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June 23, 2025

Beretta crowned new 1:8 GT European Champion

Genius Racing’s Filippo Beretta is the new EFRA 1:8 GT Nitro European Champion. Racing at the MRC Leipzig track in Germany, the Italian topped the opening three qualifiers to secure the TQ ahead of team-mate and 2022 & 2023 Champion Bernard-Alain Arnaldi. Topping the fifth & final qualifier Daniel Schepis secured third ahead of Andrea Catanzani, the Serpent having topped seeding. Missing the cut of directly qualifying for the 45-minute title deciding final, the Raptor of Alessio Mazzeo qualified P5 ahead of Capricorn’s Alex D’angelo. In the final it was very much Beretta who was in control however Catanzani found a way passed his fellow countryman with 5:30 on the clock. Crossing the finish just half a second ahead it looked like Catanzani was the new European Champion however in post race technical inspection his fuel tank failed and Beretta was declared the Champion of the 4th running of the European Championships. It would be an all Genius Racing podium with Leonardo Valente second and Arnaldi third. Travelling to Germany as the reigning Champion Natanaele Senesi would finish P4 having had issues in qualifying and ended up P11. Reigning World Champion Toni Gruber qualified 9th and like Senesi had to come through the Semi finals eventually finishing P7. In 1:8 Electric GT it was Xray’s Adam Izsay who the new Champion ahead of 2023 Champion Mazzeo with Schepis completing the podium.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

June 20, 2025

Sweep official 1:8 GT World Championship tyre supplier

As Chile continues its preparation for hosting the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships in September, the organisers have announced Sweep as the official tyre supplier. Racers will use the recently released D-SPEC GT 40 tyre. The organisers have been testing the tyre in various conditions with their advisors since January and ultimately made the decision after a comparison test with other options at the Club de Aeromodelos de Chile (CACH) in the past 2 weeks when weather conditions were similar to those expect in September. The main focus was performance, durability, quality and how long they took to reach optimum performance (considering that EP racing cannot afford to have a lengthy warm up period and tire warmers are not allowed).

Source: IFMAR Worlds Chile 2025 [ifmarworlds2025.com]

June 12, 2025

IFMAR confirm Thornhill as ’26 1:8 Offroad Worlds track

IFMAR, the World governing body of RC racing, has officially confirmed that the hosting of the 2026 IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship will be hosted by the Thornhill Racing Circuit in Texas. Posting details of the 2026 calendar, IFMAR confirmed the widely expected news that the home of the annual ‘The Dirt’ Lonestar Challenge and this year’s ROAR Nationals will welcome the best drivers in the World to battle it our for the biggest prize in the sport from September 26th to October 3rd 2026. The Thornhill Racing Circuit complex is situated on 13.9 acres with the dirt track having the unique feature of being fully covered. Las Vegas was the venue on the World Championships last visit to the US when David Ronnefalk took the 2016 title.

View 2026 IFMAR World Championship Calendar here

June 10, 2025

Diekmann wins Oslo Open 2025

Capricorn driver Thilo Diekmann took the main win at the Oslo Open 2025, the annual nitro onroad race held at the impressive Hverven Raceway located south of the Norwegian capital. While rain hampered the event, in qualifying it was former 1:5 World Champion Martin Lissau who was the Top Qualifier ahead of the Mugen Seiki of British Champion Alex Thurston who both booked their direct place into the final. For 2024 Oslo Open winner Francesco Tironi qualifying P5 meant he had to start his quest for two in a row from the Semi Finals but he failed to go the distance and his race was over. The Italian did however get some consolation on Sunday when he won the 15-minute Midnight Sun Sprint race ahead of Thurston. Qualifying 8th, Diekmann would progress from his Semi and in the 45-minute Main, which ran on Saturday night, he took the win a lap up on Lars Haugen with Alexander Andersson joining him on the podium. Both Lissau and Thurston had a troubled final with the Dane retiring with 7-minutes to go and Thurston finishing a distant fourth.

Image: Thilo Diekmann [Facebook]

June 9, 2025

Harleman wins Dutch EFRA Large Scale GP

The second round of the 2025 3-race Large Scale EFRA GP series took place in the Netherlands over the weekend where Mecatech driver Marco Harleman took the win. With rain having affected the opening round in Spain, where Bernard-Alain Arnaldi took the win, racing at the Real80 track in Groningen drivers again faced difficult wet weather conditions with qualifying seeing limited running. With the 3rd of the 6 scheduled qualifiers proving the quickest, it was Hessel Roskam who secured pole position. For the wet 30-minute final, a number of drivers would not start the race, leaving 3rd place qualifier Harleman to take a commanding win. The Dutch driver was joined on the podium by Luke Van den Berg and Pieter Netten. The third of the EFRA Large Scale Grand Prix races takes place on September 13/14 in Lostallo, Switzerland, where drivers will be hoping for a break from wet conditions.

