Red RC » Racing

March 23, 2026

Kurzbuch wins Pepe Group International Race

Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch has won the Pepe Group International Race which was hosted by the Minicar Fiorano track in Italy over the weekend. The group behind the well known Energy fuel brand, the race attracted all of Europe’s top 1:8 Onroad racer and after the three rounds of qualifying it was the Infinity of multiple World Champion Dario Balestri who secured the TQ topping final qualifier ahead Max Power team Jonathan Gandin who was fastest in Q2. Taking Q1, Kurzbuch’s Ielasi Tuned powered Mugen secured P3 ahead of the similarly powered Capricorn of Toni Gruber. In the half hour final, Kurzbuach would pass Gandin early to battle it out with Balestri at the front, the Swiss racer taking the win by 1/2 a second from the Italian with Gandin completing the podium. With Gruber, young Xray star Filippo Domanin, and Infinity’s Francesco Tironi all retirements in the final, ARC’s Silvio Hächler finished P4.

Image: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]

March 23, 2026

Donnelly & Williams win Keilor Invitational

Team Associated’s Lachlan Donnelly and new Schumacher convert Lachlan Williams were the winner of the 10th annual Keilor Invitational 1:10 Offroad race hosted by KEORCA club in Victoria, Australia. Racing Reedy Race style on the oiled dirt track, the club invite the 10 best drivers for Stock and Modified, and they compete in heads up racing across 5 x 2WD and 5x 4WD races. Grids shuffle randomly and each driver starts from each grid position over the two days with the best four 2WD and four 4WD results counting for overall results. As the winner of the event that last two years, reigning Australian National Champion Donnelly made it three in a row with victory over Lachlan Munday and Jarod Ment. Finishing runner up in Stock last year, young ‘Spud’ Williams went one better this year with flawless driving to beat last year’s winner ⁠⁠Justin O’Connell with Dan Coller completing the podium.

View podiums & track inage here

March 22, 2026

Volker wins 100th ETS race, Orlowski retains title

Marking the 100th race for the series, Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker has won the season finale of the 2025/26 Euro Touring Series in Austrian with his closest rival of the weekend Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski retaining his overall title in Vienna. On a winning roll that included victory at the recent MIBO International in Czech, Volker was the benchmark on the carpet in Wiener Neustadt topping seeding before securing the TQ with fastest runs 3 of the four qualifiers. Fastest in Q3, Orlowski would line-up by P2 ahead of his only potential title challenger Marc Rheinard, the Awesomatix driver having only a small mathematical chance of denying Orlowski his third consecutive ETS title. In Saturday evening’s opening A-Main, despite the best efforts of Orlowski who pressured the German through the race, Volker would take the win with Rheinard and team-mate Simon Lauter a distant 3rd & 4th. Sunday morning’s A2 would seal the deal for Volker as he cruised to the win and his second consecutive ETS victory having won in Daun last month. In Pro Stock, Top Qualifier Jaroslav Kriz also wrapped up an early win taking the opening two A-Mains ahead of Xray team-mate Adam Iszay. The title was already decided in favour of Olivier Bultynck at the previous round in Germany.

Image: ETS [Facebook]

March 22, 2026

Philippines ‘True North RC Raceway’ track build

A country that is home to Asia’s biggest & most famous annual 1:8 Offroad event, the Philippine Masters, the race’s new track location is starting to resemble its signature 3D look with track builder Edward Sio posting this image of the rough layout as he continues to build his latest creation. A race that has been responsible for bringing the likes of Davide Ongaro, Atsushi Hara, Dakotah Phend, Adam Drake, Ryan Cavalieri and many more international offroad stars to the Philippines, the original track in Manila hosted its final Philippine Masters in 2025, Infinity’s Kouki Kato taking the win, as that location was designated for development. Having become a part of Scotty Ernst’s successful Asian Buggy Championships since 2023, the Philippine Masters takes a year out in 2026 as it transitions to it new location. The team behind putting the event on the international stage securing a new location which is part of the El Masfino Hotel and Resort in San Rafael which is around 50km north of the capital city. With the track build now well underway, known for its oil treated surface dirt surface, the next stage in the build is the refine the jumps and transitions before moving onto the final stage of oil treatment and piping.

