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December 3, 2025

Catanzani Top Seed in Chile, as Ripoll impresses with P2

Andrea Catanzani is the Top Seed for the 24th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship but it is the pace of French driver Maxime Ripoll which is the big surprise in Chile. The Top Qualifier at the 1:8 GT Worlds back in September, Catanzani’s Serpent would top the times in opening and closing runs of the day, the schedule made up of fourth seeding rounds. In the second round it was Rapoll’s Xray that raised a few eyebrows as he set the fastest time ahead of 2019 World Champion Shoki Takahata. Round 3 would see Takahata go fastest and the factory Mugen Seiki driver seeds 3rd for qualifying tomorrow when we will have the first 3 of the 6 rounds of 7-minute qualifiers. After a bad start to seeding, Toni Gruber would make it four different manufacturers at the top as the Capricorn driver solved his engine/glowplug issues and managed a 4th and a 3rd to end the day 4th. One of the favourites coming into this World Championship, Japan 2023 Top Qualifier Simon Kurzbuch, didn’t have the day he was looking for finding himself in P5 and with work to do for tomorrow. Celebrating his birthday today, drivers from the 16 nations racing at these Worlds singing Happy Birthday to him at the end of the opening ceremony, British driver Alex Thurston made it three Mugen MRX7s in the Top 6.

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December 2, 2025

2025/26 RugRacers Round 2 – Report

The second round of the 2025/26 RugRacers took place over the weekend and in Modified defending champion and championship leader Elliott Harper showed no signs of wanting to let either slip. Producing a clean sweep in qualifying taking all 4 rounds ahead of Stefan Chodzynski & Matthieu Dambrine, the finals didn’t show any sign of letting up either. The Scumacher driver stormed to the win in both legs with all the action on track taking place behind him, Stefan holding onto 2nd by a few tenths from Matthieu, Leg 2 shuffled the order a little with Chris Grainger taking 2nd ahead of Liam Tyrrell in 3rd. With the action taking a break for a while, the final round will be held on the 1st March 2026, only 1 champion is left to be crowned in FWD, but expect Zak & Elliott to be looking towards keeping a clean sweep for the shortened series this season.

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December 2, 2025

Catanzani from Ripoll in early 1:8 Worlds seeding

Having taken the overall TQ at the 1:8 GT World Championship in Chile back in September, it is Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani who leads the way in early seeding at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship from Maxime Ripoll, the French Xray driver impressing onlookers with his speed here at the large Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track in Santiago. With Catanzani the benchmark in free practice, the Italian carried that momentum into the first of the four seeding rounds with a best time of 55.443 over 3-laps with Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch his closest rival with a 55.459 as team-mate Shoki Takahata complete the Top 3 ahead of Ripoll. With changing track conditions the biggest challenge for drivers, as things hotted up after the first seeding on a cool track, it was Ripoll who had everything perfect to go fastest with a 55.499 just ahead of Takahata. Making a changed that didn’t do what he expected, Catanzani was 3rd fastest ahead of the Mugen Seiki of top British racer Alex Thurston. One of the pre-race favourites coming into the 44th running of these championships off the back of a championship winning ENS season, it has been a tough morning for Capricorn’s Toni Gruber, the German experiencing engine issues in both runs. While the car runs fine in the warm-up out on track it loses power and when they pit they find the plug is bad leading them to believe, having had the same problem twice, that a bad batch of glow plugs is the issue. The 2023 1:8 GT World Champion will be hoping plugs from another batch will give him a change to seed strongly over the final two practices round for tomorrow’s start of qualifying, each driver’s best two points finishes from the four rounds determining the order for the heats.

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December 1, 2025

A decade on – life is different, but the drive & focus on winning in Chile are the same for Kurzbuch

2025 marks a decade since Simon Kurzbuch became the Champion of the World. A driver Red RC have had the pleasure of following on his journey up through the ranks and into 1:8 Onroad racing history books, we first got to know him through the early days of the Euro Nitro Series and as one half of the talented Swiss racing duo that was himself and Silvio Hachler. Unfortunately we would miss him claiming the biggest prize the sport has to offer, Brazil in 2015 the only 1:8 Onroad World Championship we have missed since going online in 2006. Thankfully Simon, being the super nice guy he is, hasn’t held that against us and just before he caught his long flight to Chile we had a quick chat to get his thoughts on where he feels he is at as he attempts to become only the 3rd driver to ever win IFMAR’s original WC category more than once. If he can pull off that feat he would also be the first non Italian to ever do so. While legend of the category Lamberto Collari won’t be in Santiago for a chance at a 10th World title, and defending Champion Dario Balestri’s chances of a hat trick are on hold as he also wont be there, Simon did address the big talking point around this year’s 24th running of the Worlds – the absence of the entire Infinity team. ‘I am disappointed that the Infinity drivers are not coming, it is a real shame for Kenji that none of them are coming, but no Infinity does not affect anything from my side in how we approach this race. In the end there are still very good drivers there and you need to beat them and to beat them you need to work properly before the race in your preparations and then work hard when you get to Chile. I have a really good focus on the race so from this side it does not change anything if Infinity are there or not.’

