Red RC » R On Road

September 18, 2025

Mazzeo leads way in inaugural eGT World title fight

In contention for the overall TQ in the established IFMAR 1:8 GT Nitro World Championship, Raptor’s Alessio Mazzeo leads the way in the inaugural Electric GT World title race which is also running in Chile. While just 10-drivers make up the entry list for the quieter class, it is again proving to be an all Italian battle at the front. EFRA’s inaugural eGT European Champion back in 2023, Mazzeo would post three TQ runs today with the only other driver to top a round being Natanaele Senesi when he took Q3. Behind them it is Capricorn’s Alex D’Angelo who sits third in the overnight ranking. With the final two qualifiers set to run tomorrow, potentially Senesi still has a shot at becoming the Top Qualifier in Santiago but he’ll need the perfect day to deny Mazzeo the TQ starting position.

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September 17, 2025

Catanzani holds overnight TQ at GT Worlds

With the 3rd running of the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships taking place in Chile, it is Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani who leads the way after 4 rounds of qualifying to hold the overnight TQ in Santiago. A driver who came to international prominence at the previous GT Worlds two years ago in Sydney, Australia, after a stressful start to the Day 1 of qualifying when he was briefly disqualified from Q1 this morning, the Italian has since taken charge of proceedings. With a TQ run in Q2, he backed that up with another two TQ runs in rounds 3 & 4 of six although he admitted that Q1 winner Alessio Mazzeo had found something on his Raptor set-up. He also felt his rival would have most like have TQ’d had it not been for another car spinning in of him and resulting in unavoidable contact and 2-seconds lost. The gap at the end of the 7-minutes only just 6/10ths of a second with Natanaele Senesi completing the Top 3 behind Mazzeo. Venezuela’s Diego Morganti capped off his day with his best showing yet to post the 4th fastest time, the best performance we seen so far from any non-Italian driver.

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September 17, 2025

Izsay joins Xray R&D team

Xray has announced that team driver Ádám Izsay has joined their R&D team in a full-time capacity. The Hungarian racer who has brought the Slovakian manufacturer much success on track will now bring his experience to the company’s R&D onroad team and work alongside Martin and Juraj Hudy. On making the announcement Xray said, ‘Adam has already demonstrated his value through his dedication, precision, and strong contributions to testing and racing. His professionalism and commitment to excellence make him an ideal addition to XRAY’s R&D program. Each year, Xray annually updates the majority of the world’s largest portfolio of high-competition model racing cars — a lineup of 20 different models. This extensive process requires not only engineering expertise but also continuous on-track evaluation. With Adam now part of the R&D structure, Xray will further strengthen its ability to innovate and accelerate development especially in on-road field. Together, Martin Hudy, Juraj Hudy and Adam Izsay will form a highly effective R&D on-road team focused on pushing the boundaries of performance and maintaining Xray’s reputation for world-leading design and quality.’

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

September 17, 2025

Catanzani takes control in Q2 & 3

Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani has taken control of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships in Chile, the Italian producing back to back TQ runs as he topped the times in the second & third rounds of qualifying as things warm-up a little in Santiago. With a cold start to qualifying this morning, the sun finally burned it’s way through the earlier fog with the snow capped mountain in the distance making up the back drop to the track as Q3 completed the first half qualifying. Complaining of the cold after Q1, Catanzani would outpace Top Seed and Q1 winner Alessio Mazzeo by 1.1-seconds at the second time of asking, this time three drivers managing to put together 20-lap runs, the third of those being Capricorn’s Alex D’Angelo. With Mazzeo having to pit during Q3 for an engine adjustment, D’Angelo would get a P2 for that round but Catazani’s advantage was now 2.2-seconds as he improved by almost 3-seconds over the 7-minutes despite feeling his car’s performance faded in the later part of the run. Natanaele Senesi completed the Top 3 ahead of the WIRC of Brazilian nitro onroad racing stalwart Elias Flavio which overall means as it currently stands at the half way stage it is an all Italian line-up in the all important Top 4, direct to final, qualification rankings.

