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May 27, 2025

Phend wins ‘The Dirt’ Lonestar Challenge

Over the Memorial weekend in the US, expected 2026 IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship venue Thornhill RC Raceway in Hutto, Texas played host to ‘The Dirt’ Lonestar Challenge where Xray’s Dakotah Phend took the Nitro Buggy win. After 3 rounds of qualifying, 2 to count, it was Tekno’s Seth VanDalen who claimed the TQ honours from Phend, Ryan Maifield and 2025 Silver State dominator Mason Fuller. While VanDalen lead for the first 15-minutes, having already taken the Nitro Truggy win once Phend hit the front he stayed there to win by almost a full lap over the pole sitter while Maifield, winner of eBuggy, completed the podium with his Tekno. Fuller would finish 4th after a close finish with Xray’s Chase Lemieux who round out the Top 5 just 0.893 of a second back.

Image: Tekno RC [Facebook]

May 26, 2025

Baruffolo wins 23rd edition of Kyosho Italia Meeting

Celebrating its 23rd edition, the Kyosho Italia Meeting saw Marco Baruffolo do the double as he won both nitro and eBuggy from his international factory team mates at the Pista Offroad Campogalliano track in the north of the country. In qualifying it was Frenchman Reno Savoya who took the TQ for the 45-minute final ahead of Baruffolo and Riccardo Berton. In eBuggy pole position went to Baruffolo as he topped all three qualifying rounds with Savoya P2 as Berton again made up the Top 3. Converting his pole position into victory in eBuggy with A1 and A2 wins, the podium would be the same order as the Top 3 started. In the Nitro final, setting the fastest lap of the race Baruffolo took the win by 2-laps from Berton as a communication problem put Savoya’s refuelling strategy out of sync dropping the multiple European Champion to 3rd. Next weekend all three drivers will get to battle it out again at the Japanese manufacturer’s flagship 25th annual Kyosho Masters at Robot Club 94 in France where they will also be joined by US team drivers Ryan Lutz and now Phi-Long Nguyen.

Image: Pista Offroad Campogalliano [Facebook]

May 20, 2025

2 from 2 for Boots in British Championship

Sworkz/Reds Racing factory driver Elliott Boots maintained his perfect start to his BRCA British 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championship title defence with another win at Round 2 which was hosted at a sunny Brookthorpe track. Taking maximum points at the season opener at Herts last month, Boots again ticked all the boxes at the second stop on the 5 race schedule securing the TQ and the win. In qualifying he took the TQ on tie break with the Mugen Seiki of Dom Nunn, both drivers topping two rounds each. Having set the pace in the opening qualifier, the Xray of Jonny Skidmore, who was runner-up to boots at Round 1, would qualify third. Winning his Semi Final to line-up on pole in the 14 car 45-minute final, from there Boots went on to win by 3/4 of a lap over the Agama of junior racer Erik Lykke. Having started P2, unfortunately Jonny Skidmore’s race lasted less than 5-minutes after he collided with another buggy travelling backwards down the straight. Team-mate Lee Martin, who started P7, would complete the podium.

Image: Elliott Boots [Facebook]

May 20, 2025

Ongaro again at Round 2 of Italian Nationals

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro made it 2 from 2 in the AMSCI Italian National Championship over the weekend taking the win at his home track, the Ongaroring. The World Champion and reigning Italian Champion topped 3 of the four rounds of qualifying to secure the TQ ahead of Kyosho pairing Marco Baruffolo, who topped Q4, and Riccardo Berton. Starting the 45-minute from pole ahead of Berton and Sworkz’s Mattia Polito after winning the faster of the Semi Finals, Ongaro would secure his second win of the 4-round championship by a lap over Berton, who suffered a DNF at Round 1. With the Top 3 finishing as they started the final, Polito claimed his second podium finish of the season having finished P2 at the season opener at River Park RC track back in March.

Image: Mattia Polito [Facebook]

May 19, 2025

Double win for Canas at International Buggy Challenge

The seventh edition of the International Buggy Challenge took place in Portugal over the weekend where Sworkz’s Juan Carlos Canas took a double victory. With the Barcelos track in for a busy 2025 as its hosts the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Buggy World Championship and the EFRA 1:8 Nitro Buggy European Championship, this year’s IBC would also double up as the official Warm-up race for both championships. Having been forced to rescheduled the race, originally set for May 2-4, as a knock on effect of a major national power outage that effected both Portugal and Spain recently, the race attracted just over 90 racers as a number of top drivers had other race commitments. In qualifying it was Spanish youngster Adrian Pariente who took the nitro TQ ahead of his older brother Daniel after they each TQ’d a round. Canas TQ’d the opening round but ended up P6 on the grid with the Infinity of Bruni Coelho completing the Top 3. In the 45-minute final, reigning European Champion Canas would lay down the fastest lap of the race as he worked his way to the front to win by just under half a lap from Adrian. Former World Champion Robert Batlle competed the podium with his Sworkz 20-seconds behind Pariente. Local hero Joao Figueiredo would finish fourth ahead of Coelho. In eBuggy, Canas dominated topping all three qualifiers before winning all three A-Mains with Coelho and Adrian Pariente joining him on the podium.

