April 29, 2026

2026 Speed King Tour Rd2 – Report

The second round of the high profile Japanese Speed King Tour 2026 took place at the New Rush Next Circuit outdoor tarmac track in Chiba prefecture Japan last weekend where it was Xray’s Jin Sawada who dominated the Modified TC0 class from qualifying to final.  His car showed overwhelming speed and nobody was able to catch him.  Infinity driver Ryosuke Yamamoto finished second with the Xpress of Masaya Okazaki completing the podium.  2025 TC1 (Stock) class ‘Speed King’ Rento Sasaki still kept his speed and consistency with his XRAY car and made back to back win. Topic of this race was ‘back marker’ and the driver who managed smooth overtake got good result. Xpress driver Toyoki Yamada got second position of podium from 5th starting grid. Toshiaki Hirata finished 3rd.  The TC2 class (G Force motor and ESC) A final race was a closely fought contest. Second place qualifier Atsushi Fujimaki won the race from Hiroyuki Tsurumi and Jin Endo finished 3rd from fifth on the grid.  All 3 class races were a huge success and drivers are already focusing the next round which will be held at TM Circuit Wakayama outdoor tarmac track in Wakayama prefecture on May 24th.

View TC1 and TC2 podiums here


April 28, 2026

Wins for Smith & Holdsworth at British 1:10 Buggy Nationals opener

The first round of the 6 round British 1:10 Offraad National Championships was hosted by the Potteries Model Car Club over the weekend where Schumacher’s Josh Holdsworth the 2WD win on Saturday before team-mate Ben Smith went one better on Sunday to win 4WD.  2WD qualifying would see Holdsworth secure the TQ honours ahead of Team Associated’s defending BRCA Champion Tommy Hall with Smith lining up P3.  Winning the opening two encounters it was Holdsworth who claimed the first win of the season with voctry in A3 and a 2nd in A1 allowing Smith finish ahead of Hall.  In 4WD it would be Smith who took the overall TQ ahead of Holdsworth with Xray’s Lee Martin 3rd.  The back to back British Champion also of 4WD, Hall would kick off his title defence from P4. Unlike the previous day’s action, deciding the overall win would go all the way to A3.  While Smth won A1, Martin took the A2 victory ahead of the Top Qualifier. In A3 it was the Team Associated of junior driver Daniel Pole who took the win from Smith the second was enough for Smith to bag the first win of the season. Overall Martin was the runner up with another podium for Holdsworth while Pole finished P4 and took the Junior Win.  The next round of the championship will take drivers to Bingham Model Raceway in just 2-weeks time (May 9/10).

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]


April 27, 2026

Branson wins BRCA Nationals opener at Cotswolds

Kyle Branson has won the opening round of the BRCA British Touring Car Nationals.  The first of the 5 championship rounds was stages at the Cotswold track where in practice reigning champion Elliott Harper would break the track record with his prototype Schumacher, Branson also managing to break 21 laps.  In qualifying it was Branson who was fastest but only marginally over Harper.  Topping 3 of the 4 rounds, Branson posted a 21/5:07.13 compared to Harpers 21/5:07.49.  Behind Peter Eagles and Chris Grainger completed the Modified class Top 4.  In the finals, the British Championship running double A-Mains, Branson won the first by 2.5-seconds from Harper with Grainger moving up to third.  A2 would see Harper go for a gap but unfortunately spin out after side-by-side contact.  Setting the fastest lap of the harper would manage to finish second just behind the winner with Eagles in third but overall it was the veteran Grainger who competed the podium.  Round 2 of the championship will take drivers to Stafford on May 25th.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]


April 24, 2026

FEMCA Asia 1:8 GT Championships relocated to Australia

The inaugural FEMCA Asia 1:8 GT Championships, which was originally awarded to Vietnam, will now take place in Australia with England Park Raceway in Brisbane awarded the race.  Earlier this month the Asian governing body for RC racing announced that the championships was being relocated from the impressive new X-RC Complex in Lam Dong due to the delayed opening of the area’s new airport.  QRCCRA, the club behind England Park Raceway, has secured the race to decide both the GT8 Nitro and GT8E Champions with FEMCA sanctioned championships running concurrently with the SpeedyRC IC QLD State Titles from July 30 to August 2.  On the announcement it was also confirmed Sweep Racing will supply their GT2-D40WP as the control tyre for both GT categories.

