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March 20, 2025

Hara confirmed for eSIC 2025

The organisers of the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) has announced that racing legend Atsushi Hara will be attending this year’s third edition of the annual race. This marks the first time the two-time World Champion will participate in eSIC which moves from September to an earlier date of July 12-13 in 2025. The brainchild of top Singapore touring car racer Nicholas Lee and Chhua Jookiah with the aim of bringing top level international competition to the country last year’s race attracted factory entries from Mugen Seiki, Awesomatix, Yokomo, ARC and Xpress. The previous two editions of the race were won by Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker. On the announcement Hara said, ‘I am very happy to joining Electric Singapore International Challenge for the first time! I haven’t race an EP touring car race in Singapore for a long time, so I am looking forward to racing with all of my fans and friends! Special thanks to who organizing this event as my friend Nicholas Lee and Team Cayote for giving me this opportunity!’

Source: eSIC [Facebook]

March 20, 2025

Asian Buggy Championships underway in New Zealand, Noble & Dawson top seeding

With a new title sponsor in Cayote, the third season of the Asian Buggy Championships officially got underway today in New Zealand with Tekno’s Caleb Noble and WIRC’s Kasey Dawson topping seeding at the Counties RC Car Club track which once again plays host to the first stop on the championship’s 4 round calendar. Winner of the third round of the ABC in Australian last year, Caleb would set the fastest 2-consecutive laps in Nitro Buggy ahead of Kyle McBride and the Sworkz of Jayden Jamieson while a strong end to the day netted Mayako Youth Mentoring Program driver Dylan Toia P4. In eBuggy, local star Dawson had the advantage over Caleb thanks to his effort in the first of the two seeding rounds. Noble topped the second encounter but that effort was 2/10th slower overall. Behind them the older of the Toia brothers, Logan completed the eBuggy Top 3 as drivers now get ready for 3 rounds of qualifying in Pukekohe tomorrow.

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February 26, 2025

2025 TITC Chassis Focus Index

21 editions of the TITC have been completed and thanks to the support of Hobbywing, Red RC was once again able to make the annual trip to the Infinity RC Addict Circuit in Bangkok to cover this truly unique event. By far the greatest one yet in terms of all the pre-race hype, 2025 was the year the race got to play out moments that will forever be engrained in the sport’s history. Bruno Coelho’s first ever race with Infinity, Michal Orlowski’s first ever TITC. As the saying goes, ‘you only get one chance to make a first impression’ and wow was an impression Orlowski made on the ‘world’s toughest race’ – complete domination. We also have to mention A3 and the last lap between Marc Rheinard and Bruno Coelho, that pass was pure Rheinard gold and having been reporting on his racing at the top level for so many years it was brilliant to see he still has that magic. It was interesting to chat with a number of drivers for whom this was their first time experiencing the TITC, they didn’t actually need to tell us they were loving it because it was already written all over their faces, it was like they had rediscovered the joy of racing again. We get to go to our fair share of races around the world and none come close in terms of everyone enjoying themselves. The laughter in the pits and the enthusiasm of the crowd watching the racing is infectious, and we still get to see the best in the World race head to head for a title they all desire so much – it truly is the unofficial World Championships.

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February 10, 2025

IFMAR 1:10 Offroad Worlds – Promo Video

Our good friends Down Under at RC Race Media have put together a nice promo video to highlight Sydney hosting the 1:10 Offroad World Championships later this year. Running from September 29th to October 6th at Hills Off Road RC’s natural dirt track, RC Race Media will also produce the official broadcast of the 20th running of the 1:10 Offroad Worlds that will be live streamed to RC fans around the globe. With 2025 marking the 40th anniversary of the category hosting its first ever World Championship back in 1985, these Worlds, with the beautiful city of Sydney as its backdrop, has all the makings of being a classic. Last week the world governing body IFMAR published the Stage 1 report for the main event with the club currently preparing for the Pre-Worlds race on April 3-6th.

