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December 12, 2025

Matsukura takes opening qualifier under lights in China

Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura has taken the opening round of qualifying under the lights at the Asia Touring Car Championship in China, the number 2 seed topping the delayed and eventful Q1 ahead of Axon’s Akio Sobue. With rain after seeding delaying the schedule at Hongyu GDC and a full round of practice run to get the track back up to speed, when the final run of the evening came around Top Seed Bruno Coelho would struggle. The rear of his Infinity clearly not at one with the track. Losing the car a number of times, Matsukura lucky to not collect his team-mate, the World Champion would end up P9 at the conclusion of the round. With Matsukura taking the TQ by 1.2-seconds from Sobue, only Jin Sawada managed a faster lap time but pushing the limits of his electrics the Japanese Xray driver would run out of battery with a lap to go costing him a certain Top 2 run as he got a DNF. Behind the Top 2, Infinity’s Ryosuke Yamamoto made it a Japanese trio at the top of the times ahead of the all new Schumachers of Michal Orlowski and Pekko Iivonen with Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain completing the Top 6 for what could prove a critical run. Having originally planned two qualifiers today because of the threat of rain, but only get one, the chances of a wet day tomorrow seem even higher as drivers left the track for the evening.

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December 12, 2025

Neoland 2026 – Announcement

In an age when 1:8 Offroad had just a select number of high profile races that every driver & manufacturer wanted to win, the Neo Race being one of those, the race’s spiritual home Harper Adams in the UK is set to echo to the sound of nitro engines once again with Neoland. Well known track builder and Buggyland race promoter Miguelo Izquierdo Rodriguez is bringing the race back after a decade, with the agricultural indoor hall hosting the race on Neo’s traditional Easter date, which in 2026 is April 3-6. In announcing the race, the original Neo Race the brainchild of Philip Mortstedt and earning itself the unofficial title of the ‘Indoor World Championships’, Izquierdo Rodriguez said, ‘After almost a decade, we have decided to revive one of the most incredible races in the world. With great enthusiasm, we are thrilled to announce the return of Neoland.’

Source: Neoland

December 12, 2025

Coelho top seed at stacked Asia Championship

Infinity’s Bruno Coelho is the Top Seed at a stacked Asia Touring Car Championship at the impressive new Hongyu GDC track in Foshan, China. The defending champion of the race formerly known as the FEMCA Championship, the World Champion set the pace over the 4-rounds of seeding from team-mate & former World Champion Naoto Matsukura with the Xray of Jin Sawada completing the Top 3. With the venue set to host the ISTC World Championships next April, this weekend’s racing while not an official Warm Up race has attracted all the major drivers and manufacturers with the exception of Mugen Seiki although winner of the last World Championship to be hosted in China in 2016, Ronald Volker will arrive over the weekend for testing with many of the racers staying for up to a week of further testing after the race. In terms of cars, manufacturers are here with plenty of new updates/prototype parts and even completely new cars. While Awesomatix is here with its standard car, Lucas Urbain 6th for them in seeding, at the other end of the scale Schumacher have a completely brand new car with Michal Orlowski ending up 7th in second. Once the dominant force at ISTC Worlds, winning titles with Marc Rheinard who is not racing but is due to arrive for testing, and Jilles Groskamp, the Dutch legend racing in China for the first time in 10-year, iconic brand Tamiya are here with a number of updates to their car which is being driven by Souta Goto. Unfortunately with a treat of rain for Saturday and light rain arriving at the end of seeding, it looks like the event may see some rescheduling. The first two rounds of qualifying having already been brought forward to Friday afternoon.

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December 11, 2025

’25 1:8 Onroad World Championship Chassis Focus Index

Another season of IFMAR World Championships wrapped up in Chile last weekend with 1:8 Onroad the fourth & final race of 2025. While IFMAR’s original World Championship would attract a small entry, that didn’t take away from the racing at the front with qualifying ending with cars from four different manufacturers making up the new for 2025 Direct to Final Top 4 qualifiers. For the 1-hour final that number would grow to 5 as Shepherd’s Tim Wood won the Last Chance Qualifier to represent the now British owned brand as the 11th car on the grid. Statistics compiled by IFMAR, this the 24th running of the title race, would show Mugen Seiki as the most popular chassis ahead of Capricorn and Shepherd who tied for second. Racing around the very large CACH, the most common source of power came from Ielasi Tuned followed by Max Power, who thanks to Shoki Takahata make it back to back engine World titles. In terms of radios used, Sanwa was the choice of over 50% of the drivers. With 2 X Mugen Seiki, 2 X Capricorn, 2 X Shepherds, and one Serpent and Xray each, we managed to get our hands on 8 cars from the five manufacturers represented in the final.