Source: FEMCA [Facebook]


April 20, 2026

Zalewski dominates EOS finale, Orlowski double series Champion

Having taken the 2WD win on Friday, Xray’s Bartek Zalewski made it a dominant weekend at the second & final round of the Euro Offroad Series by also taking the 4WD TQ and win.  Claiming his first ever EOS win in 2WD, the switch to 4WD at the Hudy Arena hosted event saw the young Polish racer continue his form as he took 3 of the 5 qualifiers to secure pole position.  Lining up behind him, having topped two rounds, would be EOS Daun double winner Michal Orlowski with his Schumacher team-mate Daniel Kobbevik completing the Top 3.  In the finals on the long 30-second lap times polished dirt track, A1 would see Zalewski win from Kobbevik who got ahead of his team-mate.  With both Zalewski and Orlowski dipping into the 29-seconds with their fastest laps in A2, the latter couldn’t do anything to deny his countryman the double as he again took the win.  Orlowski would win A3 from Kobbevik and this was the order they would join Zalweski on the podium.  Overall, it was Orlowski who became the overall series Champion of both 2WD and 4WD.

Image: Michal Orlowski [Facebook]


April 20, 2026

Champlin & Lemieux win ROAR Carpet Offroad Nationals

Schumacher’s Broc Champlin and Xray’s Chase Lemieux are the 2026 ROAR Carpet Offroad National Champions, Champlin defending his 4WD title while Lemieux becomes the new 2WD Champion.  Racing at Maximus R/C Raceway in Seabrook, New Hampshire, it was Champlin who came into the event as the double back tp back defending Champion and qualifying would see the 2WD World Champion line-up P3 for both classes.  In 2WD it was Phend who took the TQ over the four qualifiers ahead of team-mate Lemieux.  In 4WD, it was Schumacher’s Brennan Schimmel who took the TQ on tiebreak with Lemieux, them both recording two TQ runs each.  In 2WD it was Lemieux who took the A1 win ahead of Champlin as Phend dropped to P4 and again getting to the front to win A2, this time aheads of Phend, Lemieux locked in his first National title.  With Phend second, Schimmel completed the podium.  In 4WD Schimmel converted TQ into an A1 but winning A2 & tasking a later A3 win it was Champlin who tok the overall to retain his title.  Despite a rough A2, Schimmel fnished runner-up with Phend taking the final step on the podium.

Image: ROAR Racing [Facebook]


April 19, 2026

Hagberg claims record 9th European 1:12 title

Alexander Hagberg has claimed his 9th EFRA 1:12 European Championship title, the Xray driver surpassing David Spashett as the championship’s most successful driver today in Messina, Italy.  In qualifying, Hagberg would open with a TQ run adding three more over the 5 rounds.  Topping the third round, defending Champion Marc Rheinard put his Awesomatix second on the grid ahead of Mathias Nedrebo, Simon Lauter and Martin Hudy.  A1 would see Hagberg set the fastest lap as he pulled away out front to win the 8-minute encounter by over 4-seconds from Rheinard.  A2 would see a lot more action with traffic playing crucial roles in the results.  The first incident at the mid point of the race saw Rheinard get collected by Hudy’s car as it bounced off the outside boards on the straight and into the path of the German who was 1-second behind Hagberg at the time.  This promoted Norwegian Nedrebo to second 3-seconds back from Hagberg, the Swede looking like the remaining 4-minutes would just be a formality to him taking a record 9th win.  Hitting traffic on the penultimate lap, unfortunately contact with 1:8 GT World Champion Alessio Mazzeo would lead to a series of crashes for Hagbeg allowing Nedrebo through along with Jan Ratheisky.  Unable to get the places back over the final lap, Hagberg finished P3 and the title race was still open.  The final encounter however would see Hagberg lead home Rheinard and Nedrebo and lock in his ninth title 12-years after claiming his first one, also in Italy.  Nedrebo would make it an Xray 1-2 with Rheinard completing the podium.  It was to be a double title weekend for Xray as Adam Izsay became the new European Spec Champion.  Starting from P2 behind the Excelerate of defending Champion Ollie Payne, the Hungarian would win the title thanks to his A1 winning time which gave him the tie-breaker over A3 winner Payne.  Winning A2 from P3 on the grid, the Schumacher of Andrea Torregiani completed the podium at Raradise RC Arena.

Image: Alexander Hagberg [Facebook]


April 17, 2026

Zalewski takes first EOS win in Slovakia

Xray’s Bartek Zalewski has taken his first Euro Offroad Series win, the Polish driver securing the 2WD victory today at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia.  The back to back 2026 MIBO International 2WD Champion and MKGP double winner, would secure the overall TQ for the second of the 2 races that make up the 2026 EOS.  Behind him it was the Schumacher of Round 1 double winner Michal Orlowski with Martin Bayer who became the reigning European 2WD Champion at Xray’s home track completing the Top 3 from Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen.  In the finals, the pack could do nothing about Zalewski pace on the polish indoor dirt and he took A1 convincingly.  He repeated in A2 to finally secure a win he had been edging closer & closer to.  Winning A3 Orlowski made it a Polish 1-2 while second in the closing 2WD encounter allowed Haatanen to complete the podium ahead of David Ronnefalk and Bayer.

Image: EOS [eos.racing]


Mibosport
TargetRC
VP Racing
T-Works