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August 2, 2025

Ronnefalk crowned European 4WD Buggy Champion

David Ronnefalk is the new EFRA European 1:10 4WD Buggy Champion, the Xray driver taking the title for a third time after an exciting finals at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia. Starting from fourth on the grid, the back to back 2018/2019 Champion claimed his first electric European title since moving to Xray with victory over Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski and Xray’s 18-year-old young charger Bartek Zalewski. Fresh from winning the 2WD European title earlier in the week, it was Xray’s Martin Bayer who would again secured the overall TQ honours ahead of Orlowski, Zalewski, Ronnefalk and Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen. In A1, an early mistake from Bayer handed Orlowski the lead which he held to the end despite pressure from Zalewski who in turn was under pressure from Ronnefalk. A2 would see Bayer lead tone to tone shadowed by Orlowski until the 2023 Champion made a mistake with just 50-seconds on the clock allowing Ronnefalk through for second. All coming down to A3, it was the third encounter that provided the real excitement. After one & a half minutes of the drivers running in order, Orlowski executed a pass on Bayer, the Czech driver trying to come back at him until he rolled his Xray at the end of the straight at mid distance ending his chance of a European title double. This gave Orlowski a commanding lead as Zalewski came under pressure from Haatanen and Ronnefalk. With a minute to go Zalewski however was all over the prototype of Orlowski but a double pass from Haatanen and Ronnefalk suddenly dropped him to fourth. Then on the penultimate lap a mistake from Orlowski turned the race on its head. Haatanen briefly led before Ronnefalk forced a pass with further contact from Zalewski dropping him to third. Out front Ronnefalk lead the final lap to come home the winner from Zalewski with Daniel Kobbevik third from Haatanen, the win giving the Swede the overall title to go along with the 1:8 Nitro Buggy European title he won last month in Portugal. Orlowski with a 1 & 3 took second while a pair of seconds gave Zalewski the final step on the podium ahead of Bayer and Haatanen.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]

July 31, 2025

2025 SIGP International Offroad GP – Announcement

After a hugely successful return to the international racing calendar last year, Sunpadow has announced November 5-9th as the dates for the 2025 SIGP International Offroad Grand Prix. Last year saw World Champion Davide Ongaro take the win on his SIGP debut ahead of fellow Italian Mattia Polito with Bruno Coelho completing the podium ahead of eBuggy winner David Ronnefalk. Taking place at 3-circle ARC International RC Racing Track in Xiamen, China, the same venue that hosted the 2017 IFMAR 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championships, the SIGP International Offroad Grand Prix also counts American Ryan Lutz and Germany’s Joern Neumann as past champions. With the introduction of visa-free entry to China for many European countries, this boosted the international entry on the events return after Covid. Organised by Sunpadow Batteries, the huge offroad & onroad racing facility located on the same grounds as their battery factory, registration for the SIGP will open September 15th. Red RC will be travelling to Xiamen again this year to cover all the racing action.

Source: Sunpadow [sunpadow.com]

July 30, 2025

Bayer takes first EFRA 2WD European title

An emotional Martin Bayer is the new EFRA 1:10 2WD Buggy European Champion, the Xray driver taking the title at the Hudy Arena indoor dirt track in Slovakia 12-years after he held the 4WD European title. With the race coming down to A3, it was Bayer’s team-mate David Ronnefalk who finished second with Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen completing the podium. In qualifying four different drivers produced TQ runs, the first coming from Bayer with a second TQ run in Q5 declaring him the Top Qualifier. Fastest in Q3, Schumacher’s defending Champion Michal Orlowski would start second ahead of former Champions Ronnefalk, who took Q2, and Sworkz’s Joern Neumann who set the pace in round 4 of qualifying. In A1, the Top 3 ran in close order for the first 3-minutes until a mistake from Orlowski that dropped him into a battle with Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen but contact put them both out of the hunt for the win. Coming under pressure from Ronnefalk, Bayer was driving defensive and with just over half a minute to go the Swede made a pass for the lead and made it stick. In A2 we would see Orlowski’s title defence end just after the 1-minute mark with a mistake coming onto the back straight. With Ronnefalk promoted to second he chased down Bayer but the Czech driver held on for the win while Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen completed the Top 3. With A3 an Xray shootout, Ronnefalk didn’t take long to get passed Orlowski setting things up for a great race but then a series of mistakes dropped him out of contention allowing Bayer to take the win ahead of team-mate Bartek Zalewski, the Polish driver finishing fourth overall.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

July 28, 2025

Fuller takes big win at Wicked Weekend

Having hit the big time as he completed a clean sweep at the 2025 Silver State Indoor Championships, Sworkz’s Mason Fuller backed that up with the big win in Nitro Buggy at the ‘The Wicked Weekend’ in Gainesville, Georgia. The RaceTime Entertainment event attracted over 800 entries and in qualifying it was Kyosho’s young American star Phi-Long Nguyen who took the overall TQ armed with the new MP11. It was team-mate Ryan Lutz who opened the three rounds of qualifying at the top as he took Q1 but overall it would be Fuller, topping Q3, who secured P2 on the grid ahead of Team Associated’s Brandon Rose, last year’s winner Dakotah Phend, with Lutz ending up P5. In the 30-minute final it was Nguyen who led them away and was pulling clear until he hit problems as the race approached mid distance, dropping him out of contention. Taking over the lead, Fuller would get the win with a 6-second advantage over the Sparko of 6th place qualifier Johan Wilson with Xray’s Chase Lemieux completing the Top 3. While Phend and Ryan Maifield both had a rough Nitro Buggy main, in eBuggy Maifield took his Tekno to the win ahead of Phend and Top Qualifier Rose. In Truggy, Phend took his Xray to the win ahead of Rose and Jared Tebo after Top Qualifier Maifield hit trouble while out front.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

