Red RC » International

July 26, 2026

Orlowski back to winning ways at ETS Slovakia

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski returned to his winning ways in the ETS taking Round 2 in Slovakia with victory over Bruno Coelho, the driver who last year ended the Pole’s run of 12 consecutive wins in the series. Racing at the Hudy Arena, it was Coelho’s Infinity that topped seeding ahead of Orlowski and with Marc Rheinard heading the early home charge for Xray. In qualifying, reigning Champion Orlowski opened with the first of 3 TQ runs over the 5 rounds that would secure him the overall TQ. Topping the final qualifying, Coelho, winner of the season opener in the Netherlands, would line-up P2 on the grid. Behind Xray’s Alexander Hagberg completed with Top 3 ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker and Infinity’s Viktor Wilck. In A1 Orlowski lead from start to finish, a mistake by Coelho just before the half way distance which say him roll onto his roof allowing him to cruise to the win by over 7-seconds from Coelho who inherited P2 back after Hagberg suffered a mechanical failure & retired. In A2, despite the best efforts of World Champion Coelho, it was Orlowski who again took the win by just over 1-second to return to the top step of the podium. With Coelho winning A3 from Hagberg, the final result was the same as the qualifying order. Having qualified P7, Rheinard would finihsh fourth ahead of Volker with Schumacher’s Mattia Collina completing the Top 6. In Pro Stock Xray’s Jan Ratheisky took the TQ and win over reigning Champion & Round 1 winner Olivier Bultynck. While the battle for the win went to A3 after Bultynck won A2, contact frim Xray’s Adam Izsay ended the Awesomatix driver’s challenge for the win. The Belgian would claim second overall with Izsay taking the third step on the podium.

Image: Bruno Coelho [Facebook]

July 25, 2026

4 in a row as Balestri defends European title in France

Infinity’s Dario Balestri has successfully defended his EFRA 1:8 Onroad European Championship title, the Italian taking his Max powered IF18-3 to a fourth consecutive victory in France today. Racing at the Bourg-en-Bresse track, qualifying opened with French ace Maxime Ripoll topping the first of the five rounds with his Xray. New 2026 Serpent signing & 2023 Euro Nitro Series Champion Mirko Salemi would set the pace in Q2 before Top Seed Balestri went quickest in Q3. Another TQ run from Salemi in Q4 and Balestri in Q5 left the compatriots tied but on tie break it was 2-time World Champion Balestri who was the Top Qualifier. 2nd in qualifying would secure Salemi together with Infinity’s Carmine Raiola and 4th placed Ripoll direct spots into the Main final. The 2026 1:8 GT European Champion, Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani would qualify fifth to secure pole in his Semi with the other Semi pole going to the Capricorn of Toni Gruber. Unfortunately for the 2025 World Championship Top Qualifier, Catanzani would be given penalties over his refuelling that would leave him 4th at the end of the 20-minute encounter with only the Top 3 progressing. In the Last Chance Final he would retire with the Xray of Filippo Domanin becoming the 11th car on the grid. In the 45-minute final Balestri showed just why he is such a decorated 1:8 racer, eventually securing his 6th European title by almost 3-seconds from team-mate Riola with an impressive drive from Domanin seeing him come through the field to complete the podium at the 24th running of the championships just ahead of Salemi. Gruber would finish P5 with Ripoll, who ran as high as second & set the fastest lap of the race, completing the Top 6 at his home track.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

July 20, 2026

Woulhunter wins Asian Buggy Championships Australia

Factory Kyosho driver Christian Wolhuter took the big win at the Australian round of the Asian Buggy Championships, the 2004 ABC Champion taking the top step of the podium ahead of Jackson Beale and Jayden Edmunds at the Pine Pills track in Brisbane. With the 3rd stop on the 4 round calendar attracting over 300 entries, it was to be a challenging weekend for both the race organisers and racers as rain and further incoming bad weather forced the racing to be condensed to finish under the lights on Saturday night. In qualifying it was the Team Associated of last year’s Australian round winner Alex Bernadzik who took the TQ honours from Beale’s Tekno, each having a TQ run from the 2 rounds of qualifying Race Director Scotty Ernst & his team managed to squeeze in around the weather. With a P2 in Q2, Wolhuter would line up P3 ahead of the Xray of New Zealand Champion Logan Toia, and new Sparko signing Edmunds. In the 45-minute final unfortunately a bad batch of glow plugs would end Bernadzik’s chances of repeating his 2025 win on lap 1 as he suffered a series of flameouts. Despite putting in the fastest lap of the race and rising back up to 7th in the 14 buggy field, he would retire in the closing stages of the race. Up front Wolhuter took the win by a comfortable 24-seconds from Beale while Edmunds just held off Zan Ryan by 4-second to complete the podium. In eBuggy, it was Bernadzik who also took the TQ which he was able to convert to the win ahead of Edmunds and Wolhuter. The fourth season of the Asian Buggy Championships concludes in Indonesia with the fourth round at West Side Raceway in Jakarta from September 3-6th.

