February 8, 2026

Anderson & Ratheisky claim Mod wins at Snowbirds

Awesomatix’s Kemp Anderson and Xray’s Jan Ratheisky took the main Modified wins at the 32nd running of the world famous Snowbird Nationals in Florida, Anderson taking the 1:12 title while Ratheisky took Touring Car honours.  With long time Snowbirds stalwart and 2025 double winner Alexander Hagberg missing this year’s edition due to the earlier running of the legendary TITC race in Thailand, qualifying would see Xcelerate RC’s Ollie Payne and Ratheisky dominate the time sheets in Orlando.  British driver Payne would top both 1:12 Modified, ahead of Anderson and Xray’s Keven Hebert, and 13.5 Super Stock, ahead of Awesomatix pairing of Jeff Dayger and Team EAM owner Eric Anderson.  In Modified Touring Car, German Ratheisky secured the TQ from Hebert, Kemp Anderson and Xray’s Drew Ellis, a feat he would repeat in 21.5 Super Stock ahead of Eric Anderson, Ellis, and Clayton Young.  Attracting 246 entries, in the single A-Main finals Payne would lead Modified for 51 of the 68 laps before relinquishing the lead to Anderson and having to settle for second with Canadian Hebert completing the podium.  He would redeem himself in Super Stock but only after getting back passed Dayger.  The podium  was completed by fellow Brit & fifth place qualifier Morgan Williams.  Ratheisky would convert both his TQ’s in to tone to tone wins, taking Super Stock ahead of ROAR President Young and Michael Hanulec while in Mod it won by almost 2-seconds from Hebert while Kemp Anderson completed the podium.

Image: RC Discharger [Facebook]


February 8, 2026

Canas wins Montpellier GP after Ongaro error

Sworkz Juan Carlos Canas has opened the European 1:8 Nitro Buggy season with victory at the Montpellier Grand Prix, his second consecutive win of the famous French classic coming after a mistake from weekend dominator Davide Ongaro saw the Team Associated driver eventually finish P3.  With rain effecting proceedings at Circuit du MBM, qualifying for the 20th edition of the race would after the completion of 3 rounds see Ongaro take the TQ honours ahead of Mugen Seiki’s 2025 Montpellier GP race leader & podium finisher Berkan Kilic.  Canas would complete the Top 3 ahead Sworkz team-mate Mattio Polito, the Mugen Seiki of last year’s Top Qualifier Burak Kilic, and Tekno’s Joao Figueiredo. Winning their respective Semi-Finals, it was Ongaro and fellow Italian Polito who lead away the field for the shortened 45-minute main.  Last winner of the Montpellier GP in 2023, Ongaro looked on target for the win having built up a huge lead however a high speed mistake resulted in contact with a fencing post which gifted his rivals the race as he struggled with buggy after the impact.  With the Top 3 finishing on the same lap, Canas’s took the win by 9-seconds from an impressive Polito with Ongaro a further 7-seconds back.  Behind, Figueiredo, Sparko’s Adrian Pariente, and Sworkz’s Elliott Boots completed the Top 6.

Image: Sworkz [Facebook] 


February 3, 2026

Sworkz confirm Boots & Widmaier for MIBO International

Sworkz RC has confirmed that it will be represented at the fourth edition of MIBO International later this month by factory drivers Elliott Boots and Micha Widmaier.  Sworkz are past winners of the Czech race with former team driver Joern Neumann winning 2WD Buggy at the 2024 edition of the race that brings together offroad and onroad racing under the one roof of the Sports V Hotel in Hrotovice in the South of the country.  Austrian National Champion & European Championship finalist Widmaier is a MIBO International regular returning this year for his third appearance.  Two time European 1:8 Buggy Champion & World Championship podium finisher Boots however will make first appearance at the Michal Bok organised race, the British racer hoping to make an impression as he continues to reacclimatise with 1:10 Offroad.  Full details of the 2026 MIBO International Race, which takes place on February 27-March 1st, can be viewed on the Mibosport website by clicking here.

View MIBO International Roll of Honour here


February 2, 2026

VanDalen wins TNR Fuels A-Main Challenge

Tekno RC’s Seth VanDalen was the big winner at the annual TNR Fuels A-Main Challenge held in Norco, California, over the weekend, as he took the win in 1:8 Nitro Buggy.  With the 2026 edition attracting 761 entries over 21 classes!, two rounds of qualifying would result in VanDalen taking the TQ honours ahead of Sworkz’s Camden Lime as his Q1 time was faster than Lime’s Q2 topping pace.  Making the trip over from Europe, Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic would start P3 followed by Kyosho’s Phi-Long Nguyen, the Tekno of last year’s Top Qualifier Ryan Maifield, while the Team Associated of 2025 winner Spencer Rivkin completed the Top 6.  Over the half hour final, while Kilic would lead for a lengthy stint, it was Van Dalen who took a close win over the Turkish visitor with Nguyen, who took a turn at leading, completing the podium.  Kilic wouldn’t go home empty handed however taking the Nitro Truggy win ahead 2025 winner Maifield with Van Dalen in third.  In eBuggy, Nguyen would get the better of Top Qualifier VanDalen to come away with the win as Kilic rounded out the podium ahead of the Mayako of Ryan Cavalieri.

