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January 23, 2026

Senesi sets GT practice pace at Asia Nitro Party

1:8 GT specialist Natanaele Senesi has set the pace in free practice ahead of this weekend’s inaugural Asia Nitro Party at the impressive Hongyu GDC track in China. An event that has generated a lot of excitement within the Asian nitro racing scene since the 2026 1:12 & ISTC World Championship venue facility announced the annual event last October, 1:8 GT is the biggest category with over 50 drivers taking part. The 2024 European Champion would top the times from reigning World Champion Alessio Mazzeo, both drivers running Raptor cars after Senesi, who runs under his own Senesi Motorsport banner, made the switch from an Xray based car to Raptor. The move came about as a result of Senesi’s engine sponsor Gimar, which in 2024 took over the Raptor project. Also a factor in the switch was the ability for Senesi to produce his own Senesi Motorsport edition Raptor kit which features a number of his own design elements. Another of the fast European’s making the trip to Foshan, and believing the would escape the cold weather back home, it would be Genius Racing’s Bernard-Alain Arnaldi who completed the Top 3. While all hugely impressed with the new RC facility, drivers have been badly caught off guard by an unseasonable cold spell to hit southern China. With most drivers seeing the podium photo from last weekend’s Sweep Asia Cup race at the track, in which winner Bruno Coelho, Michal Orlowski are both wearing shorts, and basing their clothing choices from that they packed for much warmer conditions than what has greeted them. There does however appear to be a big jump up in temperatures for tomorrow’s qualifying with it then set to hit in the region of 23 degrees for Sunday’s finals. On track the low temperatures have also added to the challenge of getting heat into the Sweep rubber tyres used in 1:8 GT, the compound selected ahead of the race based on racing in temperatures double that of what has been experienced so far.

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January 20, 2026

Urbain wins 2026 ‘Charity Race’

The biggest winner is always the charities the race continues to raise money for each year, but the 2026 records will show Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain took victory at the 15th running of the annual Charity Race in Scandiano, Italy. The French driver would secure the TQ honours on tie break with Xray’s Filippo Domanin as they each recorded two TQ runs over the four qualifiers. Multiple 1:8 Onroad World Champion Dario Balestri completed the Top 3 on the grid for Infinity ahead of Luca Romagnoli and Alessio Menicucci. Urbain would go on to take the overall win with victories in A1 & 2 while A3 victory would secure Balestri second on the podium ahead of Domanin. In 17.5 Stock Nico Catelani took the TQ and win for Infinity.

Image: RC Landia [Facebook]

January 20, 2026

Double win for Payne at latest BRCA 1:12 encounter

Excelerate RC’s Ollie Payne kicked off his 2026 season with a double win at the latest rounds of the BRCA 2025/25 Stock 13.5 National Championship. Rounds 7 & 8 were hosted by the Dorset Model Car Racing Club and it was championship leader Payne who set the pace all weekend. Securing the TQ with his R1 Wurks powered Prodigy 12 for Saturday’s Round 7 action he would go on to take the win ahead of the Awesomatix of Michael Bolt and Excelerate team-mate Morgan Williams, the podium the same order as they qualified. In Round 8 it was again Payne with the TQ which he duly converted into the win for the perfect weekend. He was joined on Sunday’s podium by the Schumacher pairing of Finley Whitelock and Louis Parker. Payne’s closest title rival going into the weekend, it was to be a difficult one for Mark Stiles with the Awesomatix driver suffering a P10 (DNF) in Saturday’s final and P5 on Sunday.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]

January 20, 2026

US Masters of Foam 2026 – Report

The inaugural US Masters of Foam took place over the weekend at Skagit River Raceway in Washington State, USA, featuring competitive indoor carpet racing across six classes, and honouring the late Steve Curry. The event also marked the revival of foam tire touring car racing in the United States. The Modified Touring class saw Weylin Rose dominate with his Xray, taking both top qualifying and the overall win. Multi-time foam touring national champion Travis Schreven finished second with his Team Associated TC8, while Peter Robinson (Xray/RCAmerica) completed the podium with his X4’26.

