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August 27, 2025

Boots is eBuggy World Championship Top Seed

Sworkz’s Elliott Boots is the Top Seed at the first ever IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship, the British driver set to carry the No.1 sticker on his buggy in the top heat as qualifying gets underway in Portugal tomorrow. The former Nitro Buggy Worlds Top Qualifier claimed the Top Seeding ahead of Michal Orlowski after he bettered the Schumacher team driver’s first round time by 6/10ths of a second. Fresh from winning the European Championship title in 1:10 Electric Touring Car for the very first time over the weekend, Orlowski couldn’t better his opening time ending up fifth fastest for the second round. Behind Boots it would be the Xray of David Ronnefalk who set the second fastest time to end seeding in P3 ahead of team-mate Dakotah Phend. Completing the Top 3 times for CP2, Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup completed Day 2 of the championship in P5 ahead of the Sworkz of Juan Carlos Canas. Reigning back to back Nitro Buggy World Champion & back to back European eBuggy Champion Davide Ongaro ends practice seeding P8 behind Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen.

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August 27, 2025

Orlowski tops first seeding round at eBuggy Worlds

Michal Orlowski has topped the opening round of seeding practice at the inaugural eBuggy World Championship, the Schumacher driver fastest from the similar car of Xray’s Dakotah Phend. Over the first of the two 10-minute seeding rounds, the Polish driver improved on his P6 Free Practice pace by half a second with Phend just 0.15 of a second off over his best 3-consecutive laps of the Barcelos track. Sworkz’s Juan Carlos Canas would complete the Top 3 ahead of David Ronnefalk with Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen backing up his strong final free practice run to set the 5th fastest time. Having topped free practice, Marcus Kaerup would open seeding with a P6, the Team Associated driver unable to match his FP7 pace and putting the 0.8 of a second lost down to not driving as well.

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August 27, 2025

Kaerup goes fastest in final practice

Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup has wrapped up practice at the 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship, the Dane laying down the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the Barcelos track in Portugal in the 7th & final free practice. Ending Day 1 of practice fourth fastest, in this morning’s two final free practice runs Kaerup bettered that time ending up 1-second faster with his FP7 time. Behind it was Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik who set the second fastest time just ahead of another of the morning’s big improvers Pekko Iivonen for an all Scandinavian Top 3. Setting the pace yesterday, Dakotah Phend would not improve on his FP4 time but the Xray driver still ends free practice in P4 with the that time ahead of Polish duo Bartek Zalewski and Michal Orlowski.

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August 26, 2025

Phend fastest as Day 1 of eBuggy Worlds concludes

Xray’s Dakotah Phend has set the pace on the opening day of the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship, the American topping the times after 5 rounds of free practice at the Barcelos Buggy Arena in Portugal. Setting his fastest 3-consecutive laps in the penultimate round of the day’s free practice, many drivers feeling they made the wrong call on tyre compound for the cooler evening’s final run, Phend was fastest from Juan Carlos Canas, the Sworkz driver topping that final round to record his best time of the day. The pace setter after the first three rounds, David Ronnefalk finished the day out in P3 ahead of Sworkz’ Elliott Boots. With reigning Nitro Buggy World Champion Davide Ongaro having a challenging day, which ended in him being only 13th fastest, it was his younger team-mate Marcus Kaerup who led the way for Team Associated. Second fastest in FP5, which was 10-minutes long with the previous four rounds having been 5-minutes each, he ended the day fourth fastest. Another improvement in FP5 came from Tekno’s João Figueirdo, the Nitro World Championship finalist, whose family are the hosts of these World Championships, completing the Top 5.

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August 26, 2025

First ever 1:8 Electric Buggy Worlds is go in Portugal

eBuggy is now officially an IFMAR World Championship class with free practice for the inaugural 1:8 Electric Offroad Worlds getting underway at the beautifully presented Barcelos track in Northern Portugal today. Arriving this morning to foggy conditions, which caused an hour delay to the start of the day’s five rounds of free practice, once drivers got on track they quickly gave the fresh surface and new layout plenty of abuse, even the top title contenders looking somewhat rookie level as they tried to put early laps together. With the second round of practice completed, drivers’ general feedback on the track was positive with many of those who raced here at the European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championship last month saying track builder Miguelo Izquierdo Rodriguez’ latest build was more technical and difficult. With the lack of noise being something that takes getting used to when you walk around the pits surrounded by the best 1:8 Nitro Buggy in the World, in terms of early pace it was Xray’s David Ronnefalk who led the way after 3 rounds ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Bruak Kilic, fastest after Round 2, with Sworkz’s Elliott Boots completing the Top 3.