Image: JConcepts [Facebook]


January 30, 2026

2026 Asia Nitro Party Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend Red RC kicked off our 2026 race coverage by travelling to China to the impressive Hongyu GDC track in Foshan for the inaugural running of the Asia Nitro Party.  A brand new nitro onroad race providing an international stage for the category, it attracted a stacked international entry that only looks set to grow after a successful first edition.  With newly crowned IFMAR 1:8 GT World Champion Alessio Mazzeo and his Raptor leading the biggest category, 1:8 GT, in 1:8 GP it was IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani and his Serpent who led the entry.  Come the finals however the Italians couldn’t put their name on the race’s opening role of honour, that instead going to France’s double European Champion Bernard-Alain Arnaldi and Genius in GT and Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura in 1:8 GP.   Over the busy weekend of high revving racing action we managed to get our hands on 8 cars from 6 different manufacturers and for those who missed the any of these chassis focuses as part of coverage from the Asia Nitro Party we have compiled them in our first Chassis Focus Index of 2026.

View Chassis Focus Index here


January 30, 2026

Xray confirm Zalewski & Bayer for MIBO International

Xray has confirmed that defending MIBO International 2WD Champion Bartek Zalewski and reigning EFRA 2WD European Champion Martin Bayer will lead their offroad team at the fourth edition of the Czech race on February 27-March 1st.  The Slovakian manufacturer is a multiple champion of the Michal Bok organised international indoor event that uniquely brings together both onroad and offroad racers with the building of two side by side tracks.  Last year young Polish star Zalewski made it two successive winning years in Hrotovice, having headed an Xray 1-2 with Bayer in 4WD in 2024.  Held at the Sport V Hotel in the town of Hrotovice, MIBO International is officially a two and a half day event and gets underway on the Friday afternoon with practice allowing for travel Friday morning.  Counting new 4WD World Champion Marcus Kaerup, Ronald Volker, Michal OrlowskiBruno Coelho, and Joern Nuemann as winners, the race’s capped entry limit makes for a relaxed schedule meaning plenty of time in the evening to wind down and socialise over dinner after each day’s racing.  For full details of the 2026 MIBO International Race and to register to be on the grid you can visit the Mibosport website by clicking here.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]


January 27, 2026

TITC to revert to ‘Classic Layout’ due to concerns over new layout

With just over 2-weeks to go to the 22nd running of the famous TITC (12-15 Feb) in Bangkok, host track RC Addict has announced a revised track layout due to safety and track flow concerns around the layout they had prepared for the 2026 edition.  Have created an anti-clock wise layout that featured a very short back straight, today they have published that the layout will revert to a ‘classic layout’ in the clockwise direction featuring a full length straight.  In announcing the revised layout RC Addict posted, ‘Due to safety and race flow concerns combined with local and international popular demands, the TITC 2026 layout will be changed for the Addict Classic Layout Clockwise direction.  Since we didn’t race it for a very long time, let’s bring it back this year.  Thanks for your understanding and support.  See you at the track soon!’.

Source: RC Addict [Facebook]


January 25, 2026

Arnaldi takes GT victory at Asian Nitro Party

With the 1:8 GT Final bringing a successful inaugural Asian Nitro Party race to a close under the lights at the Hongyu GDC track, it was Genius’ Bernard-Alain Arnaldi who took the win in China.  It was to be a drama packed start to the 45-minute final with World Champion Alessio Mazzeo calling a time out during the warm-up due to an engine issue.  With that time out expiring, as the rest of the field headed to the grid after complete a restarted warm-up, Mazzeo’s car only making its back onto the starter having been fitted with a new engine that still needed to be tuned.  With this hastily done by Gimar’s Giovanni Crea to try not miss the start, the Italian would have to begin from the pit lane.  With that immediately putting him half lap down, Italy’s quest for victory was struck a blow for a second time as Top Qualifier Natanaele Senesi would flame just 2 corners after the start.  He would rejoin two laps down as Spain’s Raul Anton led the way in front of team-mate Arnaldi, who had had a mistake at the first corner.  Anton would soon allow the Frenchman to go to the front, giving Arnaldi plenty of room to execute a pass at the end of lap 6.  Once there that was where he would stay til the finish.  With Mazzeo’s Raptor the fastest car on track, it did look like we might be in for a showdown in the closing stages of the race.  Getting the gap down to 3-seconds, unfortunately damage to his body would in turn lead to it cutting into his tyre and causing his pace to drop right off and allowing Arnaldi to build back up his advantage to win by 16-seconds.  All the time, as the Mazzeo tried to chase down the leader, Senesi was working his way back up through the field to salvage a podium finish.

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