November 15, 2022

New Swiss ‘RC Indoor Arena’ to open in December

Access to tracks are vital to R/C so it is great to hear about plans for a new Indoor facility in Switzerland. Through the work of onroad and offroad drivers, they are creating the ‘RC Indoor Arena’, a beautiful complex in Wädenswil.  The 600m2 offroad track is equipped with new EOS carpet and while onroad drivers will also enjoy a new 720m2 ETS carpet surface. Set to open at the beginning of December, this indoor complex will be ideal for preparing for the next indoor season and will give racers a place to keep their driving skills sharp for the Winter.

Source: RC Indoor Arena [rc-indoor-arena.ch]


November 15, 2022

Batlle confirms departure from Mugen

Former World Champion Robert Batlle has announced his much anticipated departure from Mugen, a combination that triumphed at the 2012 IFMAR 1:8 Buggy World Championships in Argentina.  The Spaniard’s announcement ends a lengthy and fruitful 12-year stint with the Japanese manufacturer.  Batlle made the announcement on his Facebook page in an open message to Mugen.

Read Batlle ‘Letter to Mugen’ here


November 14, 2022

Boda does the double at Coupe des Champions

The Coupe des Champions race returned over the weekend with past double champion Clement Boda again doing the double at French indoor offroad event. The Sworkz driver kick off the weekend buy securing pole position for the 2WD Final as he topped 3 of the four qualifyng heats. From the TQ he then took the overall victory for 2WD Buggy with a triple of wins in the finals. Behind him the Xrays of Mathieu Briere and Martin Bayer completed the podium. In 4WD Boda had a little more work to do to take the win. Failing finish 2 of the qualifier, he final hit the top in Q4 to secure P2 on the grid behind Bayer. A second in A1 and third in A2, the last one was the critical one for Boda as he took the win in the fastest time securing him the double. Behind young driver Noha Benmohamed claimed second with Bayer again final the final step on the podium.

View 4WD podium here


November 11, 2022

IFMAR publish provisional ’23 World Championships dates

Just as we are about to crown the final World Champion of the comeback year that is 2022 at the 1:10 nitro Touring Car World Championship in Thailand, IFMAR has published provisional dates for the 2023 encounters.  A total of four World Championship events will take place starting with 1:10 Electric Offroad which is scheduled for September 9-17th at Hobby Action in Arizona, USA.  Added as a new World Championship class and taking place at the beginning of 2020 just before Covid,  1:8 GT will travel to Sydney, Australia from October 8th to 15th.  Later the same month the 23rd running of IFMAR’s oldest class, 1:8 Nitro Onroad, returns to Japan for the third time from October 27th to November 4th.  The final World Champion will then be crowned in November when 1:12 takes place from the 6-11th.  Having covered our first World Championship in 2017 (1:8 Onroad, Argentina) and attended a World Championship every year since then,  we are looking forward to continuing to tell the story of how each race unfolds.

View calendar here


November 11, 2022

EssexCarpetClash Round 2 – Report

The second round of the EssexCarpetClash took place recently with drivers being greeted to an extra addition of carpet, making the track larger and allowing more space for all to race.  The layout would prove challenging for all abilities, with fast following sections followed by a couple of technically placed jumps for racers to negotiate.  Qualifying would see Christopher Delves (TLR) take the top spot for round 1, ahead of Ellis Stafford (Schumacher), and Harley Eldridge (Xray) who tangled with lapped cars costing her a few places in round.  Round 2 would see the likes of Ed Kerry (Serpent) mix it up with the top 5 cars along with Klye Moon (Willspeed) who this round took the top honours.  Moon was able to take another TQ round, with fellow team mate and creator Will Johnson (Willspeed) placing 5th in round.  The final qualifying round saw Eldridge take the round, having been consistently in the top 3 positions each round.  So, lining up for the finals would see pole man Moon, followed by Eldridge, Delves, Stafford, Kerry…

Continue reading here


November 7, 2022

Orlowksi & Pålsson win at Euro Buggy Masters

Continuing his successful Swedish tour, Michal Orlowski took the 4WD win at Euro Buggy Masters indoor offroad event in Furulund.  Having won at the Indoor Touring Car Swedish National Championship at David Ronnefalk’s DR Racing Arena the previous weekend, the factory Schumacher driver travelled to the home club of another leading Swedish racer Jessica Pålsson.  Taking the TQ from Alexander Landén and Joona Haatanen, in the finals he would take the win ahead of Team Associated’s Haatanen with Pålsson completing the podium.  In 2WD, it was Pålsson who led proceedings securing the TQ from Orlowski and Landén on the fresh EOS carpet track.  In the final she took her Schumacher to victory in all three finals ahead of Orlowski and Landén  which is how they lined up on the final podium at the Furulund RCK hosted event.

Image: Michal Orlowski [Facebook]


October 24, 2022

Rivkin is ‘Master of Dirt’

The 8th annual Trinity Masters of Dirt took place over the weekend with Team Associated’s Spencer Rivkin being crowned the overall ‘Master of Dirt’. Held at Beach RC & Hobbies in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the race sees driver race over three classes for the ‘Master’ title.  The reigning 2WD Buggy World Champion completed a clean sweep of 2WD Mod Buggy securing both the TQ & win which combined with 2nd in Mod Truck and 3rd in 4WD Buggy crowned him the Modified division ‘Master of Dirt’.  In Mod Truck it was Associated’s Dustin Evans who took the win while Dakotah Phend took the 4WD Buggy win ahead of Aydin Horne.  In the Stock division it was Team Losi Racing’s Brennan Schimmel won was the ‘Master of Dirt’.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]


October 20, 2022

US Carpet Offroad C/ships Spec Tyre Announcement

The US Carpet Off Road Championships has announced the spec tyre suppliers for this year’s running of the Cleveland, Ohio, based race.  Started in 2021, the week after the legendary US Indoor Champs On Road race, the 2nd edition takes place on December 1-4 with world famous announcer Scotty Ernst in charge of proceedings.  While the USCOC event has open tyre classes, for its Spec tyre classes Ernst is proud to announce their partnership with Schumacher and JConcepts. Buggy classes will use Schumacher Tires with the Truck classes running on JConcepts.  For 2WD it is the Cut Stagger front and Cactus rear that will be used while 4WD uses the Cactus Fusion 2 front and Cactus rear.  In Truck classes it is a Swaggers and Pin Downs combination for both Short Course and Truck.

Source: USCOC [carpetoffroad.com]