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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 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 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

July 21, 2025

Martin wins 1:8 Buggy 40+ European Championship

17-years after he won the EFRA European B Championship title in France as one of the upcoming stars of offroad racing, Lee Martin has won the 1:8 Buggy 40+ European Championship title at Herts Nitro Model Club in England. The Xray driver secured the TQ at the rain effected event topping 3 of the 4 rounds of qualifying with another of England’s top international racers Neil Cragg securing P2. Winning his Semi final from France’s Jerome Sartel, Martin however would start 2nd n the final as good friend Cragg won his Semi from Graham Alsop in a faster time. The duo continued their battle in the 45-minute Main, and completing 63-laps it was Martin who took the win by just 1.9 seconds over Cragg. Two laps down 2022 Champion Alsop completed the podium ahead of Sartel.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]

July 20, 2025

Bernadzik reigns as rain halts Asian Buggy Championships Australia

Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik converted TQ honours at the Australian round of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships into the win but unfortunately Mother Nature put an early halt to what was building into an epic battle in Brisbane. Having TQ’d all three hostings of the Asian Buggy Championships at the Pine Hill Dirt Racing track, Bernadzik led away the race’s most stacked international field yet for what was original scheduled to be a 1-hour final. While the intimidating dark clouds started to gather in the distance, racing got underway in the sunshine and the early pace was hot but all the time the darkening skies were moving in. Unfortunately for Kouki Kato and Tyler Jones, the latter got into the eBuggy winner Kato on the opening lap sending the Infinity and Sparko drivers dropping to the back of the field. The American did show great sportsmanship in waiting after the contact with the talented Japanese driver. Up front it was Bernadzik who led from Pekko Iivonen, but 6-laps in, the home favourite made a mistake allowing the fourth place starting Finn to take over at the front. From there he looked very strong as he led the field into the first round of pit stops just after the 7-minute mark. While touching the wall on the tight pit lane entry, once the first & only stops were completed, it was still Iivonen who was in charge. Coming up on 10-minutes however a mistake would hand the lead back to Bernadzik with Kato, who briefly took over the lead during the fuel stops and was now firmly back in the game, also going through for second. Locked into their intense battle, Jones having worked his way up to fifth behind 2024 winner Caleb Noble, little did the drivers know they had less than 3-minute left to play things out. A track that drew huge compliments from drivers for both it surface and size, unfortunately one of the downsides of its oiled dirt surface is that oil & water don’t mix! As soon as the lightest of drops started falling the effect on the cars was immediate forcing Race Director Scotty Ernst to call the race just shy of 13-minutes – the heavens opening up shortly after. While the disappointment of having their entertainment cut short clear on everyone’s face, including Bernadzik, a result is a result and Bernadzik goes down as the third different winner of the 2025 Asian Buggy Championships season. Less than a second back Kouki had to settle for second while Iivonen completed the Round 3 podium.

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July 19, 2025

3-in-row as Bernadzik is Top Qualifier ‘Down Under’

It’s the third season of the Cayote backed Asian Buggy Championships, the third time Pine Hill Dirt Racing track has hosted the Australian round, and completing the hat trick Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik has just secured the overall TQ for the third year in a row. With this year’s event attracting its biggest ever international entry, it was the Australian who delivered in the deciding fifth & final round of Nitro Buggy qualifying. With Japan’s Kouki Kato and American Tyler Jones the other TQ contenders, having taken the first two rounds of qualifying on Thursday, Infinity’s Kato would be the first to bow out as he crashed on his first flying lap and suffered a flameout. Sparko driver Jones also crashed on his first lap giving Bernadzik, who already had the fastest qualifying run from Q4, the breathing space for a second TQ run. This time his closest challenger was Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen, the gap 1.531-seconds at the end of the 5-minutes. Overall, behind Bernadzik it will be Kato who lines up second on the grid followed by Jones, Iivonen and last year’s winner Caleb Noble.

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July 19, 2025

Bernadzik delivers on speed to take Q4 in Brisbane

Having been super quick throughout the first two days of action at the Australian round of the Asian Buggy Championships, Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik finally delivered a TQ run when he took the penultimate round of nitro buggy qualifying at Pine Hills Dirt Racing track. Opening Day 3 of the event with a third TQ run in eBuggy, last year’s event Top Qualifier finally put together the run we were waiting for, setting a new fastest time as he ended up almost 5-second faster than the Sparko of Q3 winner Tyler Jones. Taking the opening two rounds on Thursday, Infinity’s Kouki Kato completed the Top 3, and with the just fifth & final quali to go it will be a three way battle for the overall TQ between Kato, Jones and Bernadzik – drivers’ best two to count. Getting a fourth for the round was Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen, the Top Seed now no longer in contention to be the Top Qualifier in Brisbane. Leading the Sworkz challenge this weekend, it was another solid nitro effort from Atsushi Hara, the former World Champion & Philippine Masters podium finisher, completing the Top 5 for his best run so far having got his first Top 6 yesterday.

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