June 10, 2025

Smokem 2025 Australian Indoor Champs – Report


Last weekend the ACT Model Car Racing Club based in Canberra, Australia, hosted the inaugural Smokem Australian Indoor Champs (AUSIC) run on AusBite carpet.  Catering for six classes, in 13.5 ISTC class, RC Maker factory driver Jeffrey Mackie narrowly secured the top qualifier position, edging out ARC’s Brayden Stanley, with RC Maker teammate Lincoln Codd completing the top three. A1 saw an intense battle on the tight AUSIC layout, with Stanley applying pressure but unable to find a way past the defensive Mackie. In A2, Stanley finally pulled off a pass, only to suffer a mechanical issue that dropped him to last place, leaving Mackie to capitalise and take the win and ultimately, the title. A3 delivered yet another nail-biting showdown, with Stanley crossing the line just two-tenths ahead of Mackie to secure second place overall. Meanwhile, Codd’s consistent pace and measured drives across all three mains earned him the final podium spot, fending off spirited challenges from Stone, Askell, Peet, and Ilievski.

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June 9, 2025

Champlin doubles at INS15 Mid Summer encounter

Round 3 of the 15th season of the JConcepts Indoor National Series, the Mid-Summer Carpet Indoor Nationals, took place at Island Speedway in Iowa, over the weekend where Schumacher’s Broc Champlin completed the double.   Attracting almost 300 entries, qualifying would consist of three round with Champlin topping them all in 2WD to TQ ahead of Team Associated pairing Spencer Rivkin and Aydin Horne with Schumacher’s Tom Rinderknecht fourth.  Winning A1 & 2 Champlin  added his first 2WD win of the 2025 series as the Top 3 line-up on the podium as how they started.  In 4WD, it was Rivkin who took the TQ from Champlin with Brennan Schimmel’s Xray third, each driver having posted a TQ run each.  While Rivkin opened the finals with a win as Champlin dropped to 4th,  Champlin took A2 forcing things to be decided in A3.  With Rivkin leading for the first 2-minutes, Champlin forced his way into lead where ge stayed to take the win and with it his second 4WD win of the INS15 season having won at the season opener back in February at Trackside Hobbies in Wisconsin.  With Rivkin A3 ending down in P5, it was Schimmel (2nd) and Rinderknecht would completed the podium.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]


June 8, 2025

Ongaro defends European eBuggy title in Spain

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro has defended his EFRA European 1:8 eBuggy title winning the 9th edition of the championship at Valladolid in Spain.  Qualifying would kick off with Bruno Coelho and his prototype Infinity eBuggy topping the first of the four rounds but fastest in the next three qualifiers it was reigning European Nitro Buggy Champion Juan Carlos Canas who secured the TQ with his Sworkz.  Behind the Spaniard it was Ongaro, last year’s Top Qualifier in France, who lined up second ahead of Coelho.  Italian Sworkz driver Mattio Polito secured P4 with the Sparko of young French talent Noha Ben Mohamed in fifth as David Ronnefalk completed the Top 6 as the leading Xray.  In the first of the 10-minute triple final encounters, late contact between Canas and Ongaro handed Coelho the win.  In A2 a mistake from Canas early on saw him give the lead to Ongaro who would lead home Coelho and Ronnefalk.  Unfortunately Canas’s hopes of retaking the title he last held in 2022 were over after he suffered a DNF trying to make his way back up the order.  While Canas finally delivered a win in A3, second was enough for Ongaro to take his third eBuggy Euros title with Coelho the runner-up as Canas completed the podium.  Finishing P4, Ben Mohamed took the European Junior title.  A big year for 1:8 Electric Buggy, drivers will now turn their attention to the first ever IFMAR World Championship for the category which takes place in Portugal in August.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]


June 3, 2025

Phipps claims first BRCA 1:10 Offroad National win

Team Associated’s Thomas Phipps claimed his first BRCA British 1:10 Offroad National Championship win over the weekend when he won 2WD at Round 2 of the championship.  Racing at Boughton Raceway in Norfolk in the East of the country, in 4WD it was Schumacher’s Ben Smith who took the win.  Topping 3 of the 4 qualifiers, Neil Cragg managing the fastest time in Q2, Phipps secured the overall TQ ahead of the similar buggies of Cragg and Round 1 double winner Tommy Hall with Smith securing P4.  In the finals an incident filled A1 saw Hall win from Smith as Phipps finished P4.  In A2, the 20-year-old was able to convert pole into victory finishing 2-seconds ahead of Cragg.  In A3 having pulled an early lead, Phipps was then chased back down by Hall but as the reigning champion attempted a pass the pair tangled handing the lead to the Schumacher’s Josh Holdsworth.  Holdsworth stayed out front to win the leg ahead of Phipps and Smith but P2 was enough for Phipps to claim his first National race win.  Josh Holdsworth (2nd) and Hall joined him on the podium.  In 4WD, Smith would take the TQ and win ahead of Martin, who won A1, with Josh Holdsworth competing the Top 3 ahead of back to back champion Hall.

