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August 20, 2026

Hara Factory Build RC10 Brian Kinwald Edition

While we have become used to weekly RC10 ‘Special Edition’ releases from Team Associated, with the upcoming Team Associated Vintage Championships is Las Vegas, RC Legend Atsushi Hara has built his very own ‘Hara Purple’ Brian Kinwald Edition for the race. In recent years the onroad and offroad World Champion, who is now a brand ambassador for Team Cayote, has leveraged his ‘Hara Purple’ with a number of product deals and limited edition kit releases. Along with his Yeah Racing Momentum signature tool series, the Japanese driver has endorsed Hara Edition Touring Car kits with Australian touring car manufacturer RC Maker and Hong Kong’s RC Xpress to coincide with representing these brands at legendary TITC race in Bangkok, Thailand. He also raced a Schumacher Mi9 at the 2025 Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) which had received the ‘Hara Edition’ treatment. This is all possible as Hara has a friend in the anodising industry who is able to get his trademark purple done on very limited numbers of parts. The 2026 Team Associated Vintage Championships takes place from September 2-7th at the The Orleans Hotel and Casino.

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August 18, 2026

Wood closes on BRCA title with Wombwell win

After a disappointing Round 5 at Adur and European Championship in France, Shepherd’s Tim Wood bounced back to take the Round 6 win of the BRCA British National 1:8 Onroad Championship at Wombwell over the weekend. In qualifying, 25-drivers making up the 1:8 Nitro class, it was Wood who would secure the TQ being the only one to manage a 15-lap run around the 50-year-old track over the 4 rounds of qualifying. Behind him Andrew Hasting would secured second on the grid ahead of David Spashett and Karl Dransfield. In the half hour final, setting the fastest lap Wood would dominate from the front to claim his 4 win of the season. Spashett and Round 5 winner Craig Hook would complete the all Shepherd podium with Hastings dropping to fourth. The penultimate round of the 8 round championship will see racers return to Halifax on September 5/6th where it was reigning Champion Alex Thurston who won the the season opener.

Image: Shepherd Micro Racing [Facebook]

August 17, 2026

Boots celebrates 10th National title with Shrewsbury win

Sworkz/Reds Racing/GRP factory driver Elliott Boots celebrated a landmark 10th British 1:8 Nitro Buggy National title over the weekend with victory at the fifth & final round of the 2026 Championship. Racing at Shrewsbury with 123 racers in attendance, the 2-time European Champion and World Championship Top Qualifier, secured the TQ as he topped 3 of the five qualifiers. Winner of Round 3 at Slough, the Agama of Erik Lykke was fastest in Q4 to secure second while fastest in the opening qualifier Xray’s Jonathan Skidmore, winner of Round 2 at Blackpool, competed the P3. Winning his Semi Final from Skidmore, with Lykke winning the other Semi to line up P3, the duo would battle it out for the win over the 45-minutes with Boots eventually taking his 3rd win of the season by less than 2-seconds. From sixth on the grid, William Skidmore would take the final step on the podium with Lykke, the winner of Round 3 at Slough, dropping back to 5th. Overall Lykke would finish the championship 3rd in the overall standings behind Jonathan Skidmore and Boots, for whom this was his 5th consecutive BRCA RallyX title win.

Image: Elliott Boots [Facebook]

August 16, 2026

Van Dalen is new ROAR National Champion

Having started the season with an impressive double win at the Dirt Nitro Challenge, Tekno’s Seth Van Dalen has just become the new ROAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy National Champion. Qualifying P2 behind Top Qualifier & defending Champion Dakotah Phend, Van Dalen would line up 6th for the decider after he dropped from pole in his Semi to P4, that race won by team-mate Ryan Maifield who completed the Truggy double earlier in the Silver Dollar Raceway hosted championships. Double Champion in 2024, Maifield would start 2nd for the 15 buggy World Championhip length 1-hour Main behind Phend’s Xray and ahead of the Xray of Chase Lemieux with Team Associated Davey Batta lining up P4 and Sparko’s Jonah Wilson carrying no.5. Having won the eBuggy title on Saturday from Kyosho’s Phi Long Nguyen, Phend led away the nitro final before his first fuel stop at 10-minutes but going an extra lap before his stop, a quicker stop by his pitman Billy Fischer, saw Lemieux come back out still in the lead. The 2026 ROAR 1:10 4WD Buggy Champion stayed out front until his second stop at the 20-minute mark, but on his in lap the Wisconsin driver had a roll and needed to be marshalled handing Maifield a brief lead. Out of sequence with the Xrays, Maifield’s 3rd stop handed the lead to Van Dalen. In the second half of the race Van Dalen and Lemieux would go wheel to wheel. After a roll that saw his buggy cut the track on his in lap, with the final stops compete it was Lemieux in the lead with just over 7-minutes on the clock but a mistake as the final 6-minutes approached handed the lead back to Van Dalen. With Lemieux retaking the lead the pair would tangle with 4-minutes remaining, the battle resuming with Lemieux in front. Inside 3-minute Van Dalen would make the pass for the lead with a mistake from Lemieux giving his rival his biggest lead of the final which he maintained to claim his first national title by a winning margin of 4.4-seconds over Lemieux. Finishing on the lead lap, Sworkz’s Mason Fuller completed the podium from P11 on the grid. After a late issue Maifield would fall back to P7 while Phend would be a DNF, retiring at the 2/3rd race distance.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

