Red RC » R Off Road

July 11, 2024

Bernadzik Top Seed at Asian Buggy Championship Rd 3

Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik will start Nitro buggy qualifying as the top seed at the third round of the Asian Buggy Championship which is taking place at Pine Hills Dirt Racing’s unique oiled-surface track in Brisbane, Australia. 2023 Australian National Champion Bernadzik, who posted a TQ run at the previous round of the Scotty Ernst promoted championship in the Philippines, took the seeding top spot with a last-chance run ahead of Round 2 podium finisher Ryan Pavidis. Pavidis, who is making his first visit to Australia, has switched chassis brands since the Philippine Masters and is now running Mugen. Christian Wolhuter (Australia) took his Sworkz to third in seeding, followed by Tekno twins, Australia’s Caleb Noble and US driver Walker Spinrad. A podium finisher at the season opener in New Zealand, Kyosho’s Kyle McBride returns to the series and will start qualifying sixth. Bernadzik made it two-from-two when he topped eBuggy seeding, this time ahead of Noble and Pavidis with Spinrad, Australian TLR pilot Aaron Dexter and McBride rounding out the top six. Caleb Noble topped seeding in a small Nitro Truggy field, with Nathan Healy (Tekno) going fastest in eTruggy. Paul Ciccarello brought his Xray all the way from the US to dominate the two 45+ buggy classes. Qualifying kicks off Friday morning local time with the first of four rounds of qualifying.

Source: Scott Guyatt/Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

July 11, 2024

Japanese Champion Kato joins Infinity Offroad Team

Reigning Japanese 1:8 Offroad National Champion Kouki Kato has announced he has joined Infinity for his nitro offroad programme. The 18-year-old, who last month successfully defended his 1:10 2WD Buggy National title, had already been racing for Infinity in onroad achieving impressive results including making the final at the 2023 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championships. Winning the 2023 JMRCA 1:8 Offroad title without a chassis sponsor, following the recent release of Infinity’s long await first ever 1:8 Buggy, the IFB8, the deal between Kato and the Japanese manufacturer is a logical one.

Source: Kouki Kato [Facebook]

July 8, 2024

Todd crowed 1:8 Euro B Buggy Champion

Young Spanish talent David Todd is the new EFRA 1:8 Buggy European B Champion. A title that counts former World Champion Davd Ronnefalk and 2024 World title favourite Juan Carlos Canas among its past champions, the Mugen driver won the 20th running of the championship which was hosted by the RCSax track in the South East of Spain where it would be an all Spanish podium. In qualifying it was the Tekno of Iker Tellez who on tie break secured the overall TQ from Todd as both drivers end the four rounds on 2-points each. In the Semis, Tellez would drop to third in his encounter as the Team Associated of Manuel Iniesta Hernández took the win while Todd won his Semi to secure pole position for the 45-minute Main final. A good battle between the Top 2 would eventually see Todd deliver the title ahead of Iniesta Hernández with the Xray of third place qualifier Hugo Ibañez completing the podium. France’s Matisse Peyre would be the top visitor taking his Xray to fourth position.

Image: David Todd [Facebook]

July 1, 2024

Hall defends British 4WD title with Rd 4 double win

Team Associated’s Tommy Hall has successfully defended his BRCA British 4WD Buggy National Championship title with his fourth consecutive win of the 2024 season. Winning the title for the first time last year at the penultimate round, Hall got the job done a round earlier this time round as he took the win at the fourth round hosted by Bury Metro Radio Car Club. Qualifying 2nd behind team-mate Thomas Phipps, who claimed his first ever Nationals TQ, Hall took the opening two A2 mains to secure the win and put the title beyond the reach of his rivals. With Phipps second, the Xray of 3rd place qualifier Jonny Skidmore completed the Round 4 podium. The day before his title win, Saturday’s wet 2WD action would also see Hall come away with victory. Qualifying third behind reigning Champion Neil Cragg and Top Qualifier Ben Smith, Hall managed to take A1 & A3 to deny Smith and take his second win of the season while Cragg, winner of the season opener, completed the podium. With two rounds remaining, Hall holds a 2-point championship advantage over Smith with Cragg a further point behind.

