Red RC » Electric

July 27, 2025

Orlowski goes 12-in-a-row at ETS Aigen

Michal Orlwoski has extended his winning streak in the ETS to 12, the Schumacher ace winning a shortened rain effected Round 2 at Aigen in Austria. Battling rain interruptions throughout the event, it would be Orlowski who secured the overall TQ after topping 2 of the three 4-minute qualifiers that they managed to complete. Taking the second round of qualifying Marc Rheinard’s Awesomatix would secure P2 ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker and Infinity’s Bruno Coelho, the World Champion having a tough seeding and finding himself running in the third fastest heat. With Sunday’s weather showing little possibility of any racing, it was decided to end Saturday’s action with the Modified finals. In A1 reigning ETS Champion Orlowski controlled the race from the front followed home by Rheinard and team-mate Simon Lauter, who benefited from contact between Coelho and Volker. In A2 it was another perfect drive from Orlowski, an early spin by Rheinard making his drive to 12-wins a row that bit easier. Coelho would take second ahead of Volker after the German succumbed to the intense pressure from his Portuguese rival. Winning A3 Rheinard locked in second overall while Volker held off Coelho in second to claim the final step on the podium. Lauter would finish 5th overall behind Coelho with the second of the three new Infinity IF14 Speciales in the final securing P6 with Viktor Wilck. With the rest of the classes decided on qualifying order, it was Awesomatix’s Olivier Bultynck who made it two from 2 having also won the season opener at Apeldoorn. Behind the Belgian, Louis Kretschmer made it an Awesomatix 1-2 with the ARC of Enrico Jung in third.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]

July 24, 2025

2025 Asian Buggy Championships Rd 3, Australia – Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend Australia played host to the third round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, with the Pine Pills Dirt Racing club in Brisbane welcoming its biggest international entry yet. The third year the oil treated dirt track has been a stop on the Asian Buggy Championship calendar, the race would see Infinity’s Kouki Kato make his eBuggy debut with the Japanese manufacturer’s new prototype electric buggy and win, while in a rain shortened Nitro Buggy final Alex Bernadzik took his Team Associated to victory. Unfortunately we were unable to photograph the winning Electric and Nitro Buggies – Kato’s eBuggy still at prototype stage and Bernadzik’s RC8 B4.1 featuring special rear hubs that the US manufacturer was not yet ready to show to the public. Red RC’s first time to visit the highly praised Pine Pills Dirt Racing track, which is locate in very nice setting of the James Drysdale Sporting Complex, during our coverage of the race we did still get the opportunity to photograph 8 buggies from 6 different manufacturers. In case you missed any of the Chassis Focus’ during our coverage ‘Down Under’, we have compiled them all here in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

July 22, 2025

Harper wins BRCA Round 4 at Colchester

Schumacher’s reigning British Electric Touring National Champion Elliott Harper added another win to his 2025 tally as he took victory at the round 4 of the Championship at Colchester. Winner of the previous two rounds at Stafford and Adur, Harper kicked off the event by locking in the TQ after topping 3 of the 5 rounds of qualifying. Fastest in Q5 Matthieu Dambrine secured P2 ahead of the Xray of Harley Eldridge. Over the triple finals Harper took the first encounter ahead of Eldridge before winning A2 ahead of Chris Grainger to wrap up the overall win. Despite winning A3, Dambrine would miss out on the podium, Eldridge the runner-up and Grainger 3rd. In the 17.5 class it was Billy Fletcher who took the TQ & win with James Hart and Ben Moorey joining him on the podium.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]

July 20, 2025

Kato takes eBuggy at Asian Buggy C/ships Australia

Infinity’s Kouki Kato has won eBuggy at the Australian round of the Team Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships. Armed with a prototype of Infinity’s upcoming 1:8 eBuggy kit release, the Japanese driver qualified second to Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik at the Pine Hills Dirt Racing track in Brisbane but after taking the win in Saturday’s A1 was able to secure his first Championship eBuggy win with another win in A3. The winner of the previous two rounds of Asian Buggy Championships in Nitro Buggy, the 19-year-old emulated that nitro success of winning first time out. Making his ABC debut at the season finale in Indonesia last last year and winning, making his electric buggy debut ‘Down Under’ this weekend he also delivered the win. Having won A2 with ease, Bernadzik looked in control of A3 but a mistake dropped the Aussie back to third leaving Sparko’s Tyler Jones to try to chase down Kato. Despite putting in the fastest lap, the American couldn’t do anything to get passed, a late error giving Kato the chance to breath and bring home the win. With a second from A1 and the win in A2, Bernadzik secured second overall with Jones, having two P2 finishes, completing the podium ahead of Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen.

