November 27, 2023

Harris is ’23 RCRA Australian LS National Champion

Australia’s Large Scale touring car young gun Cooper Harris has won the 2023 RCRA Australian National Championship.  This year’s RCRA National title was decided at the Radio Racing Cars S.A. Inc. track in Littlehampton, South Australia and in qualifying it was reigning Champion Andy Bishop who secured the TQ ahead of Harris and Craig Hawkins in 3rd.  With a clean and competitive half hour final, the battle for the win lasted the entire race with 17-year-old Harris posting the fastest lap on his way to securing 1st place with his Mecatech Fwo1 SWB powered by Abbate engine and PMT Tires.  Joining Harris on the podium was MCD driver Andy Bishop in 2nd with third place going to George Tsakanias driving a Genius chassis.  Next year Australia will host the IFMAR Large Scale World Championship from October 20th to 27th in Sydney.

Source: Cooper Harris [Facebook]


November 27, 2023

Jacinto & Dela Cruz crowned Philippine 1:10 Offroad National Champions

In a major boost for the offroad racing scene in the Philippines, after a long absence the country hosted National Championships for 1:10 Offroad with the event attracting a record entry for a Nationals.  With over 100 entries for the 2-day event at the Circulo Verde track in Manila City, home to Asia’s biggest annual offroad event the Philippine Masters, in qualifying it was Sworkz driver Dino Jacinto who took the 4WD TQ with the 2WD honours going to Jomil Dela Cruz at the end of the three rounds of qualifying.  In the triple finals, Jacinto would win the opening two encounters to secure the title early ahead of Dela Cruz and Tyler Cheung.  In 2WD, Dela Cruz would also convert the TQ into the title albeit needing the win in A3 to do so.  He was joined on the podium by Rains Viola and A2 winner Gerome Ling.  The event also marked a major improvement for the track with its new oiled surface a game changer.  More and more racers/hobbyist are enjoying the track with it now having good grip anytime of the day and most of all, it’s rubber friendly.  The existing layout and surface will be used for 2024 edition of the Philippine Masters which takes place on April 18-21.

Image: Edward Sio [Facebook]


November 26, 2023

Kato crowned double Japanese 1:10 Offroad Champion

Team Associated driver Kouki Kato is the new double JMRCA 1:10 Offroad Japanese National Champion.  17-year-old Kato went into the event at the indoor RC Park Gojo as the reigning 4WD Champion taking the TQ for his title defence ahead of 2WD Champion Yui Kaino.  Team Yokomo driver Kaino would also start his title defence from pole position but in the opening A-Main encounter it was Kato fro P2 who took the win.  Able to convert the TQ to the win in A2 as Kato finished third, the 2WD title went to A3 for a thrilling finish that saw Kato snatch the win and title on the last lap by just 0.005 of a second.  Mugen’s Yusuke Sugiura would complete the podium.  In 4WD, Kato carried his qualifying form through to the A-Main winning the opening two encounter to retain his National title.  Winning A3, Kaino would finished runner-up with the overall Top 3 completed by the Xray of Nana Kaiho.

Image: Kouki Kato [Facebook]


November 26, 2023

Davis & Stanley crowned Australian Nitro Champions

Infinity team driver pairing Jesse Davis and Brayden Stanley are the 2023 Australian Nitro Onroad Champions.  This year’s Speedy RC RCRA National Championships took place at the  MRCCR track in Melbourne with qualifying seeing recent 1:8 World Championship 4th place finisher Davis securing the overall TQ with a dominant performance that saw him top all 5 rounds with his O.S powered IF18-III.  In 1:10, it was 17-year-old Stanley  claimed 3 of the 5 rounds to secure the TQ with his Ielasi Tuned IF15.  Unfortunately rain would prevent the running of the finals with the results being declared on qualifying and joining Davis each side of the podium was Infinity driver Nicholas Salib (2nd) and Capricorn’s Peter Jovanovic (3rd).   Behind Stanley on the 1:10 podium it was his Infinity team-mate and partner in crime Tate Firth who was runner-up with the Serpent of Jeffrey Mackie completing the Top 3.  In 1:8 GT, it was Jovanovic who took the 2023 National title.

