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September 30, 2023

Kurzbuch & Branson Top Qualifiers at ENS Italy

Mugen’s Simon Kurzbuch and Xray’s Kyle Branson are the Top Qualifiers at season finale of the Euro Nitro Series in Italy. Racing at Pista di Leno in the north of the country, in 1:8 it was former World Champion Kurzbuch, who after problems in Q1, took control topping the next three rounds of qualifying to secure pole for tomorrow’s final. The multiple ENS Champion’s 20th TQ of the series, behind him it will be Capricorn’s Dominic Greiner, having topped Q1, who starts P2 with the Infinity of Francesco Tironi lining up third. Winner of the previous round in the Netherlands and the current points standings leader, Toni Gruber will start the final a lowly P9. Making it a TQ double for engine brand Ielasi Tuned, Branson completed a clean sweep of 1:10 qualifying going fastest in all four rounds. Behind the British driver, ENS Germany and ENS Netherlands winner Melvin Diekmann qualifies second ahead of Infinity’s Milan Holthuis.

Image: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]

September 27, 2023

Hara’s World Championship winning buggy almost home!

All World Championship winning RC cars have history and a story to tell but Atsushi Hara’s 2008 title winning Hot Bodies D8 has gone the extra mile, literally, by adding an interesting twist to the tale 15-years after its big win in Charlotte, USA. At the beginning of September, the legend of the sport shared on social media a post that he found his ‘most memorial car’ for sale on eBay. Days later the ad was listed as ‘Ended’ dashing hopes Hara might be able to be reunited with the buggy. Soon however contact was made with the seller who agreed to sell the car to Hara which is where Australian racer Zac Ryan stepped in. Creating a Gofundme page, such is the level of respect & admiration for Hara’s driving skills and the influence he had on so many racers the money was raised to complete the purchase. Now the interesting part of getting the car back to Hara in Japan, which in Hara’s own words goes a little something like this – ‘My 2008 worlds winning D8 get back project is one step closer to completion. Mark Pavidis pick it up from Eric Anderson in the US, Andrew Gillott and Josh Pain received it from Mark, they took it to Australia and Ben Panic received it, and Ben will take it from Australia to Japan and back to me in early October!! I have to biggest thank to the many people who helped make this happen!!’. Well done to everyone involved in helping to get this well travelled piece of history back to Hara. Hopefully we might get to see it ourselves in person with Hara when Red RC are in Japan in October for our coverage of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships at Infinity International RC Speedway.

View car exchanges on its trip home

September 24, 2023

’23 Offroad World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

With the dust now settled on what was a fantastic & exciting 1:10 Offroad World Championships at Hobby Action RC Raceway, we have put together a full index of all the buggies we were able to photograph for our ‘Chassis Focus’ during our time in Arizona. While we request chassis focus with all the manufacturers, some are forced to decline to protect prototype parts or developments they were trying at the Worlds. We are always happy to respect this as in this modern era it has become easy for parts to reverse engineered from online images and made available before the chassis manufacturer, who has invested the time & funding into the buggy, has fully tested and signed off the final design of parts. Sworkz was one manufacturer who was unable to provide their buggies because of a new suspension parts they had for the event.

View Chassis Focus Index here

September 22, 2023

Baruffolo and Tekno part ways

International 1:8 Offroad racer Marco Baruffolo has announced that he and chassis sponsor Tekno are to part ways with immediate effect. The Italian joined the American manufacturer in December 2021 and during the almost 2-year partnership enjoyed some strong results including winning 1:8 Nitro Buggy at the blue ribbon Silver State race in the US and making the final at the 2022 World Championship in Spain. On his Facebook page Baruffolo posted, ‘With immediately effect, Tekno and I decided to part away! I am extremely grateful for this opportunity, we achieved some great results winning the SilverState and made the final at the Worlds! Thanks to Daniel and the entire Tekno team for the opportunity and the time spent together where I learned a lot! Can’t wait to show you my new adventure.’

