victory. With the Barcelos track in for a busy 2025 as its hosts the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Buggy World Championship and the EFRA 1:8 Nitro Buggy European Championship, this year’s IBC would also double up as the official Warm-up race for both championships. Having been forced to rescheduled the race, originally set for May 2-4, as a knock on effect of a major national power outage that effected both Portugal and Spain recently, the race attracted just over 90 racers as a number of top drivers had other race commitments. In qualifying it was Spanish youngster Adrian Pariente who took the nitro TQ ahead of his older brother Daniel after they each TQ’d a round. Canas TQ’d the opening round but ended up P6 on the grid with the Infinity of Bruni Coelho completing the Top 3. In the 45-minute final, reigning European Champion Canas would lay down the fastest lap of the race as he worked his way to the front to win by just under half a lap from Adrian. Former World Champion Robert Batlle competed the podium with his Sworkz 20-seconds behind Pariente. Local hero Joao Figueiredo would finish fourth ahead of Coelho. In eBuggy, Canas dominated topping all three qualifiers before winning all three A-Mains with Coelho and Adrian Pariente joining him on the podium.

Image: Robert Batlle [Facebook]

May 19, 2025

Schimmel & Phend crowned ROAR 1:10 Dirt Champions

Xray drivers Brennan Schimmel and Dakotah Phend are the new 2025 ROAR 1:10 Modified Buggy Champions, Schimmel lifting the 2WD title and Phend taking 4WD at Hoosier RC Hobbyplex in Indiana. In qualifying it was 23-year-old Schimmel who dominated topping all four 4WD qualifiers and three rounds in 2WD. With Team Associated’s Davey Batta and Phend, who topped Q4, starting behind him in 2WD, A1 would see Schimmel and Batta touch wheels with the Top Qualifier coming off worst and eventually posting a DNF – Batta winning the encounter from Phend. Schimmel was back in control in A2 taking the win from Schumacher’s Broc Champlin and then sealing the title in A3. With the Top 3 finishing as they started, that would be the same order they would line-up on the podium. In 4WD, Schimmel took A1 but had a rough A2 which went to Phend. With all on the line in A3 it would be defending double champion Spencer Rivkin who took the win after Schimmel, having established a comfortable lead made a mistake with 1:30 to go. Also getting passed by Champlin, he would finish P3 handing the title to Phend with his earlier A1 win and A2 second. Champlin completed the podium.

Image: Brennan Schimmel [Facebook]

May 9, 2025

2025 Philippine Masters – Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend we attended the world class 1:8 Offroad race that is the Philippine Masters. Asia’s premier annual offroad event akin to what the TITC is to the world of Electric Touring Car, 2025 marked the biggest edition of the Manila based race yet in terms of total entries, the number of countries represented, and the dept of top level team drivers. The second round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, it was Philippine Masters regular Davide Ongaro who took the TQ from first time visitors Burak Kilic and Kouki Kato. In the 1-hour main however Ongaro suffered a rare mechanical (receiver failure) while fuel tank issues also ended Kilic’s race early. Putting in a super consistent drive Infinity’s Kato took the win, the Japanese talent making it 2 from 2 in the Asian Buggy Championships adding to his win at the season finale in Indonesia last year. In eBuggy, A1 proved the entertainment highlight of the weekend as Ongaro, having being passed for the lead by Pekko Iivonen, tried to retake the lead on a thrilling final lap. With Iivonen holding on for a hugely popular win, Ongaro took A2 before Ryan Lutz took the third however overall it was Ongaro’s victory. During our time at the Circulo Verde Track we got the chance to photograph 9 buggies from 6 different manufacturers including Mayako’s all new prototype eBuggy. In case you missed any of the Chassis Focus’ during our coverage of the race, we have compiled them all in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

May 9, 2025

Hara confirmed for Asian Buggy C/ships visit to Brisbane

With two hugely successful rounds of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships already in the books, Round 3 hosts Pine Hill Dirt Racing in Brisbane have received the exciting news that they will get to welcome legend of the sport Atsushi Hara to their track for the July 16-20 event. The former 1:8 Buggy and Electric Touring Car World Champion, who has for the last 2-years attended the Philippine Masters round of the championship, will make his first ever trip to Brisbane thanks to his sponsor Cayote. Having not raced 1:8 Buggy regularly in recent years, his racing programme more focused on electric touring car outings, the Japanese driver is relishing the opportunity of back to back ABC outings after his double Top 10 finish in Manila last weekend. With the last two visits to Australia sell out races, entries for Round 3 at Pine Hills Dirt Racing (PHDR) track open May 10th. Just like Hara, Red RC are excited to be making our first visit to Brisbane in July to cover the latest action from the Asian Buggy Championships.

