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July 27, 2025

Orlowski goes 12-in-a-row at ETS Aigen

Michal Orlwoski has extended his winning streak in the ETS to 12, the Schumacher ace winning a shortened rain effected Round 2 at Aigen in Austria. Battling rain interruptions throughout the event, it would be Orlowski who secured the overall TQ after topping 2 of the three 4-minute qualifiers that they managed to complete. Taking the second round of qualifying Marc Rheinard’s Awesomatix would secure P2 ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker and Infinity’s Bruno Coelho, the World Champion having a tough seeding and finding himself running in the third fastest heat. With Sunday’s weather showing little possibility of any racing, it was decided to end Saturday’s action with the Modified finals. In A1 reigning ETS Champion Orlowski controlled the race from the front followed home by Rheinard and team-mate Simon Lauter, who benefited from contact between Coelho and Volker. In A2 it was another perfect drive from Orlowski, an early spin by Rheinard making his drive to 12-wins a row that bit easier. Coelho would take second ahead of Volker after the German succumbed to the intense pressure from his Portuguese rival. Winning A3 Rheinard locked in second overall while Volker held off Coelho in second to claim the final step on the podium. Lauter would finish 5th overall behind Coelho with the second of the three new Infinity IF14 Speciales in the final securing P6 with Viktor Wilck. With the rest of the classes decided on qualifying order, it was Awesomatix’s Olivier Bultynck who made it two from 2 having also won the season opener at Apeldoorn. Behind the Belgian, Louis Kretschmer made it an Awesomatix 1-2 with the ARC of Enrico Jung in third.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]

July 24, 2025

2025 Asian Buggy Championships Rd 3, Australia – Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend Australia played host to the third round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, with the Pine Pills Dirt Racing club in Brisbane welcoming its biggest international entry yet. The third year the oil treated dirt track has been a stop on the Asian Buggy Championship calendar, the race would see Infinity’s Kouki Kato make his eBuggy debut with the Japanese manufacturer’s new prototype electric buggy and win, while in a rain shortened Nitro Buggy final Alex Bernadzik took his Team Associated to victory. Unfortunately we were unable to photograph the winning Electric and Nitro Buggies – Kato’s eBuggy still at prototype stage and Bernadzik’s RC8 B4.1 featuring special rear hubs that the US manufacturer was not yet ready to show to the public. Red RC’s first time to visit the highly praised Pine Pills Dirt Racing track, which is locate in very nice setting of the James Drysdale Sporting Complex, during our coverage of the race we did still get the opportunity to photograph 8 buggies from 6 different manufacturers. In case you missed any of the Chassis Focus’ during our coverage ‘Down Under’, we have compiled them all here in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

July 21, 2025

Kurzbuch wins ENS Aigen

Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch has won the second round of the Euro Nitro Series at the Aigen track in Austria. The reigning ENS Champion dominated qualifying with his MRX7 prototype topping all four rounds to secure the TQ ahead of Round 1 winner Toni Gruber. Former ENS 1:10 Champion Teemu Leino completed the Top 3 for Infinity with the Shepherd of last year’s race winner Lars Hoppe lining up P4 for the 45-minute final. In the final, Kurzbuch would be the only one to break into the 14-second lap times as he took the win by over 12-seconds from 1:8 GT World Champion Gruber – both drivers running the new ‘Piste’ engine from Ielasi Tuned. 2-laps down, Leino took the final step on the podium ahead of his team-mate Francesco Tironi with the ARC of Silvio Hachler completing the Top 5. In 1:10 Nitro Touring Car, Poland’s Jakub Rozycki made it two from two as he took the win from the TQ spot with Quentin Leroux and Christoph Rohrmoser joining him on the podium.

Image: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]

July 21, 2025

Martin wins 1:8 Buggy 40+ European Championship

17-years after he won the EFRA European B Championship title in France as one of the upcoming stars of offroad racing, Lee Martin has won the 1:8 Buggy 40+ European Championship title at Herts Nitro Model Club in England. The Xray driver secured the TQ at the rain effected event topping 3 of the 4 rounds of qualifying with another of England’s top international racers Neil Cragg securing P2. Winning his Semi final from France’s Jerome Sartel, Martin however would start 2nd n the final as good friend Cragg won his Semi from Graham Alsop in a faster time. The duo continued their battle in the 45-minute Main, and completing 63-laps it was Martin who took the win by just 1.9 seconds over Cragg. Two laps down 2022 Champion Alsop completed the podium ahead of Sartel.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

