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January 2, 2024

Tessman calls time on career after 20-years of racing

2014 1:8 Buggy World Champion Ty Tessman has called time on an impressive career that puts him up there among the greats of offroad racing. The Canadian announced the decision to retire from the sport after 20-years of racing as he is set to become a father in 2024. Never an easy decision for any sports professional who has dedicate their live to achieving success, the decision by Xray to drop him at the end of 2023 after a 7-year partnership would certainly have played a factor in his departure from the sport. A driver who only represented two manufacturers during his extensive career, Tessman paid tribute to Hot Bodies for giving him the opportunity to turn professional in the sport with his father Gord and mother Leann a pivotal part of the ‘Team Tessman’ journey, the highlight of which was his World title win in Italy 10-years ago. Having witnessed and reported on many of Ty greatest wins over the years, Red RC would like to thank the Tessmans for the memories (late cold nights at the Dirt Nitro Challenge pitting in the Pro-Line tent particular stand outs!!) of some epic race battles and wish Ty all the best in his new family life. Who knows maybe the story will repeat itself in years to come.

Read Ty’s full announcement here

December 23, 2023

New date confirmed for IFMAR 1:8 eBuggy World Cup

After being forced to cancel the event just days before its planned date of last September due to a lack of entries, IFMAR has announced the new date of April 5-7, 2024, for the first ever World Cup for 1:8 Electric Buggy. Concerns were raised when the initial date was announced as it was just 1-week after the 1:10 Offroad World Championships in Arizona which was probably one of the biggest contributing factors to it getting only 15 confirmed entries but the new date should allow for a much stronger entry. With eBuggy a hugely important category for manufacturers while 1:8 nitro has enjoyed World Championship status since 1986, the World Cup will be the first step for the electric category to become a World Championship category in 2025. The World Cup will be hosted by the Club ACDB “OS BEIROES” at their 310m track in Guarda, Portugal whichk previously hosted the 2010 EFRA European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championship when Reno Savoya took the third of his European titles. View the updated Stage 1 report here.

Source: IFMAR [Facebook]

December 23, 2023

2024 Philippine Masters registration opens

Having established itself as Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race, the organisers of the Philippine Masters have announced the opening of registration for the 12th edition of the high profile Manila based event. A sell out event in 2023, the race saw World Champion David Ongaro win the Buggy title for Team Associated while Sworkz’ Micha Widmaier came away with the Truggy victory. With the Philippines famed as a holiday destination, the event has a truly unique vibe living up to the nations tourism tagline ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ with many of the large international driver entry combining the race with holidays at the country’s world famous white sand beaches. Along with Ongaro and Widmaier, Robert Battle, David Ronnefalk, Adam Drake, Ty Tessmann, Atsushi Hara and Kyle McBride are just some of the other international drivers to enjoy both the racing and hospitality in the capital city. Again a capacity entry is expected to be reached quickly as the Philippine Masters plays host to the second round of the Asia Buggy Championships which after kicking off in February in New Zealand will also visit Australia and Indonesia in 2024 and at the end of which there will be an overall Champion of the region crowned.

Source: Philippine Masters [philippinemastersrc.com]

December 22, 2023

2024 SIGP International Grand Prix – Announcement

Sunpadow Batteries has announced that the SIGP International RC Car Grand Prix Onroad will be resumed in 2024 with the event taking place March 20-24 (Updated). The Sunpadow International Grand Prix (SIGP) event had established itself as one of the leading annual international RC event in China and attracted many of the sports top drivers with World Champion Bruno Coelho the winner of the onroad edition in 2019. Taking place at the 2017 Electric Offroad Championship venue in Xiamen, both the onroad and offroad tracks are built side by side next to Sunpadow’s production facility. The SIGP will continue to offer one of the biggest prizes in the sport with total prize money of $25,000 on offer over the categories which include 1:8 GP onroad, 1:8 EP onroad, 1:10 Modified Touring Car and 1:10 Stock Touring Car. Registration will open on January 20th, 2024.

View track images here

December 21, 2023

’23 Foshan Invitational RC C/ship Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend saw the inaugural running of the Foshan Invitational RC Championship at the GDC Indoor Track in China’s central Guangdong Province. The biggest international race hosted in the country post Covid, FIRC attracted a number of international racers to the impressive indoor track with former World Champion Ronald Volker taking the win ahead of an impressive drive from Chinese racer Vening Zhuo with Japan’s Yugo Nagashima completing the podium. During our coverage of the event we featured 10 cars from 5 different manufacturers for our Chassis Focus including some of China’s top Modified Touring Car racers and we have compiled them all here in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

December 21, 2023

2024 MIBO International registration opens

Following the hugely successful inaugural running of the MIBO International Race in the Czech Republic in March of this year, the race is back for 2024 with registration now open for the February 16-18 event. Organised by former international touring car racer Michal Bok the race brings together both electric onroad and offroad racing on two tracks build side by side by the team from Mibosport. A long time dream of Bok to host his own major international event in Hrotovice, the first edition of MIBO International saw Mugen’s Ronald Volker crowned the inaugural Touring Car Champion and Xray’s Bruno Coelho take double buggy honours at the Sport V Hotel venue. With everything from the track, restaurant, bowling alley and hotel rooms all under one roof, the venue was a hit with racers who travelled from 13 different countries. With a capped entry limit the relaxed schedule also meant plenty of time in the evening to wind down and socialise over dinner after each day’s racing. On the onroad track, the racing action will again cater for Modified, Stock & FWD Touring cars plus Formula. The Offroad track will cater for 2WD and 4WD Buggy as well an open class of ‘Offroad Kids’ that will give the future stars of racing an opportunity to be a part of this international event. Red RC is looking forward to making the return trip to Czech Republic for the 2nd edition of the race which will kick off our 2024 race coverage.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]

December 19, 2023

Cavalieri departs WIRC after just one season

It was a surprise announcement when it was made this time last year, but after just one season since joining WIRC Racing, Ryan Cavalieri has announced his departure from running for the Italian manufacturer. The multiple electric 1:10 Offroad World Champion, who races for Schumacher in that category, looks set to announce imminently a new 1:8 offroad chassis sponsor having just last week joined Nova Engines. On his social media, Cavalieri stated he was ‘really excited about the next chapter’ implying a new sponsor is already in place. He posted, ‘With 2023 coming to an end so does my time with WRC. I want to thank Matt Kennedy from send it rc, Chris Marrant and Franco for the opportunity they gave me. With that being said Im Really excited for this next chapter to begin and look forward to 2024 racing season.

Source: Ryan Cavalieri [Facebook]

December 18, 2023

2023 PN World Cup – Report

The 17th running of the PN World Cup was held recently at RCHQ in San Antonio, Texas, USA, with the event selling out in a very rapid 19-minutes. Hosting 114 drivers from 11 countries, they would compete for the honours in Stock, F1, Super Stock, AWD Mod, GT 2WD Mod, and Pan Car 2WD Mod classes. In the modified classes, Michael Maldonado from Pueblo, Colorado, took the victories in Pan Car and GT, and Mathieu De Rocha from France successfully defended his world title from Bangkok 2022 in AWD. Maldonado would also go on to win the Super Stock title, and Ethan Martinez from San Antonio completed the double wins in Stock and F1.

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