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January 19, 2026

O.S. Speed confirms Yokoyama for Nitro Party

O.S. Engines has confirmed that it will now also be official represented on the track at Hongyu GDC’s inaugural Nitro Party race this coming weekend (Jan 24/25th) with the addition of multiple World Championship finalist Sinnosuke Yokoyama to the entry list. The iconic Japanese engine manufacturer was already committed to attending Asia’s brand new high profile nitro onroad event with trackside technical support for O.S. Speed engine users but has now added their factory driver to the race’s impressive international entry. Also a multiple Japanese National Champion, Yokoyama joins a stacked field that includes compatriot & World Champion Naoto Matsukura from Infinity, Serpent’s 2025 1:8 Onroad Worlds’ Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani, double reigning IFMAR 1:8 GT World Champion Alessio Mazzeo, European GT Champion Natanaele Senesi, Xray’s Italian young gun Filippo Domanin, and Genius Racing’s very experienced Bernard-Alain Arnaldi. The first edition of what the 2026 IFMAR 1:12 and ISTC World Championship host venue plans to build into a major annual event on the international nitro racing calendar, Red RC are looking forward to kicking off a busy season of race coverage by travelling to the city of Foshan and returning to this very impressive venue to cover the Nitro Party which will see the facility echo to the sound of nitro engines.

Source: Hongyu GDC [Facebook]

January 13, 2026

2026 Desert Classic – Announcement

2023 IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship host venue Hobby Action has opened registration for the 10th Annual Desert Classic which takes place at the Arizona indoor track from March 5-8th. Under track owner Larry Tom, the Desert Classic has established itself as an early season fixture on the 1:10 Offroad calendar filling the void left after the iconic Cactus Classic lost its outdoor track location after the 2014 edition. Attracting 32o entries, last year’s edition saw wins for Xray’s Chase Lemieux (2WD) and Team Associated’s Aydin Horne (4WD). Continuing to be supported by long time sponsor Stickit1 Racing, the race schedule will consist of 4 rounds of qualifying with the best three to count with triple finals for all 2WD and 4WD classes and 10-minute Mains for Truck classes.

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January 13, 2026

Isaacs & Hagberg win at Hudy Indoor Champs

Awesomatix’s Sam Isaacs and Xray’s Alexander Hagberg where the big winners at the annual Hudy Indoor Champs at ProLevel RC in Chesterfield, Missouri – Isaacs winning 1:12 while Hagberg took back to back Touring Car wins. Attracting 148 entries, qualifying would see Isaacs TQ both classes, topping all four round in 1:12 and 2 of the four in Touring Car. With team-mate Kemp Anderson lining up P2 in 1:12 and defending Champion Hagberg in third, in the single 8-minute A-Main Anderson would get the front after a rough start by Isaacs. Leading for half the race, he would be retaken by Isaacs for the win with the podium order being how they qualified. In Touring Car, Isaacs would lead for the first half of the race until a mistake rolled his Awesomatix out of contention for the double allowing last year’s double winner Hagberg to take the victory by 1.6-seconds from Anderson with 2023 winner Keven Hebert completing the Top 3.

Image: Sam Isaacs [Facebook]

January 13, 2026

Back to back Silver State wins for Fuller

Sworkz’s Mason Fuller has claimed back to back Nitro Buggy victories at Silver State Indoor Championships. With the young American talent taking a break through win at the high profile annual Las Vegas based race last April, he would back it up with victory at this year’s earlier running of the Joey Christensen event. In qualifying it was Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen, who was on the podium last year, who took the TQ ahead of the Tekno pairing Seth VanDalen & Ryan Maifield, Sworkz’s Camden Lime, and Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz, the latter topping the first of the 3 qualifiers. In the 45-minute final it was looking set to be a super close battle between Nguyen and Fuller but a flame out as the race reached 3/4 distant would deny the talented teenager a chance at his first big win. With his main challenger gone, Fuller was able to claim the win with a 24-seconds advantage over Team Associated’s Spencer Rivkin while VanDalen completed the podium. In eBuggy, Nguyen also took the TQ and after an incident packed final lap claimed the win ahead of Fuller and Tekno’s Jared Wiggins. Lutz had looked on target to win the 10-minute encounter but landed funny on the last lap handing Fuller the lead but he got hit by Maifield who in turn received contact from eventual winner Nguyen. In Truggy it was Maifield who took both the Nitro and Electric wins.

Image: JConcepts [Facebook]