Image: Edward Sio [Facebook]

March 21, 2026

Hongyu GDC EP Onroad Races Announcement

Hongyu GDC has announced the dates for its annual end of season Electric Onroad Races for 1:12 and Electric Touring Car. The 1:12 event on the indoor carpet track will run from December 5-7, while the Electric Touring Car event on the outdoor asphalt track will run from December 8-12th. An event that was first hosted in 2023 at the old GDC Indoor track, in Foshan, China, with Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker taking the win, the race has grown in status each year with World Champion Bruno Coelho winning in 2024 for Xray and again in 2025 for Infinity when the event moved to the brand new world class Hongyu GDC track. Introducing 1:12 race in 2025, which runs weekend ahead of the touring car action, this race was won by Schumacher’s reigning 1:12 World Champion Michal Orlowski. With the cancellation of the IFMAR World Championships at Hongyu GDC, track owner Gavin Kwok has made the early date announcement for its signature annual electric onroad races in the hope some drivers may be able to reschedule their flights to the December dates.

Source: Hongy GDC [Facebook]

March 19, 2026

Mikimodel MS2.0 Long Version Carbon Bumper

Under its Special Parts line Italy’s Mikimodel has introduced this new optional Long Version carbon fibre Bumper for the Yokomo MS2.0 Electric Touring Car. The new size of the front bumper protects the chassis in the event of a major frontal impact. The standard version doesn’t rest on the front bumpers, while the Mikimodel version rests perfectly, transferring any impact to the centrr bumpers, perfectly protecting the chassis.

View side by side comparison here

March 18, 2026

FEMCA issues apology over World Championship cancellation

The governing body that represents 15 nations in Asia & Australasia and the IFMAR Bloc that is responsible for the staging of this year’s 1:12 and ISTC World Championships, FEMCA has issued a public apology to drivers over the cancellation of the races at Hongyu GDC in China. FEMCA President Leonard Kee, who only took over as head of the bloc last May from long serving Trevor Reid, made the apology via a Facebook post on the FEMCA page in which he explains that the lack of necessary government approvals to host the races ‘blindsided both the organizer, GDC, and myself’. From Malaysia and well known throughout Asia for his race announcing, Kee also stated that, ‘We understand there is a lot of rumor and speculation within the community, but we will not be engaging with conjecture’ adding ‘China and GDC remain top-tier in our community, with a venue many consider the finest. I, too, felt deeply disappointed—an “Et tu, Brute?” moment—when those entrusted didn’t fulfill their role.’ With alternative venues being talked to by IFMAR in order to host the Worlds later this year, FEMCA is set to continue as the host Bloc with an announcement on the rescheduled date/venue imminent.

Read full FEMCA apology here

March 18, 2026

Hongyu GDC Worlds track layouts

A week from today these are the tracks that would have greeted drivers from around the world as they arrived at the Hongyu GDC track in Foshan, China, for what should have been the official registration day of the 22nd running of the IFMAR 1:12 World Championship. As we all frustratingly know unfortunately last week IFMAR found themselves in the unenviable position of having to announce the cancellation of the event, together with the ISTC Worlds that was to follow. This was ultimately due to necessary government approvals to host the races not being in place. With approval for the venue to host the event revoked abruptly as the RC industry and host track made final preparations for what is our Olympic Games, having waited the 2-year cycle for the world’s most important race to come around, talks to get new approvals from the newly appointed staff at the Chinese National RC body for the original dates proved unsuccessful. The cancellation sent a huge shockwave through the racing community and the IFMAR Board of Directors are currently working on potential dates and venue options so as we can still crown World Champions in 2026. An announcement on this is expected in the coming days. What is even more frustrating is that race organiser Gavin Kwok has the stage set for these World Championships but unfortunately not the piece of paperwork to allow the best racers in the world race on it. The new Touring Car Track layout )main images) has been down for a number of weeks with no running permitted on it as part of the IFMAR rules while the 1:12 got a huge transformation from that that was used at the FEMCA race last December. The totally new layout and design was created by Pawel Kowalski from Polish track builders Racestars, who built the recent MIBO International dual track layout and have created tracks for the ETS and EOS.

View 1:12 track layout here