Red RC » R Off Road

April 15, 2024

Cragg & Hall win at British Championship opener

Chasing his 28th British National Championship title, reigning BRCA 1:10 2WD Offoad Champion Neil Cragg made the perfect start to his quest with victory at the season opener held at Robin Hood Raceway. In 4WD it was reigning Champion and Team Associated team-mate Tommy Hall who took the win for the perfect start to the 6 round championship. In 2WD qualifying it was Schumacher’s Josh Holdsworth who secured the TQ from Hall, both drivers topping 2 round each, while behind Cragg secured P3 on the grid ahead of Schumacher’s Lee Martin. While Holdsworth took A1 from Cragg, the rest of his day didn’t fair well and he ended up 5th overall. A2 saw a win for Cragg while Hall led them home in A3 but with a 1st & P2 it was Cragg with the overall win from Martin with a pair of second places while Hall’s win and P4 from A1 saw him complete the podium. Switching to 4WD, it was former European Champion Hall who secured the TQ from Martin, both drivers posting two TQ runs each with Cragg again lining up P3 ahead of Ben Smith. Despite Martin’s best efforts in A1, Hall took the first two encounters to wrap up the win with Martin get the A3 win to finish runner-up ahead of Cragg.

Image: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

April 15, 2024

Ment & Bakla win NSW State Titles

Boasting one of the largest entries for a state titles event in Australia, the 1:10 Offroad NSW State titles took place over the weekend at 2025 IFMAR Offroad World Championship host track Hills Off Road RC Car Club where Team Associated’s Jarod Ment (2WD) and Xray’s Ari Bakla (4WD) took the two big titles up for grabs. A low/med grip level track using molasses to bind the surface to maintain consistency throughout the day whilst reducing the need for water/blowing of the track, the State Titles attracted in excess of 220 entries with 60+ Mod drivers spread over the 3 day event. In Saturday’s 4WD action it was Bakla who secured the TQ ahead of the Q1 topping Team Associated of Lachlan Donnelly after he took the remaining 3 of the four rounds as Ment completed the Top 3. In the triple finals Bakla maintained that form to secure the title in A2 with the rest of the podium order ending up the same as how they qualified. Switching to 2WD on Sunday, qualifying saw three different drivers TQ a round but with his Q4 it was again Bakla on pole followed by Donnelly and Ment. In the finals however A1 would Donnelly force a pass in the final 30-second to snatch the win from the Top Qualifier. A2 would see the Top 2 again go at it but contact would drop them both down the order with Ment taking late win. With all on the line in A3, Bakla would make some early mistakes dropping down the field and releasing the 3 young talents of Donnelly, Ment and Jordan Isergin. With just over a minute remaining Ment would pull off one of the best passes of the weekend finding a line up the inside after the doubles. Donnelly would hassle Ment for the position right until the final lap where a small mistake would allow Jordan Isergin to take second. The result gave Ment the title ahead of Donnelly and Bakla.

Source: Mitch on the Mic [Facebook]

April 11, 2024

FEMCA EP Offroad Championship – Announcement

FEMCA, the governing body of RC racing that represents 15 nations in Asia and Australasia, has announced details of the 2024 FEMCA EP Offroad Championship. Following the Covid shutdown, FEMCA, under the guidance of Vice President Leonard Kee has been proactive in re-establishing its various FEMCA title deciding races with 1:10 Offroad the latest event to be announced for July 19-21 at the GDC Indoor track in Foshan, China. The track operated by well known racer Gavin Kwok, is no stranger to international visitors having hosted a very successful inaugural Foshan International Invitational RC Championship for electric touring car in December where former World Champion Ronald Volker took the victory. In addition to its touring car track, GDC also has a dedicated astro turf offroad track on which it will host the FEMCA EP Offroad Championship. A total of four FEMCA Champions will be crowned at the event including 4WD Modified & 13.5 Stock Buggy and 2WD Modified & 17.5T Stock Buggy. The race will also feature 2WD & 4WD Vintage Buggy support races. While the controlled tyre for each class is still to be announced, the schedule with see 5 rounds of qualifying with 3 to count and triple finals for everyone. Former FEMCA EP Offroad Champions include multi discipline World Champion Naoto Matsukura.

View GDC offroad track images here

April 9, 2024

Hara ‘excited’ for Philippine Masters return

A former winner of the Philippine Masters, legend of the sport Atsushi Hara will make his return to the famed Manila based 1:8 Offroad event next week (April 18-21). The offroad and onroad World Champion, last contested the race in 2019 and will return to the Circulo Verde track at the controls of an Sworkz Buggy, a decade on from when he raced for manufacturer full time during the 2014 season. Joining the international entry that includes reigning World & Philippine Masters Champion Davide Ongaro, multiple Worlds finalist Kyle McBride, Asian Buggy Championship points leader & PM debutant Ryan Lutz, and another PM debutant Joern Neumann, on his return to the Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race former FEMCA Champion Hara said, “I am so excited to be back at Philippine Masters, because Philippine Masters is one of the best organizers in the world. This time, Sworkz and Cayote have helped me to enter the race! I am also looking forward to seeing my many friends and fans in the Philippines! See everybody at the track!”

