California’s Exotek Racing has released an upgrade heavy duty 7075 alloy front bulkhead for Team Associated’s RC10B7 1:10 2WD Buggy. Receiving their popular 2 colour anodising treatment, the bulkhead has been intricately machined to reduce its weight to only 15.5 grams, just 4.3grams more than stock, while insuring its heavy duty construction.
Schepis Model driver Rosario Giaimo is the new AMSCI Italian 1:8 GT National Champion after taking his second consecutive win at the season finale held at Miniautodromo Vallelunga over the weekend. Winner of Round 2 at the Naxos World track in Sicily in May, Giaimo would qualify second at Round 3, the TQ going to the Genius Racing chassis of defending Champion & World Championship Top Qualifier Alex D’angelo. In the 45-minute final, Giaimo would lay down the fastest lap the race to take the victory from newly crowned European Champion Natanaele Senesi. Having qualified a lowly P8, Senesi was just 4-seconds off Giaimo with D’angelo completing the podium. In the GTE category it was Senesi who wrapped up his 5th consecutive Italian National Championship title.
Image: Genius Racing [Facebook]
After the success of the inaugural running of the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) last September, the organisers have just announced another top international driver with Christopher Krapp confirmed for the second edition. The World Championship runner-up, will join his factory Yokomo team-mate and event co-organise Nicolas Lee at the RCMC race track in Singapore on 14-15th September as they take on strong international team line-ups from Infinity, Xpress and defending Champions Mugen Seiki. Ronald Volker took the win last year ahead of Lee and Naoto Matsukura and the former World Champion is already confirmed to defend his title.
Source: eSIC [Facebook]
JConcepts’ popular Indoor National Series made its fourth stop of the season over the weekend with the hosting of the Summer Dirt event at Hobbytown Hobbyplex in Omaha where Broc Champlin and Spencer Rivkin took the main spoils. In 2WD Buggy it was the Schumacher of Champlin that took overall TQ ahead of former World Champion Rivkin. With three qualifiers Champlin topped two while Rivkin’s Team Associated went fastest in Q3 to line up P2 ahead of the similar buggy of Aydin Horne. In 4WD Buggy it was the Xray of Chase Lemieux that claimed the top spot for the finals with a dominant 3 from 3 in qualifying. Behind the JConcepts Spring INS 2WD Buggy winner, Rivkin again lined up P2 with Summer INS Carpet double winner Tom Rinderknecht third. In the triple finals, Lemieux would have a bad A1 finishing P5 with Rivkin getting the win. The season opening Winter Indoor Nationals double winner would repeat again in A2 to take the overall win for 4WD. Lemieux would win A3 to secure second overall with Xray team Rinderknecht completing the podium. In 2WD, while Rivkin got the win in A1, Champlin got the job done in A2 & 3 to secure the win with Horne second overall ahead of Rivkin. With drivers’ best three from 5 races counting, the 2024 JConcepts Indoor National Series concludes with the Fall Indoor Nationals on September 27-29 at Hoosier RC Hobbyplex in New Albany.
Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]
To commemorate their World Championship title victory last October in Australia, Hong Nor has released a special T-shirt to mark the success. Germany’s Toni Gruber gave the Taiwanese manufacturer its first ever IFMAR World Champion title when he won his first World title at the 1:8 GT World Championship with an absolutely dominant and perfectly executed drive in Sydney with his X3GTS ’23 WC Edition.
Source: Hong Nor [hongnor-racing.com]
Tekno driver Caleb Noble has dominated finals day at the third round of the Asian Buggy Championships, winning Nitro Truggy, EP Buggy and the premier Nitro Buggy class at Pine Hills Dirt Racing in Brisbane, Australia. In Nitro Buggy the talented Australian overcame Top Qualifier Alex Bernadzik, hitting the front early with his NB48 2.2, a lead he would hold almost throughout in a powerhouse display. Bernadzik’s Team Associated RC8B 4.1 challenged mid-race, leading briefly before dropping back over the last ten minutes, almost caught by Christian Wolhuter in the SWorkz – the podium dominated by Australian drivers. Having missed two rounds of qualifying due to food poisoning, Ryan Pavidis drove through the field from his 12th place starting spot, having earlier transferred through the B final, to an excellent fourth from Team Associated’s Jayden Edmunds. Noble had early completed the win in the triple-leg EP Buggy finals, second in A1 to fellow Tekno driver Walker Spinrad before winning A2 in a thrilling battle with Bernadzik. A3 went down to the wire, Kyle McBride (Kyosho) getting to the lead late when Noble and Bernadzik clashed, Caleb’s second place enough to ensure he would take the overall win from McBride and Bernadzik. Completing the swept, Noble completely dominated the Nitro Truggy class, leading throughout ahead of local Jackson Beale (also Tekno) and New Zealand’s Shane O’Connor (HB). The championship now heads to West Side Raceway in Jakarta, Indonesia in late September where the 2024 season concludes.
Source: Scott Guyatt/Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]
Shepherd Micro Racing’s Lars Hoppe took the win at the second round of the Euro Nitro Series, the German winning the final in Aigen, Austria, ahead of reigning Champion Toni Gruber. In qualifying it was the Mugen Seiki of 2024 Championship leader Simon Kurzbuck who took the TQ. Winner of the season opener in Ettlingen, Germany, the former World Champion topped 3 of the 4 qualifiers with Hoppe the only other driver to top a round with the fastest time in Q2 to secure P2 on the grid. In the 45-minute final, Kurzbuch looked to have the race under control leading from Hoppe and the Capricorn of third place qualifier Gruber however the Swiss driver’s engine would stop approaching the 20-minute mark. Taking over the lead, Kurzbuch losing over 4-minutes in the pits, Hoppe would see off the challenge of Gruber eventually winning by 3/4 of a lap from the Gruber with the Infinity of Teemu Leino completing the podium a further 8-seconds back. Kurzbuch would finish P8. In 1:10 it was the Infinity of Jilles Groskamp who took the win from the TQ spot ahead of the Capricorn of reigning Champion & Round 1 winner Melvin Diekmann. Infinity’s Milan Holthuis completed the podium.
Image: Lars Hoppe [Facebook]
Following the cancellation of the 1:10 Nitro Touring Worlds in Costa Rica due to noise issues earlier this week, IFMAR has announced that event will now take place in Thailand at the Huge RC Circuit in Bangkok. With the FAMAR Blok informing the World Governing Body that it was unable to host the 10th running of the Worlds for the category, previous hosts FEMCA, as per IFMAR’s own General rules, was contacted about staging it. As a previous host of the championship, former Electric Touring Car World Champion and Huge RC track owner Surikarn Chaidajsuriya quick off the mark in offering to take on the event which is less than 5-months out, the original dates remaining unchanged. The decision to award the championship to Huge RC is a safe option for IFMAR who have had a challenging 2024 season in terms of World Championship events. Earlier in the year Brazil failed to get permits to run the 1:8 Offroad Worlds resulting in its cancellation before the Redovan track in Spain, hosts of the previous Worlds, was awarded the race – a first in the history of the sport of a track hosting back to back Worlds for the same category. Last week IFMAR also had to deal with the complete cancellation of the Large Scale Worlds. This will be the fourth time Thailand and the city of Bangkok has hosted the 1:10 Nitro Touring Worlds. RC Addict hosted the 2012 & 2022 editions and now Huge RC, where in 2014 Alexander Hagberg took the title , will run the race for the sport’s greatest prize for a second time.
