November 13, 2026

Coelho confirms he’s back in contention with 2nd TQ run

After a less than perfect start to his title defence qualifying, Infinity’s Bruno Coelho has confirmed, most importantly to himself, that he is back in the contention by ending Day 3 of the IFMAR ISTC World Championships in Thailand with a second TQ run.  The result means both Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski, the overnight TQ holder, and Coelho are the only two remaining drivers in contention for pole position here at Huge RC Circuit, with the sixth & final qualifier to be staged tomorrow morning ahead of the finals.  Taking Q4 when both Orlowski and Xray’s Marc Rheinard had mistakes, Coelho’s fifth round TQ ahead of his two protagonist endorsed that Coelho’s quest for a fourth consecutive World title is back on.  Another impressive run from David Ronnefalk would see the Buggy World Champion end the day with a 4th that’s secures him an A-Main grid starting position with last night’s Q1 winner Simon Lauter completing the Top 5.  Having celebrated taking the opening qualifier yesterday, and Lucas Urbain opening with a P3 in Q2 this morning, the rest of the day was challenging for Awesomatix in Modified.  In the Stock class however there was plenty for the second biggest manufacturer of these Worlds (Xray from official IFMAR stats the most represented brand here in Bangkok) with Awesomatix drivers dominating the action.  Olivier Bultynck opened the day with a TQ run before Lukas Ellerbrock added to his Q1 TQ by topping rounds 3, 4 and 5 to get locked in as the Top Qualifier.

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November 13, 2026

World Champion comes good in Q4

World Champion Bruno Coelho has come good at a critical point of the IFMAR Electric Touring Car World Championships, the Infinity driver posting his first TQ run here at Huge RC Circuit as we get the second half of qualifying underway.  Having two P4 runs from the opening 3 rounds of 6, well off the standard of the reigning 3-time consecutive Champion of the category, he would top the fourth round with the second fastest outright time so far being just 0.079 off the best set by Michal Orlowski the round before.  For Orlowski, it was to be a through 4th effort, a change of set-up making his car more difficult to drive, and pushing to try catch Coelho he had big mistake on the last lap.  Second for the round would go to Jin Sawada, the Xray driver equalling his P2 from the opening round but being just 3/10th off on this occasion.  Having show he had the outright pace to run with the best touring car drivers in the World when he set the fastest lap of Q2 this morning, newly crowned 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Champion David Ronnefalk completed the Top 3 ahead of his Xray team-mate Marc Rheinard.  The first time outside the Top 3 for the Touring Car legend, Rheinard touched the curbing rolling his car twice with it luckily landing on its wheels but it was enough to deny him the TQ run he is keen to secure.  Antoine Brunet competed the Top 5, the round the RC Maker driver’s best result so far after some impressive showings in practice.

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November 13, 2026

Orlowski again from Rheinard in Q3

With the first half of qualifying complete at the IFMAR Electric Touring Car World Championships it was again the Schumacher of Michal Orlowski who took the third round TQ at Huge RC Circuit.  The fastest round so far, the Pole knocked 3/10ths off his Q2 topping time despite coming upon heavy traffic towards the end of the 5-minutes.  Behind, it was again Marc Rheinard who was closest, the Xray driver halving the gap to his rival, & good friend off track, to just 3/10ths of a second.  Impressing from the second fastest heat group in Q1 when he set the second fastest time, Jin Sawada completed the Top 3 after a P5 in Q2.  For defending World Champion Bruno Coelho it was another P4 run but the Infinity driver took some confidence from the run given he had a radio settings issue in the run after switching to his second car.  Axon’s Akio Sobue, another running in the B Heat would complete the Top 5.  After his dramatic exit from Q2, although not as destructive as Naoto Matsukura’s exit from the heat before that completely destroyed his Infinity, Q1 pace setter Simon Lauter would be the best of the Awesomatix drivers with P7 with Lucas Urbain having a bad run and ending up 34th for the round.

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November 13, 2026

Orlowski takes Q2, Lauter crashes out

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has opened Day 3 of the IFMAR Electric Touring World Championship by topping the second round of qualifying while Simon Lauter who took last night’s opening qualifier crashed out having again been right in the mix.  With the track proving faster this morning, 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Champion David Ronnefalk setting the fastest lap having held the top spot on the timing screen for the opening 4 laps of Q2, Orlowski bettered his opening qualifying time by 3.3-seconds and would have an advantage of almost 8/10ths over Marc Rheinard’s Xray with Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain completing the Top 3.  After a troubled start to qualifying yesterday, defending World Champion Bruno Coelho would have a slightly better second effort to take P4 but the Infinity driver was by his standards along way off Orlowski, the gap 1.8-seconds.  Explaining his crash that happened coming on to the main straight, a number of drivers reporting it cost them time, Lauter said, ‘I’m not sure whether it was traction roll or curb but I think just hitting the curb.  I had a .8 mistake the lap before so I knew I had to make something up and that’s just what happens when you go all in all and try something.  The car for sure was great again so Timmy (Tim Wahl) will check everything, fix it and we will be good for Q3.’

