October 13, 2022

Ielasi Tuned add Palsson to team for 2023

Ielasi Tuned, the engine brand of former World Champion Daniele Ielasi, has announced fast Swedish female racer Jessica Palsson will join its team for 2023.  The 2022 Nordic Offroad Champion will use the DIRT R engine from the Italian company in her HB Racing D819RS as part of 2023 race plans.  Commenting on the announcement Palsson said, ‘I wanted to test something new and I had been looking for new engine at Euros and Worlds. The engine that has caught my eyes was precisely Ielasi Tuned. Lots of power, good run time. We started run in my first engine and it looks good! I really looking forward not only to use DIRT R but also to work with family Ielasi.’

Source: Ielasi Tuned [ielasituned.com]


October 12, 2022

EssexCarpetClash5 Round1 – Report

EssexCarpetClash returned the first weekend of October for their fifth year championship in the southern region of England. This year, there were a couple of changes compared to previous years, the main being a limit to the number of rear sets of tyres used for the day. A maximum of 2 sets, but the second set (if you chose to use them) could only be used in the finals. Eleven car heats and finals were the other addition, but this was accompanied by a larger track and in turn a longer lap time giving everyone space on the track. As in the past, it was the best 2 qualifying runs from 4 (round by round qualifying) to count for the final grid positions. Ed Kerry, (now running a Serpent) edged the pole position slot from Harley Eldridge (Xray) who were both joint on points, only separated on countback by less than 2 tenths of a second. 3rd on the grid would be last year’s champion Klye Moon (Willspeed).

Continue reading report here


October 10, 2022

Sugiura defends JMRCA National title after 2 year break

Yusuke Sugiura has successfully defended his JMRCA Japanese1:8 Offroad National title as the championship was hosted for the first time over the weekend since 2019 due to Covid.  The weekend was very much a repeat of 2019 as the Futaba Buggy Track in Ichihara City hosted the championship once again.  Topping three of the four rounds of qualifying to secure the overall TQ,  Sugiura would again lead home Sanwa’s Kouki Kato in the 1-hour final, crossing the finish line with a 1-lap advantage for his fourth consecutive National title win.  Making it an all Mugen podium was 3rd place qualifying Shin Adachi who finished just 1/3 of a lap behind Kato.

Image: Kouki Kato [Facebook]


October 7, 2022

Hobby Action awarded 2023 1:10 Offroad World Championship

Hobby Action RC Raceway has been awarded the 2023 IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship, the Arizona indoor track having been selected by host bloc ROAR from a strong list of candidate tracks across the United States.  Officially made public via a Facebook Live post by Hobby Action’s Larry Tom and Jake Thayer, the announcement the track will host the 19th running of the World Championship is significant.  A track best known for the annual Desert Classic and Kinwald BKlassic races, the state of Arizona is the home of 2015 & 2019 2WD World Champion Spencer Rivkin, both his titles won on indoor tracks,  and to 2017 double champion Ryan Maifield for whom Hobby Action RC Raceway is his ‘home’ track.  With the United States having had the honour of hosting the inaugural 1:10 Offroad World Championships back in 1985, this will be the 6th time the nation has hosted the IFMAR event.  On four of those occasions it was home drivers who took the win in either 2WD or 4WD.  While no date has yet been officially set,  Tom said in the announcement that he expects it will most likely take place in the month of September.

Source: Hobby Action RC Raceway [Facebook]


October 6, 2022

Kyosho representing RC at Japanese F1 Grand Prix

With Formula 1 in Suzuka this week for the Japanese Grand Prix it is nice to see iconic Japanese RC brand Kyosho making the most of the opportunity to represent our sport as they hang out with the Alpine F1 team.  Legend of 1:8 Offroad both as a driver and as Kyosho’s MP Buggy designer, Yuichi Kanai has been showing off the latest MP10 finished in Alpine colour scheme to F1 great Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.  Bringing along a second car in his own trademark green colour scheme, Kanai brought the sound & smell of nitro to the paddock as himself and Orcon drove both cars.  Having got his hands on Orcon’s #31 Alpine A522 steering wheel, apparently Kanai is waiting patiently for the team to offer him his first Formula 1 driving experience!!

View Kanai with Ocon here


October 3, 2022

Phend does double at JConcepts Fall Indoor Nationals

Now in its 12th season, the JConcepts Indoor National Series travelled to Hoosier RC HobbyPlex in New Albany, IN, over the weekend for the ‘Fall’ event where Dakotah Phend came away with the buggy double.  The Team Losi Racing star would secure the TQ in both 2WD and 4WD buggy en route to taking home the wins against three World Champions.  Fastest in all three 2WD qualifiers, Phend would line up on pole ahead Xray’s Ty Tessmann and Yokomo’s Ryan Maifield.  Neither were able to find away passed in A1 & 2 allowing Phend to wrap things up early.  With him absent from A3, Tessmann could take the win from Cole Tollard to secure 2nd overall with World Champion Spencer Rivkin completing the overall podium thanks to two 3rd place finishes.  In 4WD Phend again topped all qualifiers to lead away the A-Main field from Maifield, Broc Champlin, Tessmann and Rivkin.  While he would win A1, an early mistake in A2 left Phend with a 5th as Maifield took the win from Tessmann meaning it was A3 to decide the overall win.  An exciting final encounter would see Maifield put a pass on Phend to go to the front with the TLR driver quickly coming back at him, unfortunately a problem for Maifield would deny the big showdown.  Making it a INS podium double, Tessmann would complete the 4WD Buggy Top 3 behind Phend and Maifield.

Image: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]


October 2, 2022

Canas wins Buggyland 9.0

Less than a month after the country hosted the 1:8 Buggy World Championship, some of the best offroad drivers where back in Spain over the weekend for the the annual Buggyland race where Sworkz’ Juan Carlos Canas was this year’s big winner.  The 9th edition of the Madrid based event, qualifying in Pro Buggy opened with Kyosho driver Joao Figueiredo setting the pace around the Circuito de Fuencarral from Canas, Berkan Kilic and Marco Baruffolo.  Q2 & 3 saw Canas go fastest securing the former champion the overall TQ from Figueiredo, young Spain talent Adrian Pariente, Kilic, Baruffolo and World Champion Davide Ongaro. Having already secure the eBuggy TQ & win from Ongaro and Pariente, Canas would do the double to win from the 1-hour nitro final from the Mugens of 8th place qualifier Burak Kilic and former World Champion Robert Batlle after Anger was an early retirement from 2nd position. In Saturday’s Nitro Truggy Final Tekno’s Baruffolo claimed victory, the Italian holding off Canas (P2) and Figueiredo (P3).

Image: Sworkz [Facebook]


September 26, 2022

Sturdy triples at Australian Offroad Nationals

The 2022 RCRA Australian 1:10 Offroad Titles, sponsored by SpeedyRC, was held at Chargers RC over the weekend. While the 5 day event had its difficulties with rains cutting practice short, the big winner was Team Associated’s Christopher Sturdy who took the TQ and win in 2WD, 4WD and Mod Truck for a National Title triple. The first of the Premier classes lived up to the hype, with all of Australia’s best talent turning up to put on a show. Sturdy would take TQ all 4 rounds of 2WD qualifying with Lachlan Donnelly often nipping at the heels only a couple of seconds off. A clean display in A1 allowed Sturdy to pull a small gap over Donnelly. In A2 Donnelly was on song, following Sturdy around within a few tenths for most the race but Sturdy was not shaken and would also take victory in A2 giving him overall win.

Continue reading report here