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April 14, 2025

Hara back for 2025 Philippine Masters

After making his first major international offroad final in many years & claiming a hugely popular podium at last year’s Philippine Masters, Atsushi Hara is returning to Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race. Hara would lead for almost half of the 1-hour main at the famed Circulo Verde Race Track in Manila before the former World Champion was passed by current World Champion Davide Ongaro. Eventually taking 3rd place in the nitro buggy final, the legend of the sport was truly rejuvenated by the whole experience of the weekend. With the 13th edition of the Philippine Masters once again the second round of Scotty Ernst’s Asian Buggy Championships, which this year is boosted by title sponsor from Cayote who are also one of Hara’s main sponsors, on his return to the race Hara said, “I am very happy to be going to Masters again this year. The Philippine Masters is my favorite 1/8 buggy race because of the great organization by the race director Scotty Ernst with his team, the great facilities, and the great people. I am also excited to be able to compete at a high level with the world’s best drivers like Ongaro and other top drivers from around the world.” The Philippine Masters takes place from April 30 -May 4th with Ongaro going for his 5th win of the race.

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

April 11, 2025

Matsukura confirmed for Philippine Masters debut

Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura has been confirmed to make his Philippine Masters debut later this month at the 13th running of Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race meeting. The second round of the Cayote sponsored Asian Buggy Championships, Matsukura got his first taste of the championship last year when he complete at the season finale in Indonesia where Infinity team-mate Kouki Kato took the win. Now the multiple World Champion will tackle the famed Circulo Verde Race Track in Manila which is the work of track designer and accomplished offroad racer Edward Sio. Commenting in his Philippine Masters debut Matsukura said, ‘I’m excited for the first time to join the Philippine Masters! It’s also my first time going to the Philippines. I’m looking forward to racing at such a great event, and having some good battles with the top drivers.’

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

April 11, 2025

2025 SIGP Onroad Race – Announcement

Sunpadow Batteries has announced that its annual SIGP International RC Car Onroad Grand Prix will this year take place from June 18-22. Resuming last year following a break due to Covid, the race would see Bruno Coelho take the big win in electric and Jeff Hamon the victor in nitro. Held at the 2017 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championship venue in Xiamen, both the onroad and offroad tracks are built side by side next to Sunpadow’s production facility. The SIGP Onroad, the track hosting a separate Offroad event later in the year, will continue to offer one of the biggest prizes in the sport with total prize money of $25,000 on offer over the categories which include 1:10 Modified Touring Car, 1:10 Stock Touring Car, 1:8 GP onroad, and 1:8 GT. Registration will open on May 1st.

Source: Sunpadow [sunpadow.com]

April 10, 2025

Ongaro heads 2025 Philippine Masters entry

World Champion Davide Ongaro will once again head the entry at the Philippine Masters, which takes place later this month in Manila. The Team Associated star driver has become a regular of the event which has grown into Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race meeting. With 2025 marking the biggest edition yet of the Philippine Masters, it is the second stop of the four round Asian Buggy Championships which kicked off in New Zealand last month. With a new title sponsor in Cayote, Round 1 of the Scotty Ernst promoted championship saw Mayako Youth Mentoring Program driver Jayden Edmunds take the win and the Australian will be aiming to build on that performance at the Circulo Verde Race Track from April 30 -May 4th. A huge fan of the Philippine Masters, this the 13th running of the event, asked about the race reigning Champion Ongaro said, ‘I like to come to the PM Masters because the atmosphere is incredible, the joy of the people is something that I’ve never seen, the track is amazing and the effort that the guys put on for this race is something special.’ The Philippine Masters is one of Red RC’s favourite annual events to attend and report on as it combines both top level racing and a social atmosphere around the racing that lives up to the host country’s tagline ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’.