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August 25, 2025

1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship coverage presented by Team Cayote

The week on which IFMAR will crown a brand new World Champion has finally arrived and thanks to electronics manufacturer Team Cayote, Red RC are travelling to Barcelos in Portugal to tell the story of how the inaugural 1:8 Electric Offroad World Champion is crowned. Having run in the shadow of 1:8 Nitro Buggy, which since crowning its first World Champion back in 1986 has established itself as the ‘Rock Star’ category of all RC racing classes, this week is eBuggy’s moment to shine on the world stage. Revealing over the weekend the layout on which all the leading buggy manufacturers will battle it out to go down in history as the first ever eBuggy World Champions, the Barcelos track in North Portugal will play host to almost 120 drivers from around the globe. With Europe’s governing body EFRA enjoying crowning 1:8 eBuggy Champions over the last decade with their stand alone championship event, the reigning champion is none other that three time back to back Nitro Buggy World Champion Davide Ongaro. Despite the European Nitro Buggy title still eluding the Italian, he is the back to back Champion of eBuggy having also won the title previously in 2019. With Barcelos hosting the 2025 EFRA European Nitro Buggy Championship back in early July of this year, the European’s should have slight home advantage. David Ronnefalk lifted the title for a fourth time, and the Swede would love nothing more than to complete the set by adding an Electric World title to the Nitro Worlds win he took in 2016 in Las Vegas. While the US team is relatively small by their standards, they do have their defending eBuggy Champion Dakotah Phend making the trip. Unlike 1:8 Nitro Buggy, in which fuel stops and tyre changes come into play over the long races, 1:8 electric is more heads up racing and we are excited to see how things unfold over the next 5-days. Our coverage presented by Team Cayote, who offer competition spec ESC’s, Motors, and Batteries, will begin on Day 1 of the event, Tuesday, when drivers start off two days of practice, followed by 2-days of qualifying with the finals on Saturday.

View aerial view of track layout here

August 24, 2025

Orlowski finally adds European TC title to tally

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has finally added the EFRA 1:10 Electric Touring European Championship title to his CV, the Pole taking the 2025 title ahead of outgoing Champion Marc Rheinard in the Netherlands. With Bruno Coelho securing the TQ with the new Infinity IF14 Speciale ahead of Orlowski and Rheinard, A1 would see a dramatic start to finals day at the RACO2000 track. On the opening lap Orlowski made a mistake giving Coelho some breathing space but then on Lap 2 the World Champion rolled handing the Awesomatix of Rheinard the lead which the German held to the end to win ahead of Ronald Volker’s Mugen Seiki with Orlowski P3 ahead of Coelho. Switching from a white body to full race paint for A2, the switch wasn’t to bring Coelho any better luck for A2 as again Lap 2 would be his downfall as he spun out of the lead ahead of Orlowski. With Rheinard then making a mistake, Orlowski would cruise to the win ahead of Volker and Xray’s Alexander Hagberg as Rheinard registered a P5 and Coelho a DNF. With Coelho out of title contention, the focus of A3 was on if Rheinard could retain his title or if Orlowski could lay claim to it for the very first time. With Rheinard needing to finish second and ahead of Orlowski, as Coelho led out front the race would see the Top 7 finish as they started and with his A2 win and P3 in A1 it was Orlowski’s title. With Rheinard finishing runner-up, the podium would be completed by 7-time Champion Volker with Coelho ending up fourth. In Stock the race would also see the crowning of a brand new Champion as Top Qualifier Adam Iszay converted with wins in A1 & 3 to win the title for Xray ahead of former Champions Olivier Bultynck, who won A2, and Max Mächler. In FWD and Formula it was to be home wins for Robin Van Gog and Fenix driver Jitse Miedema.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

August 23, 2025

Coelho Top Qualifier at European Championships

Infinity’s Bruno Coelho is the Top Qualifier at the 2025 EFRA 1:10 Electric Touring Car European Championships. Racing at the unique Raco2000 track layout in the Netherlands, the reigning World Champion secured pole for tomorrow’s finals with his fastest time of the five qualifiers in penultimate round. With Michal Orlowski taking Friday evening’s opening qualifier after a early mistake hampered Top Seed Coelho, the Schumacher driver would open Day 2’s action with another TQ as Coelho suffered a tyre failure at the end of the run while on TQ pace. The Portuguese driver would eventually deliver in Q3 topping the times ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker and Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain as tyre strategy came into play. Coelho repeated again in Q4, bettering his previous time by 1.4-seconds, to take the round ahead of Orlowski and Volker. With Orlowski needing to take the final qualifier and do so in a better time than Coelho’s Q4 pace, unfortunately for the Polish driver a mechanical on the opening lap meant his challenge for the overall TQ was over. In the end it was Alexander Hagberg, from the second fastest heat, who took a surprise Q5 TQ ahead of defending Champion Marc Rheinard to grab Xray a late Top 5 grid position in the A-Main. Overall behind Coelho and Orlwowski, Rheinard will line-up in third ahead of Volker with Urban in sixth behind Hagberg. In Pro Stock, Xray’s Adam Izsay claimed the overall TQ ahead of Awesomatix’s Max Mächler, again the tie breaker deciding pole as both drivers posted two TQ runs each. Topping Q4, Olivier Bultynck starts P3 ahead of Frederik Hovgaard.

Image: RC Racing TV [rcracingtv.com]