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May 28, 2025

RC Bike World Championship Warmup Race – Report

With Australia set to host the first ever RC Bike World Championships to be run outside of Europe since it the inception of the event in 2004, the 2025 hosts held the warm-up race for the August 3-9th Main event in Brisbane over the weekend. Rolling into England Park Raceway, the racing did not disappoint. Easily one of the best tracks in the country, it brought high grip, a smooth-as-glass surface, banked corners, and full lighting for night racing. Add a crew of top-notch locals and that coastal breeze from Moreton Bay, and you’ve got a dream setting for a week of serious RC bike action. With three Classes, 1:5 Superbike, 1:5 Stock Bike and 1:4 Super Moto, the 1:5 Nitro class sat this one out due to low numbers, but don’t worry—they’ll be firing on all cylinders in August, with seven confirmed entries already locked in for the main event. With clear skies, 18–25°C across the days, and barely a breath of wind, track grip stayed solid all week, and even when finals day started grey with a light sprinkle, it cleared quickly, delivering the hottest, fastest conditions of the whole event.

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May 23, 2025

Kee to lead FEMCA as Reid calls time on 20-year contribution to racing in Asia

FEMCA, the governing body that represents 15 nations in Asia and Australasia, has announced that Leonard Kee will now head up the federation as Trevor Reid officially calls time on his 20-year contribution to RC racing in the region and around the world. Having held the post of Vice-President, Malaysian Kee has been very active over the last few years with FEMCA events as well as shaping the future of FEMCA including the recently announced rebranding of its title races to Asian Championships. From New Zealand, Reid made the official announcement of his replacement in a letter titled ‘Changing of the guard’. Having got to know Trevor over our many years of covering IFMAR World Championships, and had the pleasure of catching up with him again recently at the opening round of the Asian Buggy Championships in his home country, one thing that always stood out to use was his commitment to the role and his willingness to fight for what was best for the racing and the racers, battles unfortunately he didn’t always win. As the new FEMCA President Kee’s first big event in the role will be the highly anticipated 1:10 Offroad World Championships in Sydney, Australia, later this year. Adding to the official announcement, Kee expressed his appreciation of Reid’s work with a statement in which he said the Kiwi was always “Tirelessly working with the various associations and manufacturers in the goal of bringing the Hobby from recreation to a sport”.

Read full announcement and statement here

May 19, 2025

Double win for Canas at International Buggy Challenge

The seventh edition of the International Buggy Challenge took place in Portugal over the weekend where Sworkz’s Juan Carlos Canas took a double victory. With the Barcelos track in for a busy 2025 as its hosts the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Buggy World Championship and the EFRA 1:8 Nitro Buggy European Championship, this year’s IBC would also double up as the official Warm-up race for both championships. Having been forced to rescheduled the race, originally set for May 2-4, as a knock on effect of a major national power outage that effected both Portugal and Spain recently, the race attracted just over 90 racers as a number of top drivers had other race commitments. In qualifying it was Spanish youngster Adrian Pariente who took the nitro TQ ahead of his older brother Daniel after they each TQ’d a round. Canas TQ’d the opening round but ended up P6 on the grid with the Infinity of Bruni Coelho completing the Top 3. In the 45-minute final, reigning European Champion Canas would lay down the fastest lap of the race as he worked his way to the front to win by just under half a lap from Adrian. Former World Champion Robert Batlle competed the podium with his Sworkz 20-seconds behind Pariente. Local hero Joao Figueiredo would finish fourth ahead of Coelho. In eBuggy, Canas dominated topping all three qualifiers before winning all three A-Mains with Coelho and Adrian Pariente joining him on the podium.

Image: Robert Batlle [Facebook]

May 9, 2025

2025 Philippine Masters – Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend we attended the world class 1:8 Offroad race that is the Philippine Masters. Asia’s premier annual offroad event akin to what the TITC is to the world of Electric Touring Car, 2025 marked the biggest edition of the Manila based race yet in terms of total entries, the number of countries represented, and the dept of top level team drivers. The second round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, it was Philippine Masters regular Davide Ongaro who took the TQ from first time visitors Burak Kilic and Kouki Kato. In the 1-hour main however Ongaro suffered a rare mechanical (receiver failure) while fuel tank issues also ended Kilic’s race early. Putting in a super consistent drive Infinity’s Kato took the win, the Japanese talent making it 2 from 2 in the Asian Buggy Championships adding to his win at the season finale in Indonesia last year. In eBuggy, A1 proved the entertainment highlight of the weekend as Ongaro, having being passed for the lead by Pekko Iivonen, tried to retake the lead on a thrilling final lap. With Iivonen holding on for a hugely popular win, Ongaro took A2 before Ryan Lutz took the third however overall it was Ongaro’s victory. During our time at the Circulo Verde Track we got the chance to photograph 9 buggies from 6 different manufacturers including Mayako’s all new prototype eBuggy. In case you missed any of the Chassis Focus’ during our coverage of the race, we have compiled them all in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

May 9, 2025

Hara confirmed for Asian Buggy C/ships visit to Brisbane

With two hugely successful rounds of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships already in the books, Round 3 hosts Pine Hill Dirt Racing in Brisbane have received the exciting news that they will get to welcome legend of the sport Atsushi Hara to their track for the July 16-20 event. The former 1:8 Buggy and Electric Touring Car World Champion, who has for the last 2-years attended the Philippine Masters round of the championship, will make his first ever trip to Brisbane thanks to his sponsor Cayote. Having not raced 1:8 Buggy regularly in recent years, his racing programme more focused on electric touring car outings, the Japanese driver is relishing the opportunity of back to back ABC outings after his double Top 10 finish in Manila last weekend. With the last two visits to Australia sell out races, entries for Round 3 at Pine Hills Dirt Racing (PHDR) track open May 10th. Just like Hara, Red RC are excited to be making our first visit to Brisbane in July to cover the latest action from the Asian Buggy Championships.

