Red RC » Racing

July 30, 2025

Bayer takes first EFRA 2WD European title

An emotional Martin Bayer is the new EFRA 1:10 2WD Buggy European Champion, the Xray driver taking the title at the Hudy Arena indoor dirt track in Slovakia 12-years after he held the 4WD European title. With the race coming down to A3, it was Bayer’s team-mate David Ronnefalk who finished second with Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen completing the podium. In qualifying four different drivers produced TQ runs, the first coming from Bayer with a second TQ run in Q5 declaring him the Top Qualifier. Fastest in Q3, Schumacher’s defending Champion Michal Orlowski would start second ahead of former Champions Ronnefalk, who took Q2, and Sworkz’s Joern Neumann who set the pace in round 4 of qualifying. In A1, the Top 3 ran in close order for the first 3-minutes until a mistake from Orlowski that dropped him into a battle with Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen but contact put them both out of the hunt for the win. Coming under pressure from Ronnefalk, Bayer was driving defensive and with just over half a minute to go the Swede made a pass for the lead and made it stick. In A2 we would see Orlowski’s title defence end just after the 1-minute mark with a mistake coming onto the back straight. With Ronnefalk promoted to second he chased down Bayer but the Czech driver held on for the win while Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen completed the Top 3. With A3 an Xray shootout, Ronnefalk didn’t take long to get passed Orlowski setting things up for a great race but then a series of mistakes dropped him out of contention allowing Bayer to take the win ahead of team-mate Bartek Zalewski, the Polish driver finishing fourth overall.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

July 29, 2025

Ongaro adds 10th consecutive Italian National Title

He’s already got some very impressive accolades to credit but over the weekend Davide Ongaro added to his CV with a 10th consecutive AMSCI Italian 1:8 Buggy National Championship title win. The Team Associated driver secured the title at the third stop of the four round championship which was hosted by La Loggia RC Track near Turin. In qualifying the World Champion secured the TQ ahead of Sworkz’s Mattia Polito and Kyosho pairing Riccardo Berton and Marco Baruffolo. Starting this 45-minute on pole ahead of Berton having won his Semi Final, Ongaro took the win ahead of Polito with Berton completing the podium. One interesting visitor at the Italian Championship encounter was Ongaro’s AE team-mate & FEMCA Championship podium finisher Hyunkyu Jung from South Korea who would finish 8th in the 13th car final.

Image: AMSCI [Facebook]

July 29, 2025

Wood wins BRCA Nationals Round 5 at Wombwell

Shepherd’s Tim Wood has won the fifth round of the BRCA 1:8 Onroad British National Championship at Wombwell, ending defending Champion Alex Thurston’s recent run of wins. Winner of the season opener at the Brooklands track back in April, Wood would take his second win of the season by almost a lap over Top Qualifier Thurston after the Mugen Seiki driver had problems in the pits that led to a crash while he was leading. At the start of the half hour encounter, it was third place qualifier Andy Hasting who set about chasing down Thurston after he got the jump on a slow starting Wood but the former Champion would find his way back into second. Unfortunately for Hasting he wouldn’t see the finish as he hit problems that forced hm to retire allowing Shepherd team-mate Karl Dransfield to complete the podium. In 1:8 Electric, Serpent’s Mark Green took the TQ and win ahead of Michael Walton and Mark Boothman. Next up for the British Championship contenders is the EFRA European Championship with the UK’s famous Halifax track hosting the Euros from August 11-16th.

Image: BRCA 1:8 Section

July 29, 2025

Hebert opening new permanent track in Quebec City

A stalwart of onroad racing in North America, Canada’s most famous onroad racer Keven Hebert has announced he is opening a new permanent track near his home city of Quebec. In unveiling the Total-RC Arena indoor facility, Hebert, who is Xray’s leading onroad team driver in North American explained, ‘This project kicked off about 9 months ago, and it’s finally becoming a reality today! I’m beyond excited to announce to the RC community that we will soon have a permanent indoor on-road track near Quebec City! The entire building, located in Saint-Frederic, QC, will be transformed into the new Total-RC Arena this October! My partners and I are still in the early stages, but we’ll be sharing more details in the coming weeks. We’re working tirelessly to create an incredible, state-of-the-art facility for on-road RC enthusiasts in the area, and we plan to collaborate with CTSR to help grow and elevate our amazing hobby’. Well done to Keven and his team for bringing this project to reality and Red RC look forward to reporting on the first race from Total-RC Arena.

