April 21, 2026

Nguyen to make Asian Buggy Champs debut at first Malaysian encounter

Young Kyosho star Phi-Long Nguyen will make his Asian Buggy Championships debut this weekend as Malaysia hosts the latest round of the Scotty Ernst promoted championship for the very first time.  Now in its fourth season, reigning back to back FEMCA Champion Nguyen will join ABC championship regulars at the impressive LAP Paradise RC Raceway for the second of the 4 round Team Cayote/VP Pro backed 1:8 Offroad Championship.  The American will be compete against Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen, Sworkz’s Caleb Noble, who dominated the season opener in New Zealand in March, team-mate Jayden Edmunds and Mayako’s Logan Toia.  On his Asian Buggy Championships debut the teenager said, ‘The series as I have seen in the past is amazingly organized and well run with Scotty behind the mic the world will be heard. Lap Paradise looks like a perfect track to improve on high traction and we can’t wait to visit Malaysia which is another beautiful Asian country.’

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]


April 20, 2026

Zalewski dominates EOS finale, Orlowski double series Champion

Having taken the 2WD win on Friday, Xray’s Bartek Zalewski made it a dominant weekend at the second & final round of the Euro Offroad Series by also taking the 4WD TQ and win.  Claiming his first ever EOS win in 2WD, the switch to 4WD at the Hudy Arena hosted event saw the young Polish racer continue his form as he took 3 of the 5 qualifiers to secure pole position.  Lining up behind him, having topped two rounds, would be EOS Daun double winner Michal Orlowski with his Schumacher team-mate Daniel Kobbevik completing the Top 3.  In the finals on the long 30-second lap times polished dirt track, A1 would see Zalewski win from Kobbevik who got ahead of his team-mate.  With both Zalewski and Orlowski dipping into the 29-seconds with their fastest laps in A2, the latter couldn’t do anything to deny his countryman the double as he again took the win.  Orlowski would win A3 from Kobbevik and this was the order they would join Zalweski on the podium.  Overall, it was Orlowski who became the overall series Champion of both 2WD and 4WD.

Image: Michal Orlowski [Facebook]


April 19, 2026

Hagberg claims record 9th European 1:12 title

Alexander Hagberg has claimed his 9th EFRA 1:12 European Championship title, the Xray driver surpassing David Spashett as the championship’s most successful driver today in Messina, Italy.  In qualifying, Hagberg would open with a TQ run adding three more over the 5 rounds.  Topping the third round, defending Champion Marc Rheinard put his Awesomatix second on the grid ahead of Mathias Nedrebo, Simon Lauter and Martin Hudy.  A1 would see Hagberg set the fastest lap as he pulled away out front to win the 8-minute encounter by over 4-seconds from Rheinard.  A2 would see a lot more action with traffic playing crucial roles in the results.  The first incident at the mid point of the race saw Rheinard get collected by Hudy’s car as it bounced off the outside boards on the straight and into the path of the German who was 1-second behind Hagberg at the time.  This promoted Norwegian Nedrebo to second 3-seconds back from Hagberg, the Swede looking like the remaining 4-minutes would just be a formality to him taking a record 9th win.  Hitting traffic on the penultimate lap, unfortunately contact with 1:8 GT World Champion Alessio Mazzeo would lead to a series of crashes for Hagbeg allowing Nedrebo through along with Jan Ratheisky.  Unable to get the places back over the final lap, Hagberg finished P3 and the title race was still open.  The final encounter however would see Hagberg lead home Rheinard and Nedrebo and lock in his ninth title 12-years after claiming his first one, also in Italy.  Nedrebo would make it an Xray 1-2 with Rheinard completing the podium.  It was to be a double title weekend for Xray as Adam Izsay became the new European Spec Champion.  Starting from P2 behind the Excelerate of defending Champion Ollie Payne, the Hungarian would win the title thanks to his A1 winning time which gave him the tie-breaker over A3 winner Payne.  Winning A2 from P3 on the grid, the Schumacher of Andrea Torregiani completed the podium at Raradise RC Arena.

Image: Alexander Hagberg [Facebook]


April 16, 2026

Greece to host Tamiya Open European Championships

The organisers of the Open European Championship for Tamiya onroad cars have announced that for the first time ever they will take place in Greece.  Scheduled to run from May 1-3, 2026, the event is organised by ATA Świat Modeli i Zabawek in cooperation with Tamiya, Hobbyland Greece, and the Automobilklub Polski.  With racing set to take place at Sonik Arena in Thessaloniki, Greece, this event is the result of several years of collaboration between these company and the Greek RC community, with all involved very proud to finally bring this idea to life.  Those familiar with ATA will know the great work Niko Triandafilidis has done for the hobby and in particular is efforts are bringing young drivers into racing. The race regulations have been carefully prepared by RC communities from Poland, Greece, and Germany to ensure accessibility and fair competition for drivers from different backgrounds.  What makes this event special it is the first open European-level Tamiya championship held in Greece and it is open to all Tamiya enthusiasts – from beginners to experienced racers.  Multiple classes are designed so that everyone can find a suitable category to compete in.  An additional highlights for participants is a free accommodation offer
for the first two registered drivers from each European country who will receive free hotel accommodation provided by the organiser.  With registration already open drivers can sign up here.

