Red RC » R Off Road

August 27, 2025

Kaerup goes fastest in final practice

Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup has wrapped up practice at the 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship, the Dane laying down the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the Barcelos track in Portugal in the 7th & final free practice. Ending Day 1 of practice fourth fastest, in this morning’s two final free practice runs Kaerup bettered that time ending up 1-second faster with his FP7 time. Behind it was Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik who set the second fastest time just ahead of another of the morning’s big improvers Pekko Iivonen for an all Scandinavian Top 3. Setting the pace yesterday, Dakotah Phend would not improve on his FP4 time but the Xray driver still ends free practice in P4 with the that time ahead of Polish duo Bartek Zalewski and Michal Orlowski.

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August 26, 2025

Phend fastest as Day 1 of eBuggy Worlds concludes

Xray’s Dakotah Phend has set the pace on the opening day of the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship, the American topping the times after 5 rounds of free practice at the Barcelos Buggy Arena in Portugal. Setting his fastest 3-consecutive laps in the penultimate round of the day’s free practice, many drivers feeling they made the wrong call on tyre compound for the cooler evening’s final run, Phend was fastest from Juan Carlos Canas, the Sworkz driver topping that final round to record his best time of the day. The pace setter after the first three rounds, David Ronnefalk finished the day out in P3 ahead of Sworkz’ Elliott Boots. With reigning Nitro Buggy World Champion Davide Ongaro having a challenging day, which ended in him being only 13th fastest, it was his younger team-mate Marcus Kaerup who led the way for Team Associated. Second fastest in FP5, which was 10-minutes long with the previous four rounds having been 5-minutes each, he ended the day fourth fastest. Another improvement in FP5 came from Tekno’s João Figueirdo, the Nitro World Championship finalist, whose family are the hosts of these World Championships, completing the Top 5.

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August 26, 2025

First ever 1:8 Electric Buggy Worlds is go in Portugal

eBuggy is now officially an IFMAR World Championship class with free practice for the inaugural 1:8 Electric Offroad Worlds getting underway at the beautifully presented Barcelos track in Northern Portugal today. Arriving this morning to foggy conditions, which caused an hour delay to the start of the day’s five rounds of free practice, once drivers got on track they quickly gave the fresh surface and new layout plenty of abuse, even the top title contenders looking somewhat rookie level as they tried to put early laps together. With the second round of practice completed, drivers’ general feedback on the track was positive with many of those who raced here at the European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championship last month saying track builder Miguelo Izquierdo Rodriguez’ latest build was more technical and difficult. With the lack of noise being something that takes getting used to when you walk around the pits surrounded by the best 1:8 Nitro Buggy in the World, in terms of early pace it was Xray’s David Ronnefalk who led the way after 3 rounds ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Bruak Kilic, fastest after Round 2, with Sworkz’s Elliott Boots completing the Top 3.

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August 25, 2025

1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship coverage presented by Team Cayote

The week on which IFMAR will crown a brand new World Champion has finally arrived and thanks to electronics manufacturer Team Cayote, Red RC are travelling to Barcelos in Portugal to tell the story of how the inaugural 1:8 Electric Offroad World Champion is crowned. Having run in the shadow of 1:8 Nitro Buggy, which since crowning its first World Champion back in 1986 has established itself as the ‘Rock Star’ category of all RC racing classes, this week is eBuggy’s moment to shine on the world stage. Revealing over the weekend the layout on which all the leading buggy manufacturers will battle it out to go down in history as the first ever eBuggy World Champions, the Barcelos track in North Portugal will play host to almost 120 drivers from around the globe. With Europe’s governing body EFRA enjoying crowning 1:8 eBuggy Champions over the last decade with their stand alone championship event, the reigning champion is none other that three time back to back Nitro Buggy World Champion Davide Ongaro. Despite the European Nitro Buggy title still eluding the Italian, he is the back to back Champion of eBuggy having also won the title previously in 2019. With Barcelos hosting the 2025 EFRA European Nitro Buggy Championship back in early July of this year, the European’s should have slight home advantage. David Ronnefalk lifted the title for a fourth time, and the Swede would love nothing more than to complete the set by adding an Electric World title to the Nitro Worlds win he took in 2016 in Las Vegas. While the US team is relatively small by their standards, they do have their defending eBuggy Champion Dakotah Phend making the trip. Unlike 1:8 Nitro Buggy, in which fuel stops and tyre changes come into play over the long races, 1:8 electric is more heads up racing and we are excited to see how things unfold over the next 5-days. Our coverage presented by Team Cayote, who offer competition spec ESC’s, Motors, and Batteries, will begin on Day 1 of the event, Tuesday, when drivers start off two days of practice, followed by 2-days of qualifying with the finals on Saturday.