July 27, 2025

Orlowski goes 12-in-a-row at ETS Aigen

Michal Orlwoski has extended his winning streak in the ETS to 12, the Schumacher ace winning a shortened rain effected Round 2 at Aigen in Austria. Battling rain interruptions throughout the event, it would be Orlowski who secured the overall TQ after topping 2 of the three 4-minute qualifiers that they managed to complete. Taking the second round of qualifying Marc Rheinard’s Awesomatix would secure P2 ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker and Infinity’s Bruno Coelho, the World Champion having a tough seeding and finding himself running in the third fastest heat. With Sunday’s weather showing little possibility of any racing, it was decided to end Saturday’s action with the Modified finals. In A1 reigning ETS Champion Orlowski controlled the race from the front followed home by Rheinard and team-mate Simon Lauter, who benefited from contact between Coelho and Volker. In A2 it was another perfect drive from Orlowski, an early spin by Rheinard making his drive to 12-wins a row that bit easier. Coelho would take second ahead of Volker after the German succumbed to the intense pressure from his Portuguese rival. Winning A3 Rheinard locked in second overall while Volker held off Coelho in second to claim the final step on the podium. Lauter would finish 5th overall behind Coelho with the second of the three new Infinity IF14 Speciales in the final securing P6 with Viktor Wilck. With the rest of the classes decided on qualifying order, it was Awesomatix’s Olivier Bultynck who made it two from 2 having also won the season opener at Apeldoorn. Behind the Belgian, Louis Kretschmer made it an Awesomatix 1-2 with the ARC of Enrico Jung in third.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]

July 24, 2025

2025 Asian Buggy Championships Rd 3, Australia – Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend Australia played host to the third round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, with the Pine Pills Dirt Racing club in Brisbane welcoming its biggest international entry yet. The third year the oil treated dirt track has been a stop on the Asian Buggy Championship calendar, the race would see Infinity’s Kouki Kato make his eBuggy debut with the Japanese manufacturer’s new prototype electric buggy and win, while in a rain shortened Nitro Buggy final Alex Bernadzik took his Team Associated to victory. Unfortunately we were unable to photograph the winning Electric and Nitro Buggies – Kato’s eBuggy still at prototype stage and Bernadzik’s RC8 B4.1 featuring special rear hubs that the US manufacturer was not yet ready to show to the public. Red RC’s first time to visit the highly praised Pine Pills Dirt Racing track, which is locate in very nice setting of the James Drysdale Sporting Complex, during our coverage of the race we did still get the opportunity to photograph 8 buggies from 6 different manufacturers. In case you missed any of the Chassis Focus’ during our coverage ‘Down Under’, we have compiled them all here in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

July 21, 2025

Kurzbuch wins ENS Aigen

Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch has won the second round of the Euro Nitro Series at the Aigen track in Austria. The reigning ENS Champion dominated qualifying with his MRX7 prototype topping all four rounds to secure the TQ ahead of Round 1 winner Toni Gruber. Former ENS 1:10 Champion Teemu Leino completed the Top 3 for Infinity with the Shepherd of last year’s race winner Lars Hoppe lining up P4 for the 45-minute final. In the final, Kurzbuch would be the only one to break into the 14-second lap times as he took the win by over 12-seconds from 1:8 GT World Champion Gruber – both drivers running the new ‘Piste’ engine from Ielasi Tuned. 2-laps down, Leino took the final step on the podium ahead of his team-mate Francesco Tironi with the ARC of Silvio Hachler completing the Top 5. In 1:10 Nitro Touring Car, Poland’s Jakub Rozycki made it two from two as he took the win from the TQ spot with Quentin Leroux and Christoph Rohrmoser joining him on the podium.

Image: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]

July 21, 2025

Martin wins 1:8 Buggy 40+ European Championship

17-years after he won the EFRA European B Championship title in France as one of the upcoming stars of offroad racing, Lee Martin has won the 1:8 Buggy 40+ European Championship title at Herts Nitro Model Club in England. The Xray driver secured the TQ at the rain effected event topping 3 of the 4 rounds of qualifying with another of England’s top international racers Neil Cragg securing P2. Winning his Semi final from France’s Jerome Sartel, Martin however would start 2nd n the final as good friend Cragg won his Semi from Graham Alsop in a faster time. The duo continued their battle in the 45-minute Main, and completing 63-laps it was Martin who took the win by just 1.9 seconds over Cragg. Two laps down 2022 Champion Alsop completed the podium ahead of Sartel.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]