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

April 8, 2024

Maifield doubles at Psycho Nitro Blast

Ryan Maifield took his Teknos to a double victory at the annual Psycho Nitro Blast over the weekend winning the Nitro Buggy and Nitro Truggy at the 17th edition of the Tennessee based indoor race. With just two rounds of qualifying per class, Maifield would secure the TQ from Brandon Rose when he went faster than the Sworkz driver’s opening round TQ run. In Nitro Truggy it was a similar story with Maifield topping the second round to secure the TQ ahead of the Q1 winner & team-mate Seth Vandalen. In the half hour Truggy A-Main Maifield came away with a 13-seconds winning margin over Vandalen for a Tekno 1-2 with the TLR of third place qualifier Dakotah Phend completing the Top 3 as last year’s Champion Mason Fuller finish P5 behind Ryan Lutz. After 30-minutes of racing Maifield took Nitro Buggy title away from 2023 Champion Phend as he finished 6-seconds clear of his rival with Vandalen again completing the Top 3 as he did last year. In eBuggy last year’s double Truggy Champion Mason Fuller took the win while the eTruggy victory went to Top Qualifier Lutz by just 1.6 seconds over Mason.

Image: JConcepts [Facebook]

April 8, 2024

Canas wins very poorly supported IFMAR 1:8 eBuggy World Cup

Sworkz and Juan Carlos Canas will go down in the record books as the winners of the IFMAR 1:8 eBuggy World Cup, a precursor to the inaugural eBuggy World Championship, but it was the fact that just 9 drivers contested the World Cup that was the main story from Portugal. Hosted by the Club ACDB “OS BEIROES” at their track in Guarda, the event was originally scheduled for last September but was postponed due to a lack of entries with the date just after the 1:10 Offroad World Championships in Arizona touted as a reason for the poor support. Rescheduled for April 5-7, while the event again failed to attract entries it went ahead with European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Champion Canas the only big international star to attend. While a clash with annual the Psycho Nitro Blast in Tennessee could be attributed to a lack of US drivers making the costly trip to Europe, the previous weekend’s rained off International Buggy Challenge also in Portugal looks to have been a big factor in a lack of top European entries. Winning 3 of the 4 10-minute mains, Canas took the win from the Mugen Seiki of fellow Spaniard David Todd while IBC race organiser João Figueiredo completed the podium with his Tekno.

Image: David Todd [Facebook]

April 4, 2024

Kanai brings RC to Japanese F1 Grand Prix once again

Former 1:8 Buggy World Champion and now legendary chassis designer Yuichi Kanai has once again brought RC into the Formula 1 spotlight with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri taking the controls of Kyosho Inferno buggies on the main straight of the Suzuka circuit which hosts this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. Kanai is no stranger to the F1 paddock having brought the noise and smell of Nitro RC racing to last year’s Grand Prix where Ocon and 7-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton ran two Infernos together. Ocon and Piastri’s RC driving experience ahead of the start of the Grand Prix weekend was shared in an official F1 video posted on their Facebook page, which with 13-million follows offers huge exposure for the sport of RC Racing and the hobby in general. Both drivers also shared the experience on their social media, Piastri being a former Australian Stock Electric Touring Car Champion. Well done Yuichi, lets hope they return the favour and give you a go in one of their F1 cars!!

View more images here

April 4, 2024

Ongaro late confirmation for Philippine Masters

Having originally looked set to miss this year’s Philippine Masters due to Warm-up Race commitments for the IFMAR 1:8 Buggy World Championships, the cancellation of Brazil hosting the Worlds means reigning back to back World Champion Davide Ongaro will return to Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race for a fourth time. A winner of the event event prior to Covid, the Team Associated star successfully returned to the famous 3D layout Circulo Verde track located in the heart of Manila last year as the Philippine Masters made its return to the international stage after the forced 2 year break. Taking the TQ ahead of the Mayako of former World Champion Robert Batlle and the win ahead of Sworkz’ Micha Widmaier 12 months ago, this year the Italian’s competition for the April 18-21 event is set to come from an entry list that includes Kyosho pairing Ryan Lutz & Kyle McBride and Sworkz’ Joern Neumann. The 12th running of the Philippine Masters, the race is also the second round of the ambitious four round Asian Buggy Championships which is currently lead by American Lutz who won the opening round in New Zealand in February.

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]