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October 30, 2023

4 busy days of practice conclude at 1:8 Onroad Worlds

After four busy days of practice for drivers at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan, things are finally set to get official tomorrow with four planned rounds of seeding practice to determine the heat order for qualifying. Summing up how practice had gone, many of the international drivers getting their first taste of the Infinity International RC Speedway on Friday, it was mixed reports from some of the leading title contenders. The driver they all will be trying to beat over the next 5-days, reigning Champion Shoki Takahata was looking content and relaxed and reported being pleased with how he was working through his program. With no official timing being published, icon of the sport Atsushi Hara highlighted the Mugen driver as a driver looking strong over the four days. A 1:8 Onroad Worlds podium finisher himself, Hara felt Takahata’s new for 2023 team-mate Simon Kurzbuch was also looking strong. From his own team, Infinity, he thought Dario Balestri was leading their charge with the 2017 World Champion in confident mood when we caught up with him at the completion of the final practice.

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October 30, 2023

Bernadzik is Australian Champion

Alex Bernadzik is the new Australian 1:8 Nitro Buggy National Champion. Racing at the MORBC track, the venue of the 2018 1:8 Buggy World Championship, the Team Associated driver took the RCRA title with victory in the 1-hour final of the SpeedyRC supported championship. In qualifying it would be Kyle Ward-McBride who secured the TQ after he went fastest in 3 of the 5 rounds at the same track where he did his National Championship double in 2015. With one TQ run a piece, Bernadzik and Aaron Dexter completed the Top 3 in the qualification ranking, 74 drivers taking part in this year’s Nationals. While Ward-McBride would win his Semi from Dexter, an unlucky run for Bernadzik would see him finish 5th putting him 12th on the 15 car grid for the final. Coming from the back it wouldn’t take Bernadzik long to get to the front and with Ward-McBride retiring after 12-minutes, he cruised to the win by a comfortable 4-lap margin over the Tekno of Caleb Noble and Sworkz of Christian Wolhuter. In eBuggy, Noble would reverse that result taking the title from the Queensland driver with Jayden Edmunds’ Team Associated third.

Source: RC Race Media [Facebook]

October 30, 2023

Payne defends double Masters of Foam titles

Ollie Payne has successfully defended both his Masters of Foam titles, making it back to back wins at the annual Belgian event in both Mod and 13.5 Stock. In Friday and Saturday’s qualifying the Schumacher driver claimed overall TQ honours for both classes and was able to carry that form into Sunday’s triple finals. With Xray’s Alexander Hagberg lining up P2 on the grid, Payne opened Mod with a win but A2 ended in a DNF with Hagberg taking the win to set the stage for an A3 showdown between the pair. From the front however Payne lead from start to finish to win by 2-seconds from Hagberg who claimed the second step on the overall podium. Second behind Hagberg in A2 and with a P4 in A3 it would give Stuart Cartwright third overall, the Schumacher driver winning out on a tie break with Markus Mobers. In 13.5 Payne produced a clean sweep winning all three A-Mains for the overall title ahead of the similar Eclipse of Morgan Williams with Max Machler’s Awesomatix completing the podium.

View 13.5 podium here

October 29, 2023

‘Without knowledge you can drive but you can’t win’ – Jilles Groskamp

It’s easy to think that the top drivers in the World have a special ability to just show up at an event and put their car on the track and be quick straight off the bat. While there are one or two exceptions who do possess this super power, for the most part the success comes from combining that natural talent with a lot of hard work, that mostly goes unnoticed, between races. Racing at the top level is relentless because when you are not putting in the work your rivals are, and they are making marginal gains that combined can be the difference between them winning or you not. One driver who has always stood out as one of the hardest working drivers in our sport is Jilles Groskamp. Even back in the dominant years of the Tamiya TRF team in electric touring car it was Jilles who was doing most of the ground work for the entire team. That effort was justly rewarded when he became the 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion at his home track of Heemstede. Now at the age of 43, Jilles admitting himself ‘I’m not the youngest guy anymore’, putting in the work is even more vital than before and through that comes knowledge which he points out ‘without knowledge you can drive but you can’t win’.

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October 28, 2023

‘Every race we start from zero’ – Gruber

Two weeks ago Toni Gruber took the biggest prize of his racing career yet. Realising the ultimate dream, he clinched his first World Championship title with a very convincing victory at the 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney, Australia. The victory didn’t really come as too much of a surprise however as the German is in the form of his life this season. However, despite claiming the 1:10 Nitro Onroad European Championship for a second time during the Summer, following that up a month later by becoming Top Qualifier at the 1:8 Euros where he finished on the podium, and then rounding out the European season with his first ENS title win, the sport’s newest World Champion goes into the 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Japan with the mindset ‘every race we start from zero’.

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October 26, 2023

‘I think Dario was racing European Championships before I was born’ – meet Serpent’s 1:8 Onroad young gun Andrea Catanzani

The last time the 1:8 Onroad World Championship was held in Japan it was Serpent who came away with the title thanks to Japanese driver Tadahiko Sahashi. At the same time almost 10,000km away in Italy an 8-year-old was embarking on his journey into RC Racing. Inspired by his father, one of the country’s top Rally Game drivers (the precursor to what we now know as 1:8 GT), this driver started to master his skills driven by view of his father, ‘for me he was the best and I wanted to be like him’. Now a decade later, that up & coming talent is part of a small select factory Serpent team that will compete for the title at the 23rd running of IFMAR’s original World Championship at the Infinity International RC Speedway in Japan. That driver is recently turned 18-year-old Andrea Catanzani, who earlier this month marked his arrival on the international stage with some stunning displays of outright speed and hunger for success at the 1:8 GT World Championship in Sydney.

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October 24, 2023

Lin wins 2023 Futaba/O.S. Cup

Taiwan’s largest event of the year was held over the weekend at the Erchong Floodway track in New Taipei City, where Hong Nor’s owner Hsiang Lin took the win in 1:8 GT. The annual Futaba/O.S. Cup attracted almost 80 drivers from Taiwan and Singapore, and just back from Australia after watching his team driver Toni Gruber claim the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship with their X3-GTS, Lin took his own explain to both the TQ and win. Making it back to back wins of the event, Lin was joined on the all Hong Nor/Ielasi tuned podium by Su Jiahong and 3rd placed Liú Qiáozhì.

Image: Hong Nor [Facebook]

October 20, 2023

2024 Asian Buggy Championships calendar announced

Scotty Ernst has announced an expanded calendar for his Asian Buggy Championship with the 1:8 Offroad race series set to travel to New Zealand, the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia in 2024. Red RC travelled to the Philippine Masters earlier this year where we reportred on World Champion Davide Ongaro taking victory for the opening round of the inaugural Asian Buggy Championships. New Zealand kicks things off the second season when the Countries RC Car Club host Round 1 on February 8-11. An event that has become famed across the World for its outstanding hospitality and welcoming atmosphere, the Philippine Masters is the second stop on the calendar on April 18-21. Round 2 of the 2023 calendar, Australia also returns with Pine Hills Dirt Racing again the hosts in July. Extending the ABC’s reach, an overall point series be introduced for the new season, Indonesia will conclude the action with Westside Raceway hosting the final round in early September.

View 2024 Calendar here