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December 1, 2025

Anderson & Isaacs win at US Indoor Champs

The 45th running of the legendary U.S. Indoor Champs Presented by Hobbywing took place in Cleveland over the weekend where it was Awesomatix pairing Kemp Anderson and Sam Isaacs who took the big wins. The longest running indoor carpet race in the World, this year attracted 434 entries, and in 1:12 Modified it was Anderson’s weekend. In qualifying, the fastest of 4 rounds to count, it was the 2024 World Championship Top Qualifier with the only 56-lap run who secured the TQ ahead of team-mate and reigning US National Champion Isaacs. Behind the US pairing, 2018 World Champion Alexander Hagberg would line-up his Xray 3rd on the A-Main grid ahead of Montech NYGP organiser & last year’s US Indoor Champ winner Donny Lia with Keven Hebert completing the Top 5. In Mod Touring Car the order was switched with Isaacs claiming the TQ ahead of Anderson with defend Champion Hebert 3rd followed team-mate Adam Izay and Hagberg. In the finals things would go all the way to A3 and the finsal race of the US Indoor Champs after Hagberg took the second encounter ahead of A1 winner Anderson. A poor third main from the Swede however allowed Anderson to seal the over victory with a win of Isaacs and Stuart Mason. Overall it was Hagberg (P2) and Isaacs (P3) who completed the podium. In the earlier single A-Main Modified Touring Car encounter Isaacs kept Anderson at bay to secure the win with Hagberg completing the podium ahead of team-mate Jan Ratheisky. With Stock Touring and GT12 Rubber Tyre getting triple mains it was Top Qualifiers Eric Anderson and JB Catricala who took the wins.

Image: U.S. Indoor Champs [Facebook]

November 30, 2025

1:8 Onroad World Championship coverage presented by Capricorn, Radbody, T-Works, and IFMAR

Having hit a landmark of telling the story of how 50 World Championships unfolded when we reported on Marcus Kaerup’s 1:10 4WD Buggy World title win in Australia, Red RC is excited to be travelling to Chile to cover the 1:8 Onroad World Championship, our coverage presented by Capricorn, Radbody, T-Works, and IFMAR. As we kick off the first of our next 50 World Championships, this one is special because it was IFMAR’s original World Championship category that was also the first World Championship to be covered here on Red RC back in 2007 in Argentina. With a certain Lamberto Collari racking up the 8th of his 9 World titles, now 18-years later the championship is back in South America and having missed the last one Red RC are definitely going this time round for what in our opinion is the Formula 1 of RC Racing. Unfortunately while Collari and all of his team-mates at reigning World Champion manufacturer Infinity won’t be making the trip to the amazing CACH facility in Santiago, we are still going to be in for the intensity that only a World Championship brings out in drivers and manufacturers. While Japan 2023 winner Dario Balestri doesn’t appear on the entry list, it is led by three World Champions – Simon Kurzbuch (2016 World Champion, Brazil), Shoki Takahata (2019 World Champion, USA) and Toni Gruber (1:8 GT 2023 World Champion, Australia) – they will face the next generation of potential World Champions in the form of drivers like Andrea Catanzani who unlike the three World Champions has been to the track previously where he was the Top Qualifier at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships back in September.

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November 26, 2025

2025 Speed King Tour Rd6 – Report

After the fifth round was canceled due to rain, Round 6 of Japanese based Speed King Tour 2025 was held at World Jam Racing indoor carpet track in Gummna prefecture last weekend. This was the final round of this year’s Speed King Tour and championships would be decided at the event. Xpress driver Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa took TQ at TC0 class (Modified) and his teammate Yugo Nagashima secured P2. Yoshiyasu made a good start but he made very small mistake on Lap 8. Yugo didn’t miss the opportunity to capitalise on the mistake and moved up to P1. Although Yoshiyasu tried to catch Yugo, Yugo never gave back up the position. Yoshiyasu finished second and while Masaya Okazaki took P3 with fastest lap time for an all Xpress podium. Ryosuke Yamamoto did not attend round 6 but he had enough points to taking 2025 TC0 class championship.

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November 22, 2025

Minidrom Ettlingen to race on

Having looked set to be lost to the construction of a Biogas plant, the German Minidrom Ettlingen track is set to remain a racers favourite as plans for the biogas plant has been scrapped. Having sought the support of the RC community 3-years ago to highlight the value of the track to local tourism in terms of hotels, restaurants and suppliers and on a wider level how vital the track & its strong club are for R/C racing in Germany and also Europe, the MC-Ettlingen club today shared the great news that it will be able race to on for many more years. A club that has been operating for over 40-years, the track that has hosted FMAR World Championships, EFRA European Championships, and Euro Nitro Series and many other races, and they posted the following on their social media, Dear friends, comrades, and fellow enthusiasts, we have good news. The Minidrom will remain open. The biogas plant will not be built. We are overjoyed to share this good news with you and look forward to welcoming you back to the Minidrom in the future.’

Source: Minidrom Ettlingen [Facebook]