Source: Marco Baruffalo [Facebook]

September 21, 2023

Hamilton & Ocon enjoy 1:8 Nitro fun at Japanese GP

Last year at the Japanese Grand Prix we saw Lewis Hamilton at the controls of a Tamiya Lunchbox and Esteban Ocon having some fun with a Kyosho buggy thanks to RC Legend Yuichi Kanai and now the two F1 drivers have teamed up at Suzuka this year for a bit more 1:8 Nitro Buggy fun at the event. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team shared photos and a video on social media of the pair driving the two buggies up and down the pit lane with both drivers clearly enjoying the experience before they get down to the more serious business of this weekend’s F1 Grand Prix which starts tomorrow. Clearly F1 drivers also need to be marshalled too with a photo of one of the cars upside down. It also appears that Lewis shares something in common with our own 1:8 Buggy and now 1:10 4WD World Champion Davide Ongaro in using a stick radio!!

View more images here

September 21, 2023

RC Cars Köngen 2023 Halloween Race – Announcement

It’s that time again with RC Cars Köngen e.V. hosting its annual Halloween Race over the weekend of November 4/5th 2023. With over 150 entries, the Halloween Race in Köngen has become one of the largest national electric offroad events in Germany. In the past, drivers from all over Europe have come to Köngen to compete with drivers like Jörn Neumann, Micha Widmaier, Burak Kilic and Moritz Lautenbach from Germany, Clement Boda from France, Senne Pauwels from Belgium and Rik Haemers from the Netherlands. Racing will take place in the classes 2WD and 4WD Modified and Stock as well as Mod Truck according to the regulations of the DMC. On the Friday of race weekend there will be practice at the venue. If you want to be there, you have to be fast with the entries opening via myrcm.ch on 25.09.2023 at 20.00 o’clock.

Source: RC Cars Köngen e.V. [rc-cars-koengen.de]

September 20, 2023

2023 COPA America – Report

The 2023 COPA America race was held in Lima, Peru last week at Miniautodromo Polo Bracale. This track proves to be very challenging with its high banking turns and extreme elevation changes. This track had racers from many different countries and many different car manufacturers were represented. Eric Jones from the USA was able to TQ and directly qualify into the finals with his XRAY NT1. In the finals he was leading the race for a third of the race, but a mechanical issue forced him to end his chance at a victory. Guillermo Jimenez from Mexico running his Mugen MTX7 was able to win the super pole and also qualify directly into the finals. The hometown favourite Bruno Lira who qualified 3rd took the first place running his Capricorn C04. Bruno opted not to do a tire change in the 45 minute race which proved to be the right strategy as he was able to hold off Mexico’s Juan Herrero who finished second and America’s Jerry Guerra who finished 3rd and both opted to do a tire change and both were running Infinity. This race proved that the sedan class is alive and well. With the 2024 sedan Worlds being hosted in Costa Rica at the Mini Autódromo Las Cruces track. Along with other named races which will be on the calendar expect the sedan class to continue to grow as racers start preparing. This track is on private property and maintained to the highest levels. There are all the amenities you would expect and then some extras such as a basket ball court.

Source: Jerry Guerra

September 17, 2023

16-year-old Sontag crowned World Champion in Arizona

A new 2WD Offroad World Champion has been crowned in Arizona with 16-year-old Tate Sontag becoming the 14th different winner of the sport’s most prestigious Title with a flawless win in A2 ahead of outgoing Champion Spencer Rivkin. Showing moments of promise in 4WD but just missing cut with P11 in qualifying, when the event switched to 2WD the Team Losi Racing driver found a form that put the American right in the mix with the World’s RC establishment. Two TQ runs in qualifying en-route to becoming overall Top Qualifier was an indication of what was to come. Winning A1, the nerves of the big occasion highlighted by some mistakes he would survive, that result just sent his confidence even higher. Despite the pressure of Rivkin and newly crowned 4WD Champion Davide Ongaro taking turns at chasing him down, Tater drove a near perfect race to secure the World Title on his Championship debut. A3 would decide who joined him on the podium at Hobby Action RC Raceway, second place qualifier Rivkin dominating from the front to lock in 2nd overall. Holding off Schumacher team-mate Ryan Cavalieri for second in A3, Broc Champlin completed the all American podium line-up.

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