View interior image here

July 28, 2025

Fuller takes big win at Wicked Weekend

Having hit the big time as he completed a clean sweep at the 2025 Silver State Indoor Championships, Sworkz’s Mason Fuller backed that up with the big win in Nitro Buggy at the ‘The Wicked Weekend’ in Gainesville, Georgia. The RaceTime Entertainment event attracted over 800 entries and in qualifying it was Kyosho’s young American star Phi-Long Nguyen who took the overall TQ armed with the new MP11. It was team-mate Ryan Lutz who opened the three rounds of qualifying at the top as he took Q1 but overall it would be Fuller, topping Q3, who secured P2 on the grid ahead of Team Associated’s Brandon Rose, last year’s winner Dakotah Phend, with Lutz ending up P5. In the 30-minute final it was Nguyen who led them away and was pulling clear until he hit problems as the race approached mid distance, dropping him out of contention. Taking over the lead, Fuller would get the win with a 6-second advantage over the Sparko of 6th place qualifier Johan Wilson with Xray’s Chase Lemieux completing the Top 3. While Phend and Ryan Maifield both had a rough Nitro Buggy main, in eBuggy Maifield took his Tekno to the win ahead of Phend and Top Qualifier Rose. In Truggy, Phend took his Xray to the win ahead of Rose and Jared Tebo after Top Qualifier Maifield hit trouble while out front.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

July 27, 2025

Sobue regains Japanese National title

Having opened the month of July with a debut international win for Axon’s new TC10/4 Touring Car at eSIC in Singapore, Akio Sobue has concluded the month by adding the Japanese National Championship title to the car’s credentials. Racing at the Tsukuba RC Park, formerly known as the World famous Yatabe Arena, former champion Sobue would secure the TQ in qualifying ahead of Xpress paring Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa & Yugo Nagashima with Infinity’s Ryosuke Yamamoto securing P4 while team-mate & defending Champion Jin Sawada qualified P8. In the finals Sobue took A1 ahead of Yanagisawa however in A2 under pressure from the Xpress driver they touched side by side on the front straight on lap 4 resulting in Sobue getting stuck the the corner marker. With Yanagisawa taking the win from Nagashima and Sobue 5th it was all to play for in A3. Setting the fastest lap, Sobue would enjoy his biggest winning margin finishing 6/10ths up on Yanagisawa to lift the title for a 5th time with Yanagisawa (2nd) and Nagashima (3rd) joining him on the podium.

Image: Atsushi Hara [Facebook]

July 27, 2025

Orlowski goes 12-in-a-row at ETS Aigen

Michal Orlwoski has extended his winning streak in the ETS to 12, the Schumacher ace winning a shortened rain effected Round 2 at Aigen in Austria. Battling rain interruptions throughout the event, it would be Orlowski who secured the overall TQ after topping 2 of the three 4-minute qualifiers that they managed to complete. Taking the second round of qualifying Marc Rheinard’s Awesomatix would secure P2 ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker and Infinity’s Bruno Coelho, the World Champion having a tough seeding and finding himself running in the third fastest heat. With Sunday’s weather showing little possibility of any racing, it was decided to end Saturday’s action with the Modified finals. In A1 reigning ETS Champion Orlowski controlled the race from the front followed home by Rheinard and team-mate Simon Lauter, who benefited from contact between Coelho and Volker. In A2 it was another perfect drive from Orlowski, an early spin by Rheinard making his drive to 12-wins a row that bit easier. Coelho would take second ahead of Volker after the German succumbed to the intense pressure from his Portuguese rival. Winning A3 Rheinard locked in second overall while Volker held off Coelho in second to claim the final step on the podium. Lauter would finish 5th overall behind Coelho with the second of the three new Infinity IF14 Speciales in the final securing P6 with Viktor Wilck. With the rest of the classes decided on qualifying order, it was Awesomatix’s Olivier Bultynck who made it two from 2 having also won the season opener at Apeldoorn. Behind the Belgian, Louis Kretschmer made it an Awesomatix 1-2 with the ARC of Enrico Jung in third.

Image: Schumacher [Facebook]

July 24, 2025

2025 Asian Buggy Championships Rd 3, Australia – Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend Australia played host to the third round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, with the Pine Pills Dirt Racing club in Brisbane welcoming its biggest international entry yet. The third year the oil treated dirt track has been a stop on the Asian Buggy Championship calendar, the race would see Infinity’s Kouki Kato make his eBuggy debut with the Japanese manufacturer’s new prototype electric buggy and win, while in a rain shortened Nitro Buggy final Alex Bernadzik took his Team Associated to victory. Unfortunately we were unable to photograph the winning Electric and Nitro Buggies – Kato’s eBuggy still at prototype stage and Bernadzik’s RC8 B4.1 featuring special rear hubs that the US manufacturer was not yet ready to show to the public. Red RC’s first time to visit the highly praised Pine Pills Dirt Racing track, which is locate in very nice setting of the James Drysdale Sporting Complex, during our coverage of the race we did still get the opportunity to photograph 8 buggies from 6 different manufacturers. In case you missed any of the Chassis Focus’ during our coverage ‘Down Under’, we have compiled them all here in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here