March 20, 2025

Hara confirmed for eSIC 2025

The organisers of the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) has announced that racing legend Atsushi Hara will be attending this year’s third edition of the annual race.  This marks the first time the two-time World Champion will participate in eSIC which moves from September to an earlier date of July 12-13 in 2025.  The brainchild of top Singapore touring car racer Nicholas Lee and Chhua Jookiah with the aim of bringing top level international competition to the country last year’s race attracted factory entries from Mugen Seiki, Awesomatix, Yokomo, ARC and Xpress.  The previous two editions of the race were won by Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker.  On the announcement Hara said, ‘I am very happy to joining Electric Singapore International Challenge for the first time! I haven’t race an EP touring car race in Singapore for a long time, so I am looking forward to racing with all of my fans and friends! Special thanks to who organizing this event as my friend Nicholas Lee and Team Cayote for giving me this opportunity!’

Source: eSIC [Facebook]


February 26, 2025

2025 TITC Chassis Focus Index

21 editions of the TITC have been completed and thanks to the support of Hobbywing, Red RC was once again able to make the annual trip to the Infinity RC Addict Circuit in Bangkok to cover this truly unique event.  By far the greatest one yet in terms of all the pre-race hype, 2025 was the year the race got to play out moments that will forever be engrained in the sport’s history.  Bruno Coelho’s first ever race with Infinity, Michal Orlowski’s first ever TITC.  As the saying goes, ‘you only get one chance to make a first impression’ and wow was an impression Orlowski made on the ‘world’s toughest race’ – complete domination.  We also have to mention A3 and the last lap between Marc Rheinard and Bruno Coelho, that pass was pure Rheinard gold and having been reporting on his racing at the top level for so many years it was brilliant to see he still has that magic.  It was interesting to chat with a number of drivers for whom this was their first time experiencing the TITC, they didn’t actually need to tell us they were loving it because it was already written all over their faces,  it was like they had rediscovered the joy of racing again.  We get to go to our fair share of races around the world and none come close in terms of everyone enjoying themselves.  The laughter in the pits and the enthusiasm of the crowd watching the racing is infectious, and we still get to see the best in the World race head to head for a title they all desire so much – it truly is the unofficial World Championships.

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February 10, 2025

IFMAR 1:10 Offroad Worlds – Promo Video

Our good friends Down Under at RC Race Media have put together a nice promo video to highlight Sydney hosting the 1:10 Offroad World Championships later this year.  Running from September 29th to October 6th at Hills Off Road RC’s natural dirt track, RC Race Media will also produce the official broadcast of the 20th running of the 1:10 Offroad Worlds that will be live streamed to RC fans around the globe.  With 2025 marking the 40th anniversary of the category hosting its first ever World Championship back in 1985, these Worlds, with the beautiful city of Sydney as its backdrop, has all the makings of being a classic.  Last week the world governing body IFMAR published the Stage 1 report for the main event with the club currently preparing for the Pre-Worlds race on April 3-6th.

Watch video here


February 7, 2025

Volker, Kobbevik & Neumann set pace on opening day of MIBO International

It is the biggest MIBO International race yet and kicking off the third edition of the combined Czech onroad & offroad indoor event it was Ronald Volker in Modified Touring Car, Daniel Kobbevik in 2WD Buggy and Joern Neumann in 4WD Buggy who set the pace in free practice.  With both tracks opening up to racers late afternoon, to give them the Friday morning to travel to the Sports V Hotel in Hrotovice, Day 1 of the event consisted of 5 rounds of practice.  On the black carpet onroad track it was the Mugen Seiki of inaugural MIBO Champion Volker and the Schumacher of defending Champion Michal Orlowski would were the bench mark, Yokomo’s Christopher Krapp completing the Top 3.  On the grey carpet offroad track, onroad & offroad drivers standing back to back on the central drivers stand, 2WD Buggy saw Kobbevik’s Schumacher have the edge on MIBO debutant Marcus Kaerup’s Team Associated with Xray’s Bartosz Zalewski posting the third fastest time.  In 4WD, it was the Sworkz of the defending 2WD Champion Neumann that produced the fastest three consecutive laps ahead of the teenagers Kaerup and Zalewski, the later taking the win here 12-months ago.

