Red RC » R Off Road

November 25, 2025

VP-Pro announce 2-year deal with Kilic

Chinese tyre and accessories manufacturer VP-Pro has announced the signing of leading offroad racer Berkan Kilic. The younger of the well known Turkish Kilic brothers, who both race for Mugen Seiki, the 19 years old has over 10 years of racing experience. The multiple IFMAR 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Championship finalist and European Championship podium finisher will as part of the new deal use VP-Pro tyres, bodies and accessories at major national and international events in the upcoming two years. With Kilic’s signing VP-Pro say they ‘look to improve on its existing product range and continue to bring high-quality and affordable products to everyone.’ On the announcement Kilic, who joins Atsushi Hara in representing VP-Pro, said, ‘I’m really looking forward to joining VP-Pro for the 2026–2027 season. A new challenge awaits, and I’m ready to give my best to help drive development and make everything even better. I’ve already tested some of the products, and I was genuinely impressed by how well they performed.’

Source: VP Pro [vp-racing.com]

November 25, 2025

Smith wins 2WD only Willspeed Grand Prix

Schumacher’s Ben Smith has won the annual 2WD only Willspeed Grand Prix. Branded as WSGP4, reflecting this being the fourth running of the event which is organised by British manufacturer Willspeed who are best known for its billet aluminium buggy conversion kits. Run in partnership with the 1066 Racing club in Hastings, this year saw 88 drivers led by Xray’s defending champion Lee Martin take on the indoor carpet track. With four rounds of qualifying and each driver’s combined fastest two times determining the grids for the finals it was Smith who secured the TQ ahead of Martin with the Xray of Harley Eldridge in third. With double mains for all drivers from the A to H Main, Smith would put in two clean A-Mains to becoming the Willspeed Grand Prix Champion ahead of Eldridge who got by Martin in both finals. Martin would complete the podium just ahead of 2024 runner-up and Willspeed driver Kyle Moon.

Image: Ben Smith [Facebook]

November 24, 2025

Toia crowned 2025 New Zealand 1:8 Buggy Champion

New Zealand has a new 1:8 Nitro Buggy National Champion, with Asian Buggy Championships regular Logan Toia also securing the National titles in Nitro and Electric Truggy with his fleet of HB Racing chassis. Hosted by Capital Model Racers located in Lower Hutt, 74 drivers made up an entry of over 160, and in the Nitro Buggy it was Sworkz’s Jayden Jamieson who took the TQ from Toia after 5 rounds of qualifying. Jonathan Coluccio and Logan’s young brother Dylan claimed 3rd & 4th. In the other 3 classes it was Toia who claimed the TQs. With defending National Champion Jamieson and Toia going on to win their Semi finals, it was Jamieson with the faster time who started the 1-hour title decider on pole with the two Toias lining up behind him. In the race while Jamieson led for most of the final he would hit trouble when he started to lose feeling in his throttle hand allowing Toia to go to the front and lift the title as the Top 2 finished on the same lap. In third Dylan Toia completed the podium. In eBuggy, Jamieson wrapped up the title with two good passes to win in the opening two 10-minute A-Mains, with Top Qualifier Toia winning A3 for second overall with Jonathan Coluccio completing the podium.

Image: Logan Toia [Facebook]

November 24, 2025

Pariente becomes Korean 1:8 Buggy Champion

Young Spanish teenager Daniel Pariente has been the new 2025 KMRCA Korean 1:8 GP Buggy National Champion, the Tekno driver taking the title over the weekend when he travelled to ‘TheTrack’ in Gimpo in South Korea. With this year’s Nationals attracting almost 60 entries, racing on the indoor dirt track would see Pariente secure the TQ honours ahead of long time leading Korean offroad racer Dani Choi & his Kyosho and the country’s latest up & coming talent HyunKyu Jung, his Team Associated making it three different manufacturers in the mix. Winning his half-hour Semi final ahead of Jung, Pariente would lead away the 11 buggy grid from Jung while Choi’s winning time from the second Semi ahead of Alex Lim’s Tekno would see him line up third. From the front it was the visitor who maintained his form to win by 19-seconds as the podium saw the Top 3 finish in the order they started, Jung having to recover from a first lap mistake that dropped him to 4th for a time. Unfortunately for Lim he would retire from the final 48-minutes in.

