Red RC » Electric

March 25, 2026

AECAR Statement in response to Canas having no entry for eBuggy National C/ship opener

AECAR, the governing body for RC racing in Spain, has issued a statement in response to yesterday’s news that Juan Carlos Canas will not be at this weekend’s opening round of the 1:8 Electric Buggy National Championship as he has no entry following a new ruling for the new season. With the new for 2026 ruling also affecting other racers including Xray team driver Bryan Baldo, and causing plenty of international online discussion, in the statement AECAR outlines its reasoning behind the introduction of 24-hour ruling. It would still appear however that Canas and Baldo will have a free weekend from racing and hopefully for the remaining rounds a more workable solution is found.

Read full AECAR Statement here

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 with P2. 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. Rheinard completed the season finale podium behind A3 winner Orlowski. 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. Mugen Seiki’s Sören Sparbier completed the podium. The title was already decided in favour of Olivier Bultynck at the previous round in Germany, the Belgian finishing out his campaign with 4th in Daun.

Image: ETS [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 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

March 17, 2026

PNWC 2026 – Announcement

PN Racing has announced that the annual PNWC will take place in the Netherlands in 2026 with Mini-zshop.nl in Munnekeburen hosting the World Cup for 1:28 from November 5-8th. With the 2025 PNWC hosted by 5280 Raceway in Colorado, USA, the classes most prestigious race returns to Europe for the 20th edition having previously been staged in France in 2024. At Mini-zshop.nl drivers can expect a world-class track layout designed to test every driver’s precision, speed, and setup at one of the premier facilities in the country. Registration open date will be announced soon via the Mini-zshop.nl and official PN Racing social channels.

Source: PN Racing [pnracing.com]

March 13, 2026

1:12 & ITSC World Championships in China Cancelled

Unfortunately the news and outcome no one in racing wanted but IFMAR has just confirmed that upcoming 1:12 and ITSC World Championship in China has been cancelled. The World governing body, who has been working hard with the host in the background since issues came to light two weeks ago, made the announcement in its lastest update on the event after the host has as yet been unsuccessful in obtaining he necessary government approvals to host the 2026 IFMAR Electric Track World Championships as scheduled. With less than 2-weeks until the 1:12 Worlds was to get underway at the Hongyu GDC track in Foshan, and no confirmed venue for the race, IFMAR had little option but to cancel the scheduled running of both events. China was announced as the host of the 2026 1:12 and ISTC Worlds in January 2025 and then when organiser Gavin Kwok opened the brand new world class Hongyu GDC in September last year there was huge anticipation for spectacular back to back World Championships. Unfortunately with the out break of the war in Iran raising concerns over the event, ultimately it was to be issues with permits from the Chinese National RC body that ultimately forced IFMAR’s very tough decision. With racers now faced with losing their flights, IFMAR has said they will issue a formal letter, along with supporting documentation, to assist racers with refund requests and potential insurance claims by the end of the weekend. Not a good day for RC racing, having followed Gavin Kwok’s efforts and work input to host these World Championships and create a World class stage on which to see the best drivers in the world fight it out, only to have an element outside of his control bring the whole thing crashing down, we hope Hongyu CDG, can welcome the world through its doors again in the near future. IFMAR say its Board of Directors will now aim for the rescheduling of the 2026 IFMAR Electric Track World Championships later in the year. While Hongyu GDC continues to try and secure the necessary government approvals, IFMAR say they will also consider other potential venue options.

Read full IMFMAR Update here