April 19, 2026

Hagberg claims record 9th European 1:12 title

Alexander Hagberg has claimed his 9th EFRA 1:12 European Championship title, the Xray driver surpassing David Spashett as the championship’s most successful driver today in Messina, Italy.  In qualifying, Hagberg would open with a TQ run adding three more over the 5 rounds.  Topping the third round, defending Champion Marc Rheinard put his Awesomatix second on the grid ahead of Mathias Nedrebo, Simon Lauter and Martin Hudy.  A1 would see Hagberg set the fastest lap as he pulled away out front to win the 8-minute encounter by over 4-seconds from Rheinard.  A2 would see a lot more action with traffic playing crucial roles in the results.  The first incident at the mid point of the race saw Rheinard get collected by Hudy’s car as it bounced off the outside boards on the straight and into the path of the German who was 1-second behind Hagberg at the time.  This promoted Norwegian Nedrebo to second 3-seconds back from Hagberg, the Swede looking like the remaining 4-minutes would just be a formality to him taking a record 9th win.  Hitting traffic on the penultimate lap, unfortunately contact with 1:8 GT World Champion Alessio Mazzeo would lead to a series of crashes for Hagbeg allowing Nedrebo through along with Jan Ratheisky.  Unable to get the places back over the final lap, Hagberg finished P3 and the title race was still open.  The final encounter however would see Hagberg lead home Rheinard and Nedrebo and lock in his ninth title 12-years after claiming his first one, also in Italy.  Nedrebo would make it an Xray 1-2 with Rheinard completing the podium.  It was to be a double title weekend for Xray as Adam Izsay became the new European Spec Champion.  Starting from P2 behind the Excelerate of defending Champion Ollie Payne, the Hungarian would win the title thanks to his A1 winning time which gave him the tie-breaker over A3 winner Payne.  Winning A2 from P3 on the grid, the Schumacher of Andrea Torregiani completed the podium at Raradise RC Arena.

Image: Xray [Facebook]


April 16, 2026

Thurston opens BRCA title defence with Halifax win

While unpredictable weather greeted racers for the opening round of the BRCA British National 1:8 Onroad Championship at Halifax, it was business as usual for the Mugen Seiki of reigning Champion Alex Thurston who took the win.  Qualifying for the opening race of the 8 round championship would see Thurston secure the TQ by some margin ahead of Michael Lee and Richard Boult as 2025 season opening race winner Tim Wood found himself down in P18.  With a damp track for the start of the half final, it would dry out allowing Thurston to take a convincing win over the Shepherd pairing of 5th place qualifier David Spashett and Andrew Hastings.  Next up in the championship is the Brooklands track which hosts a double header on May 3-4.

Image: Alex Thurston [Facebook]


April 16, 2026

Greece to host Tamiya Open European Championships

The organisers of the Open European Championship for Tamiya onroad cars have announced that for the first time ever they will take place in Greece.  Scheduled to run from May 1-3, 2026, the event is organised by ATA Świat Modeli i Zabawek in cooperation with Tamiya, Hobbyland Greece, and the Automobilklub Polski.  With racing set to take place at Sonik Arena in Thessaloniki, Greece, this event is the result of several years of collaboration between these company and the Greek RC community, with all involved very proud to finally bring this idea to life.  Those familiar with ATA will know the great work Niko Triandafilidis has done for the hobby and in particular is efforts are bringing young drivers into racing. The race regulations have been carefully prepared by RC communities from Poland, Greece, and Germany to ensure accessibility and fair competition for drivers from different backgrounds.  What makes this event special it is the first open European-level Tamiya championship held in Greece and it is open to all Tamiya enthusiasts – from beginners to experienced racers.  Multiple classes are designed so that everyone can find a suitable category to compete in.  An additional highlights for participants is a free accommodation offer
for the first two registered drivers from each European country who will receive free hotel accommodation provided by the organiser.  With registration already open drivers can sign up here.

Source: Tamiya Open European Championship


April 15, 2026

IFMAR Large Scale Worlds on target for capacity entry

The IFMAR Large Scale World Championships look set to return with a potential capacity entry in Switzerland as the governing body published details on the latest entries ahead of the Summer event.  The last World title for the class was awarded back in 2022 after the planned 2024 World Championships in Australia was cancelled due to a lack of entries.  With the class popular in Europe, the awarding of the race to the iconic MRTM Lostallo track, the home of large scale racing, the 12th running of the Worlds looks set to be close to the 150 permitted entries.  In its post, IFMAR highlighted that 111 entries have been received from the EFRA Bloc (Europe), with 6 from FEMCA (Asia), 1 from FAMAR (South America) and up to 5 from ROAR (North America).  With the Worlds 3 & a half months away, any open places with be redistributed the first week of which could allow 16 more drivers from Europe to join the race.  With Lostallo hosting the opening round of the 2026 Euro Large Scale Series last weekend, which was won by reigning World Champion Markus Feldmann, round 2 of that series at the end of June will act as the World Warm-up race, track staging the actual Worlds from July 27 to August 1st.

