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November 18, 2025

Thurston back on top at EWS – Round 2 Report

The 2025/2026 Essex Winter Series presented by Team Cayote continued last weekend with Round 2 where Alex Thurston would take the big win. The LRP Modified Class was one to watch, with defending champion Olly Jefferies returning to the series after missing the first event, and Round 1 winner Kyle Branson looking to capitalise on his early championship lead. It was a tight battle for TQ between Kyle and his Awesomatix, and Alex Thurston. Branson took Q1, whilst Alex topped Q2 and Q3. The drivers traded positions in Q4 initially, with Alex then taking the lead, only to have a battery failure two laps from the end. Kyle took the round, but lost out on the tie-break by just 0.002 seconds! Elliott Harper lined up third for Schumacher, with Olly taking his factory Awesomatix to fourth ahead of the privately-entered example of Stefan Chodzynski. In the A Final, Alex led off with Kyle close behind. Olly immediately put Elliott under pressure and was able to get by on the second lap, and then set about closing on the leaders. Alex soaked up the pressure from Kyle, and the battle up front became a four-way fight as Olly closed in and pulled Elliott along with him. The four drivers circulated at high speed for the remaining four minutes of the race, often getting nose-to-tail but everyone keeping the door closed and not allowing the car behind the chance of an overtake. The high-speed freight train entertained the watching crowd as Alex stayed out front, crossing the line to take his second ever victory at EWS.

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November 11, 2025

Pequito defends World title at PNWC

Xbility driver & designer Jose Pequito has successfully defended his 2WD Open World title at the PN Racing World Cup in Colorado. Winning the 1:28 title last year in France, then racing for RC Atomic, the Portuguese driver would repeat the feat with his own car this year taking the ‘One’ to victory in 2WD Open at 5280 Raceway in Denver. In qualifying it would be Reflex Racing’s John Dickson who secured the TQ ahead of Pequito and PN Racing’s Mathieu Da Rocha, the latter taking the TQ & win in the AWD Open class. With Dickson suffering a DNF in A1, Alex Soto-Pagan took the win ahead of Pequito before the World Champion came good in A2 & 3 to win both and retain his title. Soto-Pagan would fill the second step on the podium which was completed by Marka driver Guillaume Loie. Counting a 6th from A2 and a 3rd in A3, Dickson would finish 5th. In 2WD Stock Chris Lemaire had the perfect weekend topping qualifying and taking the win while in Formula 1 EJ Courtemanch covnerted his TQ after turning around an A1 DNF to win the next two for the title.

Image: MOD Live Media [Facebook]

November 10, 2025

Asian Buggy Championships announce 2026 calendar

With their new 2025 Champion Kouki Kato taking a thrilling win at the Sunpadow International Grand Prix in China over the weekend, the organisers of the Team Cayote Asian Buggy Championships have announced the venues & dates for the 2026 Championship. Set to enter into its fourth season, the 1:8 Offroad championship will again consist of 4-rounds that visit four countries across the Asia-Pacific region, including three returning tracks and one new destination. Again the ‘ABC’ will kick off in New Zealand, the opening round set for the end of February/start of March. With the championship growing out of Asia’s most famous annual offroad race, the Philippine Masters, after the hugely popular Circulo Verde track closed following the 2025 edition, the Philippines will opt out of the schedule for 2026 with racers instead travelling to new territories and the LAP Paradise RC Raceway in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, for Round 2. Attracting its biggest international entry this year, Pine Hills Dirt Racing track in Brisbane, Australia, hosts Round 3 in the middle of July. The championship, which has enjoyed growth each season, will then conclude at West Side RaceWay in Jakarta, Indonesia, which proved a massive hit with racers on its ABC debut. With championship points accrued across all four races, the best three of four rounds will crown the 2026 champions. Details on race entry, including classes for each round, will be announced shortly.

View 2026 Calendar here

November 9, 2025

Coelho takes eBuggy win at SIGP

Bruno Coelho has taken the eBuggy win at the annual Sunpadow International Grand Prix, the Infinity driver pocketing himself almost $2,800 for his efforts around the challenging 3 Circles track in Xiamen, China. Lining up as the Top Qualifier, the Portuguese driver taking pole position counting 2 TQ runs & a P2 from the 5-rounds of qualifying, it would be the Xray of 2024 winner David Ronnefalk who would be his biggest challenger in the finals. Starting from P2 on the grid having topped 2 qualifiers together with a P3, Ronnefalk would have the fastest car in A1 and while the Swede piled the pressure on Coelho he couldn’t find a way to the front, a number of mistake meaning he had to catch back up for repeated attempts. In A2 again Coelho wasn’t the outright fastest on the bumpy track but he had the consistency and after some early challenges from Ronnefalk he would take win to wrap up the overall victory. Ronnefalk’s challenge ultimately ended when he tangled with third place qualifier Kouki Kato, waiting on the Japanese driver who needed to be marshalled after the contact. With Kato’s Infinity recording the fastest lap he would finish 2nd ahead of Ronnefalk as they both retook the Mayako of Pekko Iivonen who buckled under the pressure while holding second going into the final stages of the race. With Coelho using A3 as a test session and not taking up pole position, the race would see Ronnefalk take the win ahead of Iivonen and Kouki, the latter have a costly off while holding second and having to work his way back up in to the Top 3. This result meant Ronnefalk (2nd) and Kato (3rd) would join Coelho on the eBuggy podium while Iivonen claimed fourth ahead of Team Associated’s Jung Hyunkyu and SIGP regular Joseph Quagraine.

