Red RC » R Off Road

January 9, 2024

Tekno announce Figueiredo for 2024

Tekno RC has announced that top Portuguese 1:8 Offroad driver João Figueiredo will race for them in 2024. The 5-time European Championship Finalist will drive for the American manufacturer after a decade of representing Kyosho internationally. Reacting to the announcement the 27-year-old said, “I’m super happy, proud and excited to announce that I’ll be part of the Tekno RC family from 2024 and beyond! Since first time we spoke the team energy has been amazing and the rides have been working amazing in every condition I tested! Can’t wait to start the season and meet everyone! A big thank you to Daniel Lewis and Ilias Arkoudaris for this opportunity and trust! 2024 will be a big year!”

Source: Tekno [teknorc.com]

January 9, 2024

Fuller brothers join Sworkz

Sworkz has announced the signing of American brothers Mason and Kaden Fuller. The young offroad pairing raced the 2023 season with HB Racing with Mason achieving a number of high profile race podium finishes including the Nitro Buggy TQ & 3rd place at the Alabama Manufacturers Shootout, 3rd place at the Silver State Indoor Championships in Las Vegas and a Truggy double win at Psycho Nitro Blast. On their move to Sworkz, Mason said, ‘Kaden and I are excited to be joining the SWORKz team. Thank you to Max, Brent, and Tim for believing in us and all of your support. Looking forward to a great 2024! First race up is SIC. See you guys in a couple of days!!’. Sworkz boss Max Sonnleitner added, ‘Great to have the Fuller Family in the SWORKz factory team. We are looking forward to have two of the raising talents with us. The whole family totally fits into our team, where working together, friendship and success are the main topics.’

Source: Sworkz [Facebook]

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]