Image: KMRCA [Facebook]

November 24, 2025

Donnelly crowned Australian 2WD Champion

Lachlan Donnelly is the new Australian 1:10 2WD Buggy Champion, the Team Associated driver taking over the title from US Offroad star Spencer Rivkin who won the title in 2024 as part of Team Associated’s preparations for recently IFMAR World Championships Down Under. Hosted by Adelaide Radio Controlled Raceway, in qualifying it was Donnelly who secured the TQ after the four rounds ahead of Schumacher’s Jayden Edmunds and the Associated of Damon Davis Perry. After three previous podium Nationals finishes in 2WD, Donnelly would go on to win the opening two A-Mains to finally claim the title for a first time. Winning A3 Jarod Ment would finish runner-up ahead of Jack McMillan as Perry Davis and Edmunds finished 4th & 5th respectively. With the attention turning then to 4WD, Donnelly looked set to try and defend his National title in the class from P2 on the grid but rain would stop the action and with the finals postponed a day, Donnelly wouldn’t be able to race the finals as he wasn’t able to change travel plans back home to Sydney. Securing the TQ, it would be Perry Davis who becomes the new 4WD Champion with Edmunds and McMillan joining him on the podium. In Stadium Truck it was Edmunds who took the title ahead of Lachlan Munday.

View 4WD Podium here

November 19, 2025

2025 SIGP Offroad Chassis Focus Index

China’s top annual international offroad race, the 2025 Sunpadow International Grand Prix (SIGP) once again earned itself a reputation of being ‘challenging’, the 3 Circles track one where suspension set-up is critical. Only the second edition of the race since its return to the former 1:10 Offroad World Championship venue following a 4-year break, World Champions Bruno Coelho and David Ronnefalk returned knowing what to expect. For newcomers like Kouki Kato, who would go on to take the nitro win, Pekko Iivonen, and young Korean talent Jung Hyunkyu, the track would be a completely new experience that would test their set-up skills on a new level. Ronnefalk summed up the SIGP track very well when he said, ‘You’re not justing battling the other guy, I feel like more here you are battling the track out there so that’s offroad. It’s not many times you race on a track like this anymore so it’s good to feel what it used to be like in the old days I guess.’ With shocks the big focus of drivers, Belgian shock components specialist brand TRC busy assisting many drivers with getting their buggies dialled in, getting our hands on buggies for our Chassis Focus proved a little more challenging than normal as drivers switched shocks between Nitro and eBuggy. In the end we managed to feature 10 buggies from 6 drivers and 4 different manufacturers and we have compiled them in our latest Chassis Focus Index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

November 17, 2025

Champlin wins Florida Carpet Championships

In a repeat of last year’s result it was Schumacher pairing Broc Champlin and Michal Orlowski who took the wins at the annual JConcepts Florida Carpet Championship, Champlin however crowned overall Champion at at Beachline Raceway in Orlando. In 2WD Buggy it was the newly crowned World Champion Champlin who took the TQ with 3 TQ runs from 4 rounds ahead of Orlowski with new 4WD World Champion Marcus Kaerup’s Associated third ahead of team-mate Joona Haatanen, who topped Q3, and the Xray of Dakotah Phend. In 4WD, again Champlin set the pace this time ahead of his other Schumacher team-mate Daniel Kobbevik, the Norwegian the only other driver to manage a TQ run. Team Associated’s Aydin Horne would secure third ahead of Orlowski with Brennan Schimmel the best of the Xrays in P5. In the finals it was Orlowski who took the opening 2WD win ahead of Haatanen and Champlin who had a mistake while out front. Unfortunately contact at the start of A2 between Champlin and Orlowski ended the Polish drivers challenge as his buggy ended up on its roof while Champlin remained out front to win ahead of Haatanen and Phend. With another win in A3 Champlin was able to repeat his 2024 2WD victory. In 4WD Orlowski took the opener from Champlin after a mistake from the pole sitter and he would seal the 4WD victory with another win in A2 after Champlin again had a moment while in the lead just after the 1-minute mark. Champlin won A3 to finish runner-up in 4WD which together with his 2WD crowned his the overall JConcepts Florida Carpet Championships winner for the second year in a row.

Image: JConcepts [Facebook]

November 14, 2025

Jones joins Team Cayote USA

Team Cayote USA has announced the addition of Tyler Jones to its race team. The 2021 Silver State Pro eBuggy winner and two-time Georgia Peach State Classic Pro Nitro Buggy Champion will be running Team Cayote electronics to power his Sparko eBuggy and with use the company’s recently released X5 Charger as part of his race equipment. Earlier this year Jones made his international race debut when he travelled to Brisbane, Australia, for Round 3 of the Team Cayote Asian Buggy Championships finishing 3rd overall in eBuggy and 5th in Nitro.

Source: Team Cayote USA [Facebook]