August 16, 2026

2026 IFMAR ISTC World C/ships Stage 2 Report

IFMAR has published the Stage 2 report for the 2026 ISTC World Championships which take place at Huge RC in Bangkok, Thailand, from November 8-14th. Since the the Stage 1 report, the main updates are the details of the recently announced official tyres from Hudy. Using the A2-40 tyre, a maximum of 20 sets of tyres can be bought of which 12 sets must be marked for the actual race event covering from controlled practice until the finals. Stage 2 also confirms Mighty Gripper V3 Yellow as the controlled tyre additive with Ichinen brake cleaner the controlled tyre cleaner for the event. Both items will be supplied in tyre preparation area. Another small change is that IFMAR President Eric Anderson will now fill the role Technical Director. A unique track for the 13th running of the ISTC World Championships, the track owned by 2002 ISTC World Champion Surikarn Chaidajsuriya a roof covered asphalt circuit, the official Worlds Warm Up Race, which runs as part of the Hudy Series Thailand event, takes place August 29-30. The first cars will hit the track at the Worlds on November 8 with two days of IPD after which the track layout will be changes for the official open practice on November 11th. View the full Stage 2 report here.

Source: IFMAR [ifmar.org]

August 16, 2026

Groskamp takes ENS title with third win in a row

Over a decade after winning his first Euro Nitro Series Championship title, Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp has claimed the 2026 Nitro Touring Car title with his third consecutive win of the season today in Austria. With Round 3 of the championship’s 4-race calendar taking place at the MAV Aigen-Schlägl track, the reigning World Champion secured the TQ as his took his Ielasi Tuned powered IF15 to the fastest time in 3 of the 4 qualifiers, a perfect start to his new engine sponsorship deal with Daniele Ielasi’s engine brand. Topping the fourth & final qualifier, 2025 Champion Jakub Rozycki would line up second for Capricorn with 2024 Champion Melvin Diekmann securing P3 ahead of reigning 1:8 ENS Champion Toni Gruber. In the 12 car 45-minute A-Main, from the front the veteran Dutch racer dominated the final taking an emotional win by a lap over Diekmann. A strong race from Carmine Raiola, who qualified his infinity in P8, would see the Italian complete the podium just ahead of Rozycki, the Polish driver setting the fastest lap of the race. In 1:8 it was Dario Balestri who took the win ahead of Top Qualifier Simon Kurzbuch. Kurzbuch put his Mugen Seki on pole for the final ahead of the Infinity driver but 7-laps into the race the Swiss racer flipped his car over the curbing handing the lead to the 2-time World Champion who would stay there for the remaining 43-minutes for his second win of the season – the Italian the winner of the season opener in Germany. Winner of the Dutch round of the Championship, Kurzbuch would finish second half a lap down while 3rd place qualifier Marco Weigerding completed the podium for Serpent.

Image: Infinity [Facebook]

August 14, 2026

Singapore International Nitro GP – Announcement

This year the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix will celebrate the race’s 20th anniversary in style with the action taking place on the newly resurfaced RCMC track. Scheduled for October 10-11, the same weekend as the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, hosts Radio Control Modellers’ Club has announced that registration is now open for the race which is once again proudly supported by World Champion manufacturer Infinity. The country’s only permanent track, the event will see racing for 1:8 Onroad, 1:8 Nitro GT, and 1:10 Nitro Touring Car. Over the two decades of hosting the race, the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix has welcomed numerous World Champions including reigning 1:10 Nitro Touring World Champion Jilles Groskamp, two time 1:8 Onroad World Champion Dario Balestri, multiple World Champion Naoto Matsukura, reigning 3-time ISTC World Champion Bruno Coelho and nitro onroad legend Lamberto Collari.

Source: RCMC Singapore [Facebook]

August 12, 2026

Volker confirmed as new high profile RC Maker signing

Fresh from launching its new SP2 1:10 Electric Touring Car to a very positive reaction, RC Maker will now be represented on the international stage by Ronald Volker with the news the 2016 World Champion has signed for the Australian manufacturer. After almost 6-years with Mugen Seiki, Volker now joins the category’s relative newcomer which was created by one of Australia’s most accomplished touring car racers Ryan Maker. Only entering the touring car kit market in 2024 with the SP1, securing the services of this highly experienced racer is a major boost for the Maker and his ambitions for the brand as it rolls out its new SP2 around the world. While RC Maker has worked with Atsushi Hara previously in a deal that saw the RC Legend race their car at the 2025 TITC, and which was followed up by an SP1 ‘Hara Edition’ kit, Volker joins the team as a full time team driver. Announcing the deal on his social media, Volker posted, ‘RC Maker it is! I first met Ryan at the 2008 Worlds. We became good friends right away, stayed in touch ever since and little did I know back then that we will end up working together! Many of you know how enthusiastic Ryan is about RC. To start up your own RC brand is one thing, but to be where he is now and create a touring car platform is something very special. I know he and his family couldn’t be more proud of what he has achieved, and I am very happy to play my part in the future of RC Maker too! I want to thanks everyone from the past and present for the support, and especially the nice comments and messages I’ve had since my announcement yesterday. I now want to thank everyone involved around the RC Maker brand, along with all my other sponsors for their continuing trust in my racing program and myself! I can’t wait to build up my new SP2 cars and hit the track in Arena33 next week! I can’t wait to meet up with my team and grow something big!’

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