July 20, 2025

Bernadzik reigns as rain halts Asian Buggy Championships Australia

Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik converted TQ honours at the Australian round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships into the win but unfortunately Mother Nature put an early halt to what was building into an epic battle in Brisbane. Having TQ’d all three hostings of the Asian Buggy Championships at the Pine Hill Dirt Racing track, Bernadzik led away the race’s most stacked international field yet for what was original scheduled to be a 1-hour final. While the intimidating dark clouds started to gather in the distance, racing got underway in the sunshine and the early pace was hot but all the time the darkening skies were moving in. Unfortunately for Kouki Kato and Tyler Jones, the latter got into the eBuggy winner Kato on the opening lap sending the Infinity and Sparko drivers dropping to the back of the field. The American did show great sportsmanship in waiting after the contact with the talented Japanese driver. Up front it was Bernadzik who led from Pekko Iivonen, but 6-laps in, the home favourite made a mistake allowing the fourth place starting Finn to take over at the front. From there he looked very strong as he led the field into the first round of pit stops just after the 7-minute mark. While touching the wall on the tight pit lane entry, once the first & only stops were completed, it was still Iivonen who was in charge. Coming up on 10-minutes however a mistake would hand the lead back to Bernadzik with Kato, who briefly took over the lead during the fuel stops and was now firmly back in the game, also going through for second. Locked into their intense battle, Jones having worked his way up to fifth behind 2024 winner Caleb Noble, little did the drivers know they had less than 3-minute left to play things out. A track that drew huge compliments from drivers for both it surface and size, unfortunately one of the downsides of its oiled dirt surface is that oil & water don’t mix! As soon as the lightest of drops started falling the effect on the cars was immediate forcing Race Director Scotty Ernst to call the race just shy of 13-minutes – the heavens opening up shortly after. While the disappointment of having their entertainment cut short clear on everyone’s face, including Bernadzik, a result is a result and Bernadzik goes down as the third different winner of the 2025 Asian Buggy Championships season. Less than a second back Kouki had to settle for second while Iivonen completed the Round 3 podium.

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July 20, 2025

Kato takes eBuggy at Asian Buggy C/ships Australia

Infinity’s Kouki Kato has won eBuggy at the Australian round of the Team Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships. Armed with a prototype of Infinity’s upcoming 1:8 eBuggy kit release, the Japanese driver qualified second to Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik at the Pine Hills Dirt Racing track in Brisbane but after taking the win in Saturday’s A1 was able to secure his first Championship eBuggy win with another win in A3. The winner of the previous two rounds of Asian Buggy Championships in Nitro Buggy, the 19-year-old emulated that nitro success of winning first time out. Making his ABC debut at the season finale in Indonesia last last year and winning, making his electric buggy debut ‘Down Under’ this weekend he also delivered the win. Having won A2 with ease, Bernadzik looked in control of A3 but a mistake dropped the Aussie back to third leaving Sparko’s Tyler Jones to try to chase down Kato. Despite putting in the fastest lap, the American couldn’t do anything to get passed, a late error giving Kato the chance to breath and bring home the win. With a second from A1 and the win in A2, Bernadzik secured second overall with Jones, having two P2 finishes, completing the podium ahead of Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen.

July 19, 2025

3-in-row as Bernadzik is Top Qualifier ‘Down Under’

It’s the third season of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, the third time Pine Hill Dirt Racing track has hosted the Australian round, and completing the hat trick Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik has just secured the overall TQ for the third year in a row. With this year’s event attracting its biggest ever international entry, it was the Australian who delivered in the deciding fifth & final round of Nitro Buggy qualifying. With Japan’s Kouki Kato and American Tyler Jones the other TQ contenders, having taken the first two rounds of qualifying on Thursday, Infinity’s Kato would be the first to bow out as he crashed on his first flying lap and suffered a flameout. Sparko driver Jones also crashed on his first lap giving Bernadzik, who already had the fastest qualifying run from Q4, the breathing space for a second TQ run. This time his closest challenger was Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen, the gap 1.531-seconds at the end of the 5-minutes. Overall, behind Bernadzik it will be Kato who lines up second on the grid followed by Jones, Iivonen and last year’s winner Caleb Noble.

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July 19, 2025

Bernadzik delivers on speed to take Q4 in Brisbane

Having been super quick throughout the first two days of action at the Australian round of the Asian Buggy Championships, Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik finally delivered a TQ run when he took the penultimate round of nitro buggy qualifying at Pine Hills Dirt Racing track. Opening Day 3 of the event with a third TQ run in eBuggy, last year’s event Top Qualifier finally put together the run we were waiting for, setting a new fastest time as he ended up almost 5-second faster than the Sparko of Q3 winner Tyler Jones. Taking the opening two rounds on Thursday, Infinity’s Kouki Kato completed the Top 3, and with the just fifth & final quali to go it will be a three way battle for the overall TQ between Kato, Jones and Bernadzik – drivers’ best two to count. Getting a fourth for the round was Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen, the Top Seed now no longer in contention to be the Top Qualifier in Brisbane. Leading the Sworkz challenge this weekend, it was another solid nitro effort from Atsushi Hara, the former World Champion & Philippine Masters podium finisher, completing the Top 5 for his best run so far having got his first Top 6 yesterday.

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