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February 7, 2025

Volker, Kobbevik & Neumann set pace on opening day of MIBO International

It is the biggest MIBO International race yet and kicking off the third edition of the combined Czech onroad & offroad indoor event it was Ronald Volker in Modified Touring Car, Daniel Kobbevik in 2WD Buggy and Joern Neumann in 4WD Buggy who set the pace in free practice. With both tracks opening up to racers late afternoon, to give them the Friday morning to travel to the Sports V Hotel in Hrotovice, Day 1 of the event consisted of 5 rounds of practice. On the black carpet onroad track it was the Mugen Seiki of inaugural MIBO Champion Volker and the Schumacher of defending Champion Michal Orlowski would were the bench mark, Yokomo’s Christopher Krapp completing the Top 3. On the grey carpet offroad track, onroad & offroad drivers standing back to back on the central drivers stand, 2WD Buggy saw Kobbevik’s Schumacher have the edge on MIBO debutant Marcus Kaerup’s Team Associated with Xray’s Bartosz Zalewski posting the third fastest time. In 4WD, it was the Sworkz of the defending 2WD Champion Neumann that produced the fastest three consecutive laps ahead of the teenagers Kaerup and Zalewski, the later taking the win here 12-months ago.

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November 27, 2024

2024 1:10 Onroad World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

Exactly 10-years after it hosted its first World Championship, the very unique Huge RC Circuit in Bangkok, Thailand was once again the challenging battle ground for the 10th edition of the IFMAR 1:10 Onroad World Championship. A track thats high traction challenged even the very best drivers in the world, following more than a week of action it was Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp who came out on top and in doing so became only the second driver ever to win both an Electric and Nitro Touring Car World title, the other driver being Naoto Matsukura who was once again in the mix this year. Having already written about the official manufacturer stats in our race coverage, during our time in Bangkok we managed to photograph 11 cars from 5 different manufacturers which will have now compiled together for our latest event Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

November 23, 2024

Groskamp back on top of the World

Jilles Groskamp is back on top of the World, the Infinity driver becoming the new IFMAR 1:10 Onroad World Champion at the Huge RC Circuit in Bangkok 12-years after winning the Electric Touring Car World Title. Having booked his way directly into the 1-hour Main by winning Super Pole, Groskamp would in the end cruise to victory to become Nitro Touring Car’s 10th different Champion as outgoing Champion Tadahiko Sahashi struggled in his quest to be the first driver to successful defend the title. Starting as the Top Qualifier, this being his second time to secure pole at the Worlds, Teemu Leino’s race lasted less than 10-minutes as the Finn flipped his Infinity after his second fuel stop and the impact with the boards broke a front shock. With 2018 Champion Naoto Matsukura looking like he was on to repeat his earlier dominant Semi final performance, as the race reached halfway and he had a clear lead over the field, a touch of the curbing ended his challenge. The subsequent impact after the roll would break a rear shock shaft but with the car still running on the spring he would limp home in P6, 7-laps down on his winning team-mate. For 1:8 World Champion Dario Balestri a dead receiver battery would cause him to crash out of a podium finish and DNF with just over 2-minutes to go. Behind Jilles, having managed to un-lap himself towards the end of the race, Capricorn’s Toni Gruber would claim second with tenth place starter Charlee Phutiyothin making it two Capricorns on the podium.

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November 23, 2024

Sahashi title defence back on track in Thailand

Tadahiko Sahashi’s 1:10 Nitro World Championship title defence is back on with the Infinity driver booking his place in final at Huge RC Circuit after finishing second to team-mate Dario Balestri in the second of the two Semi Finals. Having topped seeding, Sahashi then struggled throughout qualifying and found himself scrapping his way onto the back of a direct spot in the Semis. In the early stages of the final it looked like the Japanese driver’s quest to become the first back to back Champion of the class was over, however by the 10-minute he was up to third, helped in part by 2012 Champion Meen Vejrak and Takaaki Shimo both running out of fuel. Up front a flip by pole sitter Balestri allowed Chavit Saligupta to lead but shortly after third way distance his car came to a permanent stop ending his hopes of repeating his 2022 final appearance. Looking like he was safely into the final as he lapped in 3rd position there was a heartbreak for Australian Jessie Davis. With three minutes to go and having just exited pit lane his car came to a stop and with his engine refusing to restart his Worlds was done. Capricorn’s Thilo Diekman would finish 3rd to book the German’s first World Final start. In the other Semi, Naoto Matsukura looked like he was out for a Sunday drive, the 2018 World Champion lapping the entire field with a flawless drive that has the Infinity driver highly motivated for the final. Having started on pole, Capricorn’s Toni Gruber came home 2nd as he continues to challenge the might of Infinity here in Bangkok but the 1:8 GT World Champion admitted himself that his Semi performance was not a Title contending performance and they need to improve for the final. On the road it would be Viktor Wilck that would complete the Top 3 but his car would be deemed to be too wide in post race technical inspection and Charlee Phutiyothin was promoted to the final. The final two places on the grid would be decided on fastest times which went to Milan Holthuis and Sinnosuke Yokoyama.

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