Red RC » Racing

March 31, 2025

Catanzani wins Italian GT Championship opener

Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani put in the perfect weekend at the opening round of the highly competitive Italian 1:8 GT National Championships over the weekend securing the TQ and win at the Kronio Speed Park track in Sciacca, Sicily. Qualifying for the first round of the three race AMSCI run National Championship would see recent Florida Winternats winner Catanzani secure pole for the 45-minute Nitro final ahead of Alessio Mazzeo on his debut with the Raptor chassis. Defending Champion and Schepis Model team driver Rosario Giaimo would complete the Top 3. In the final, Catanzani would set the fastest lap en-route to victory by over a lap & a half from fourth place qualifier Daniel Schepis. Mugen Seiki offroad star driver Burak Kilic would complete the podium on his GT race debut, just 1-second ahead of Giaimo. The Turkish driver was running a Schepis Model MZGT powered by new engine sponsor Nova Engines. Having won last year’s season opener, Mazzeo would finish fifth ahead of 2023 National Champion and World Championship Top Qualifier Alex D’angelo. For reigning European Champion Natanaele Senesi it was a tough weekend resulting in a DNF in Nitro.

Image: Star RC [Facebook]

March 30, 2025

Rheinard adds 1:12 European title 17-years after last win

Having won the European Electric Touring Car Championship last year 13-years after he last held the title, Marc Rheinard has become the EFRA 1:12 European Champion once again after 17-years. Racing in Zwevegem, Belgium, qualifying for the 42nd running of the championship saw the CRC of Ollie Payne hold the overnight TQ after taking Q1. Saturday’s action would see former World Champion Rheinard’s Awesomatix open with the fastest time in Q2 and another TQ in Q3 before Payne would come back to take the final two rounds. This left the duo tied on points but with his Q2 time the fastest of the 5 rounds it was Rheinard who was the Top Qualifier. Behind, Schumacher’s reigning 1:12 World Champion and defending European Champion Michal Orlowski secured P3 with two Top 3 runs while Xray duo Adam Izsay and 8-time EFRA Champion Alexander Hagberg made up the top half of the A-Main grid. In the finals, A1 saw Rheinard put in a perfect run to claim the win by 4 & a half seconds from Orlowski who got ahead of his former team-mate Payne in the final minute of the 8-minute encounter. In A2 was a much closer affair as Payne ran right with Rheinard until traffic caused the British driver to hit the boards and drop to third. Recovering the position he couldn’t find a way past the German who took it by 6/10ths and with it became the 2025 European Champion, the first driver to hold both the Touring Car & 1:12 title simultaneously since he last did the double back in 2008! With Orlowski winning A3, the Polish driver would finish runner-up with Payne completing the Modified podium. In 1:12 Spec, Payne would claim the title having started from the TQ ahead of Spec World Champion Max Machler, the Awesomatix driver also finishing runner-up with the similar car of Olivier Bultynck taking the final podium position.

Image: Marc Rheinard [Facebook]

March 28, 2025

Top Qualifier D’angelo confirmed for 1:8 GT Worlds, Chile

Following last week’s confirmation that Toni Gruber will defend his IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championship title in Chile later this year, 2023 Top Qualifier Alex D’angelo’s participation in the Santiago event has also been confirm. Making his World Championship debut in Sydney 2-yeas ago, D’angelo secured the overall TQ honours for Genius Racing when he TQ’d the sixth & final round of qualifying at the John Grant International Raceway. Unfortunately a number of engine flame-outs in the 1-hour final denied the Italian’s a shot at the title with him eventually finishing 6th. Joining Capricorn for the 2025, the Italian manufacturer’s owner Patrizio Rossi confirmed his star driver will lead their challenge at the third running of the 1:8 GT World Championship. Hosted by Club de Aeromodelos de Chile (CACH) at their multi discipline RC facilities, the Worlds will run from September 14-20th.

March 27, 2025

Ratheisky confirmed for eSIC 2025

Following last week’s announcement that Atsushi Hara will contest the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) for the first time, the organisers have confirmed another first time entry from Xray team driver Jan Ratheisky. The well travelled German racer will participate in the third edition of eSIC which moves from September to an earlier date of July 12-13 in 2025. The brainchild of top Singapore touring car racer Nicholas Lee and Chhua Jookiah with the aim of bringing top level international competition to the country, last year’s race which is held at the RCMC race track attracted factory entries from Mugen Seiki, Awesomatix, Yokomo, ARC and Xpress. The previous two editions of the race were won by Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker.

