Red RC » R Off Road

September 15, 2023

Phend from Rivkin & Ongaro in opening 2WD qualifier

Dakotah Phend has taken the opening round of qualifying at the 2WD World Championship in Arizona. Having just scrapped into the top heat after setting the 10th fastest time in yesterday’s two seeding rounds, the TLR driver would TQ the first of the five scheduled rounds of qualifying from reigning World Champion Spencer Rivkin and newly crowned 4WD Champion Davide Ongaro who sat at the top of the timing screen for much of the opening round. The Top Seed for qualifying Aydin Horne would open his account with a P7 behind former World Champions Ryan Cavalieri (P6) and Ryan Maifield (P5) with young TLR driver Tater Sontag fourth fastest.

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September 15, 2023

Horne Top Seed at 2WD World Championship

Aydin Horne is the Top Seed at the 2WD World Championship, the Team Associated driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second seeding round. Having set the fastest time in the opening seeding round but unable to improve on that, Bruno Coelho ended up 2nd fastest 2/10th down on Horne time. Ninth fastest on his first attempt, European Champion Marcus Kaerup improved by over a second to completing the Top 3 at Hobby Action RC Raceway. Backing up his impressive first round, Brennan Schimmel improved on that time and his TLR will carry No.4 in the top heat tomorrow with Davide Ongaro No.5 and Broc Champlin No.6. Reigning Champion Spencer Rivkin just scraped into the top heat as he set the 8th fastest time of seeding his time 7/10th off that set by Horne.

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September 15, 2023

Coelho tops first seeding round

Bruno Coelho has topped the opening round of seeding practice at the 2WD Offroad Worlds, the Xray driver fastest over 3-consecutive laps from Broc Champlin. The Portuguese driver improved on his free practice pace by over 1.5-seconds being the only one to run 56-seconds and having half a second on Champlin’s effort. TLR’s Brennan Schimmel put in a strong run to set the third fastest time just ahead of team-mate Cole Tollard. Defending Champion Spencer Rivkin led the Team Associated challenge, posting the 5th fastest time. Having set the pace in the four rounds of Free Practice, team-mate Davide Ongaro would have a problem with a broken rear tyre insert that meant he could only go 12th fastest and now finds himself down a set of tyres.

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September 15, 2023

Ongaro tops free practice at 2WD World Championship

Newly crowned 4WD World Champion Davide Ongaro has got his 2WD campaign off to a promising start by topping the times in free practice on Day 1 of the 2WD Offroad World Championship in Arizona. The Italian recorded the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the fourth & final free practice being the only one to record a 57-second time. His Associated was 2/10ths faster than Team Losi Racing’s Tater Sontag, whose team-mate Cole Tollard completed the Top 3. Bruno Coelho would end practice fourth fastest ahead of Broc Champlin, who unlike the rest of the front runners, didn’t improve in FP4 having set his time during his third run.

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September 14, 2023

Phend sets early 2WD practice pace

Team Losi Racing’s Dakotah Phend has set the early pace in 2WD practice at the 1:10 Offroad World Championship in Arizona. With a new layout at Hobby Action RC Raceway for 2WD, the first of the four scheduled rounds of practice was very much about learning the track in the low traction conditions. With drivers giving the new layout a resounding thumbs up, the times tumbled in the second free practice with Phend fastest from the prototype Schumacher of Broc Champlin and newly crowned 4WD Champion Davide Ongaro. Cole Tollard was the only other driver to run 3-consecutive laps in under a 1-minute as he set the fourth fastest time while defending Champion Spencer Rivkin was P16 on the time sheets.

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September 13, 2023

1:8 Electric Offroad IFMAR World Cup cancelled

With the date a major point of concern when the event was first announced back in March due to how close it was to the 1:10 Offroad Electric World Championship in the United States, it has been announced that the 1:8 Electric Offroad World Cup event in Portugal has been cancelled. Due to take place from September 22-24, 2023, at the former European Championship host track in Guarda, the World Cup would have been the first step for the electric category to become a World Championship category in 2025. With only 15 confirmed entries, while officially announced as ‘cancelled’ in the statement the organisers later described the event as being postponed to a ‘possible new date will be April 5-6-7 in 2024’ which means there is hope the event can still happen and move 1:8 Electric Buggy to World Championship status.

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September 13, 2023

Ongaro is 4WD Offroad World Champion

Davide Ongaro is the new 4WD Offroad Electric World Champion, the 22-year adding the title to his back to back 1:8 Buggy World titles in a thrilling battle with Spencer Rivkin that went right to finish line. A somewhat unexpected Top Qualifier at Hobby Action, given the much mooted ‘US home advantage’, Ongaro took the opening A-Main in Arizona but an error filled A2 which would be won by his Team Associated team-mate Rivkin. With second place qualifier Michal Orlowski taking second in the opening two encounters, the trio went into the A3 showdown and what a show would they deliver. Initially the two Europeans would pull clear of the pack but once Rivkin, who started P5, got into 3rd he closed at a pace that even Ongaro said afterwards he couldn’t believe. A mistake from Orlowski 7-laps in put him out of the picture. Closing the gap to his team-mate, two bobbles from Rivkin would give Ongaro short relief from the intensity behind before Rivkin was suddenly back on his rear wing. As much as he tried almost pushing him across the line, the clock was against Rivkin with Ongaro just making it over the line for an extra lap which, once the result sunk in, he didn’t complete. Out going Champion Bruno Coelho would end his reign with a Top 3 in the closing race but overall it was Orlowski who completed the podium repeating his feat from 4 years ago.

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September 13, 2023

Rivkin delivers in A2

Having been widely tipped to add the 4WD Buggy title to his World Championship tally since it was announced his home track Hobby Action would host the 2023 Worlds, Spencer Rivkin has delivered a victory in A2 putting his quest back on track. Finding himself P5 at the end of qualifying, the Team Associated driver opened with a distance P3 in A1 but in A2 he took full advantage of bobbles from Top Qualifier Davide Ongaro and Michal Orlowski. A mistake by A1 winner Ongaro gave Orlowski the lead but a much more racey looking Rivkin was able get within striking distance of the Schumacher driver had a moment. Able to sniff a chance of the win, Rivkin busted out a 18.177 fastest lap of the race, and when the leader ran slightly wide after the double at the end of the straight, the Arizona driver didn’t need to wait for an invitation to go to the front with just 2 laps to go. Winning by 3/10ths of a second from Orlowski, the Top 3 would be completed by Broc Champlin as Ongaro cross the line fourth – a result that sets the stage for a thrilling climax to the Championship we have had to wait four years for.

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