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December 14, 2025

Coelho cruises to A1 win at Asia Touring Car Championship

Bruno Coelho cruised to victory in the opening A-Main of the Asia Touring Car Championship, the Infinity driver ending up with a one & a half second advantage over Lucas Urbain who came under pressure from a hard charging Michal Orlowski. As the Top Qualifier, Coelho would break clear of the field over the opening lap of the large Hongyu GDC track, helped by Urbain having to battle his own Awesomatix as it got out of shape. Starting from 3rd, Naoto Matsukura also had to fight with his car first allowing 6th place starter Orlowski through for 3rd before a second off, in which he got stuck in the track’s infield, dropped the Japanese driver to last. Schumacher’s Pekko Iivonen was the benefactor finishing P4 ahead of Infinity’s Ryosuke Yamamoto. In the opening 13.5T Stock A-Main, it was the prototype ARC of Enrico Jung who took the win ending Xray’s qualification domination. Having secured the TQ, Shin Sawada would, after a jump start, spin out on the opening lap allowing Xray team-mate Jan Ratheisky go to the front. Passed by Jung, he soon found himself back in front as Jung got crossed up but it wasn’t for long as the 3rd place qualifier again got to the front where he would stay to the end to win comfortably by 2.8 seconds from Ratheisky and Martus Benetin.

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December 14, 2025

Coelho ‘Top Qualifier’ in China with Q3 TQ run

Infinity’s Bruno Coelho is the Top Qualifier at the Asia Touring Car Championship in China, the race’s defending Champion securing pole position when he topped the third & final qualifier. The Top Seed going into qualifying on Friday, Coelho would become the third different driver to top the timings at the Hongyu GDC track taking the final round ahead of Q2 winner Lucas Urbain but with his TQ run time faster on the improving track conditions it was the Portuguese driver who is the Top Qualifier. Setting the fastest time of all qualifying on Friday night, before the rain washed out Saturday’s action, Naoto Matsukura would get a 3 for the final round to secure third on the grid ahead of Axon’s Akio Sobue and Infinity’s Ryosuke Yamamoto. Michal Orlowski completes the Top 6 grid line-up after the Schumacher driver needed marshalling in the final qualifier. In Stock, it was Xray domination of proceedings with their drivers topping all three rounds. Q1 would go to Shin Sawada, Q2 Adam Izsay, and Q3 Jan Ratheisky but overall it is Sawada who takes the overall TQ ahead of Ratheisky, with the ARC prototype of Enrico Jung completing the Top 3 ahead of Izsay.

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December 11, 2025

’25 1:8 Onroad World Championship Chassis Focus Index

Another season of IFMAR World Championships wrapped up in Chile last weekend with 1:8 Onroad the fourth & final race of 2025. While IFMAR’s original World Championship would attract a small entry, that didn’t take away from the racing at the front with qualifying ending with cars from four different manufacturers making up the new for 2025 Direct to Final Top 4 qualifiers. For the 1-hour final that number would grow to 5 as Shepherd’s Tim Wood won the Last Chance Qualifier to represent the now British owned brand as the 11th car on the grid. Statistics compiled by IFMAR, this the 24th running of the title race, would show Mugen Seiki as the most popular chassis ahead of Capricorn and Shepherd who tied for second. Racing around the very large CACH, the most common source of power came from Ielasi Tuned followed by Max Power, who thanks to Shoki Takahata make it back to back engine World titles. In terms of radios used, Sanwa was the choice of over 50% of the drivers. With 2 X Mugen Seiki, 2 X Capricorn, 2 X Shepherds, and one Serpent and Xray each, we managed to get our hands on 8 cars from the five manufacturers represented in the final.

View Chassis Focus Index here

November 24, 2025

Donnelly crowned Australian 2WD Champion

Lachlan Donnelly is the new Australian 1:10 2WD Buggy Champion, the Team Associated driver taking over the title from US Offroad star Spencer Rivkin who won the title in 2024 as part of Team Associated’s preparations for recently IFMAR World Championships Down Under. Hosted by Adelaide Radio Controlled Raceway, in qualifying it was Donnelly who secured the TQ after the four rounds ahead of Schumacher’s Jayden Edmunds and the Associated of Damon Davis Perry. After three previous podium Nationals finishes in 2WD, Donnelly would go on to win the opening two A-Mains to finally claim the title for a first time. Winning A3 Jarod Ment would finish runner-up ahead of Jack McMillan as Perry Davis and Edmunds finished 4th & 5th respectively. With the attention turning then to 4WD, Donnelly looked set to try and defend his National title in the class from P2 on the grid but rain would stop the action and with the finals postponed a day, Donnelly wouldn’t be able to race the finals as he wasn’t able to change travel plans back home to Sydney. Securing the TQ, it would be Perry Davis who becomes the new 4WD Champion with Edmunds and McMillan joining him on the podium. In Stadium Truck it was Edmunds who took the title ahead of Lachlan Munday.

