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October 1, 2026

Pietsch comes out of retirement for Singapore Nitro GP

2011 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Champion Robert Pietsch is to come out of retirement with the German confirmed as one of a record number of World Champions who will race at the 20th anniversary of the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix this month. Pietsch, who last raced at the 2023 European Championship in Portugal, travelled to the Leno track in Italy last week to break in new Ielasi Tuned engines under the guidance of Daniele Ielasi. Winning his World title with Mugen Seiki, Pietsch transitioned from racer to car design for the Japanese manufacturer officially retiring from racing in 2023. For 2026 he moved into a new design team role with Infinity with Piestch set to race their IF18-3 at the Radio Control Modellers’ Club’s new resurfaced track. With the race officially running on October 10/11, Pietsch joins a host of World Champions for the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix including reigning 1:8 Onroad Champion Shoki Takahat, newly crowned 1:10 Nitro Touring Car Champion Naoto Matsukura and current 3-time Electric Touring Car World Champion Bruno Coelho. Red RC will be making the trip Singapore to cover the event for the very first time.

Source: RCMC Singapore [Facebook]

October 1, 2026

Ongaro comes good in Q3, Ronnefalk holds overnight TQ

Defending World Champion Davide Ongaro has concluded the first day of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship in Texas with his first TQ run, but it is Xray’s David Ronnefalk who holds the overnight TQ at the Thornhill Racing Circuit. After topping seeding yesterday, Ongaro would not have the best of starts to qualifying as he managed only P5 while Ronnefalk topped Q1. Worse was to come in Q2 as Ongaro posted the 8th fastest time. With the frustration starting to show on the Italian’s face, while Sworkz’s Mason Fuller impressed with the Q2 TQ, the Ongaro smile would return in Q3 as the Team Associated driver just managed to pip the Xray of an impressive Chase Lemieux to the top of the timing sheets. Lemieux has put in a strong day posting a P4 on his first attempt which he duly backed up with a P3 in the second one before closing out the day with a very competitive 2nd fastest time. Overall it was a good end to the day for Team Associated with Spencer Rivkin putting together a P3, the leading drivers breaking 17-laps for the first time. For Fuller, new tyres left him struggling a little in Round 3 and he ended the day by adding a P4 to his TQ & P3 while Tekno’s Ryan Maifield, who surprised with the 2nd fastest time in Q2, completed the Top 5 ahead of Ronnefalk. The Swede felt he had a really fast car in Q3 but admitted he got carried away and this led to a number of mistakes that put him sixth for the round. Elsewhere having looked to have found his way in Q2, America’s pre-event title favourite Dakotah Phend, like he did in Q1, ran out of fuel. European Champion Juan Carlos Canas had been on a strong final run but the Spaniard had a costly last lap his Sworkz getting hooked up on one of the track’s roof support posts leaving him with a P9.

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October 1, 2026

Fuller takes Q2 in Texas

Despite a mistake, Sworkz Mason Fuller has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship at Thornhill Racing Circuit. Running in the second fastest heat, the American just missed out on a 17-lap run posting a time of 16/10:00.219 to beat Q1 winner David Ronnefalk, the Xray driver having went fastest in Heat 13 from team-mate Chase Lemieux, this the Top 3 order for the round. A qualifying round that would see mistakes from many drivers, having opened with the second fastest time in Q1 Tekno’s Ryan Maifield would need to be marshalled on his second attempt and with 4-seconds lost he ended up P13. While finishing top of the timing screens in Heat 15, Juan Carlos Canas’ effort was only good for P4, the Spaniard like Ronnefalk having the disadvantage of needing to do a fuel stop to get through the 10-minute run. After a torrid Q1 in which he ran out of fuel, a much happier Dakotah Phend would run the fifth fastest time just ahead of 2-time 1:10 Offroad World Champion Spencer Rivkin who was the best Team Associated for the round. For defending World Champion Davide Ongaro he was again not happy with his car, the Italian only managing P8 to go with his P5 from Q1.

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September 30, 2026

Ronnefalk from Maifield in opening Worlds qualifier

Xray’s David Ronnefalk has taken the opening round of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship in Texas, the Swede topping the 10-minute run from the Tekno of Ryan Maifield. Having expected he might have been at a disadvantage for the first of the six scheduled rounds of qualifying at Thornhill Racing Circuit by running in Heat 13 of 15, even with a fuel stop Ronnefalk topped the round by 3.4-seconds over Maifield, the American the big surprise of the morning. Three of the Top 6 would eventually come from the 3rd fastest heat group with Maifield and Ronnefalk’s team-mate Chase Lemieux also in there, the young American opening his championship with a P4 run just behind fellow countryman Mason Fuller who topped Heat 14. For defending Champion & Top Seed Davide Ongaro, it would only be a P5 first run, the driver being delayed exiting the pits after his fuel stop but overall not happy with his tyre choice. Running in the top heat alongside Ongaro, Sworkz’s Juan Carlos Canas completed the Top 6.

