Red RC » Electric

October 6, 2024

Donnelly crowned Australian 4WD Offroad Champion

Lachan Donnelly is the 2024 Australian 4WD Offroad National Champion, the long time Team Associated driver reversing yesterday’s 2WD result to beat his 2-time World Champion team-mate Spencer Rivkin to crown at Hills Off Road RC track. Sunday’s 4WD title action at the Campbelltown Hobbies 2024 RCRA EP Offroad Australian Championships saw the 20-year-old from Sydney secure the 4WD TQ as he topped the opening 2 rounds of qualifying. Fresh from his 2WD title on Saturday, the US star using the event as practice for the IFMAR Electric Offroad World Championships the Sydney track will host in 12-months time, Rivkin went fastest in Q3 to secure the No.2 spot on the grid. Rounding out quali by topping the fourth & final round multiple National Champion Ari Bakla’s Xray would line up 3rd on grid ahead of another US visitor Chase Lemiuex. In the finals Donnelly would put in two faultless drives to secure the title that will go down as one of the National Championships more special years. Winning A1 ahead of Lemiuex and A2 ahead of Bakla, everything was to play for as to who would stand either side of the new Champion, it an emotional and very popular win. A great battle between Bakla and Rivkin would ensue, the former looking like he had done enough to get the job done but in the dying moments of the last lap Rivkin executed the pass to secure the win and another Team Associated podium 1-2, Bakla ending up on the third step. In 4WD Stock, Michael Stone pulled off the double adding to his 2WD title with victory over Justin O Connell and Andrew Selvaggi.

Image: Team Associated Australia [Facebook]

October 5, 2024

Rivkin wins Australian 2WD Offroad Nationals

Not a headline you’d usually expect to read but US offroad star Spencer Rivkin is the new Australian 2WD Offroad National Champion. Together with promising US racer Chase Lemiuex, the duo have travelled to Sydney to the Hills Off Road RC track which will host next year’s IFMAR Electric Offroad World Championships. While an official Warm-up Race will take place in April, the timing of the Campbelltown Hobbies 2024 RCRA EP Offroad Australian Championships gives racers the opportunity to experience the same weather conditions as is expected for the Worlds which run from September 29 – October 6, 2025. With Saturday’s action dedicated to deciding the 2WD Champion, after 4 rounds of qualifying it was Rivkin’s Team Associated that took the overall TQ after topping two rounds while Aussie’s top racers Ari Bakla and Lachlan Donnelly posted a TQ run each to line P2 & 3 respectively. In the triple finals Rivkin, who will chase his third 2WD World title next year Down Under, cruised to wins in A1 and 2 to added a new title to his CV. A win in A3 from Donnelly would make it an Associated 1-2 while 2nd in A3 gave Lemiuex the final step on the podium. In the 2WD Stock title race, Xray’s Michael Stone, the man responsible for last year’s 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney, dominated to take the win.

Image: Hills Off Road RC [Facebook]

October 1, 2024

FEMCA Clarification on 1:12 World Championships

Following the release of the 2025 World Championship dates which we reported on yesterday and some resulting conversations about 1:12 not appearing on the list, our friends at FEMCA (Far East Model Car Association) have been in touch to clarify their position on the subject. The governing body of RC racing that represents 15 nations in Asia and Australasia, the bloc has been tasked with bringing together the next 1:12 and next ISTC World Championship for IFMAR. While the next 1:12 Worlds are due to take place in 2025, and the next ISTC in 2026, FEMCA after discussing internally & with IFMAR, that the prospect of jointly hosting the two World Championships together in China 2026. While keeping Red RC updated on its progress, they would now like to publicly share these details with the wider RC community and avoid confusion especially within the 1:12 racing community. Personally knowing all the people involved in putting together FEMCA’s exciting plan, Red RC is already looking forward their hosting of the championships .

Read FEMCA’s update here

September 30, 2024

IFMAR announces 2025 World Championship dates

IFMAR has published the dates for the 2025 World Championships with the latest calendar seeing one change of host country and 1:12 no longer listed. The World governing body of RC racing, whose sole remit is the administration of each category’s bi-annual World Champion crowning, will have two new inaugural World Champions to add to their list as 1:8 Offroad gets it first World Championship race for Electric Buggy while 1:8 GT will now also get an official Electric GT World Champion, the 2023 Worlds hosting Electric GT as a ‘World Cup’ status race. It will be 1:8 eBuggy that kicks off the 2025 calendar at the end of August followed by 1:8 GT in September, 1:10 Offroad in October, and 1:8 Onroad in December. With 1:8 GT originally awarded to Peru, Chile is now set to double its efforts as it is listed to host 1:8 Onroad and now the 1:8 GT Worlds. Club de Aeromodelos de Chile (CACH) will host the 3rd running of the GT Nitro Worlds with 2-months then to get ready for the race that decides IFMAR original World Championship category. Having previously run with the ISTC World Championship, which is just over five weeks away in California, 1:12 became a stand alone championship after Covid but it looks likely they may come back together again for 2026 at least. More news on this and the host track are expected from IFMAR shortly.