Image: Robert Batlle [Facebook]

May 9, 2025

Hara confirmed for Asian Buggy C/ships visit to Brisbane

With two hugely successful rounds of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships already in the books, Round 3 hosts Pine Hill Dirt Racing in Brisbane have received the exciting news that they will get to welcome legend of the sport Atsushi Hara to their track for the July 16-20 event. The former 1:8 Buggy and Electric Touring Car World Champion, who has for the last 2-years attended the Philippine Masters round of the championship, will make his first ever trip to Brisbane thanks to his sponsor Cayote. Having not raced 1:8 Buggy regularly in recent years, his racing programme more focused on electric touring car outings, the Japanese driver is relishing the opportunity of back to back ABC outings after his double Top 10 finish in Manila last weekend. With the last two visits to Australia sell out races, entries for Round 3 at Pine Hills Dirt Racing (PHDR) track open May 10th. Just like Hara, Red RC are excited to be making our first visit to Brisbane in July to cover the latest action from the Asian Buggy Championships.

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

May 7, 2025

Morganti wins KO Propo Grand Prix

Diego Morganti took the big win at the 15th annual KO Propo Grand Prix which took place at Homestead RC Raceway in Miami over the weekend. One of the majors on the US onroad nitro racing calendar, this year’s race attracted 111 entries and in 1:8 Onroad it was the Serpent of reigning US National Champion Bryce Butterfield who took the overall TQ on tie break. With two of the 5 qualifying rounds to count, the Shepherd of Lazaro Alonza Jr also TQ’d two rounds but ended up P2 while topping Q2 Morganti’s Capricorn completed the Top 3. In the final rain would see the race red flagged and on resuming action it was Morganti who chased leader Butterfield. Unfortunately Butterfield would encounter transmission issues that ended his quest for another KO Propo Grand Prix win with Morganti able to cruise to victory ahead of Joachim Bruneau, who qualified 4th, and Alonza Jr. In 1:10 Touring Car it was Infinity’s DJ Apolaro who took the TQ and win while in 1:8 GT Serpent’s Jose Almonte came from P8 to win the final from top qualifier Carlie Lopez.

Image: Diego Morganti [Facebook]

May 4, 2025

Kato wins PM25 as Ongaro & Kilic fail to finish in Manila

It was only his second Asian Buggy Championships appearance but Infinity’s young Japanese prospect Kouki Kato made it 2 from 2 with the biggest win of his career taking victory today at the famous Philippine Masters which is Round 2 of the Cayote backed championship. Having won last year’s season finale in Indonesia, Kato would line-up third on the grid in Manila behind Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic and Top Qualifier Davide Ongaro, the Team Associated driver chasing three in a row at Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race. With the 1-hour final underway Ongaro and Kilic would establish a lead with Kouki driving his own calculated race in 3rd. With a change coming up front after a mistake by Ongaro allowed Kilic to go to the front unfortunately the Turkish driver’s Philippine Masters debut was to come to a premature end as he suffered the first of two flame-outs 15-minutes into the race. It would turn out that the pick-up in his fuel tank had shifted and was longer positioned in the bottom of the tank hence the reason he was flaming out after just 5-minutes of running. With the demise of Kilic allowing Ongaro back to the lead, it wasn’t to be the World Champion’s day either. With 24-minutes remaining he too looked to flame out but the problem was more terminal. Doing a battery pack change as the car’s radio was not responding it turned out that his receiver had failed and the 26-year-old was out. In all the drama Kato was getting on with his race and took over the lead which he would hold until the finish, the crowd being entertained by the battle for the other podium places. The Sworkz of Asian Buggy Championships Champion Christian Wolhuter and Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen went at it with Sworkz Mattia Polito also in the mix. Looking on target to repeat his impressive P2 eBuggy result, Iivonen would cruelly run out of fuel on the penultimate lap allowing Wolhuter to claim second 14-seconds back on Kato. While also running out of fuel, but on his last lap, Polito took third as Iivonen was classified fourth ahead of Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz with Alex Bernadzik completing the Top 6 as the dust settled on the biggest edition of the Philippine Masters yet.

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