Source: Tamiya Open European Championship


April 15, 2026

IFMAR Large Scale Worlds on target for capacity entry

The IFMAR Large Scale World Championships look set to return with a potential capacity entry in Switzerland as the governing body published details on the latest entries ahead of the Summer event.  The last World title for the class was awarded back in 2022 after the planned 2024 World Championships in Australia was cancelled due to a lack of entries.  With the class popular in Europe, the awarding of the race to the iconic MRTM Lostallo track, the home of large scale racing, the 12th running of the Worlds looks set to be close to the 150 permitted entries.  In its post, IFMAR highlighted that 111 entries have been received from the EFRA Bloc (Europe), with 6 from FEMCA (Asia), 1 from FAMAR (South America) and up to 5 from ROAR (North America).  With the Worlds 3 & a half months away, any open places with be redistributed the first week of which could allow 16 more drivers from Europe to join the race.  With Lostallo hosting the opening round of the 2026 Euro Large Scale Series last weekend, which was won by reigning World Champion Markus Feldmann, round 2 of that series at the end of June will act as the World Warm-up race, track staging the actual Worlds from July 27 to August 1st.

Source: IFMAR [Facebook]


April 14, 2026

Feldmann wins ELS opener at Lostallo

The opening round of the Euro Large Scale Series (ELS) 2026 took place at Lostallo in Switzerland over the weekend where it was reigning 1:5 Touring Car World Champion Markus Feldmann who took the win.  In qualifying it was Feldmann who took his GRP equipped Mecatech to the TQ honours and a new lap record ahead of Italian’s Emanuele D’amico and Edoardo Repetti.  In Super Pole shot out, it was D’amico who locked himself a direct spot into the half hour final.   While D’amico set the fastest lap of the final he could not deny his German rival the win, Feldmann’s advantage after 75-laps being almost 10-seconds.  With Repetti retirng from the race after 18-minutes, the podium was completed by Belgium racer Giovanni Verbrugghe who started from 10th on the grid.  Behind him reigning European Champion Carsten Keller came home in P4.  Round 2 of the Euro Large Scale Series takes place over the weekend of June 26-28, again at Lostallo, the race also serving as the official Warm-up Race for the Large Scale World Championships scheduled for August.

Image: Mecatech Racing [Facebook]


April 13, 2026

Kurzbuch wins Ielasi Tuned Trophy

Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch enjoyed another win on Italian soil, the Swiss racer backing up his recent win of the Pepe Group International Race with victory at the annual Ielasi Tuned Trophy.  A race first hosted by former World Champion Daniele Ielasi in 2015, the annual Ielasi Tuned Trophy again attracted some big names to the Northern Italian Leno track.  While last year’s winner Dario Balestri was absent from this year’s line-up, qualifying for the 7th edition would see Kurzbuch secure the 1:8 TQ ahead of Capricorn’s Toni Gruber, Infinity’s Francesco Tironi and Serpent’s Mirko Salemi while World Championship Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani ended up P6.  While Gruber would post the fastest lap of the 45-minute final, the German could do anything about Kuzbuch taking the win, his margin 9.5-seconds at the finish.  Kurzbuch’s father assisted in pit lane for the final by US racer Paolo Morganti who nlw heads up Ielasi Tuned America.  Salemi would just hold off Simone Lotti for the final podium pacing.  Catanzani would finish P5 ahead of Tironi who hit problems late in the first half of the race but rejoined after losing over a minute.  In 1:10, Mario Spiniello took the TQ but retired from the final with Australian stalwart Gerhard Kandelhart, last year’s Top Qualifier but hitting trouble in the final, taking the win.

Images: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]


April 13, 2026

Kaerup wins Savox Grand Prix in Taiwan

World Champion Marcus Kaerup took the wins at the annual Savox 1:8 Offroad Grand Prix which was staged at the RC66 track in Taoyuan, Taiwan.  The servo manufacturer invited a number of their international team drivers to the event with Kaerup also joined by Korean Team Associated team-mate Jung Hyunkyu, Infinity’s Kouki Kato, and Xray’s Max Gotzl.  With a total of 121 entries, racing on the unique track which is located under a highway bridge and was host of the 2023 FEMCA Championships, it was Kaerup who took the TQ in both Nitro and Electric ahead of recent Sunpadow Grand Prix winner Kato and the Chinese race’s runner up Hyunkyu.  In the 50-minute final, Kaerup would hand the lead to Kato after a big error early on.  The Asian Buggy Championships Champion would stay out front until lap 70 with the Japanese driver eventually having to settle for second 8-seconds back on the Dane.  With Hyunkyu having a tough final suffering a broken rear shock after early contact he ran last of the 14 starters for a time before eventually finishing P9, it was the Wang Hao who completed the podium.  In eBuggy, while Kato won A1, Kaerup took A2 & 3 for the overall ahead of Kato with Gotzl on the final step of the podium.

Image: Marcus Kaerup [Facebook]


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