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November 22, 2024

Sworkz to defend MIBO International title

Having made their debut at MIBO International last year and claimed the 2WD Buggy title with Joern Neumann, Sworkz is the first team to confirm its participation in the third edition of the annual Czech Republic based event.  Taking place on February 07-09, with practice starting on the Friday evening, multiple European Champion Neumann and Micha Widmaier will travel to Hrotovice to represent the manufacturer at the indoor event once again.  MIBO International brings together both electric offroad and onroad racing on two tracks build side by side in the Sport V Hotel by the team from Mibosport.  With entries for the event having opened this week, the Offroad track will cater for 2WD and 4WD Buggy and ‘Offroad Kids’, while on the onroad track the racing action will cater for Modified, Stock & FWD Touring car with a 1:12 GT 13.5T class as well as ‘Onroad Kids’ being introduced for 2025.  With a capped entry limit the relaxed schedule means plenty of time in the evening to wind down and socialise over dinner after each day’s racing.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]


November 13, 2024

2024 ISTC World C/ships Chassis Focus Index

While it was Team Associated and the announcement of their return to 1:10 Electric Touring Car competition at the ISTC World that almost broke the internet when we published the first images of their TC8 Prototype from Finishline RC Raceway in California, they were not the only manufacturers who had new cars at the 12th running of the biggest race in the World.  Mugen Seiki also arrived with a brand new car which the Japanese manufacturer for now wants to keep under wraps but it looks like designer Robert Pietsch has come up with a very competitive all new MTC3.  While it was great to see 2016 World Champion Ronald Volker in the mix, probably one of the most exciting things of the 2024 Worlds was their young up & coming star Jacob Cruz making the A-Main.  Having covered a lot of ISTC World Championships it was brilliant to witness the emergence of a new talent on the World stage and turning just 16-years-old the day after Bruno Coelho took a history making three in a row, we look forward to seeing Cruz develop over the next 2-years before we all travel to Asia for the next Worlds.

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November 10, 2024

Coelho pulls off ISTC World Champion Hat Trick

10-years and 1-month after his father took the gamble on bringing him to the 2014 IFMAR ISTC World Championships in Florida, Bruno Coelho has today become one of RC racing’s greatest drivers of all time after pulling off a hat trick of consecutive electric touring car World titles.  Travelling to Finishline RC Raceway in Bakersfield, California, for the 12th running of the Championships two years after dominating the last World Championship in Italy, this time round the Xray driver faced a fierce competitor in Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski.  With the duo the class of the field from the getgo, they would battle it out right through the week and into a title deciding A3 showdown.  After they clashed in A1, handing touring car legend Marc Rheinard the win, A2 would see Top Qualifier Orlowski lead home the defending Champion and the stage was set for four days of action to come down to the very last 5-minutes of a very well executed Worlds.  Leading away A3, Orlowski looked in control but after the first minute the Polish ace was struggling and making a small mistake on his 10th lap, Coelho didn’t need a second invitation to take advantage and go to the front.  Still it was game on, the next lap however, Orlowski had another moment which dropped him back to 5th, Coelho now with a clear lead he was never going to relinquish.  While Orlowski fought back, contact with Alexander Hagberg on the penultimate lap as they battled over second sealed the deal for Coelho as he also ran the fastest time of the three A-Mains meaning his 29th lap was a victory lap for his latest World title.  Having both had an outside chance of the title going in the closing race former Champions Marc Rheinard and Ronald Volker would come together in A3 resulting in P7 and P8 finishes respectively.  Overall however Rheinard would complete the podium ahead of his fellow countryman, itself an impressive result for a driver who won his first World title 20-years ago also on US soil.

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November 10, 2024

Lauter ‘Spec’ World Champion after dominant display

Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter is the new ISTC ‘Spec’ World Champion, the German putting on a dominant display of driving at Finishline RC Raceway in California to secured the title in A2.  Only the second running of the World Championship for the 17.5 Spec class, having finished runner-up to Alexandre Duchet 2-year ago at the inaugural event in Italy, Lauter made the trip to the US with just one goal in mind and executed a near perfectly campaign.  Securing the TQ and winning A1 with ease, the back to back European Champion once again pulled clear of the field in A2 with one onlooker commenting that his race was the definition of the ‘perfect driving’.  The only driver to top Lauter over the 6 qualifiers, Max Mächler would win A3 to make it a 1-2 for Awesomatix, the latter having given the manufacturer their first World title when he won the 1:12 Spec title in Florida last year.  As the outgoing ‘Spec’ Champions Xray would complete the podium in Bakersfield with Jan Ratheisky, the German driver chasing home Mächler in A3 having taken P3 in the second A-Main after his body tuck in A1.

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