View aerial view of track layout here

August 22, 2025

Boots gets Gen ace power for eBuggy

Gens ace have announced that leading international 1:8 Offroad racer Elliott Boots will use its batteries to power his factory Sworkz eBuggy campaign. The already crowned 2025 British National Nitro Buggy Champion, who last weekend made it 5 wins from as many rounds, will debut his new deal at the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship next week in Portugal. On annoumcing their latest driver signing, Gens ace posted, ‘We proudly welcome the world-class British off-road driver Elliott Boots to the Gens ace team. As a 2x European Champion, DNC Champion, Silverstate Champion, and 9x British Champion, Elliott has proven his skill across the toughest off-road tracks. With his extensive experience and passion for pushing limits, we believe Elliott’s addition will strengthen the Gens ace team and help achieve even greater victories in the off-road scene.’

Source: Gens Ace [gensace.de]

August 19, 2025

Polito joins Team Power HD

Leading servo manufacturer Power HD has announced that Italian 1:8 Offroad racer Mattia Polito has joined its team driver line-up. Born in 2003, the multiple European Championship finalist, 2018 European B Champion, and 2021 Italian National Champion, placed 14th at the 2024 IFMAR World Championship in Spain. With podium results at the SIGP race in China and Asian Buggy Championships in the Philippines, Polito is now entered the global Top 25 RC 1:8 Nitro Buggy Rankings (P18). Polito will run the Power HD S35-V2 as his throttle servo and GTS-6 as steering servo as part of his campaign as an Sworkz team driver.

Source: PowerHD [chd.hk]

August 18, 2025

Neumann retains German 1:10 Offroad titles

Sworkz’s Joern Neumann has successfully defended his two DMC German 1:10 Offroad National titles winning 4WD Buggy and 2WD Truck at the ORC-B Göttingen indoor carpet track located in Lower Saxony. In qualifying it was Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen, the Finn now living in Germany, who secured the TQ in 4WD Buggy topping 4 of the 5 qualifiers. Fastest in Q2, Neumann would line up P2 followed by Julius Stein and Marcel Schneider. In Truck, Neumann’s claimed pole with four TQ runs while taking the final qualifier the Schumacher of Sören Sparbier claimed second. While Neumann wrapped up the Truck title with wins in A1 & 2, the podium completed by Sparbier and Pierre Theuerkorn, the Buggy title would go to the wire. In A1, each race 7-minutes long, Haatanen would see off pressure from Neumann to take the win but when they resumed their battle in A2 a small bobble by Haatanen was enough for Neumann to go to the front. As Haatanen tried to find his way back to the front he would hit the outside wall of the track resulting in him breaking a rear corner off his buggy. With the title coming down to A3, it looked like a mistake coming up on 2-minutes had ended Neumann’s quest. With the Top Qualifier having a huge lead, Neumann set about a charge and with 2-minutes to go was back on the rear wing of Haatanen. On the last lap Neumann attempted an inside pass but contact sent Haatanen’s buggy tumbling and as Neumann waited Schneider came through for the win ahead of Haatanen creating a three way tie for the overall win. After the tie-break it was Neumann who was declared the Champion, this his 15th National title in 4WD Buggy, with Schneider the runner-up and Haatanen third.

View 2WD Truck Podium here

August 18, 2025

Hongyu·GDC Offroad Track Opening Race – Announcement

With the brand new 2026 IFMAR 1:12 and ITSC World Championship host track Hongyu·GDC in the final stages of completion, details have been announced for the opening race on the offroad track that is part of the very impressive new RC facility located in Foshan, China. The FIRC (Foshan International RC) Offroad Race will take place Oct 31 – Nov 2nd, with the organisers hoping drivers will combine it China’s well established annual SIGP Offroad Race which takes place one week later at the former 1:10 Offroad World Championship in Xiamen. Hongyu·GDC’s roof covered dirt offroad track is the work of Spanish track builder Miguelo Izquierdo Rodriguez, many drivers knowing his work from races such as Buggyland, both in Madrid, Spain and California in the US, as well as Barcelos in Portugal which recently hosted the 1:8 Nitro Buggy European Championship and will stage the inaugural 1:8 Electric Buggy World Championship next week. The FIRC race will cater for 1:8 Nitro Buggy, 1:8 eBuggy, 1:8 Nitro Truggy, and 1:10 4WD Buggy.

View more image & race poster here