View 4WD Podium here

November 7, 2025

Hongyu GDC to add permanent indoor carpet track

Having had the opportunity to inspect in person the very impressive new Hongyu GDC earlier this week on our way to cover this weekend’s SIGP Offroad race in Xiamen, the World Class facility has announced plans to add a permanent indoor carpet carpet track. Originally consisting of an outdoor asphalt track, a covered dirt offroad track (which hosted its opening race last weekend), and a covered asphalt track, it is the latter that will be redeveloped as the new indoor carpet track. The host venue for next year’s 2026 IFMAR 1:12 & ISTC World Championships, with 1:12 requiring to be run on carpet in a climate controlled area, Hongyu GDC has decided to create a more permanent track that meets these requirements and which can host future electric onroad race offering a replacement for the old GDC indoor track. With new transparent material sides (not glass) enclosing the original structure, based on the attention to detail in the rest of the facility, they will then lay and finish the carpet track to cover all the needs electric onroad racers would have. With the track work beginning imminently, the new track will open with the hosting of the 1:12 Asian Championships on December 4-7th, these followed the next weekend by the Asia Touring Car Championships. With no official Worlds Warm-up Race, the Asian Championships will be an opportunity for racers to test at the new carpet facility before the Worlds at the the end of March. As part of the new carpet track build Hongyu GDC has a number of billboards available to manufacturers. Registration for the 1:12 Asia Championships can be made here for Stock & here for Modified.

View more track renders here

November 5, 2025

Excelerate announce Payne joins team

While widely expected, American manufacturer Excelerate RC has confirmed that top international 1:12 racer Ollie Payne has joined its team. Having raced the 2025 season with CRC, the British driver announced at the beginning of this week that he would no longer race for Frank Calandra’s brand. With fellow British racer William Morgan, winner of 1:12 Stock at the recent Montech NYGP, also making the switch from CRC to Excelerate, the company a partnership between Ken Lupi and veteran racer & car designer Josh Cyrul, on making the announcement they posted, ‘eXcelerate RC is proud to announce the signing of Ollie Payne and Morgan Williams of the United Kingdom. Ollie is fresh off a win with his Prodigy 12 in the 1/12th Modified class at the Masters of Foam recently held in Belgium and Morgan finished P4 in 13.5 with his Prodigy 12. Ollie and Morgan have both proven to be world class drivers in both the United States and Europe. We are excited to have Ollie and Morgan on board to continue the growth of their racing program and eXcelerate RC.’

Source: Exceleraterc [exceleraterc.com]

October 20, 2025

Champlin crowned double INS15 Champion with Finals clean sweep

Newly crowned 1:10 2WD Buggy World Champion Broc Champlin is the double Champion of the JConcept INS15, the Schumacher driver capping off the popular 1:10 Offroad series with a clean sweep at the season Final held at Hoosier RC Hobbyplex in Indiana over the weekend. While Champlin had already secured the 2WD title ahead of the fifth & final stop on the calendar, he was looking to replace his P5 from Round 1 of the series held at at Trackside Hobbies in Wisconsin. In 2WD qualifying it was Team Associated’s Davey Batta who took the opening round but the World Championship podium finisher who end up P2 on the grid as Champlin topped Q2 & 3. Xray’s Chase Lemieux and Dakotah Phend completed the Top 4. In 4WD it was again Champlin who secured the TQ over Batta with Brennan Schimmel third ahead of Aydin Horne. In the triple finals, Champlin would wrap up both victories as he went two from two in A2. Winning A3 of 2WD, Batta secured second as Phend completed the podium while in 4WD Phend took 2nd despite Horne winning A3, the Team Associated driver completed the podium.

Image: Broc Champlin [Facebook]

September 2, 2025

Hall successfully defends both British 1:10 Offroad titles

Team Associated’s Tommy Hall has successfully defended both his 2WD and 4WD BRCA British 1:10 Buggy Championship titles, the latter coming to a thrilling conclusion at the season finale hosted by Robin Hood Raceway over the weekend. In Saturday’s 2WD action, the title already wrapped up by Hall, it was Schumacher’s Ben Smith who took the TQ and Round 6 win ahead of Hall and Neil Cragg. His first win of the season, the result helped him to claim the runner-up spot in the championship 1-point ahead of Cragg, the weekend marking the end of the former World Championship illustrious racing career. In 4WD, Hall needed to TQ and win to retain the championship and the former European Champion rose to the occasion. Winning A1 & 2 ahead of Smith to claim his third win of 2025, it was this that gave him the tie-break over Smith as they both ended the championship on 150 points – Smith with two wins, Hall with three. Getting a guard of honour from his fellow A finalists, Cragg would complete the season finale podium and claim 3rd overall as he signed off on racing having achieved the century of National Race wins earlier in the season.

Image: CML Distribution [Facebook]