Source: Mecatech Racing Components [Facebook]

June 8, 2025

Ongaro defends European eBuggy title in Spain

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro has defended his EFRA European 1:8 eBuggy title winning the 9th edition of the championship at Valladolid in Spain. Qualifying would kick off with Bruno Coelho and his prototype Infinity eBuggy topping the first of the four rounds but fastest in the next three qualifiers it was reigning European Nitro Buggy Champion Juan Carlos Canas who secured the TQ with his Sworkz. Behind the Spaniard it was Ongaro, last year’s Top Qualifier in France, who lined up second ahead of Coelho. Italian Sworkz driver Mattio Polito secured P4 with the Sparko of young French talent Noha Ben Mohamed in fifth as David Ronnefalk completed the Top 6 as the leading Xray. In the first of the 10-minute triple final encounters, late contact between Canas and Ongaro handed Coelho the win. In A2 a mistake from Canas early on saw him give the lead to Ongaro who would lead home Coelho and Ronnefalk. Unfortunately Canas’s hopes of retaking the title he last held in 2022 were over after he suffered a DNF trying to make his way back up the order. While Canas finally delivered a win in A3, second was enough for Ongaro to take his third eBuggy Euros title with Coelho the runner-up as Canas completed the podium. Finishing P4, Ben Mohamed took the European Junior title. A big year for 1:8 Electric Buggy, drivers will now turn their attention to the first ever IFMAR World Championship for the category which takes place in Portugal in August.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

June 2, 2025

Berton wins 25th edition of Kyosho Masters

Riccardo Berton took the Nitro Buggy win at the Kyosho Masters, this year’s event marking the 25th anniversary of the iconic Japanese manufacturer’s flagship annual event. With almost 200 Kyosho drivers plus JQ making the trip to the RC94 track in France, where they got to see the new MP11 Prototype in person, in Elite qualifying it was Berton who took the TQ ahead of Reno Savoya, Marco Baruffolo and Phi-Long Nguyen. With Berton and Savoya winning their respective Semi Finals, it was the 3-time European Champion who would line up on pole on home soil. With Berton starting P2, American Ryan Lutz, only 12th after qualifier, had a great Semi Final to secure P3 on the grid ahead Baruffolo and 13-year-old Nguyen. Over the 45-minute final, Berton set the fastest lap of the race to win by 2-laps over last weekend’s Kyosho Italia Meeting winner Baruffolo. With second through 5th all finishing on the same lap, back to back FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Champion Nguyen claimed the final podium step just ahead of Savoya with Lutz in fifth. In eBuggy it was Savoya who took the TQ and win ahead of Italian duo Berton and Baruffolo.

Image: Riccardo Berton [Facebook]

June 2, 2025

Orlowski opens ETS title defence with another win

Michal Orlowski’s unbeaten run in the Euro Touring Series continued over the weekend as the Schumacher driver opened the latest season with another win at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. In a repeat performance of 12-month earlier, Orlowski secured the TQ topping 3 of the 4 qualifiers while Practice Top Seed Lucas Urbain took the final qualifier to line up P2 on the grid with his Awesomatix. Infinity’s Bruno Coelho returned to the series with a P3 ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker as Marc Rheinard’s Awesomatix completed the Top 5 on the grid. That P5 would prove to be the place to be in A1, first an out of shape Urbain would make contact with Volker, then braking traction Orlowski would collide with Coelho, handing Rheinard the win from team-mate Simon Lauter and Xray’s Alexander Hagberg, the duo having started 6th & 7th respectively. In A2, Orlowski went tone to tone winning from Urbain and Coelho to put his quest for an 11th consecutive win back on track. In A3, Orlowski again delivered a perfect drive while a spin from Urbain mixed up the following pack and ended his changes of repeating the 2024 Dutch round podium line-up. With Rheinard coming through for 2nd, that was where the reigning EFRA European Champion would stand on the podium while P3 in the 3rd encounter would secure Lauter the final step on the podium. In Pro Stock the weekend would see a dominant performance from Awesomatix’s Oliver Bultynck, the Belgian topping seed, taking all four qualifiers and sealing the win in A2. He was joined on the podium by ARC’s Jung Enrico and Xray’s Izsay Adam

Image: Bruno Coelho [Facebook]