Image: Brayden Stanley [Facebook]


November 25, 2023

Kaino & Kato TQ at Japanese 1:10 Offroad National

This weekend sees the JMRCA Japanese National Championships for 1:10 Offroad taking place at the indoor RC Park Gojo track in the Nara Prefecture in central Japan.  Opening with 2WD Qualifying, it is Team Yokomo’s defending Champion Yui Kaino who is the Top Qualifier ahead of the Team Associated of reigning 4WD Champion Kouki Kato.  Kaino secured pole for the 2WD finals with TQ runs in 2 of the 3 qualifiers after Kato TQ’d the opening round.  With almost 60 entries for 2WD, behind the two champions it is Yusuke Sugiura with the new Mugen MSB1 who will start 3rd followed by the buggy’s designer Shin Adachi.  The same track at which the 2022 National titles where decided, in 4WD Kato, star of the recent 1:8 Onroad World Championships in Japan, topped all three qualifiers with Kato set to start second followed by Kai Kikuchi and the Xray of Nana Kaiho.

Image: JMRCA [jmrca.jp]


November 20, 2023

2024 ROAR Nationals Calendar Announced

ROAR, the the sanctioning body for RC racing in the United States & Canada, has announced the track locations and dates for its National Championships in 2024.   The season kicks off with the 1:10 Carpet Onroad Championship at 997 RC Raceway in Pennsylvania on March 7th-10th and will see a further 6 events held across the year.  A powerhouse nation in the world of offroad racing, the 1:10 Offroad Nationals will take place in April at Beach RC & Hobbies in South Carolina with the 1:8 Nitro Offroad one month later at HRCR in Idaho from June 19th-23rd.  While the venue for the Paved On Road Championship is set as N-Control RC Racing Circuit the date is to be confirmed while for nitro onroad ROAR is still actively looking for a host track.

View full National Championship calendar here


November 15, 2023

Ioannidis & Oikonomou are Greek Champions – Report

Last weekend, the fouth & final round of the Greek Nationals in 1:10 EP Touring took place in the fast track of Fanatix Racing Track(FRT) located in Stamata, Greece. The weather was cool with temperatures not exceeding 21oC. In the Touring Modified class, the battle for the championship was on between reigning champion Dimitris Ioannidis (Awesomatix), Andreas Koutras (Mugen-Seiki) and Nitro champion Dimitris Dimitriou (Xray) for the championship. Ioannidis had not participated in Round 2 as he was hospitalized while Koutras opted out from Round 1 and Dimitriou had participated in all rounds securing podium finishes in the first 3 races but had to hope for a not-good result from Ioannidis who had 2 out of 2 wins+2 TQs and Koutras who had one win and a P2. In qualifying, Ioannidis was able to take pole position winning Q1, Q3, and Q5 with a very solid and consistent drive while encountering issues with his powertrain resulting in significant fading in power. Koutras also showed competitive speed as he saved tires, taking Q2 and Q4 securing P2 on the grid while Dimitriou would line up P3 on the grid after displaying some very good speed too.

Continue reading here


November 14, 2023

10th Korean National Buggy title for Choi

Well known international Korean 1:8 Buggy racer Dani Choi hit a landmark result over the weekend when he clinched the Korean National 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championship for a 10th time.  Held at ‘The Track’ indoor dirt track in Gimpo, the Kyosho driver dominated qualifying to take the overall TQ after topping all 5 rounds with the Mugen of Tony Jeon second and young talent HyunKyu Jung third.  In the hour long final, Choi would set the fastest lap as he built up a 4-lap lead to take the title ahead of Jung, this being his final race with Xray, with Jeon completing the podium.

Source: Dani Choi [Facebook]