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December 10, 2025

U.S. Carpet Offroad Champs wins for Horne & Lemeiux

Team Associated’s Aydin Horne and Xray’s Chase Lemieux where the Modified winners at the annual U.S. Carpet Offroad Championships held in Cleveland over the weekend. The Scotty Ernst promoted event runs a week after the same venue host famous U.S. Indoor Champs touring car race which in its 45th edition is the world’s longest running RC race. With the Offroad race attracting almost 500 entries in 2WD it was Horne taking all three qualifier who secured the TQ ahead of a trio of World Champions, Ryan Cavalieri, Spencer Rivkin and Tater Sontag. He would continue that form into the finals winning the opening 2 to secure the win ahead of Cavalieri. For the final podium position Sontag got a head of Rivkin who had a bad A2. In 4WD it was defending champion Lemieux who took the TQ ahead of team-mate Dakotah Phend, three different drivers posting TQ runs. Last year’s 2WD winner Brennan Schimmel made it an all Xray Top 3 on the grod ahead of Nate Sutherland who was fastest in Q3. In the triple Mains Lemieux retained his title with wins in the opening two while Phend took A3 to finish 2nd ahead of Sutherland who got third after a tie break with Horne.

Image: JConcepts [Facebook]

December 9, 2025

Volker wins EWS International 2025

Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker has won this year’s EWS International presented by Schumacher, the German taking the win ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and Schumacher’s Elliott Harper. Establishing itself as Britain’s top annual international touring car race, with last year’s winner Michal Orlowski not making the trip to Essex due to 1:12 racing commitments in China, it was multiple EWS International winner Volker who led for the weekend. Attracting a field of 40 Modified entries, Volker topped all four rounds of qualifying to secure the overall TQ with Hagberg lining up second, followed by Harper, Kyle Branson, Sören Sparbier, Christopher Krapp, and Lucas Urbain. He would convert his pole position in to wins in A1 & 2 for the overall victory, while the A3 win gave Hagberg the runner-up spot as Harper completed the podium. In Stock it was the Awesomatix of EWS Series Champion Zak Finlay who also dominated proceedings to take the TQ and win ahead of Denmark’s Jesper Rasmussen and Finley Whitelock. In FWD Xray’s Stefan Schulz took the win.

Image: Alexander Hagberg [Facebook]

December 7, 2025

1:10 Offroad WC to return to Hudy Arena in 2027

IFMAR has announced that the 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championships is set to return to the Hudy Arena in 2027. The indoor dirt track, which is part of the Hudy & Xray factory in Slovakia, previously hosted the same World Championships when it was the EFRA Bloc’s last turn to host the race in 2019. With FAMAR originally awarded the 2027 Worlds, it was announced just after the recent Worlds in Australia that the South American Bloc had declined its turn to host the championships. IFMAR then opened up the hosting of the race to the other Bloc s inviting them each to put forward a single potential host venue with FEMCA putting forward the new Hongyu GDC track in China, which hosts the 2026 1:12 and ISTC Worlds, ROAR selecting Hoosier RC Hobbyplex in Indiana, USA, and EFRA the Hudy Arena. After their very impressive hosting of the 2025 Worlds, the Hills Off Road RC club was also included as a potential return host. Considering all four options, the world governing body selected the Hudy Arena, which this year hosted the 1:10 Offroad European Championships. In 2019 it was Spencer Rivkin in 2WD and Bruno Coelho in 4WD who where crowned World Champions in Trencin. In making the announcement IFMAR posted, ‘Attention Racers! Important announcement regarding the 2027 IFMAR Electric Off-Road Buggy World Championships. As previously announced, no venue in the FAMAR BLOC was available to host the event. The IFMAR Board of Directors put to the remaining BLOCs to put forward options to host the event and we received 4 valid options to consider. EFRA, ROAR and FEMCA all providing venue options as well as a 4th option to return to Hills Off Road RC. We thank each BLOC for working swiftly with the BOD and their member countries to put forward strong options for consideration. The BOD discussed, debated and ultimately voted on the options and are pleased to announce we have selected EFRA and the Hudy Racing Arena (Trencin, Slovakia) to host the 2027 Championships. We are confident this will be a strongly supported and highly successful event at what is a truly world class facility.

Source: IFMAR [ifmar.org]

December 7, 2025

Takahata becomes 2-time World Champion in Chile

It’s a very elusive club and up to now it has been exclusive to Italians, but today in Chile Mugen Seiki’s Shoki Takahata became a multiple 1:8 Onroad World Champion with a perfectly executed 1-hour main. Starting from fourth on the grid, once the 2019 World Champion worked his way to the front he would take control of the race eventually winning by over a lap from Simon Kurzbuch to give the new MRX7 a 1-2 finish. Takahata’s win would be made all the easier after issues for Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani, who needed to make a body change in the race, and star of this week’s action Maxime Ripoll, the French teenager robbed of a second place finish as reward for his impressive efforts when his engine came to halt with 6-minutes remaining. While Kurzbuch benefited from this, with a fast charging Catanzani recovering ground, there would be a late & intense battle for the runner-up spot that also involved Capricorn’s Toni Gruber, the trio all running together on track. As the race approached the final minute, Catanzani having just got passed Gruber would then attempt a pass on Kurzbuch but contact was made resulting in his Serpent having a spin as the other two continued. The super fast Italian, who was the only driver to run a 17-second lap in the Main, would however get back up to Gruber and snatch the final podium position on the last corner of the last lap.

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