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

May 7, 2025

Morganti wins KO Propo Grand Prix

Diego Morganti took the big win at the 15th annual KO Propo Grand Prix which took place at Homestead RC Raceway in Miami over the weekend. One of the majors on the US onroad nitro racing calendar, this year’s race attracted 111 entries and in 1:8 Onroad it was the Serpent of reigning US National Champion Bryce Butterfield who took the overall TQ on tie break. With two of the 5 qualifying rounds to count, the Shepherd of Lazaro Alonza Jr also TQ’d two rounds but ended up P2 while topping Q2 Morganti’s Capricorn completed the Top 3. In the final rain would see the race red flagged and on resuming action it was Morganti who chased leader Butterfield. Unfortunately Butterfield would encounter transmission issues that ended his quest for another KO Propo Grand Prix win with Morganti able to cruise to victory ahead of Joachim Bruneau, who qualified 4th, and Alonza Jr. In 1:10 Touring Car it was Infinity’s DJ Apolaro who took the TQ and win while in 1:8 GT Serpent’s Jose Almonte came from P8 to win the final from top qualifier Carlie Lopez.

Image: Diego Morganti [Facebook]

May 6, 2025

Phend & Lemieux win at INS15 Spring Carpet encounter

The second stop of the 15th season of the JConcepts Indoor National Series calendar took place at the RC One Racing track in Michigan over the weekend where Xray pairing Dakotah Phend and Chase Lemieux took the main buggy wins. Attracting over 330 entries, qualifying for the Spring Carpet Indoor Nationals would see Phend do the TQ double, topping 2WD ahead of team-mate Brennan Schimmel and Team Associated’s Aydin Horne. In 4WD, again Phend topped two of the three rounds with Lemieux, last year’s 2WD winner, topping Q2 to line up second with Horne 3rd. In the finals, newly turned father Phend took A1 of 2WD with a win from Horne in A2 sending it to A3 which Phend duly won to claim the overall ahead Team Associated duo Davey Batta, who qualified P4, and Horne. In 4WD Phend would have an issue in A1 and not finish as Lemieux took it from Horne and 2WD World Champion Tater Sontag. Phend would have a better A2 taking the win before he and Lemieux swapped lead position in A3 with Lemieux coming out the victor to secure the overall 4WD win. Phend and Horne joined him on the podium. The next round of 5 race INS15, the Mid-Summer Carpet Indoor Nationals, will take racers to Island Speedway in Iowa on June 6-8.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

May 4, 2025

Kato wins PM25 as Ongaro & Kilic fail to finish in Manila

It was only his second Asian Buggy Championships appearance but Infinity’s young Japanese prospect Kouki Kato made it 2 from 2 with the biggest win of his career taking victory today at the famous Philippine Masters which is Round 2 of the Cayote backed championship. Having won last year’s season finale in Indonesia, Kato would line-up third on the grid in Manila behind Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic and Top Qualifier Davide Ongaro, the Team Associated driver chasing three in a row at Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race. With the 1-hour final underway Ongaro and Kilic would establish a lead with Kouki driving his own calculated race in 3rd. With a change coming up front after a mistake by Ongaro allowed Kilic to go to the front unfortunately the Turkish driver’s Philippine Masters debut was to come to a premature end as he suffered the first of two flame-outs 15-minutes into the race. It would turn out that the pick-up in his fuel tank had shifted and was longer positioned in the bottom of the tank hence the reason he was flaming out after just 5-minutes of running. With the demise of Kilic allowing Ongaro back to the lead, it wasn’t to be the World Champion’s day either. With 24-minutes remaining he too looked to flame out but the problem was more terminal. Doing a battery pack change as the car’s radio was not responding it turned out that his receiver had failed and the 26-year-old was out. In all the drama Kato was getting on with his race and took over the lead which he would hold until the finish, the crowd being entertained by the battle for the other podium places. The Sworkz of Asian Buggy Championships Champion Christian Wolhuter and Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen went at it with Sworkz Mattia Polito also in the mix. Looking on target to repeat his impressive P2 eBuggy result, Iivonen would cruelly run out of fuel on the penultimate lap allowing Wolhuter to claim second 14-seconds back on Kato. While also running out of fuel, but on his last lap, Polito took third as Iivonen was classified fourth ahead of Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz with Alex Bernadzik completing the Top 6 as the dust settled on the biggest edition of the Philippine Masters yet.

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