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September 30, 2026

Ongaro Top Seed at Nitro Buggy World Championship

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro is the Top Seed going into qualifying tomorrow at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship, the defending World Champion setting the fastest time in the second of the seeding rounds today in Texas. Having set the pace in free practice yesterday, in the opening seeding round the Italian broke a front arm but on a much faster track for Round 2 he produced the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the three days being the only one to break 1:50 with a time of 1:49.983. Xray’s David Ronnefalk would be his closest challenger on the hot track running 1:50.126 but the 2016 World Champion seeds P3 behind Sworkz’s Mason Fuller. Fastest in SP1 from Ronnefalk, the points system puts the American second in the seeding ranking as he completed seeding with the third fastest time. Again fourth fastest in the second seeding round, Juan Carlos Canas seeds P4 for Sworkz while a big turn around in form from Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen sees the youngster claim 5th with Nate Sutherland completing the Top 6.

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September 29, 2026

Gateway RC Park, Florida to stage 2027 eBuggy Worlds

The 2nd running of the IFMAR 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship will take place in Florida next year with new build Gateway RC Park in Lake City the host track. Describing itself as North Florida’s premier 250′ × 150′ covered 1:8 and 1:10 offroad RC racing destination, Gateway RC Park is run by Lance MacDonald and has just recently put the final touches to its rebuild, the grounds having formerly been the home to Southside RC Raceway. The works include a newly constructed roof structure meaning like the Nitro Buggy World Championship, which is currently underway at Thornhill Racing Circuit in Texas, the racing will take place under cover from the elements. A hugely important category for the industry, eBuggy only got World Championship status last year when the World governing body hosted the inaugural Worlds in Portugal. Attracting almost 120 entries, it would be Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup who claimed the inaugural title at the Barcelos Buggy Arena located in the north of the country. In terms of a date, it is expected that the 2027 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship will be scheduled for mid November. The track will stage the 4th Annual Elevate presented by Exalt for 1:8 Offroad from December 11-13th this year.

September 29, 2026

Fuller tops opening seeding round in Texas

Sworkz’s Mason Fuller has topped the opening round of seeding at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship in Texas. Having shown good speed in yesterday’s free practice, as the event moved up a gear today with times now officially counting for something, the American racer laid down the fastest 3-consecutive laps to take the first of the two scheduled seeding rounds by an impressive 6/10ths of a second over Xray’s David Ronnefalk. Having been the fastest over the previous two days’ 6 rounds of free practice, reigning World Champion Davide Ongaro would complete the Top 3, the Team Associated driver run over half his run with a damaged car. Top Qualifier at the championship 2-years ago, Juan Carlos Canas posted the fourth fastest time, the Sworkz driver feeling he was hamper slightly by today’s track conditions as he ran in Group 13 of 15. Nate Sutherland and Brandon Rose completed the Top 6 times.

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September 29, 2026

Kilic tops final free practice at Thornhill

Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic shot to the top of the times for the sixth & final round of free practice at the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship in Texas, the Turkish driver closing out Monday’s action with a 3-consecutive lap time of 1:51.195 around the Thornhill Racing Circuit. The round would see big changes at the top with Sworkz’ Juan Carlos Canas, Top Qualifier in 2024, setting the second fastest time ahead of American Xray pairing Dakotah Phend and Chase Lemieux, the former struggling with his bad at the end of the day and retiring early to his bed to rest it. Tekno’s Daniel Pariente posted his first Top 5 run just ahead of Mason Fuller, the Sworkz driver having posted the second fastest time in the previous round. While his FP5 time of 1:51.133 still stands as the fastest run of free practice, defending World Champion Davide Ongaro would use the final practice to test if he had been going the right direction with his set-up after his FP5 run and taking the set-up in the opposite direction the 7th fastest time verified he had been on the right route with set-up. The round would also see David Ronnefalk drop outside the Top 3 for the first time, sticking with the same harder compound tyre he ran in the fifth round, with temperatures dropping for FP6 it was too hard and the lacking pace resulted in the 10th fastest time for the Swede.

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