Red RC » R Off Road

April 17, 2023

Cragg & Hall win British 1:10 Offroad Nationals Opener

The BRCA British 1:10 Offroad National Championships kicked off at Robin Hood Raceway over the weekend with a double victory for Team Associated in the hands of Neil Cragg in 2WD and Tommy Hall in 4WD. The first date on the 6 round National calendar, Saturday’s action would decide 2WD with qualifying seeing former World Champion Cragg taking the overall TQ from Jamie Hall, Josh Holsworth and Tommy Hall. In the finals on the astro surface track, Cragg failed to capitalise on his pole position starting position as Jamie Hall took the win ahead him but the reigning Champion made amends in A2 and A3 winning both to open his 2023 season on maximum points ahead of Jamie and Tommy Hall. In 4WD, it was Tommy Hall who was Top Qualifier after 6 rounds of heats ahead of Cragg and Schumacher’s Lee Martin. Hall took all three A-Mains with Martin able to get the better of Cragg to secure second overall.

Image: CML Distribution [Facebook]

April 12, 2023

Boda continues domination of French 1:10 Offroad Nationals

Sworkz team driver Clément Boda continued his domination of the French 1:10 Offroad National Championships with another double victory at Round 2 over the weekend. Winning both 2WD and 4WD at last month’s season opener, which was hosted by Club Auto Modelisme St Exupery on their indoor carpet track, Round 2 was also on carpet but this time outdoors at the track of Mini Racing Club Antibois. In 2WD qualifying it would be the Xray of Noha Ben Mohamed who would secure the overall TQ from Boda with the order reversed in 4WD. In the finals, Boda would win the first two 2WD encounters to wrap up the win but in 4WD it would go to A3 as Mohamed won A2 from Boda by just 3/10ths of a second. Staying out front in A3, Boda would maintain his 100% Nationals winning streak. The 4WD podium would be completed by Valentin Peuziat while in 2WD Carl Maignien rounded out the Top 3.

Image: Clément Boda [Facebook]

April 9, 2023

Bermudez wins inaugural Montpellier GP Brushless

Having won SuperPole yesterday to become the Top Qualifier, Rémy Bermudez has won the inaugural Montpellier GP Brushless in France. Xray’s young talent had a tough start to finals day at Circuit du Mini Bolide Montpellierain as the first of the four A-Main Legs resulted in a DNF while the HB Racing of Theo Lemaire took the win from the Infinity of Riccardo Berton. Resetting for Leg 2, Bermudez resumed normal service winning the 10-minute encounter by 1-second from Berton. Having had issues of his own in qualifying yesterday, leaving him 9th on the grid, Bruno Coelho would come through for the Leg 3 win but in the decider it was Bermudez who delivered the win to secure the overall title ahead of Berton with Coelho completing the podium. Behind, Lemaire took fourth ahead of Mayako’s David Ronnefalk and Tekno’s Marco Baruffolo.

Image: Xray [Facebook]

April 8, 2023

Bermudez Top Qualifier at Montpellier GP Brushless

Young French talent Rémy Bermudez will lead away the A-Mains at the Montpellier Brushless GP tomorrow after the Xray driver won the SuperPole battle from Marco Baruffolo to be declared Top Qualifier at the inaugural running of the event. With the Nitro edition of the Montpellier Grand Prix holding the long standing honours of being the event to kickstart the annual outdoor buggy racing season in Europe, the first electric edition has attracted a strong international field with the Infinity of Italy’s Riccardo Berton topping the ranking after the four rounds of qualifying. Topping Q2 & 3 he was followed the Tekno of fellow countryman Baruffolo, fastest in Q4, with Bermudez ending up third overall having topped the opening qualifier. Two time European eBuggy Champion David Ronnefalk would take his Mayako to P4. In Superpole Bermudez would be the only driver to record a 33-second lap topping the battle from Baruffolo. The A-Mains will be run over four legs with each driver’s best three to count.

