Red RC » R Off Road

January 8, 2024

Phend wins 2nd edition of ‘Clash of Champions’

Having won the inaugural ‘Clash of Champions’ 12-months ago, it was a case of deja vu for TLR’s Dakotah Phend over the weekend as he again took the top honours in the modified Buggy classes winning both 2WD and 4WD at the Hoosier RC Hobbyplex event in Indiana. In qualifying it was Team Associated’s Spencer Rivkin with the new B7 who secured the TQ ahead of Phend after taking two of the three rounds with Davey Batta completing the Top 3 ahead of Cole Tollard. Sporting a FlySky radio, as was World Champion team-mate Tater Sontag at the race, in 4WD Phend topped all three qualifiers to secure the TQ ahead of Schumacher’s Broc Champlin with Rivkin 3rd on the grid. While Phend would wrap up the 4WD win after taking the opening two encounters, in 2WD things went to A3. After a win in A1 ahead of Champlin as Rivkin dropped to third in the second half of the race, Phend would be only P8 in A2 after a bad first lap as Tollard took the win from Champlin with Rivkin again third. The former World Champion would lead A3 until he broke just inside the final minute handing Phend the win and overall victory over Tollard with Rivkin completing the podium. Bringing a close to the second running of the Clash of Champions was the big money Champions race. A single 8-minute 2WD Mod Buggy encounter involving drivers having to take one, faster, joker lap during the race it was Champlin who came out on top to take home the $2,000 first place prize.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

January 8, 2024

Ielasi Tuned to power Phi-Long Nguyen

Following his move to Kyosho for the 2024 season, Ielasi Tuned engines has announced it is to power up & coming US 1:8 offroad talent Phi-Long Nguyen’s nitro programme. The 12-year-old will use both Ielasi Tuned engines as well as the Dirt R EVO and Dusty R USA engines from the Italian brand for whom they say the deal will see them ‘take on new challenges and push the boundaries of racing excellence’. Commenting on the announcement Nguyen said, “Super excited to be part of the team. The tuned powerplant will definitely gives us all we need”.

Source: Ielasi Tuned [ielasituned.com]

January 7, 2024

Kilic opens ’24 season with third ‘OneRace OneMan’ win

Mugen Seiki’s Burak Kilic has opened his 2024 season in the best way possible with a third 1:8 Nitro Buggy victory at the annual ‘OneRace OneMan’ race at the IBR Padova indoor facility in northern Italy. Second in qualifying behind Infinity’s Riccardo Berton, Kilic would like up P4 for the 45-minute final after the Semi Finals. A previous winner of the race in 2018 and 2021, the German would take his third win ahead of new Xray signing Alex Zanchettin with the HB Racing of Theo Lemaire from France completing the podium. Having qualified fourth but securing pole position for the final with victory over Zanchettin and Kilic, WIRC Racing’s Marco Baruffolo would lead the first quarter of the race until he was forced to retire with a throttle servo failure. In eBuggy, Berton took the win from 2023 Nitro Buggy winner Mattia Polito with Lemaire making it a double podium at IBR Padova.

Image: Burak Kilic [Facebook]

January 4, 2024

Champlin joins Power HD

Leading US 1:10 Offroad racer Broc Champlin has been announced as the newest team signing by servo manufacturer Power HD. For a long time, Champlin was known as the “Carpet Guy” but last year achieved a podium finish at the IFMAR 2WD Buggy World Championship on the dirt at Hobby Action in Arizona. In 2023, the factory Schumacher driver participated in a total of 18 races winning 33 awards, including 10 championships, 10 runner-ups and 7 third-places. In his nearly 5-year career in major races, he has won multiple overall championships including ROAR 1:10 Carpet Nationals, EOS in Germany, JConcepts NCTS, JConcepts INS, Florida Carpet Champs and the Open Reedy Race. Set to use Power HD’s GTS 3 as his race servo, on the announcement he said, ‘I’m very excited to be joining the PowerHD team and I thank them for the opportunity to bring their name to the 1:10 offroad scene in America. From high response, to sheer torque models, they raise a competitive edge with a wide variety of options to choose from.’

Source: PowerHD [chd.hk]

January 4, 2024

Sontag to run Team Trinity electronics

As widely expected it has been announced that newly crowned 1:10 2WD World Champion Tater Sontag is to run Team Trinity electronics in his Team Losi Racing buggies. Having announced his departure from his previous electrics sponsor Fantom Racing just before Christmas, the move to the now Horizon Hobby owned brand was a logical one and sees the 16-year-old now running the same combo as TLR team-mate Dakotah Phend. In the rather low fanfare announcement on its Facebook page Trinity simply posted, ‘Tater Sontag, Current 2WD World Champion, Joins Team Trinity!’.

Source: Team Trinity [Facebook]

January 3, 2024

Sworkz confirm team for MIBO International debut

Sworkz has confirmed it will be sending its team to this year’s MIBO International Race in Czech Republic. The second running of the event that sees some of the World’s top offroad and onroad drivers race side by side on two large indoor carpet tracks, this will be Sworkz first time attending the 2 and a half day event. Taking place on February 16-18, with practice starting on the Friday evening, multiple European Champion Joern Neumann, Micha Widmaier and Antonia Kovalszki, who all attended the World Championships in Arizona in September, will represent the brand on its debut. A long time dream of former International Touring Car racer Michal Bok to host his own major international event in Hrotovice, the first edition of MIBO International last year saw multiple World Champion Bruno Coelho take double buggy honours at the Sport V Hotel venue while former World Champion Ronald Volker was crowned the Touring Car Champion. After the success of inaugural event, the 2nd edition looks set to attract an even stronger international team entry and Red RC will be there to bring you coverage from both tracks.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]

January 3, 2024

Euro Buggy Masters/Euros Warm-up – Announcement

The organisers of the annual Euro Buggy Masters in Sweden have announced that the indoor event will double up this year as the Warm-up Race for the EFRA 1:10 Offroad European Championships. A club based in the south of the country, Furulund RC Klubb has secured use of a massive almost 4000 seater indoor sport hall in the city of Malmo for the 2024 edition of the EBM. Taking place from February 23-25, the track will be built using completely new EOS carpet to create a bespoke track layout giving all drivers the same track time and opportunity for a close and fair racing. Last held in November 2022 when Michal Orlwski took the 4WD win and Jessica Pålsson took the 2WD honours, the race moves to the start of the season this year on February 23-25 as the club hosts the European Championships from September 23-28.

Source: Furulund RCK [frck.se]

January 2, 2024

Zanchettin joins Xray

Xray has announced that multiple Italian National Champion Alex Zanchettin is joining its team and will race their XB8 platform. Zanchettin had previously raced for the Mayako team signing for them at the beginning of 2022 but in 2023 made an appearance as part of the ongoing Infinity Offroad project when he joined lead driver Riccardo Berton for The Italian Race during the Summer. Commenting on the Xray announcement Zanchettin said, “I’m so proud to join such prestigious and ambitious brand like Xray. I always looked up to Xray for dedication to work and for their winning attitude and I’m sure that hard work and their top quality products will be the key to achieve our common goals. Can’t wait to see you all at the track again”.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]