Image: Racewayone [racewayone.com]

June 30, 2024

Kato & Kaino crowned JMRCA National Champions

Team Associated pairing Kouki Kato and Yui Kaino took the titles at this year’s JMRCA 1:10 Electric Offroad Japanese National Championships. Returning to the indoor RC Park Gojo track where he won both the 2WD and 4WD Buggy titles last year, 18-year-old Kato would secure the TQ in 2WD after topping 2 of the 3 rounds of qualifying with team-mate Yui Kaino topping Q3 to secure P2 on the grid. In 4WD qualifying the pair switched order with fastest times in Q1 & Q3 giving 2022 2WD Champion Kaino the TQ. In the finals Kato successfully defended his 2WD title with wins in the opening two A-Mains while in 4WD Kaino regained the title as he also won the opening two encounters. In both categories the podiums were completed by Xray drivers with third place going to Shoya Yamazaki in 2WD and Nana Kaiho 4WD.

Image: Kouki Kato [Facebook]

June 25, 2024

Maifield does the double at ROAR Nationals

Tekno RC’s Ryan Maifield pulled off the double at the ROAR 1:8 Nitro Offroad Nationals over the weekend taking both Buggy and Truggy titles at the Hayden Radio Control Raceway (HRCR). In Buggy qualifying it was defending back to back Champion Dakotah Phend who secured the TQ, his TLR topping all four qualifiers, with Maifield second ahead of team-mate Jared Wiggins. In Truggy it was the Sworkz of Mason Fuller who took the TQ ahead of defending Champion Maifield and Phend but in the 45-minute final Maifield would find a passed Fuller to retain his title as Phend completed the podium. In the 1-hour Buggy final, Maifield lining up P4 after the Semi-Finals, there was an intense four way battle with Kyosho’s Phi Long Nguyen, Muller and Phend all having stints at the front. In the end, it was Maifleld who took over the lead in the final quarter of the race and stayed there to win by 14.801 seconds over Phend and Nguyen.

Image: JConcepts [Facebook]

June 17, 2024

Ielasi Tuned Terra Offroad engine

In its third new engine release of 2024, Ielasi Tuned presents an all new .21 engine for 1:8 Offroad racing with the Terra. A replacement for their previous Dirt and Dusty engines, for a few months now the latest engine has been “secretly” used by the Italian engine tuner’s official drivers with excellent results. Compared to their previous Offroad engine offerings, the Terra satisfies all the requirements that a top of the range engine must have to be within everyone’s reach from professional to amateur: Performance/Quality/Price all in one engine!!! This commercial choice was fundamental for Daniele Ielasi as he believes that even in Offroad, having a single top-of-the-range engine allows him to concentrate economic development forces in a single engine while also managing to have a competitive price for everyone. Technically, the new Terra is an exclusive Ielasi Tuned engine because while all the engine components are produced as by O.S. Engines they have been chosen one by one according to Ielasi’s technical specifications, this engine with this set of components is not part of the series O.S. Engines range.

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June 10, 2024

Double for Rinderknecht at JConcepts Summer INS

The third stop on the calendar of the 14th season of JConcepts’ popular Indoor National Series saw Xray driver Tom Rinderknecht do the double in Iowa. Racing at the Island Speedway Offroad indoor track, the Summer 1 Carpet Indoor Nationals saw the Schumacher of Broc Champlin secure the TQ in both Mod 2WD & 4WD with Rinderknecht lining up P2. In 2WD Rinderknecht would take A1 from the pole sitter who in turn took A2 to set the stage for an A3 shoot out that Rinderknecht duly won to take the overall. Behind Champlin, the 2WD podium was completed by the Team Associated of Davey Batta ahead of former 2-time World Champion Spencer Rivkin. In 4WD, Champlin would suffer a DNF in A1 as took the win which he repeated in A2 to wrap things up early. Taking the A3 win Batta secured second with multiple World Champion & 5th place qualifier Ryan Cavalieri taking his Schumacher to third ahead of Rivkin as Champlin completed the Top 5.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]