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April 26, 2024

2024 Philippine Masters Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend Red RC made our third trip to Manila for the world class offroad event that is the Philippine Masters. Famed as being Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race, the Circulo Verde track is renowned for its difficulty and 3D style build with this year’s 12 edition of the race using a new method to seal the surface. This resulted in minimal tyre wear even over the 1-hour Main final in which Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro recovered from an early flame out to take his fourth win in the capital city. The first time Sparko was officially represented at the race, a great driver by Ryan Pavidis netted the American runner-up spot. Great to see the legendary Atsushi Hara back racing at the the front end. It was great to once again do a chassis focus with him, Sworkz hooking him up for the event, and it great to see the former World Champion enjoying his racing so much once again. Attracting 205 entries from 16-nations, we got the chance to photograph buggies from 9 drivers representing 7 different manufacturers as well as the TQ & winning Sworks truggy of Bulgaria visitor Plamen Petrov we will have compiled into our latest Chassis Focus Index.

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April 26, 2024

Associated release Reflex 14B 1:14 4WD Buggy as kit

Team Associated is now offering its 1:14 scale Reflex 14B Kit 4WD electric buggy in kit form. Designed with performance in mind, the buggy is fully adjustable through the turnbuckles, springs, fluids, shock tower hole placement, gearing, and the included Factory Team parts making the Reflex 14B Kit perfect for any terrain you can throw at it. Additional features include three sealed differentials, aluminium steering rack, and lightweight aluminium center driveshaft. These innovations have increased the potential for grip and corner speed, which leads to faster lap times and an overall thrilling-to-drive feel.

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April 25, 2024

Connolly wins Irish 1:8 GT National opener

The opening round of the Irish National GT Championship took place in the beautiful St Anne’s Track located in the centre of Dublin last weekend where Genius Racing’s Clive Connolly took the win. Hosted by ORCA Ireland, in qualifying it was Connolly taking TQ honours followed by Graeme Lougheed, the top 2 automatically into the Main Final leaving the rest to battle in the Semi Finals for the remaining final positions. The 30min Main was a close affair with battles throughout the field. Jason Noonan and Graeme Lougheed both driving Genius cars would fight for 18 minutes until finally Graeme would retire with a technical failure allowing Bruno Barbosa driving a strong race with his OS powered Xray to move up a position. Out in front it was multiple Irish Champion Connolly driving his Mantis Tuned powered GTC8.23 on SP Rubber that would take the victory with a trouble free run from start to finish.

Image: ORCA Ireland [Facebook]

April 24, 2024

Schumacher Mi9 Touring Car

Schumacher has finally released it much anticipated already title winning Mi9 1:10 Electric Touring Car. In prototype form the new Mi9 has won GP3F in France, MIBO International, the Swedish Nationals, the Italian Nationals many other major events with ETS race wins on both carpet and asphalt culminating with Michal Orlowski taking rhe ETS Modified title for the British manufacturer. Featuring all new suspension geometry, the Mi9 is consistently fast on all grip levels, with a wide set up window, which makes it easy to get dialled in wherever you race. Also getting fully updated transmission housings the car will be available from the end of April with the kit available as a carbon fibre or aluminium chassis kit.

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April 23, 2024

Rivkin makes it 3 in a row with ROAR Nationals double

Team Associated’s Spencer Rivkin made it three consecutive years of being crowned 1:10 Offroad ROAR National Champion with a buggy double at the 2024 Championships held at the Beach RC & Hobbies track in South Carolina. A relatively small entry by US race standards, 93 drivers making for a total of 201 entries, all the major contenders where there for the Mod 2WD and 4WD titles. In qualifying it would be former World Champion Rivkin with the 2WD TQ ahead of the similar buggy of Aydin Horne and the TLR of Dakotah Phend. 4WD would see the Top 2 order reversed with Horne the Top Qualifier from Rivkin with Schumacher’s Broc Champlin 3rd. With Horne getting passed Rivkin to take A1 and Rivkin then taking A2 it went to A3. While Horne laid down the fastest lap, he couldn’t get by Rivkin who eventually took the win by 9/10ths of a second and with it the overall title with Phend completing the podium. In 4WD, Rivkin got by Horne in the first two encounters to seal the deal early. Winning A3, Horne took the runners up spot with 2WD World Champion Tater Sontag completing the podium for TLR. Horne wouldn’t go home empty handed however taking Stadium Truck title ahead of Rivkin and the Xray of Tom Rinderknect.

Image: Team Associated [Facebook]

April 23, 2024

R Factor Design Billet alu Precision Pit Board

“R Factor Design” is a newly founded company by ROAR National Champion and World Champion mechanic, Shawn Rayfield.  The main focus of the brand is creating and offering high end pit equipment – made in the USA. The first product available is this Billet aluminium “Precision pit board” which is fully CNC machined to have an ultra flat work surface within .001 across the whole board. With a size of 17in x 12in (43,2cm x 30,5cm) it’s the most accurate pit board to assemble and tune your 1:12 or 1:10 cars on.  The honeycombed backside helps to reduce the overall weight to ~3.5 – 3.75 pounds (1,5-1,7kg).  A prototype of this exact board was used at the 1:12 IFMAR Worlds last December with Max Mächler’s World Championship effort.

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April 21, 2024

Early flameout forces Ongaro to work hard for PM24 win

Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro was forced to work a little harder than expected for his latest Philippine Masters win, the reigning World Champion suffering an early flame out that handed Atsushi Hara a lead he would hold for almost half of the 1-hour final. With the crowd fully behind the legend that is Hara, when pitted for fuel at the 38-minute mark Ongaro would take back up the race lead where he would stay to the finish. The attention then turned to a battle between Hara and Ryan Pavidis, the American getting by the former World Champion in the final 3-minutes having been last of the 15 car field after the opening lap. Not far behind Joern Nuemann would finish as he started, P4. Having made it an Associated 1-2 in qualifying Alex Bernadzik’s race came undone around 37-minutes in with a flame just as he was called to fuel the next lap, the Australian eventually finishing 6th. The second round of the Asian Buggy Championships, Round 1 winner Ryan Lutz suffered similar fate earlier in the race and records a P7 on his first trip to Manila.

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April 20, 2024

Ongaro TQs Philippine Masters as AE line-up 1-2

Davide Ongaro is the Top Qualifier at the Philippine Masters with Alex Bernadzik making it a 1-2 for Team Associated at the conclusion of the four round of qualifying. As the defending Champion of Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad, it was a slow start to qualifying for Ongaro but finding his way in the penultimate round he went even stronger in the final round for another TQ run. This time it was ahead of Bernadzik to secure the overall TQ honours. Having made a dream start to his Philippine Masters debut by topping the opening qualifier on Friday, Bernadzik will line-up in between two of the greats of the sport, multiple World Champions Ongaro and Atsushi Hara. Hara is enjoying a great resurgence in form this weekend, the Japanese driver reliving his racing youth in Manila. Delighted with his P3 starting position, he is most excited for the opportunity to run the 1-hour final tomorrow at the Circulo Verde track. Another of the race’s rookies this year, Joern Neumann TQ’d the 2nd qualifier this morning but issues in the following two means he will start P4 right ahead of Ryan Lutz who makes it five difference countries represented at the front end of the grid, this year’s race having drivers attend from 16 different countries.

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