Source: eSIC [Facebook]

March 27, 2025

2025 Asian Buggy Championships Rd 1, New Zealand – Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend New Zealand played host to the opening round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships. Now in its third season, the 2025 four round championship kicked off at the Counties RC Car Club track in Pukekohe where almost 200 entries took part in the four day event. The weekend would prove a major break through for Mayako’s Jayden Edmunds as the talented 19-year-old who saw off the challenge of 2024 Asian Buggy Championship race winner Caleb Noble to secure the biggest win of his career to-date. In terms of manufacturer representation, the team photo session ahead of Day 1 of qualifying clearly showed HB Racing to be the most popular chassis of choice among the Kiwi’s thanks to efforts of Shane O’Connor, the same guy who was also instrumental in bringing Scotty Ernst’s Asian Buggy Championships to the country the last two years. Another standout was the variety of buggy brands with qualifying seeing buggies from 6 different manufacturers filling the top half of the 12 car grid. We got the chance to photograph 8 buggies from 6 different manufacturers including the podium finishers in both Nitro Buggy and eBuggy. In case you missed any of the Chassis Focus’ during our coverage of the race, we have compiled them all in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

March 27, 2025

2025 MonTech New York Grand Prix – Announcement

The organisers of the MonTech New York Grand Prix have announced details of the seventh edition of the annual indoor race that takes place at the 360v2 RC track in New Rochelle, New York. Taking place from October 16th to 19th, avoiding the annual Columbus Day holiday this year, the event has become one of the highlights on the annual US onroad racing calendar and draws an international entry stateside. Last year it was Awesomatix’s Kemp Anderson and Xray’s Keven Hebert who came away as the big winners securing victory in Mod 1:12 and Mod Touring Car respectively. The vision of long time 1:12 racer Donny Lia, the NYGP is the nearest thing RC will get to having a race in Time Square, the track just a 20-minute train ride from the centre of the City That Never Sleeps. Counting multiple World Champions Marc Rheinard (2022 NYGP Winner), Ronald Volker (2019 NYGP Winner), Alexander Hagberg, reigning 1:12 Stock World Champion Max Mächler and Ollie Payne as previous participants, 360V2 is one of the biggest indoor tracks in the US with racing takes place on a track layout covering an area of 105 X 48 feet.

Source: Fordham 360 Hobbies & Raceway [Facebook]

March 26, 2025

Niko Saarinen crowned double Finnish 1:12 Champion

The third & final round of the Finnish National 1:12 Championship was run at the Powerpark track in Härmä, where Schumacher’s Niko Saarinen secure the title double with wins in both Mod and Stock. In Modified qualifying closest battle was between Niko and Teemu Saarinen. Niko made a TQ in Q1. In Q2 Teemu took TQ honours but Niko was able to take rounds Q3 and Q4. In the first two finals Niko took P1 followed by Teemu and Jere Saarinen, but Niko made a flawless drive and secured the win. In the last final we saw a very close drive between Niko, Teemu and Jere as top 3 were within a second, but as Niko made no mistakes, he won also the last final before Jere.

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March 23, 2025

Edmunds earns biggest career win at Asian Buggy Championships opener

Mayako Youth Mentoring Program driver Jayden Edmunds earned the biggest win of his career today with victory in New Zealand following an exciting season opener to the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships. With the Counties RC Car Club track hosting the first of the four encounters that make up the third season of the 1:8 Offroad Championship, Edmunds sent the first hint of his potential when he topped the second round of qualifying before the highly experienced Kyle McBride hit his stride to take the final two qualifiers and the overall TQ. Lining up P3 for the 45-minute final behind Sworkz’s Jayden Jamieson, after plenty of shuffling for position at the start, four different leaders in the opening four minutes, Edmunds would settle into serious contention when he took the lead from HB Racing’s Logan Toia on lap 33. With McBride and Toia, who had three stints at leading, both suffering multiple flameouts ending their challenges, Edmunds would find himself under attack from fellow countryman Caleb Noble. With a very fast car, his Tekno posting the fastest lap of the race, Noble went to the front with a nice pass coming onto the main straight however as both drivers made their final pit stops, Noble pitting a lap earlier, Edmunds’ stop helped him to retake the lead. Again Caleb appeared quicker but Edmunds played it cool. As they came around to start their final lap, a mistake by Noble gave Edmunds the breathing room he needed to secure a very popular first international race win. Finishing 6-seconds back, Top Seed Noble was clearly unhappy with his second place. Opening the event strongly with a TQ in the opening qualifier, before starting to feel under the weather on Saturday, Jamieson was happy to survive to finish P3 and claim the Kiwi’s first Asian Buggy Championships podium finish in Nitro Buggy. Just 3.6-seconds back, the WIRC of eBuggy podium finisher and local racer Kasey Dawson capped off an impressive weekend with fourth while Dylan Toia completed the Top 5.

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