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September 17, 2025

Mazzeo tops opening GT Worlds qualifier in chilly Chile

Raptor’s Alessio Mazzeo has taken the opening qualifier at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships in Santiago, Chile, drivers at the 3rd running of the championships experiencing chilly conditions at the Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track. Having topped yesterday’s seeding practice, Mazzeo was able to maintain his form as the driver to beat despite temperatures today being 10-degrees cooler than the previous days of practice. The only driver to manage 20-laps over the first of the six 7-minute runs, the large circuit with its blue infield proving a big hit with drivers, Mazzeo’s closet challenger would be 2023 Sydney Podium finisher Andrea Catanzani – that was once the Serpent driver had a post tech disqualification revoked for failing the rear wing height inspection when it was discovered the measurement was incorrectly taken. 2.5 seconds off Catanzani, Capricorn’s Alex D’angelo completed the Top 3 ahead of Natanaele Senesi who posted the fastest lap of Q1 with Puerto Rico’s Carli Lopez recording a P5 ahead of IGT8’s Diego Morganti. With IFMAR referee Javier Garcia summing up the CACH facility best when he called it ‘A Disneyland for RC’, unfortunately it looks like GT’s opportunity to shine on its stage could be dampened by the weather which is set to turn bad going into the weekend. With that in mind, today drivers face a busy schedule of 4-rounds of qualifying with the final two rounds scheduled for tomorrow as IFMAR look to beat the weather in that particular off track race. Based off that revised schedule, the new 1:8 GT World Champion, as unfortunately Hong Nor’s Toni Gruber made a late decision not to travel to Chile and defend his title, is set to be now crowned on Friday.

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September 15, 2025

Lee wins Hudy Series Australia

As 1:8 GT drivers descend on Santiago, Chile, this week for the IFMAR World Championships, the venue of the previous GT Worlds hosted the Australian Hudy Series over the weekend where it was Nicholas Lee who took the Mod Touring Car win. Racing at the New South Wales Radio Controlled Racing Car Club’s track in Sydney, Lee would take his Xray to the TQ ahead of ARC’s Brayden Stanley on tie break as the pair recorded two TQ runs each over the four qualifier. The only drivers to go 20 laps (in Q3) around the John Grant International Raceway, it was Lee who got the pole position with his faster time. Behind them RC Maker’s Jeff Hamon completed the Top 3 in front of team-mate Damon Davis-Perry. In the finals Lee took the first one with Stanley winning A2 after a DNF in the A1. Unfortunately local star Stanley would again fail to finish in A3 and with Lee taking it it was the Singapore driver with the overall winner down under. Hamon got second with Schumacher’s Simon Nicholson, from 8th on the grid, grabbing the final step on the podium ahead of Davis-Perry. Hamon would take the win in 13.5 Stock ahead of Cristian Silva and Top Qualifier Markus Askell. In FWD, John Puse took the TQ and win while in 1:12 Michael Stone was the winner having started from the TQ.

Image: RC Maker [Facebook]

September 15, 2025

Feldmann wins EFRA GP at Lostallo

Reigning 1:5 Touring Car World Champion Markus Feldmann enjoyed a perfect weekend in Switzerland as he took the TQ and win the concluding EFRA GP for Large Scale at the iconic Lostallo circuit. With the 3rd GP of the season attracting 91 entries to the 2026 World Champion host track, qualifying would see the German driver take his GRP Tyres shod Mecatech to pole position with the fourth round of qualifying proving fastest. Behind him, 2024 European Champion Emanuele D’Amico was second fastest followed by France’s Cédric Prevot and 2022 European Champion Edoardo Repetti. In Super Pole it was Repetti who booked his direct spot into the final behind with D’Amico winning his Semi Final to line-up 3rd with Prevot winning the other Semi to carry No.4. In the half hour, despite setting the fastest lap Repetti couldn’t deny Feldmann the win. With D’Amico having issues, it was Belgium’s Giovanni Verbrugghe who completed the podium ahead 2023 European Champion Dario Veseli from Croatia.

Image: GRP [grpgandini.it]

September 14, 2025

Sobue wins Hongyu GDC opening race

Marking the official opening of the brand new Hongyu GDC track in Foshan, China, Axon driver Akio Sobue claimed victory at the 2026 IFMAR ISTC World Championship host venue. In qualifying the Japanese driver secured the TQ ahead of team-mate Hayato Ishioka, the latter claiming the first of the four qualifiers before Sobue went fastest in Q2 & 3. Schumacher’s Pekko Iivonen, the eBuggy World Championship finalists a late entry after the cancellation of the Asian Buggy Championships finale in Indonesia, would top the final qualifier to secure third on the grid ahead of top Chinese racer Alfred Lao. In A1 as the two Axon drivers pulled clear, Sobue’s car would come to a stop 3-minutes in allowing Ishioka to cruise to the win ahead of Iivonen and Lao. In A2 and 3, Sobue ran trouble free to win both encounters and locked in the overall win at the hugely impressive multi-track facility with Ishioka and Iivonen completing the podium. In Stock it was RC Maker driver Zaccheus Lam who secured the TQ and win ahead of Awesomatix’s Max Machler with fifth place qualifier Wang Haifeng claiming the final step on the podium. In the nitro categories, the 1:8 Onroad TQ and victory went to Infinity driver Poon Ray while Xray driver Hudson Hu claimed victory in the 1:8 GT class.

View more podium images here