July 13, 2025

Sobue reigns in Singapore to win eSIC 2025

Axon’s Akio Sobue reigned over the third edition of the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC), the Top Qualifier backing up Saturday’s performance with a dominant Sunday. Taking the A1 win ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg, the Japanese driver would repeat the result in A2 to secure an early overall win in Singapore. Debuting the first production example of Axon’s upcoming TC10/4 Touring Car release the result was the perfect launch for the Japanese manufacturer’s new car. While Sobue had the perfect weekend his team-mate Hayato Ishioka would be less fortunate. Securing P2 in qualifying after topping Q3, he suffered an electrical issue in A1 and A2, but with Sobue able to sit out A3 and watch he gave Ishioka his electrics for A3 and that led to the most exciting of the three A-Main encounters. With the power setting of Sobue’s ESC a little more aggressive to his own, leading away the field Ishioka would overshoot the back straight and drop down the order as Nicholas Lee took over the lead. Shadowed by Hagberg the Xray duo looked to have the race under control until Lee spun out. Having to change car for A3 after an off destroyed his car in A2, Lee was at a loss to explain why he spun out when he ‘wasn’t under pressure’ from his team-mate. With Hagberg now leading and Ishioka seemingly some way back, the Japanese driver came out of nowhere in the last two laps setting up a perfect show down of a drag race to the finish line – Hagberg just getting it by 0.027 to secure second overall. With Atsushi Hara backing up his P3 finish from A1 with another in A3, A2 not going his way, the former World Champion completed the podium at RCMC.

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July 13, 2025

Sobue cruises to eSIC A1 win ahead of Hagberg

Having feared they might wake to rain, racers at the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) have instead been greeting by the hottest day of the week in Singapore however the hot humid conditions still weren’t enough to stop the reign of Axon’s Akio Sobue at RCMC as he took a convincing A1 win ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg. Leading away the international field, Top Qualifier Sobue and his team-mate Hayato Ishioka pulled clear with Hagberg getting by team-mate Nicholas Lee early on. While running on used tyres, Lee was holding fourth but then a mistake half way into the race dropped the home hero to last. While the race was ticking off laps, Hagberg would suddenly find himself with Ishioka. Unfortunately the hot conditions causing the Japanese driver to lose power resulting in Hagberg making a little contact as the came onto the straight. Once into P2, Hagberg could do nothing about Sobue who took the win by 2 & a half seconds. Benefiting from Ishioka and Lee’s issues, having lined up P6 Atsushi Hara came through with his Schumacher to complete the Top 3 just ahead of E.C Kim’s Awesomatix.

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July 12, 2025

Sobue is eSIC Top Qualifier as Axon claim 1-2 in quali

Akio Sobue is the Top Qualifier at the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC), the Japanese driver leading an Axon 1-2 in qualifying today at the country’s RCMC track. Making his debut at the third & biggest eSIC race to-date, Sobue took early charge of today’s first official day of action by topping seeding and carrying that momentum into qualifying. Taking the opening two encounters, when team-mate Hayato Ishioka took Q3 it was assured a TC10/4 would start on pole. With Xray’s Nicholas Lee finally managing to break the Axon stranglehold in the fourth & final qualifier, taking the round ahead of Atsushi Hara, Sobue was confirmed the Top Qualifier. Trying to split the Japanese pair, unfortunately for Lee he came up 6/10ths of a second shy of bettering Ishioka’s TQ time meaning a 1-2 on the grid for the eSIC debutant Japanese manufacturer. With 2025 also marking Xray’s factory team debut at the international race, their new for 2025 driver Lee one half of the driving force behind the event, it will be the Singapore driver who starts P3. Team-mate Alexander Hagberg lines-up P4 with the top half of the grid being completed by E.C Kim, the leading Korean driver spinning out of a potential TQ run in Q4.

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July 12, 2025

Sobue takes opening 2 qualifiers in Singapore

Having topped seeding, Axon’s Akio Sobue has showed no signs of letting up on being the pace setter at this year’s Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) as he took the opening two rounds of qualifying at the annual race. With main challengers Nicolas Lee and Alexander Hagberg both sitting out Q1, Hagberg more forced than opting, the first of the four scheduled qualifiers opened with Sobue leading an Axon 1-2 ahead of team-mate Hayato Ishioka with Chinese National Champion Jerry Dai completing the Top 3. With all the eSIC contenders back on track for Q2, Sobue proved Q1 was in fact a true indication of the Japanese driver’s speed at the controls of his new TC10/4 as he held off Lee to go two from two by a margin of 1.3-seconds. After missing Q1 due to his huge off in seeding, Hagberg proved he had rebuilt a good car being the only one to match Sobue in posting a 13.6-second fastest lap time. A spin however from the Swede in the second minute of the qualifier ended that challenge and he registered a P7. The benefactor would be Ethan Cheng, the Xray driver adding a P3 to go with his P6 from the opening round.

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