Red RC » R Off Road

March 25, 2026

AECAR Statement in response to Canas having no entry for eBuggy National C/ship opener

AECAR, the governing body for RC racing in Spain, has issued a statement in response to yesterday’s news that Juan Carlos Canas will not be at this weekend’s opening round of the 1:8 Electric Buggy National Championship as he has no entry following a new ruling for the new season. With the new for 2026 ruling also affecting other racers including Xray team driver Bryan Baldo, and causing plenty of international online discussion, in the statement AECAR outlines its reasoning behind the introduction of 24-hour ruling. It would still appear however that Canas and Baldo will have a free weekend from racing and hopefully for the remaining rounds a more workable solution is found.

Read full AECAR Statement here

March 24, 2026

Kato doubles at SIGP

Kouki Kato completed the double at this year’s SIGP, the Infinity successfully defending his 2025 Nitro win and adding the eBuggy title this year in the Xiamen, China. Rescheduled from its traditional end of year date, this year’s earlier running of the race mean’t a much reduced international entry for the Sunpadow Batteries staged race. With a 2025 entry that included Xray’s David Ronnefalk, Infinity’s Bruno Coelho, and Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen, Kato won a thrilling Nitro A-Main last year but this year the Asian Buggy Championships Champion would dominate proceedings. A race that only made its post Covid return in 2024, World Champion Davide Ongaro taking that win, qualifying for the 2026 edition would see the Japanese driver top all 5 qualifiers to secure the TQ honours ahead of Team Associated promising Korean teenager Jung Hyunkyu and 2023 FEMCA Champion Jeff Wang from Taiwan. In the 45-minute final, while Hyunkyu got out front early on for a number of laps, once Kato got back in the lead he would hold on to win by a final 6-second margin, Hyunkyu showing strong pace with the fastest lap of the race. Wang would complete the podium, this being the same order as they finished eBuggy.

Image: Kouki Kato [Facebook]

March 24, 2026

New rule rules Canas out of Spanish Championship

Defending Spanish National Champion & professional 1:8 Offroad racer Juan Carlos Canas is to miss this weekend’s opening round of the National eBuggy Championship after a new administration process introduced by the national governing body AECAR. The factory Sworkz driver appears to have missed a new 24-hour registration window and has no entry for the opening encounter of the highly competitive national championship. Making a post on social media Canas, who won the nitro season opener, explained that once he noticed entries had opened, and given he was racing in the US with an 8-hour time difference, he made his entry and payment. However it was only when he contacted a ‘delegate of Spain’ about the race at RC Silla that he discovered he didn’t have a place due to the new 24-hour rule.

Read his full post here

March 23, 2026

Donnelly & Williams win Keilor Invitational

Team Associated’s Lachlan Donnelly and new Schumacher convert Lachlan Williams were the winner of the 10th annual Keilor Invitational 1:10 Offroad race hosted by KEORCA club in Victoria, Australia. Racing Reedy Race style on the oiled dirt track, the club invite the 10 best drivers for Stock and Modified, and they compete in heads up racing across 5 x 2WD and 5x 4WD races. Grids shuffle randomly and each driver starts from each grid position over the two days with the best four 2WD and four 4WD results counting for overall results. As the winner of the event that last two years, reigning Australian National Champion Donnelly made it three in a row with victory over Lachlan Munday and Jarod Ment. Finishing runner up in Stock last year, young ‘Spud’ Williams went one better this year with flawless driving to beat last year’s winner ⁠⁠Justin O’Connell with Dan Coller completing the podium.

View podiums & track inage here

March 22, 2026

Philippines ‘True North RC Raceway’ track build

A country that is home to Asia’s biggest & most famous annual 1:8 Offroad event, the Philippine Masters, the race’s new track location is starting to resemble its signature 3D look with track builder Edward Sio posting this image of the rough layout as he continues to build his latest creation. A race that has been responsible for bringing the likes of Davide Ongaro, Atsushi Hara, Dakotah Phend, Adam Drake, Ryan Cavalieri and many more international offroad stars to the Philippines, the original track in Manila hosted its final Philippine Masters in 2025, Infinity’s Kouki Kato taking the win, as that location was designated for development. Having become a part of Scotty Ernst’s successful Asian Buggy Championships since 2023, the Philippine Masters takes a year out in 2026 as it transitions to it new location. The team behind putting the event on the international stage securing a new location which is part of the El Masfino Hotel and Resort in San Rafael which is around 50km north of the capital city. With the track build now well underway, known for its oil treated surface dirt surface, the next stage in the build is the refine the jumps and transitions before moving onto the final stage of oil treatment and piping.