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November 8, 2025

Ronnefalk is Top Qualifier at SIGP as Coelho takes Q5

David Ronnefalk is the Top Qualifier at the 2025 Sunpadow International Grand Prix, the Xray driver securing his direct stop in tomorrow’s 45-minute Main in Xiamen, China, thanks to his outright fastest TQ run in the penultimate qualifier. With it all to play for going into the fifth & final qualifier, Ronnefalk and Infinity’s Kouki Kato both having two TQ runs each and a second, neither would be able to deliver a third TQ run. Instead that would come from Bruno Coelho, the Infinity driver appearing to have finally found his way just in time for finals. After a trouble start to the day, with Q2 & 3 becoming throw outs, Pekko Iivonen was another to conclude qualifying on a positive as he set the second fastest time in Q5 with his Mayako. Overall while Ronnefalk doesn’t have the worry of Semi finals, the TQ secured on the tiebreak, in the final qualifying order it was Kato who ended up second to give the Japanese driver pole in the second of the 25-minute Semis, while Coelho’s 3rd overall means he lines up on pole for the first Semi. Iivonen’s strong finish to the day bumped him up to 4th ahead of leading Team Associated contender Jung Hyunkyu while Jason Nugroho made it three Infinity IFB8s in the final Top 6 qualification ranking.

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November 8, 2025

Ronnefalk delivers in Q3 at SIGP

David Ronnefalk has delivered a TQ run at the Sunpadow International Grand Prix, the Xray driver ending Kouki Kato’s reign at the top pf the time sheets as he took the third round ahead of the Japanese driver and his Infinity team-mate Bruno Coelho. Setting the fastest lap of the round with a 32.725, Ronnefalk would eventually finish a massive 13-seconds up on Kato who, like Ronnefalk the previous round, needed to be marshalled only in Kato’s case he had double the mistakes on each opposite side of the track. With drivers reporting track conditions as even more difficult for Q3, Coelho also had two bad laps resulting in him failing to run 15-laps however overall the time still gave him a three for the round. 5-seconds behind the multiple class World Champion, promising future hope Jung Hyunkyu enjoyed his best round result with P4 for the Team Associated teenager ahead of Mayako’s Joseph Quagraine. Unfortunately for JQ’s lead driver Pekko Iivonen it was another throw away round as he lasted just over 2-minutes before his engine moved.

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November 5, 2025

Sofia and Vezzetti crowned Brazilian TC Champions

Last weekend marked the 2025 Brazilian Electric Touring Car Indoor Championships at the All Racing Arena in São Paulo where Victor Sofia and defending Champion Eduardo Vezzetti took the titles. Featuring 3 classes, 32 drivers and several new updates compared to last year, it was the first event on this track with the implementation of controlled tire additive and maintenance in Parc Fermé, ensuring equal conditions for all participants. Additionally, the Masters category (45+) made its debut in the region. In Pro Stock 10.5T, Victor Sofia (Awesomatix) secured both TQ and the Championship title in a grid filled with national champions. Sofia achieved the win in heat 4/5, after mechanical issues in heat 3/5. Without a doubt, Victor’s driving performance was one of the highlights of the event.

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November 3, 2025

Payne to no longer race CRC

Top international 1:12 racer Ollie Payne has announced he will no longer be running cars from World Championship manufacturer CRC. Switching from reigning World Champion Schumacher to the American manufacturer for 2025, Payne enjoyed plenty of success with Frank Calandra’s cars including Stock class titles at this year’s European Championship, Montech NYGP and the recent Masters of Foam race. The eagled eye however would have noticed that while he used CRC for his most recent Spec win at the high profile annual 1:12 Belgian event, he used an Excelerate Prodigy to win the Modified title. On completing the NYGP in New York two weeks ago, the British driver tested Excelerate designer Josh Cyrul’s car on the 360V2 track. On leaving CRC, Payne said, ‘I would like to announce that I will no longer be racing CRC cars. Although I wasn’t an official CRC sponsored driver I would still like to thank Frank for his support during my time running his cars. We achieved some great results in a short period of time.’ In response Calandra posted, ‘Lots of fun, good memories and killer results Ollie. Maybe we can win some more races together in the future. See ya at the track.’

Source: Ollie Payne [Facebook]