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November 12, 2023

Jefferies wins EWS International

Recent Awesomatix signing Olly Jefferies has won the EWS International. Part of the popular indoor winter series in the UK, the International race again attracted a number of top international racers with the TQ going to France touring car ace Lucas Urbain. Making it a strong qualifying for Awesomatix, Urbain’s team-mate Jefferies secured P2 on the grid ahead of the Mugen of Ronald Völker and Xray of Kyle Branson. In the triple finals it was a tough day at the office for Urbain with A1 resulting in a DNF as 2022 Champion Volker took the win from Branson and Schumacher’s Elliott Harper. A2 saw Jefferies win ahead of Volker and Urbain putting everything on the line for A3. In a repeat of the Top 4 of A2, Jefferies lead the field home to claim the outright win with Volker and Branson completing the Modified podium. In Pro-Stock and FWD, German visitor Stefan Schulz had the perfect weekend taking the TQ and victory in both categories for Xray.

Image: Olly Jefferies [Facebook]

November 10, 2023

ACI Sport 2024 RC Car Racing Calendar – Announcement

ACI Sport, the Italian Motorsport Federation and member of the FIA, has announced the 2024 National Sporting calendar for RC Car Racing. The sporting activity that will ultimately assign the official titles of 2024 Italian Champion will unfold across three blocks of EP classes: Touring EP (Modified, Stock 17,5T, FWD and GT 21,5T), LMP (1/12 OPEN, GT12) and finally Endurance, which represents a newly introduced sanctioned event for Factory and Private Teams. The 2024 sanctioned racing activity will kick off on 17-18 February with the “Italian Indoor Championships” to be held in RC Landia (Scandiano) for TOURING EP and LMP classes. Racing will then move to springtime when “Italian Cups” across three Divisions (Northern – Central – Southern Italy) will take place from April to June in both Touring EP classes and Endurance. Italian Cups will act as qualifying events for drivers/teams aiming for a spot to race in the “Italian Championships” which will be held in Fontanellato (Minicar Fontanellato) for Endurance on 31 August – 1 September and in Riccione (Road Race Riccione) for Touring EP on 21-22 September. Finally, the “Italian National Trophy” will be held in Lucca (Minicar Lucca) on 6-7 July and will cater Touring EP classes.

View full ACI Sport calendar here

November 9, 2023

Mugen Seiki’s Volker confirmed for FIRC 2023

Mugen Seiki Electric Touring Car ace Ronald Volker has been confirmed to attend the inaugural Foshan International Invitational RC Championship in China on December 15-17. A country in which the German driver became the 2016 World Champion, he will make the trip to the new GDC Indoor Race Club track in Guangdong for the recently announced event. The hope is that having international electric onroad racers at FIRC will boost the level of competition among young local racers. Officially opened in May of this year, and at 800 square metres the largest professional indoor onroad track in China, a number of international team drivers are expected to be announced shortly. Red RC is excited to be making the trip to GDC to cover what the organisers hope will become an annual highlight of the international touring car race calendar.

Source: GDC Indoor Race Club

November 9, 2023

’23 1:8 Onroad World Championship Chassis Focus Index

After a four year wait the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship was back and what a final we would witness at Infinity International RC Speedway in Japan. Following more than a week of action on track it was Infinity’s Dario Balestri who came out on top winning the World title for a second time and in doing so became only the second driver in the history of IFMAR’s original category to be a repeat winner. In terms of manufacturers it was great to see three different manufacturers represented on the podium. During our coverage of the race we managed to photograph 15 cars from 8 different manufacturers and have compiled them all in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

November 7, 2023

Martin dominates Round 2 of EssexCarpetClash

Round 2 of the popular EssexCarpetClash series took place at the end of October, where drivers had a mix of both an open and tight track. The grip seemed a little lower than the first round, so a little tweak to setup was needed, but this didn’t effect any of the fast and close racing throughout the day. In 2WD it was the mega quick Lee Martin that set the timing sheets alight taking top spot in all his qualifying runs with his Schumacher LD3. Ed Kerry had a great start to the day with some great early qualifying runs, putting his Serpent 2nd on the grid ahead of Will Venables in 3rd.Harley Eldridge would have a consistent qualifying and would line up 4th ahead of Demetri Panayides. The pole man Martin, would continue his dominance and never look back in the finals, and would make it a perfect 3 leg finals taking all leg wins and the meeting overall. With a few errors and mix ups in the field all finals, it would be Eldridge that would make the most of things and constantly finish in the top spots and getting her 2nd overall for the day with her Xray. Venables would keep his grid position and finish 3rd overall.
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November 6, 2023

Payne wins 1:12 International Grand Prix

Schumacher’s Ollie Payne won the 1:12 International Grand Prix in Italy over the weekend ahead of team-mate Michal Orlowski. Fresh from his double victory at the Masters of Foam race in Belgium a week earlier, the British driver travelled to RC Landia in Scandiano where we would again dominate the action. Topping three of the 6 rounds of qualifying, Payne secured the overall TQ ahead of 2022 European Champion Orlowski who posted two TQ runs. Reigning European Champion Alexander Hagberg who take Q3 to secure 3rd on the grid with his Xray. In the triple 8-minute A-Main, Payne won to first two take the overall while victory in A3 gave Orlowski second ahead of Mattia Collina for an all Schumacher podium with Hagberg fourth after a DNF in A3.

Image: RC Landia [Facebook]

November 4, 2023

Takahata to defend World title from P3 in Japan

Mugen Seiki’s Shoki Takahata is to defend the 1:8 Onroad World Championship title he won in California four years ago from P3 on the grid in Japan after a near perfect Semi Final performance. Starting the second of the half hour encounters from P2 on the grid, the Japanese driver would win from the Capricorn pairing of pole sitter Toni Gruber and Dominic Greiner, the later having to start from the back of the grid after calling time in the warm-up to change engine. In the first of the Semi Finals, Jesse Davis executed a text book race to repeat his 2019 performance when he booked himself into his first World Championship final. Behind the Australian, Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura secured his place in the 1-hour final ahead of a delighted Francesco Tironi, the Italian having bumped up from the quarter finals. As the drivers with the fastest two race times outside of the Top 3 Semi Final finishers, 2013 World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi and 1:8 Onroad World Championship debutant Kouki Kato complete the 10 car line up that will compete for the 23rd IFMAR World Title here at Infinity International RC Speedway.

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November 3, 2023

Reunited after 15 years – Hara, Miura & the D8

15-years ago one of the icons of our sport claimed a race win that to this day he describes as the ‘highlight’ of his illustrious racing career. That driver was Atsushi Hara and the race in question was the 2008 IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina. As anyone who races nitro well knows, it is very much a team sport. Today here in Japan, on the penultimate day of the 1:8 Onroad Worlds, that World title conquering combo of Hara, legendary race mechanic Masayuki Miura and the winning Hot Bodies D8 buggy were reunited for the first time in a decade and a half. As Red RC was in its infancy and didn’t cover its first 1:8 Offroad World Championship until 2-years later in Thailand, it was an opportunity to recreate the winning team photo of 2008 with our good friends Hara and Miura and do a ‘Retro Chassis Focus’ on the historic buggy.

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