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June 12, 2025

IFMAR confirm Thornhill as ’26 1:8 Offroad Worlds track

IFMAR, the World governing body of RC racing, has officially confirmed that the hosting of the 2026 IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship will be hosted by the Thornhill Racing Circuit in Texas. Posting details of the 2026 calendar, IFMAR confirmed the widely expected news that the home of the annual ‘The Dirt’ Lonestar Challenge and this year’s ROAR Nationals will welcome the best drivers in the World to battle it our for the biggest prize in the sport from September 26th to October 3rd 2026. The Thornhill Racing Circuit complex is situated on 13.9 acres with the dirt track having the unique feature of being fully covered. Las Vegas was the venue on the World Championships last visit to the US when David Ronnefalk took the 2016 title.

View 2026 IFMAR World Championship Calendar here

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 10, 2025

Diekmann wins Oslo Open 2025

Capricorn driver Thilo Diekmann took the main win at the Oslo Open 2025, the annual nitro onroad race held at the impressive Hverven Raceway located south of the Norwegian capital. While rain hampered the event, in qualifying it was former 1:5 World Champion Martin Lissau who was the Top Qualifier ahead of the Mugen Seiki of British Champion Alex Thurston who both booked their direct place into the final. For 2024 Oslo Open winner Francesco Tironi qualifying P5 meant he had to start his quest for two in a row from the Semi Finals but he failed to go the distance and his race was over. The Italian did however get some consolation on Sunday when he won the 15-minute Midnight Sun Sprint race ahead of Thurston. Qualifying 8th, Diekmann would progress from his Semi and in the 45-minute Main, which ran on Saturday night, he took the win a lap up on Lars Haugen with Alexander Andersson joining him on the podium. Both Lissau and Thurston had a troubled final with the Dane retiring with 7-minutes to go and Thurston finishing a distant fourth.

Image: Thilo Diekmann [Facebook]

June 9, 2025

Harleman wins Dutch EFRA Large Scale GP

The second round of the 2025 3-race Large Scale EFRA GP series took place in the Netherlands over the weekend where Mecatech driver Marco Harleman took the win. With rain having affected the opening round in Spain, where Bernard-Alain Arnaldi took the win, racing at the Real80 track in Groningen drivers again faced difficult wet weather conditions with qualifying seeing limited running. With the 3rd of the 6 scheduled qualifiers proving the quickest, it was Hessel Roskam who secured pole position. For the wet 30-minute final, a number of drivers would not start the race, leaving 3rd place qualifier Harleman to take a commanding win. The Dutch driver was joined on the podium by Luke Van den Berg and Pieter Netten. The third of the EFRA Large Scale Grand Prix races takes place on September 13/14 in Lostallo, Switzerland, where drivers will be hoping for a break from wet conditions.

Source: Mecatech Racing Components [Facebook]

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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