Red RC » Racing

February 9, 2026

TITC coverage presented by Cayote | Gens ace

Race week has arrived for the world’s most important annual touring car race and Red RC is excited to announce we are teaming up with electronics manufacturer Cayote and battery manufacturer Gens ace to bring you coverage from the legendary TITC in Thailand. The 22nd edition of the race, this being Red RC’s sixth time to attend, it has become the most significant Modified Touring Car race in world coming second only in prestige to the IFMAR ISTC World Championship. An event that brings together all the right elements that make for a truly unique racing atmosphere – location, track, ever changing conditions, and the buzz in the busy pits – it sees manufacturers & drivers bring their A-game as they seek to claim a coveted TITC title. Last year we experienced the hugely impressive TITC debut of Michal Orlowski and the Schumacher is back to try & defend his title, a feat that has only ever been achieved by World Champions. Surikarn Chaidajsuriya won the first running of the race in 2003 and again a year later. Atsushi Hara won in 2005 before going back to back in 2010. Winning again in 2013, Hara together with Bruno Coelho are the race’s most winning drivers with 4 wins each. The reigning World Champion, Coelho made his debut for Infinity at RC Addict last year. Racing a brand new prototype car he couldn’t quite complete three in a row finishing second to Orlowski, but now firmly settled in with his new team he will be a serious contender to become the races most winning driver but the best n the world have their own plans to be on the top step of the podium. With many drivers already well settled-in in Bangkok and clocking up mileage, some very heavy rain showers halting the action but hopefully not going to effect the race program, our coverage will start when the 2026 TITC officially gets underway on Thursday and concludes with the latest entry into the race’s Roll of Honour on Sunday.

February 9, 2026

Mod Champion to be decided at EWS Finale – R4 Report

The penultimate round of the Essex Winter Series took place this Sunday, and confirmed that the LRP Modified champion would once again be crowned in the Series Finale next month! Kyle Branson opened proceedings, setting the best times in Q1 and Q2. The ToniSport-backed driver had now chosen to run a Mugen MTC-3 chassis for the rest of the winter, and it was a Mugen 1-2 as he led Alex Thurston in both the opening runs. Chris Grainger seemed to have re-found his form after a tough start to the winter by taking third in the first round and fourth in the second qualifier. Elliott Harper, a championship contender alongside Kyle and Alex, seemed on the back foot after a fifth and third place scores. However, for Q3, Elliott found some pace with his Schumacher, posting a new fastest time to top the round ahead of Kyle and Alex, before a tight final qualifier again saw Elliott lead Kyle and Alex to secure the overall pole position. Chris would line up fourth with his Reedy Power-backed Schumacher, with Bailey Graves (Schumacher) rounding out the top five. The A Final ultimately turned in to a dominant drive from Elliott, with the top three breaking away from the rest of the field in the opening laps, before Elliott then pulled away further to leave the two Mugen cars to fight over second and third. At the half-distance mark, Kyle made a small mistake, leaving just enough space for Alex to pounce and move up to second. However, a few laps later, a lapped car then took out Alex, allowing Kyle back up into second in the race. That was the order they finished, with Elliott making it back-to-back wins and moving into the championship lead. However, Kyle’s gift of second place leaves him tied with Elliott, and now Alex two points behind – meaning the championship will be decided in March.

Continue reading report here

February 9, 2026

Lemieux doubles at JConcepts INS16 opener

Xray’s Chase Lemieux has opened the 16th season of the JConcepts Indoor National Series with a double win at his home track of Trackside Hobbies in Wisconsin. The first stop on the 5 round calendar, Lemieux would secure the TQ in both 2WD and 4WD. In 2WD his closest challenger would be Team Associated’s Aydin Horne, winner of the race 12-months earlier, and Xray team-mate Dakotah Phend, each driver posting a TQ run over the three quali rounds. In 4WD, it was Schumacher’s reigning double INS Champion, and winner of the race in 2025, Broc Champlin who lined up P2 with Phend again P3 ahead of Team Associated’s Spencer Rivkin. In the finals Lemieux would need just the opening two A-Mains to wrap up both overall wins. In 2WD Horne won A3 to finish second with Phend completing the podium ahead of Tom Rinderknecht. In 4WD Champlin took A3 to finish second with Rivkin getting onto the podium with P2 finishes in A2 & 3. Round 2 of the JConcepts INS16 takes place on May 1-3 at RC One Racing in Macomb Township, Michigan.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

February 9, 2026

Bruneau wins 50th anniversary Florida WinterNats

One of the world’s longest running nitro onroad races and celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026, Joachim Bruneau has taken the 1:8 Open win at the end of the high rate of attrition 45-minute Florida WinterNats final. Hosted at Greg Esser’s Nuggets Ranch Raceway in Arcadia, after the four rounds of qualifying it was Infinity’s Teemu Leino who secured the TQ honours ahead of new Mugen Seiki signing Diego Morganti, Lazaro Alonso JR, former 1:10 Nitro Touring World Champion Ralph Burch and 2017 WinterNats Champion DJ Apolaro. With Morganti getting an early lead over Leino, the Finn having issues with his brakes, while pair would be the only drivers to run 13-seconds lap times during the race, unfortunately neither would go the distance. After just 5-minutes Leino was out with a throttle servo failure with Alonso JR next to go out 3-minutes later. Winner of November’s Cow Patty Classic, Apolaro wouldn’t get back to back wins at the track, the former ROAR Champion out at the 20-minute mark. He would be followed to the sidelines at 36-minute by another contender Burch. All the time it was Morganti who was out front and looking on target to add a 6th title to the family name, his father Paolo a 5-time Winternats Champion. With just over 5-minutes to go however a rear belt failure would put the 21-year-old out handing Cow Patty Classic podium finisher Bruneau the win. Some distance back Rafael Angula and Dutch visitor Gertjan Van Schaik completed the podium. In 1:8 Masters it was a Dutch win, as Infinity driver Arie Manten took victory from P5 on the grid. The 1:8 GT win went to Serpent’s Jose Almonte, Top Qualifier & World Championship Podium finisher Carlie Lopez having issues and dropping out of contention eventually finishing P10 with his Raptor. In 1:10 Nitro Touring, Apolaro brought home the win after getting passed Top Qualifier & defending Champion Michael Palazzola with Jerry Guerra completing the podium.