Image: Edward Sio [Facebook]

March 16, 2026

DNC double for Tekno’s Van Dalen

Tekno’s Seth VanDalen completed the classic double at the Dirt Nitro Challenge over the weekend winning both Nitro Buggy and Nitro Truggy as the Joey Christensen signature event. The 27th edition of US race, it was the second year in a row the now California based event has been a happy hunting group for the US manufacturer, Ryan Maifield (Nitro Buggy) and VanDalen (Nitro Truggy) last year’s winners. With a 755 entries over all classes this year, in qualifying it was the Xray of Dakotah Phend who secured the Nitro Buggy TQ after three rounds of qualifying ahead of Sworkz’s Juan Carlos Canas and Team Associated’s Spencer Rivkin with VanDalen securing P4. In Truggy it was Maifield who took the TQ from team-mates VanDalen and Spencer Heckert. In Saturday’s Truggy final, Maifield led the way until he crashed and took a wheel off his Tekno just before the 2/3rd mark of the 45-minute encounter allowing VanDalen to take over the lead and successfully defend his title. The Sworkz of Silver State Indoor Champion Mason Fuller and Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz completed the podium. In the main event, Nitro Buggy final bringing racing at The Dirt at Peris track to a conclusion, it was Phend who led away from pole for more than half the race until a mistake. Winning the B Final to book 15th spot on the A-Main grid, Maifield would work his way into contention running second within 5-seconds of Phend, but at the 28-minute mark he flamed out and his race was done. After Phend’s error it was VanDalen who was out front where he wold stay to complete the DNC double. In eBuggy it was Sworkz’s Camden Lime would took the TQ and win, winning the 10-minute final from Canas and Phend.

Image: Tekno [Facebook]

March 9, 2026

Desert Classic wins for Phend & Champlin

Xray’s Dakotah Phend and Schumacher’s Broc Champlin where the main winners at the annual Desert Classic presented By Stick It One. One of 2023 1:10 Offroad Worlds host track Hobby Action’s blue ribbon events, the 10th edition of the Arizona race attracted 325 entries and it Modified 2WD Buggy it was Phend who took the TQ from the Team Associated pairing of 2025 4WD winner Aydin Horne and Finnish visitor Joona Haatanen. In 4WD, taking two of the 4 qualifiers it was Champlin who locked in the TQ ahead of Phend, who topped Q4, and last year’s 2WD winner Chase Lemieux. In the Mains, 2WD would got to the third leg. While Phend won A1, he would finish 3rd in A2 with Haatanen taking the win from Horne who had a DNF in A1. Horne would win A3 from Phend but with his A1 winning time faster it was Phend who took the overall, his first 1:10 win with Matrix tyres, with Haatanen completing the podium ahead of Ryan Cavalieri. In 4WD, Champlin executed an early win taking A1 & 2 with Phend taking A3 to claim second as Haatanen again claimed third. In 40+, Team Associated team manager Brent Thielke completed the double taking both 2WD and 4WD as the Top Qualifier.

Image: Dakotah Phend / JConcepts [Facebook]

March 9, 2026

Noble becomes back to back Australian Champion

New 2026 Sworkz signing Caleb Noble has become back to back RCRA 1:8 Nitro Buggy Australia National Champion, the 19-year-old successfully defending his 2025 title at the Canberra Off Road Model Car Club hosted title race over the weekend. Having kicked off his new program with Sworkz with a dominant performance at the opening round of the Asian Buggy Championships in New Zealand a week earlier, Noble would secure the TQ in Canberra ahead of Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik, both drivers recording two TQ runs each over the 4 rounds of qualifying. A race that attracted 331 entries over the various classes, Aaron Dexter, Christian Wolhunter and Logan Toia completed the Top 5. With Dexter and Wolhunter winners of their resoective Semi finals this would be the Top 3 order for the grid behind Noble. After a number of lead changes in the early stages of the 1-hour final, Dexter, Jarod Mont, Bernadzik and Wolhunter all taking stints at the front, as the race approached mid distance Noble would get to the front and stay there to eventually win by a 2-lap margin over Team Associated pairing Lachlan Donnelly and Bernadzik with last year’s runner up Wolhunter missing out on the podium in P4. In eBuggy Bernadzik took the title from the TQ spot ahead of Noble and Ment while in Truggy Noble added another National title with the win ahead of Felix Koegler and Dexter.

Image: RC Race Media [Facebook]