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

May 7, 2025

Morganti wins KO Propo Grand Prix

Diego Morganti took the big win at the 15th annual KO Propo Grand Prix which took place at Homestead RC Raceway in Miami over the weekend. One of the majors on the US onroad nitro racing calendar, this year’s race attracted 111 entries and in 1:8 Onroad it was the Serpent of reigning US National Champion Bryce Butterfield who took the overall TQ on tie break. With two of the 5 qualifying rounds to count, the Shepherd of Lazaro Alonza Jr also TQ’d two rounds but ended up P2 while topping Q2 Morganti’s Capricorn completed the Top 3. In the final rain would see the race red flagged and on resuming action it was Morganti who chased leader Butterfield. Unfortunately Butterfield would encounter transmission issues that ended his quest for another KO Propo Grand Prix win with Morganti able to cruise to victory ahead of Joachim Bruneau, who qualified 4th, and Alonza Jr. In 1:10 Touring Car it was Infinity’s DJ Apolaro who took the TQ and win while in 1:8 GT Serpent’s Jose Almonte came from P8 to win the final from top qualifier Carlie Lopez.

Image: Diego Morganti [Facebook]

May 4, 2025

Kato wins PM25 as Ongaro & Kilic fail to finish in Manila

It was only his second Asian Buggy Championships appearance but Infinity’s young Japanese prospect Kouki Kato made it 2 from 2 with the biggest win of his career taking victory today at the famous Philippine Masters which is Round 2 of the Cayote backed championship. Having won last year’s season finale in Indonesia, Kato would line-up third on the grid in Manila behind Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic and Top Qualifier Davide Ongaro, the Team Associated driver chasing three in a row at Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race. With the 1-hour final underway Ongaro and Kilic would establish a lead with Kouki driving his own calculated race in 3rd. With a change coming up front after a mistake by Ongaro allowed Kilic to go to the front unfortunately the Turkish driver’s Philippine Masters debut was to come to a premature end as he suffered the first of two flame-outs 15-minutes into the race. It would turn out that the pick-up in his fuel tank had shifted and was longer positioned in the bottom of the tank hence the reason he was flaming out after just 5-minutes of running. With the demise of Kilic allowing Ongaro back to the lead, it wasn’t to be the World Champion’s day either. With 24-minutes remaining he too looked to flame out but the problem was more terminal. Doing a battery pack change as the car’s radio was not responding it turned out that his receiver had failed and the 26-year-old was out. In all the drama Kato was getting on with his race and took over the lead which he would hold until the finish, the crowd being entertained by the battle for the other podium places. The Sworkz of Asian Buggy Championships Champion Christian Wolhuter and Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen went at it with Sworkz Mattia Polito also in the mix. Looking on target to repeat his impressive P2 eBuggy result, Iivonen would cruelly run out of fuel on the penultimate lap allowing Wolhuter to claim second 14-seconds back on Kato. While also running out of fuel, but on his last lap, Polito took third as Iivonen was classified fourth ahead of Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz with Alex Bernadzik completing the Top 6 as the dust settled on the biggest edition of the Philippine Masters yet.

Continue reading report here

May 4, 2025

Lutz wins A3 as Ongaro takes eBuggy in Manila

Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz delivered on his ever building speed throughout the Philippine Masters with a victory in the third & deciding A-Main of eBuggy, but overall it was Davide Ongaro who successfully defended his title in Manila. The eBuggy mains kicked off on Saturday afternoon with a thrilling A1 final in which Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen saw off an intense last lap charge from Top Qualifier Ongaro. A2 on Sunday morning wouldn’t quite serve up the same level of excitement as the first one with Ongaro taking the win by just shy of 1-second over Iivonen with third place qualifier Alex Bernadzik completing the Top 3. This set the stage for a shoot out between Ongaro and Iivonen, however with his A2 win the faster of the races the Italian had the advantage with Iivonen needing to take his all new MX8E LCG prototype eBuggy to the win in a faster time. With Ongaro struggling with his Team Associated’s handling and in particular the picking up wind throwing it around over the jumps, Iivonen got to the front but it was short lived as Lutz arrived to the party and soon eked out a lead. In the closing stages Iivonen, having got by Team Associated’s Hyunkyu Jung-J, tried to chase down the American setting the fastest lap of the race on his penultimate round but he ran out of laps and finished 8/10ths back. On tie break it was Ongaro with the overall win from Iivonen with Lutz’s win securing him the final step on the podium from Bernadzik.