Image: Dan Lester [Facebook]

February 8, 2026

Clean sweep for Zalewski at MKGP

Having taken the 4WD win last year, Xray’s Bartek Zalewski has completed a clean sweep of this year’s MKGP winning both 2WD and 4WD at the British Radio Car Association promoted event. The annual 1:10 carpet track event takes place in the Centre:MK shopping centre in Milton Keynes and showcases RC racing in front of weekend shoppers. In 2WD qualifying it would be Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik who took the opening round but it would be Zalewski who would go on to secure the TQ before dominating the remainder of the event. Winning the 2WD final ahead of Kobbevik, with Schumacher’s Ben Smith completing the podium, in 4WD the young Polish talent was untouchable. Topping all four rounds of qualifying, he would again start on pole ahead of Kobbevik, Smith, Sw0rkz’s Micha Widmaier and the Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen and World Champion Marcus Kaerup. In the triple finals, Zalewski wrapped up the perfect weekend with wins in a A1 and A2. Winning A3 ahead of Kaerup, Kobbevik claimed second with the Dane completing the podium.

Image: Bartek Zalewski [Facebook]

February 8, 2026

Anderson & Ratheisky claim Mod wins at Snowbirds

Awesomatix’s Kemp Anderson and Xray’s Jan Ratheisky took the main Modified wins at the 32nd running of the world famous Snowbird Nationals in Florida, Anderson taking the 1:12 title while Ratheisky took Touring Car honours. With long time Snowbirds stalwart and 2025 double winner Alexander Hagberg missing this year’s edition due to the earlier running of the legendary TITC race in Thailand, qualifying would see Xcelerate RC’s Ollie Payne and Ratheisky dominate the time sheets in Orlando. British driver Payne would top both 1:12 Modified, ahead of Anderson and Xray’s Keven Hebert, and 13.5 Super Stock, ahead of Awesomatix pairing of Jeff Dayger and Team EAM owner Eric Anderson. In Modified Touring Car, German Ratheisky secured the TQ from Hebert, Kemp Anderson and Xray’s Drew Ellis, a feat he would repeat in 21.5 Super Stock ahead of Eric Anderson, Ellis, and Clayton Young. Attracting 246 entries, in the single A-Main finals Payne would lead Modified for 51 of the 68 laps before relinquishing the lead to Anderson and having to settle for second with Canadian Hebert completing the podium. He would redeem himself in Super Stock but only after getting back passed Dayger. The podium was completed by fellow Brit & fifth place qualifier Morgan Williams. Ratheisky would convert both his TQ’s in to tone to tone wins, taking Super Stock ahead of ROAR President Young and Michael Hanulec while in Mod it won by almost 2-seconds from Hebert while Kemp Anderson completed the podium.

Image: RC Discharger [Facebook]

February 8, 2026

Canas wins Montpellier GP after Ongaro error

Sworkz Juan Carlos Canas has opened the European 1:8 Nitro Buggy season with victory at the Montpellier Grand Prix, his second consecutive win of the famous French classic coming after a mistake from weekend dominator Davide Ongaro saw the Team Associated driver eventually finish P3. With rain effecting proceedings at Circuit du MBM, qualifying for the 20th edition of the race would after the completion of 3 rounds see Ongaro take the TQ honours ahead of Mugen Seiki’s 2025 Montpellier GP race leader & podium finisher Berkan Kilic. Canas would complete the Top 3 ahead Sworkz team-mate Mattio Polito, the Mugen Seiki of last year’s Top Qualifier Burak Kilic, and Tekno’s Joao Figueiredo. Winning their respective Semi-Finals, it was Ongaro and fellow Italian Polito who lead away the field for the shortened 45-minute main. Last winner of the Montpellier GP in 2023, Ongaro looked on target for the win having built up a huge lead however a high speed mistake resulted in contact with a fencing post which gifted his rivals the race as he struggled with buggy after the impact. With the Top 3 finishing on the same lap, Canas’s took the win by 9-seconds from an impressive Polito with Ongaro a further 7-seconds back. Behind, Figueiredo, Sparko’s Adrian Pariente, and Sworkz’s Elliott Boots completed the Top 6.

Image: Sworkz [Facebook]

February 6, 2026

Mugen Seiki confirms Volker & Sparbier for MIBO International title defence

Defending MIBO International Champions Mugen Seiki have confirmed their return to the unique indoor race for a fourth consecutive year with Modified Champion Ronald Volker being joined by Soren Sparbier who makes his debut at the Czech race. Volker was the winner of the inaugural MIBO International in 2023 but losing that title to Michal Orlowski in 2024 he took it back again when he beat the Schumacher star to the win last year. The 2025 TITC Open Brushless Champion, 19-year-old Sparbier will join Volker on February 27-March 1st in competing for Modified honours with their LRP powered MTC-3s. Hosted by Mibosport, which is owned by former top international Czech touring car racer Michal Bok, MIBO International is a unique event in that two side by side tracks bring together both onroad and offroad racing.

View MIBO International Touring Car Roll of Honour here