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November 13, 2026

MIBO Race 2027 – Date Announcement

The date for the fifth edition of the MIBO Race has been locked in for 2027, with both onroad & offroad racing coming together for the weekend of February 19-21 in Hrotovice in the Czech Republic.  An international event created by former international touring car racer Michal Bok back in 2023, the unique annual international event has been given a name update and will now simple be known as the MIBO Race.  Combining side by side indoor onroad and offroad racing at the Sport V Hotel, which is stepped in RC racing history, the race also counts Ronald Volker, Michal Orlowski, Bruno Coelho, Joern Nuemann, Bartek Zaleswki and Marcus Kaerup among its previous winners.  With everything from the track, a restaurant, a bowling alley and hotel rooms all under one roof, the Sport V Hotel venue is always popular with visiting racers.  With a capped entry limit, the relaxed schedule means plenty of time in the evening to wind down and socialise over dinner after each day’s racing.  The onroad track will host racing for Modified, 17.5 Stock, and FWD Touring Car plus Onroad Kids, while over on the offroad carpet track, 2WD and 4WD Buggy make up the schedule with additional classes still under consideration.  The opening of registration for MIBO Race 2027 will be announced shortly.  Having attended the inaugural MIBO Race in 2023 and each edition since, Red RC is looking forward to our annual trip to the Czech Republic for this unique 2-in-1 race.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]

November 12, 2026

Lauter delivers opening TQ in Thailand

One of the most unassuming drivers in the Touring Car’s top flight category, Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter delivered an impressive TQ performance in the opening qualifier at the IFMAR ISTC World Championships in Bangkok this evening.  Having hinted at his potential with some competitive 5-minute form in practice, the German would top the first of the six scheduled qualifiers by 7/10ths of a second from an equally impressive Jin Sawada who came in under the radar after seeding into the second fastest heat.  Behind the Japanese driver, this his first Worlds with Xray, was another Worlds debutant with the Slovakian manufacturer Marc Rheinard.  No stranger to World Championships, Rheinard completed the Top 3 1.1-seconds off his former team-mate Lauter.  The driver to actually lead out the first round of qualifying, Michal Orlowski would end up 4th fastest, the Schumacher driver showing great respect to Lauter by opening up for German as his car wasn’t exactly as he planned for the qualifier.  Behind the Polish driver, Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain posted the 5-fastest time ahead of Axon’s Akio Sobue.  It was to be a less than ideal start to the campaign of defending World Champion Bruno Coelho.  Having been the benchmark in practice over 3-laps and securing the Top Seed honours, he would suffer an early spin in Q1.  Chasing a fourth consecutive title here at Huge RC Circuit, explaining his mistake the he said, ‘the car in the beginning felt like it was wobbling on the long corners so I tried to avoid that by not steering too much but then on the end of the straight I went a bit wide and I probably picked up dirt and then I lost the rear of the car.’  Having become accustomed to Oliver Bultynck being at the top of the times in the Stock class, Q1 saw that change as his Awesomatix team-mate Lukas Ellerbrock took it from the Belgian.  Having seeded P6, the 2026 TITC Open Brushless Champion snatched the TQ run on the final lap from Bultynck by 0.169 of a second with Max Machler completing the Top 3.

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November 12, 2026

Coelho Top Seed in Thailand – Seeding Round 2 Update

Reigning World Champion Bruno Coelho is officially the Top Seed at the IFMAR ISTC World Championships in Thailand, the Infinity driver counting the time of his opening seeding run after a crash on just his 3rd lap of CP2 ended his run.  It would be main rival Michal Orlowski who topped the round but unable to improve his earlier time the Schumacher driver will carry the No.2 on his car for qualifying.  With the heat groupings now set based on drivers best 3-consecutive laps from the first two rounds, the third seeding run will determine how the leave the start line for the opening qualifier here at Huge RC Circuit.  With no change up front, the top improvement came from Marc Rheinard, the Xray driver managing to promote himself to 3rd but the big surprise would come from Coelho’s team-mate Viktor Wilck.  A surprise podium finisher for Serpent 10-years ago from P6 on the grid, the Swede tried a new set-up for CP2 that while he said ‘felt slow to drive’ gave him a quicker car.  He would go on to set the fourth fastest time ahead of top Awesomatix contender Simon Lauter and the impressive Antoine Brunet who is putting RC Maker in the mix – the latter 2 drivers unable to better their CP1 times.  The Top heat will be completed by Lucas Urbain, Soeren Sparber, David Ronnefalk and Ronald Volker, all four drivers getting a better 3-laps second time round.  In Stock, Oliver Bultynck kept yesterday’s momentum going again setting the fastest time in both seeding rounds to secure the No.1 race number for his Awesomatix in the top heat of the 7 groups.

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November 12, 2026

Orlowski closes gap as Coelho tops 1st seeding round in Bangkok

Michal Orlowski has closed the gap to defending World Champion Bruno Coelho, the Schumacher driver looking now looking like he has the best 5-minute car around the Huge RC Circuit here in Bangkok as Day 2 of IFMAR ISTC World Championships gets underway.  With Coelho’s Infinity cars topping all 5 practice rounds yesterday, switching to running just a single white body shelled car in the opening seeding round this morning, while he topped the 3-laps just from Orlowski, it was Awesomatix’s Simon Lauter with the fastest complete run however take out a first lap crash by Orlowski and it looks like the Pole has the edge with just two more practice runs to go before the day ends with the opening qualifier.  Suffering a big crash on the first lap, giving him a lap 23-second lap time, almost 10-seconds off his fastest lap, he would finish 7-seconds off the pace of Lauter who was 0.29 up on Coelho.  Over 3-laps Orlowski was just 0.063 off Coelho’s time, a massive reduction on the 6/10ths advantage the Portugese driver had yesterday.  With the official ranking for the first seeding round Coelho from Orlowski from Lauter, we would see another strong showing from RC Maker’s Antoine Brunet who set the fourth fastest time ahead of the Xray’s of Marc Rheinard and David Ronnefalk, the newly crowned 2-time 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Champion having a good showing on what is only his second ISTC Worlds appearance.

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