Image: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

July 19, 2026

Figueiredo claims first European title in Estonia

João Figueiredo has claimed his first European Championship title, the personable Portuguese driver also giving his Tekno team its first EFRA title with victory at the eBuggy Euros in Estonia. Attracting 118 drivers to the RC Rakvere Racetrack, four rounds of qualifying would see Figueiredo take his Hobbywing powered EB48 2.2 to the overall TQ after topping Q2 & 4. With the second fastest times in Q3 & 4, Mugen Seiki’s Berkan Kilic secured the second spot on the grid ahead of Sparko’s Noha Ben Mohamed who opened qualifying with TQ run but struggled to repeat that form over the remaining three rounds. Travelling to the 10th running of the 1:8 Electric Buggy Euros chasing a third consecutive title, Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro qualified fourth ahead of Spain’s David Todd who took his Mugen Seiki to a TQ run in the third qualifier. As the reigning eBuggy World Champion, Marcus Kaerup struggled with the mixed conditions and would just scrap into the A-Main with P13. In the triple finals, A1 saw Figueiredo lead home Kilic as former double Champion David Ronnefalk came through from 9th to 3rd with his Xray. In A2, with Kilic in tow Figueiredo had a bobble at the 2 & a half minute mark that handed the lead to the Turkish racer. Holding that lead for 3-minutes it was Kilic’s turn to have a bobble handing the lead back to the pole sitter but on lap 12 Figueiredo would jump badly and on landing catch a track post that would break his buggy allowing Kilic to cruise to the win ahead of Ongaro and newly crowned European Nitro Buggy Champion Juan Carlos Canas who qualified his Sworkz in P11. In A3 an early mistake from Figueiredo handed Kilic the lead briefly, but touching in the air shortly after, the Tekno driver was back in front from where he took control of the race to win and claim his first European title. With Kilic in second, Ongaro completed the podium ahead of Ronnefalk and Kaerup.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

July 12, 2026

Coelho wins Euros Warm-up Race

Infinity’s Bruno Coelho has won the Warm-Up race for this year’s upcoming EFRA European Championships which takes place at the famous Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”. The reigning World Champion secured the TQ after taking his Hobbywing powered IF14 Speciale to the fastest time in 3 of the four qaulifiers. Topping Q3, Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter secured second on the grid ahead team-mate Lucas Urbain and the Schumacher of reigning European Champion Michal Orlowski. Heading the Xray challenge, Marc Rheinard completed the top half of the grid. In the finals with Coelho struggling for traction in A1, it was reigning Spec Touring Car World Champion Lauter who took the win. Improving his car for A2, Coelho would stay out front for the win just ahead of Lauter with Tim Wahl completing the Top 3. Set to chase a fourth European title in Luxembourg from August 6th-9th, Coelho would secure the Warm-up win with A3 victory over Orlowski and 2024 Champion Rheinard. Despite a DNF in A3, Lauter would finish second overall with Orlowski completing the podium. In the Spec Class, 2022 & 2023 Champion Olivier Bultynck secured the TQ & win ahead of Awesomatix team-mates Lukas Ellerbrock and Louis Kretschmer.

Image: Bruno Coelho [Facebook]

July 8, 2026

IFMAR issues clarification on ISTC World C/ships Approved Bodies

RC racing’s world governing body IFMAR has issued clarification on body shells for the upcoming 2026 ISTC World Championships which will take place at Huge RC in Bangkok, Thailand. Having last week issued a statement regarding the ineligibility of the Xtreme Aerodynamics CZ1 Nitro Touring Body for the Nitro Touring Car World Championship which take place Italy in September, IFMAR made the clarification on the 190mm Electric bodies after they had ‘received some queries regarding use of recently approved bodies’. Body shells in 1:10 Electric Touring Car has been a huge talking point since the arrival of the Avalon Vortex. For the 13th running of the 1:10 Electric Touring Car World Championships, IFMAR said, ‘We wish to clarify that there are no proposed changes to the rules for bodies for the event. This means that all bodies currently approved by EFRA, ROAR, FAMAR and FEMCA that comply with the GBS rules are allowed to be used.’ They did add that, ‘the wing must be fitted directly to the body without spacers *and* no part of the wing may extend above the roofline of the body.’

Read full claificiation here

July 7, 2026

IFMAR Large Scale World C/ships Stage 2 Report

Set to kick off IFMAR’s 2026 World Championship season, the world governing body has published the Stage 2 report for Large Scale World Championships which take place in Switzerland later this month. The first running of the World title race since 2022 after the 2024 hosting of the championship in Australia was cancelled, the 12th running of the Worlds looks set to be close to capacity with 145 drivers registers over the two categories – 100 for the Open/Mod class and 45 drivers for the restricted sportsman class. With the MRTM Lostallo track the home of Large Scale racing in Europe, reigning World Champion Markus Feldmann from Germany heads the entry and will chase his 3rd World title having won his first Worlds at the iconic track when it last hosted the race in 2013. With driver registration on July 26th, the first of IFMAR’s 4 World Championship events this year officially run from July 27th to August 1st.

View Stage 2 Report here

July 6, 2026

Kurzbuch wins Dutch ENS Encounter

Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch has won the second round of the Euro Nitro Series, the Swiss driver getting the better of Round 1 winner Dario Balestri at the Rucphen track in the Netherlands. As at the season opening in Germany, it was Kurzbuch who secured the overall TQ honours as he took his Ielasi Tuned powered MRX-7 to the fastest time in 2 of the 4 rounds. Fastest in Q1, it was the Infinity of multiple World Champion Balestri who lined up P2, ahead of ARC’s Silvio Hächler and Dutch Serpent Jesse Keller who posted a TQ run in Q3. In the 45-minute main, the two World Champions would pull clear of the field and battle it out from the front for the win. While Balestri set the fastest lap of the race and led a number ocassions at the end it was Kurzbuch who took the win by 6.4-seconds over the Italian. While Hächler strong qualifying came to nothing in the final as he suffered an engine failure, it would be Infinity’s Francesco Tironi from P7 in the grid who completed the podium ahead of the Serpent of Marco Weigerding. In 1:10 200mm reigning World Champion Jilles Groskamp took the home win to make it two from two having won the season opener. The infinity driver was joined on the podium by team-mate Carmine Raiola and French Capricorn driver Quentin Leroux while having qualified P2 reigning champion Jakub Rozycki finished P4 for Capricorn ahead of Melvin Diekmann.

Image: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]