Source: IFMAR [Facebook]


April 15, 2026

Isaacs wins Mod TC at Canadian Nationals

Awesomatix’s Sam Isaacs took the Modified Touring Car win at this year’s Canadian Onroad Nationals hosted by Rose City Speedway in Ontario.  Attracting 339 entries, Xray’s Adam Izsay made the trip to the race with the Hungarian coming away with four podium finishes that also included winning the large Touring Super Stock field and the FWD class.  In Modified TC, it was multiple ROAR Champion Isaacs who secured the TQ ahead of defending Champion Hebert.  In the single A-Main Isaacs led from start to finish, with Izsay, who set the fastest lap of the race, getting by Hebert for second.  While a small field in 1:12 Modified, Hebert held onto his title winning from Isaacs as Top Qualifier Izsay who dropped to third.  With Touring Super Stock having a big enough entry to warranty a G Final, it was Eric Anderson who was Iszay’s closest challenger with his Awesomatix while Craig Xavier completed the podium from 4th on the grid and also won Touring Stock.  Interestingly Anderson won himself a Giant Mountain Bike in the race raffle!!

Image: Sam Isaacs [Facebook]


April 13, 2026

Kurzbuch wins Ielasi Tuned Trophy

Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch enjoyed another win on Italian soil, the Swiss racer backing up his recent win of the Pepe Group International Race with victory at the annual Ielasi Tuned Trophy.  A race first hosted by former World Champion Daniele Ielasi in 2015, the annual Ielasi Tuned Trophy again attracted some big names to the Northern Italian Leno track.  While last year’s winner Dario Balestri was absent from this year’s line-up, qualifying for the 7th edition would see Kurzbuch secure the 1:8 TQ ahead of Capricorn’s Toni Gruber, Infinity’s Francesco Tironi and Serpent’s Mirko Salemi while World Championship Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani ended up P6.  While Gruber would post the fastest lap of the 45-minute final, the German could do anything about Kuzbuch taking the win, his margin 9.5-seconds at the finish.  Kurzbuch’s father assisted in pit lane for the final by US racer Paolo Morganti who nlw heads up Ielasi Tuned America.  Salemi would just hold off Simone Lotti for the final podium pacing.  Catanzani would finish P5 ahead of Tironi who hit problems late in the first half of the race but rejoined after losing over a minute.  In 1:10, Mario Spiniello took the TQ but retired from the final with Australian stalwart Gerhard Kandelhart, last year’s Top Qualifier but hitting trouble in the final, taking the win.

Images: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]


April 9, 2026

Masters of Foam 2026 – Announcement

Establishing itself as one of the major annual races on the international 1:12 calendar, the Belgian based Masters of Foam has announced the 2026 edition will run from October 23-25th.  Hosted by Miniatuur Racing Club Zwevegem, the 2025 edition of the race attracted over 150 entries with British racer Ollie Payne doing the double.  Also counting 1:12 World Champion Alexander Hagberg as a previous champion, Masters of Foam returns to the same venue as last year, the OC De Spoele venue located in Zwevegem in the province of West Flanders which is in the North East of the country.

Source: Masters of Foam [Facebook]


April 7, 2026

Inaugural FEMCA GT C/ship to be relocated from Vietnam

Asia’s RC racing governing body FEMCA has announced that the impressive new X-RC Complex in Lam Dong, Vietnam, will now not host the inaugural Asian 1:8 Nitro GT Championship due to the delayed opening of the areas new airport.  Announced last November and originally scheduled to take place from July 17-19th, the event had attracted a lot of European interest with World Champion Alessio Mazzeo, European Champion Natanaele Senesi, and Spanish Champion Raul Daras Anton all intending to travel to the inaugural race that crowns the official Champion of Asia.  With Vietnam hoping to return to host a future edition of the championship once the airport is opened, it appears Australia has stepped in in offering to host the 2026 event with the moved also expected to result in a new date being scheduled.  Making the announcement on Facebook, FEMCA posted, ‘Racers, due to the airport opening being delayed, the journey to the new track will take on extra logistical challenge and will not be ideal.  After discussions with the the organizer, it was decided that XRC will not host the race this year and will come back again when the new airport has finally been opened allowing for easier access to the venue.  Another venue/country has come forward to request hosting the race and they are in the final process of getting everything in place.  Announcements will follow once confirmation is provided.’

Source: FEMCA [Facebook]


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