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.

Watch video here


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.

Continue reading here


November 22, 2024

Sworkz to defend MIBO International title

Having made their debut at MIBO International last year and claimed the 2WD Buggy title with Joern Neumann, Sworkz is the first team to confirm its participation in the third edition of the annual Czech Republic based event.  Taking place on February 07-09, with practice starting on the Friday evening, multiple European Champion Neumann and Micha Widmaier will travel to Hrotovice to represent the manufacturer at the indoor event once again.  MIBO International brings together both electric offroad and onroad racing on two tracks build side by side in the Sport V Hotel by the team from Mibosport.  With entries for the event having opened this week, the Offroad track will cater for 2WD and 4WD Buggy and ‘Offroad Kids’, while on the onroad track the racing action will cater for Modified, Stock & FWD Touring car with a 1:12 GT 13.5T class as well as ‘Onroad Kids’ being introduced for 2025.  With a capped entry limit the relaxed schedule means plenty of time in the evening to wind down and socialise over dinner after each day’s racing.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]


November 22, 2024

1:10 Onroad WC Manufacturer Statistics

IFMAR, the World governing body of RC racing, has released official manufacturer statistics from this year’s 1:10 Onroad World Championship in Thailand, 2024 marking the 10th running of the championship for the nitro touring car category. In terms of equipment being used by the 58 racers from 16 countries completing here at the Huge RC Circuit in Bangkok, reigning back to back World Champion manufacturer Infinity is a clear leader in terms of choice of car of the six different brands being used.  Italy’s Capricorn is the second most popular chassis.  In the power stakes it is Japan’s O.S. that has over half the engine share when Thai engine tuner Aood Racing versions are taken into account. The brand of one of the categories former World Champions Daniele Ielasi is the next biggest provider of power with his Ielasi Tuned engines making up 18% of the entry. Controlling the cars, it is Sanwa that makes up almost half the field followed closely by fellow Japanese manufacturer Futaba whose servos are most popular choice over Sanwa and Savox. With drivers having to choose between two official suppliers it is Thai fuel maker Maxima that has 90% of the users. With 1:10 Onroad running a handout tyre everyone is running on Matrix.

View Statistics Charts here


November 13, 2024

2024 ISTC World C/ships Chassis Focus Index

While it was Team Associated and the announcement of their return to 1:10 Electric Touring Car competition at the ISTC World that almost broke the internet when we published the first images of their TC8 Prototype from Finishline RC Raceway in California, they were not the only manufacturers who had new cars at the 12th running of the biggest race in the World.  Mugen Seiki also arrived with a brand new car which the Japanese manufacturer for now wants to keep under wraps but it looks like designer Robert Pietsch has come up with a very competitive all new MTC3.  While it was great to see 2016 World Champion Ronald Volker in the mix, probably one of the most exciting things of the 2024 Worlds was their young up & coming star Jacob Cruz making the A-Main.  Having covered a lot of ISTC World Championships it was brilliant to witness the emergence of a new talent on the World stage and turning just 16-years-old the day after Bruno Coelho took a history making three in a row, we look forward to seeing Cruz develop over the next 2-years before we all travel to Asia for the next Worlds.

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