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

April 9, 2025

FEMCA rebrands to Asian Championships

The governing body that represents 15 nations in Asia and Australasia, FEMCA has announced a rebranding of its blue ribbon events. Previously known as the FEMCA Championships, they will now be hosted under the titles of Asian Championships with 1:12 and Touring Car the first races set to crown the ‘Asian Champions’ later this year in Foshan, China which will host the 2026 IFMAR World Championships for both categories. Under the leadership of Leonard Kee, the Far East Model Car Association (FEMCA) has been busy re-establishing its championship events following Covid. The 1:8 Offroad Championship has enjoyed great success on its return with Kyosho’s American based up & coming offroad star Phi-Long Nguyen claiming back to back titles in Vietnam last month. Part of the success of that event has been FEMCA’s move to award the host track the option to host the race for 2-years. This is in order to help the track recoup any investment made in presenting a track worthy of hosting this major international title race that includes Atsushi Hara and Kyle McBride as past champions. At the end of last year the profile of the FEMCA Touring Car Championship got a major boost when World Champion Bruno Coelho traveled to Gavin Kwok’s GDC Indoor track, where the Portuguese ace added the title to his CV ahead of former FEMCA Champion Naoto Matsukura. In making the announcement FEMCA stated, ‘FEMCA will launch the “Asia Championship” races in Asia starting this year with ISTC and 1/12 category in the city of Foshan China at the start of December. The Asia Championship will provide a platform for all racers and hobbyist in Asia Pacific to race against their peers and fellow enthusiasts. ‘ Listing the categories that will have Asian Championship status, they added, ‘The events are based in Asia and the entries will be open to all. More events and changes are abound as FEMCA makes tweaks to rules and formats to move forwards in this hobby and region.’

View Championship categories here

March 31, 2025

1:10 Offroad Worlds Warm-up preview by Scott Guyatt

Having enjoyed plenty of World Championship talk and discussions while in his company in the media room at the opening round of Scotty Ernst’s Asian Buggy Championships in spectacular New Zealand just over a week ago, Action R/C’s Scott Guyatt has put together a great preview of the 1:10 Offroad Worlds Warm-up race which takes place in his home country of Australia this coming weekend. If you hadn’t done your homework on the race, Scott has you covered with his in-dept preview. Take it away Scott……… ‘It’s time for those three words we all love: “It’s Race Week!” And if you’ve hung out with us for long enough, you know that means we absolutely cannot resist an overly long race preview. Read on as we all get excited for what lies ahead in the next few days. The long road to the 2025 1/10th Offroad IFMAR World Championships takes a huge step this week, with the running of the official warmup event. Hosted, of course, by Hills Off Road RC in Sydney’s northwest, the event offers at least three critical opportunities:

Continue reading here

March 28, 2025

Top Qualifier D’angelo confirmed for 1:8 GT Worlds, Chile

Following last week’s confirmation that Toni Gruber will defend his IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship title in Chile later this year, 2023 Top Qualifier Alex D’angelo’s participation in the Santiago event has also been confirm. Making his World Championship debut in Sydney 2-yeas ago, D’angelo secured the overall TQ honours for Genius Racing when he TQ’d the sixth & final round of qualifying at the John Grant International Raceway. Unfortunately a number of engine flame-outs in the 1-hour final denied the Italian’s a shot at the title with him eventually finishing 6th. Joining Capricorn for the 2025, the Italian manufacturer’s owner Patrizio Rossi confirmed his star driver will lead their challenge at the third running of the 1:8 GT World Championship. Hosted by Club de Aeromodelos de Chile (CACH) at their multi discipline RC facilities, the Worlds will run from September 14-20th.

March 27, 2025

Ratheisky confirmed for eSIC 2025

Following last week’s announcement that Atsushi Hara will contest the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) for the first time, the organisers have confirmed another first time entry from Xray team driver Jan Ratheisky. The well travelled German racer will participate in the third edition of 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 which is held at the RCMC race track 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.

Source: eSIC [Facebook]