Image: Thomas Phipps [Facebook]


June 3, 2025

2025 Speed King Tour Rd3 – Report

The third round of the popular Speed King Tour 2025 was held at TM Circuit Wakayama in Wakayama prefecture of Japan where Infinity driver Ryosuke Yamamoto took the TQ and win.  Race day was sunny day like a mid summer and competitors showed their skills of driving and making good car setup.  In the TC0 class (Modified), Yamamoto’s consistency was brilliant and he never gave his rivals an opportunit to challenge either in qualifying or the finals.  It would be Kazunari Tomita who claimed second place with his Tamiya TRF421 while from 4th on thw starting grid Takara Sano completed the podium.

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June 3, 2025

Landén doubles at Swedish 1:10 Buggy Nats – Report

Team Associated driver Alexander Landén produced a clean sweep at the Swedish National Championship over the weekend winning both 2WD and 4WD 1:10 electric buggy at the Karlskrona MRK organised event in the south-east corner of the country.  The outdoor track and overall facility is one of the best in Sweden, and the club always puts on a great organization taking care of the racers with good food service and atmosphere.  In 2WD qualifying Landén came out strong and managed to TQ rounds 1 and 3 with the fastest time of the day to secure overall TQ.  In the process he also posted the fastest lap time of the day with Schumacher’s Elias Johansson lining up P2 followed by the Xray of Hampus Berg and TLR of Ludwig Albertz. In the first final Landén was able to break free and run a fairly undisturbed final followed home by Johansson in 2nd and Berg in 3rd.  In the second final the Top Qualifier got away clean, but made a small mistake on the long-jump letting Johansson by.  While Landén spent most of the final pressuring Johansson, but couldn’t find a way past and in the end made another mistake that allowed Berg to take 2nd. In the third A-final again the start was clean with Landén and Johansson managing to make an early break-away from the rest of the field.  While Johansson managed to keep in contact with the leader for quite a while, a mistake saw him get hung up on an edge of the corner table jump, which allowed Landén to pull away and win the last final and take the overall championship. Overall 2nd went to Johansson with Berg claiming the final podium spot.

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June 2, 2025

Orlowski opens ETS title defence with another win

Michal Orlowski’s unbeaten run in the Euro Touring Series continued over the weekend as the Schumacher driver opened the latest season with another win at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.  In a repeat performance of 12-month earlier, Orlowski secured the TQ topping 3 of the 4 qualifiers while Practice Top Seed Lucas Urbain took the final qualifier to line up P2 on the grid with his Awesomatix.  Infinity’s Bruno Coelho returned to the series with a P3 ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker as Marc Rheinard’s Awesomatix completed the Top 5 on the grid.  That P5 would prove to be the place to be in A1, first an out of shape Urbain would make contact with Volker, then braking traction Orlowski would collide with Coelho, handing Rheinard the win from team-mate Simon Lauter and Xray’s Alexander Hagberg, the duo having started 6th & 7th respectively.  In A2, Orlowski went tone to tone winning from Urbain and Coelho to put his quest for an 11th consecutive win back on track.  In A3, Orlowski again delivered a perfect drive while a spin from Urbain mixed up the following pack and ended his changes of repeating the 2024 Dutch round podium line-up.  With Rheinard coming through for 2nd, that was where the reigning EFRA European Champion would stand on the podium while P3 in the 3rd encounter would secure Lauter the final step on the podium.  In Pro Stock the weekend would see a dominant performance from Awesomatix’s Oliver Bultynck, the Belgian topping seed, taking all four qualifiers and sealing the win in A2.  He was joined on the podium by ARC’s Jung Enrico and Xray’s Izsay Adam

Image: Bruno Coelho [Facebook]


May 27, 2025

Holdsworth & Smith win at Scotty Ernst UK Showdown

Famed British astro track Robin Hood Raceway played host to the Scotty Ernst UK Showdown over the UK Bank Holiday weekend where Schumacher’s Luke Holdsworth and Ben Smith took the big wins.  With 2WD action first up it was it was Luke Holdsworth who secured the TQ as he topped 2 of the four rounds.  Tied for second with one TQ run each was Smith and the other of the Holdsworth brothers Josh, however with the faster time 2024 2WD winner Smith denied the brothers a 1-2 on the grid.  In the finals, A1 would see a Holdsworth 1-2 as Luke got by Smith, however Smith got the better of them both in A2 meaning it was all to play for in A3.  Taking a 4-seconds win over Josh, a mistake on lap 2 ending Smith’s challenge, it was a 1-2 overall for the brothers with Smith completing the podium.  Moving onto 4WD, the battle between Smith and the brothers continued.  While Luke opened and closed with TQ runs, taking Q2 & 3 with a faster time it was Smith who was the Top Qualifier.  Winning the opening two encounters just ahead of third place qualifier Josh,  Smith took the overall victory, while Josh completed a podium that was a complete reverse of 2WD.

Image: Scotty Ernst UK Showdown


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