Image: Circuit du MBM [Facebook]

April 3, 2023

Phend & Fuller double at 2023 Psycho Nitro Blast

Dakotah Phend was the big winner of the Psycho Nitro Blast over the weekend, the TLR driver taking the top prize in both Nitro and Electric Buggy. The 16th running of PNB, the Tennessee indoor event attracted 767 entries meaning just two rounds of qualifying with Phend topping both Nitro rounds from Spencer Rivkin to secure the overall TQ. Third in both qualifiers Brandon Rose secured 3rd ahead of Ryan Maifield and Jared Tebo. In eBuggy, Rivkin and Phend took one round each but on tie break it was the Team Associated driver who was the Top Qualifier with defending champion Mason Fuller 3rd from Ryan Lutz. In the single 10-minute eBuggy final, Phend found his way to the front after four laps after both he and Rivkin lost position early on. In the end Phend would finish 2.8-seconds clear of Rivkin with the Tekno of 10th place qualifier Seth VanDalen coming through for third. Concluding the 2023 Psycho Nitro Blast, the 45-minute Nitro Final saw Phend capitalise on his TQ to take the win by 10-seconds from Fuller and Rose with Maifield 4th. Fuller would do the double in Truggy, the HB Racing driver taking the Nitro win from the TQ ahead of Phend and in eTruggy he lead a Fuller 1-2 from Kaden who had taken the overall TQ.

Image: JConcepts [Facebook]

April 3, 2023

Horne does double at Pro-line April Fools Classic

The 34th Annual Pro-line April Fools Classic took place over the weekend with Aydin Horne the big winner in Utah. In 2WD Buggy, the Team Associated driver secured TQ honours after topping the final 2 of the four qualifiers, his Q4 pace giving him the tie breaker over Schumacher’s Broc Champlin. Domnic Paccione secured P3 with the second fastest time for both Q3 & 4. In 4WD Buggy it would be Champlin who secured pole for the triple finals after he also set the pace in the third & fourth rounds. Horne opened quali with a TQ run while team-mate Dustin Evans topped Q2 but had to settle for 4th on the grid behind Kevin Gillespie. In the 4WD finals, second place starter Horne would get the better of Champlin to take A1 and repeating that again in A2 wrapped up an earlier overall win. Following Champlin home in A3 for a P2 finish, Evans would complete the podium line-up ahead of Xray’s Ty Tessmann. In the 2WD finals, Horne won A1 while Champlin retired and Evans came through from P5 for second. Taking A2 ahead of Horne, Champlin forced play to the last final of the event however Horne duly took A3 to complete the April Fools Classic double.

Image: Team Associated [Facebook]

March 30, 2023

IFMAR World Cup 1:8 Electric Buggy – Announcement

IFMAR has announced details of the first ever World Cup for 1:8 Electric Buggy. While 1:8 nitro has enjoyed World Championship status since 1986, the World Cup will be the first step for the electric category to become a World Championship category in 2025. The World Cup event will take place on September 22-24 and be hosted by the Club ACDB “OS BEIROES” at their 310m track in Guarda, Portugal. The track previously hosted the 2010 EFRA European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championship when Reno Savoya took the third of his European titles. While taking place only one week after the 1:10 Offroad World Championships at Hobby Action in the USA, the 1:8 Electric Buggy World Cup is still expected to be well supported by the industry given the growing future importance of the category. View Stage 1 report here.

Source: IFMAR [imfar.org]

March 28, 2023

Ceseña wins 2023 Mexican Offroad Nationals opener

Last weekend, the first round of the Mexican 1:8 Off Road National Championship was held in the beautiful city of Los Cabos, BCS where Mayako driver Jose “Tito” Ceseña took the win. Drivers from all over Mexico and the US showed up for the opening round of the 2023 season. In qualifying it was Luis Gudiño who was the Top Qualifier topping 2 of the 3 rounds with Ceseña topping Q2. Qualifying directly into the Semi Finals HobbyShop.MX’s star driver Ceseña faced some electrical gremlins that forced him to retire from the race. This meant that the Last Chance Qualifier Race was the only way to make it to the A Main. Ceseña led from start to finish and secured the last spot in the 60-minute-long main final. Starting 13th on the grid, the Mayako driver was able to push forward his Energy Fuel powered car to the top 3 by lap 7. Here is where the real battle started with Sworkz team drivers Diego Marroquin and Gudiño. Strategy played a huge role during the race too. Mayako Mexico Team Manager Daniel Ornelas, performed lighting fast pits stops with Tito’s wife Dani, that helped close the gap to the lead drivers. Ceseña continued to push placing fast lap after fast lap. After 65 laps Ceseña was able to dispose of both Sworkz Mexico drivers to secure the first win of the season for the Mayako/HobbyShop.MX team. Marroquin and Mark Morrow completed the podium. Next round will be held in Guadalajara at the new Huecos Track in May.

Report: Juan Herrero