View dates here

September 30, 2024

Sobue wins ISTC Worlds Warm-up Race

Akio Sobue took the win at the official ISTC World Championship Warm-up race over the weekend, the Axon driver coming out on top of the small international entry to win ahead Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and Serpent’s Dominic Greiner. With Finishline RC Raceway in Bakersfield, California, set to host the 12th running of the IFMAR World Championship for Electric Touring Car from Nov 5-10th, the official Warm-up race attracted 23 modified entries. With reigning back to back World Champion Bruno Coelho and hotly tipped title favourite Michal Orlowski competing at 1:10 Offroad European Championships in Sweden, where they claimed a title each, it was 2022 Worlds podium finisher Sobue who set the pace throughout the event. Topping all three qualifiers he secured the TQ ahead of Hagberg and former Nitro Touring Car World Champion Greiner and that’s how they ran & finished in the opening two A-Mains. Hagberg took A3 from Greiner with multiple 1:10 Offroad World Champion Ryan Cavalieri getting a third that gave him fourth overall. In Pro Stock it was Schumacher’s Ollie Payne who took the win. Former World Champions Marc Rheinard and Atsushi Hara opted to not race and instead will begin testing at the track today. Red RC will be travelling to Finishline RC Raceway in 5-weeks time to cover the main event.

Image: Serpent [Facebook]

September 29, 2024

Dominant Coelho claims European 4WD title in Sweden

Xray’s Bruno Coelho is the new EFRA 1:10 4WD Offroad European Champion after a dominant performance in Malmo, Sweden. The first time the European Championships have been held on an indoor carpet track, the former 4WD Buggy World Champion took the European title in the category for a second time with the absolute perfect score. In qualifying the Portuguese driver topped all 5 rounds with his Hobbywing powered XB4’25 to secure the TQ ahead of defending Champion Michal Orlowski, the Schumacher driver securing the 2WD title for the first time earlier in the week. Sworkz’s Micha Widmaier completed the Top 3 for qualifying ahead of the Team Associated of 2022 Champion Marcus Kærup. Continuing his form into the A-Mains, Coelho took the first one by 1.4-seconds from Orlowski. While his Polish rival was slightly closer in A2, Coelho sealed ther title with another win. A3 would see Orlowski take the win ahead of former back to back Champion David Ronnefalk who came through from P6 on the grid but third for Widmaier would see the Austrian complete the overall podium.

Image: Hobbywing Technology [Facebook]

September 28, 2024

Kato Top Qualifier at Asian Buggy Championships Finale

Making his debut in the Asian Buggy Championships at the season finale in Indonesia this weekend, it is Infinity driver Kouki Kato who will start the 1-hour Main as the Top Qualifier. The reigning Japanese National Champion secured the top spot on a tiebreak with team-mate Naoto Matsukura who would take the fifth & final round of qualifying at West Side Raceway. Having ended Day 1 of qualifying with a TQ run, Matsukura did the same again today in Jakarta. With 2 from 5 to count, his Q5 time however was 2.8-seconds shy of what he needed to deny Kato, who topped three rounds, the overall TQ. The driver with the fastest lap of qualifying, set this morning in Q3 when he was P2 behind Kato, Indonesia’s own Jason Nugroho locked himself into 3rd place on the grid ahead of Australian Christian Wolhuter, the Sworkz pairing also going to tiebreak for their grid positions.

Continue reading here

September 25, 2024

Orlowski adds 1st 2WD Offroad European title

Michal Orlowski has added the EFRA 1:10 2WD European Championship title to his CV for the first time, the Schumacher/Hobbywing driver taking the win in Sweden where the championships are being hosted indoors for the very first time. The reigning 4WD European Champion would secure the overall TQ in Malmo topping 4 of the 5 rounds of qualifying. Schumacher team-mate Daniel Kobbevik took Q5 to secure P2 on the grid with Team Associated’s defending Champion Marcus Kaerup claiming 3rd ahead of the Xray’s of Bruno Coelho and David Ronnefalk. In the triple finals, Orlowski took A1 by almost 4 seconds over Norwegian Kobbevik as Ben Smith came through for third. A2 would be a much closer finish as Kaerup with the only 18-second lap of the race tried to force the fight to A3 but coming up 9/100ths short it was Orlowski who took A2 and the title. With a number of drivers in contention for the other podium placing in A3, it looked to be Kobbevik who would fill the second step but chased down by Kaerup, a mistake with 30-seconds to go, allowed Kaerup through for the win and runner-up spot. Kobbevik completed the podium ahead of Smith. Orlowski will now try to go for his first Euros double as the rest of the week switches to the 4WD title fight.

Image: Hobbywing Technology [Facebook]