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December 12, 2025

Matsukura takes opening qualifier under lights in China

Infinity’s Naoto Matsukura has taken the opening round of qualifying under the lights at the Asia Touring Car Championship in China, the number 2 seed topping the delayed and eventful Q1 ahead of Axon’s Akio Sobue. With rain after seeding delaying the schedule at Hongyu GDC and a full round of practice run to get the track back up to speed, when the final run of the evening came around Top Seed Bruno Coelho would struggle. The rear of his Infinity clearly not at one with the track. Losing the car a number of times, Matsukura lucky to not collect his team-mate, the World Champion would end up P9 at the conclusion of the round. With Matsukura taking the TQ by 1.2-seconds from Sobue, only Jin Sawada managed a faster lap time but pushing the limits of his electrics the Japanese Xray driver would run out of battery with a lap to go costing him a certain Top 2 run as he got a DNF. Behind the Top 2, Infinity’s Ryosuke Yamamoto made it a Japanese trio at the top of the times ahead of the all new Schumachers of Michal Orlowski and Pekko Iivonen with Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain completing the Top 6 for what could prove a critical run. Having originally planned two qualifiers today because of the threat of rain, but only get one, the chances of a wet day tomorrow seem even higher as drivers left the track for the evening.

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December 12, 2025

Coelho top seed at stacked Asia Championship

Infinity’s Bruno Coelho is the Top Seed at a stacked Asia Touring Car Championship at the impressive new Hongyu GDC track in Foshan, China. The defending champion of the race formerly known as the FEMCA Championship, the World Champion set the pace over the 4-rounds of seeding from team-mate & former World Champion Naoto Matsukura with the Xray of Jin Sawada completing the Top 3. With the venue set to host the ISTC World Championships next April, this weekend’s racing while not an official Warm Up race has attracted all the major drivers and manufacturers with the exception of Mugen Seiki although winner of the last World Championship to be hosted in China in 2016, Ronald Volker will arrive over the weekend for testing with many of the racers staying for up to a week of further testing after the race. In terms of cars, manufacturers are here with plenty of new updates/prototype parts and even completely new cars. While Awesomatix is here with its standard car, Lucas Urbain 6th for them in seeding, at the other end of the scale Schumacher have a completely brand new car with Michal Orlowski ending up 7th in second. Once the dominant force at ISTC Worlds, winning titles with Marc Rheinard who is not racing but is due to arrive for testing, and Jilles Groskamp, the Dutch legend racing in China for the first time in 10-year, iconic brand Tamiya are here with a number of updates to their car which is being driven by Souta Goto. Unfortunately with a treat of rain for Saturday and light rain arriving at the end of seeding, it looks like the event may see some rescheduling. The first two rounds of qualifying having already been brought forward to Friday afternoon.

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December 11, 2025

’25 1:8 Onroad World Championship Chassis Focus Index

Another season of IFMAR World Championships wrapped up in Chile last weekend with 1:8 Onroad the fourth & final race of 2025. While IFMAR’s original World Championship would attract a small entry, that didn’t take away from the racing at the front with qualifying ending with cars from four different manufacturers making up the new for 2025 Direct to Final Top 4 qualifiers. For the 1-hour final that number would grow to 5 as Shepherd’s Tim Wood won the Last Chance Qualifier to represent the now British owned brand as the 11th car on the grid. Statistics compiled by IFMAR, this the 24th running of the title race, would show Mugen Seiki as the most popular chassis ahead of Capricorn and Shepherd who tied for second. Racing around the very large CACH, the most common source of power came from Ielasi Tuned followed by Max Power, who thanks to Shoki Takahata make it back to back engine World titles. In terms of radios used, Sanwa was the choice of over 50% of the drivers. With 2 X Mugen Seiki, 2 X Capricorn, 2 X Shepherds, and one Serpent and Xray each, we managed to get our hands on 8 cars from the five manufacturers represented in the final.

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December 9, 2025

Volker wins EWS International 2025

Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker has won this year’s EWS International presented by Schumacher, the German taking the win ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and Schumacher’s Elliott Harper. Establishing itself as Britain’s top annual international touring car race, with last year’s winner Michal Orlowski not making the trip to Essex due to 1:12 racing commitments in China, it was multiple EWS International winner Volker who led for the weekend. Attracting a field of 40 Modified entries, Volker topped all four rounds of qualifying to secure the overall TQ with Hagberg lining up second, followed by Harper, Kyle Branson, Sören Sparbier, Christopher Krapp, and Lucas Urbain. He would convert his pole position in to wins in A1 & 2 for the overall victory, while the A3 win gave Hagberg the runner-up spot as Harper completed the podium. In Stock it was the Awesomatix of EWS Series Champion Zak Finlay who also dominated proceedings to take the TQ and win ahead of Denmark’s Jesper Rasmussen and Finley Whitelock. In FWD Xray’s Stefan Schulz took the win.

Image: Alexander Hagberg [Facebook]

December 8, 2025

Orlowski adds Asia title to 1:12 CV

Reigning World Champion and a 2-time European Champion, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has added the Asia Championship title to his CV after winning what is Asia top prize in racing and was formerly known as the FEMCA Championships. Racing at 2o26 World Championship venue Hongyu GDC, in Foshan, China, Orlowski dominated proceedings on the enclosed carpet track. A race that attracted 52 entries, the Polish driver topped four of the 5 qualifiers to secure the TQ ahead of the CRC of Japan’s Yugo Nagashima, who took Q4, with Xray’s Jan Ratheisky completing the Top 3. In the finals the order for the podium would stay as they started with Orlowski winning all three Mains. Second in A1 & 2 ahead of Shota Watanabe, Nagashima claimed second while a P2 in A3 was enough to give Ratheisky the third step on the podium on tie break with Watanabe. In 1:12 Spec, Xray’s Adam Izsay produced a clean sweep with the TQ and win ahead of Takashi Kato and Antonia Hung. This coming weekend the impressive Hongyu GDC track will host the Touring Car Asia Championships and Red RC are travelling straight from the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad Worlds in Chile to cover the action.

Image: Hongyu GDC

December 7, 2025

Takahata becomes 2-time World Champion in Chile

It’s a very elusive club and up to now it has been exclusive to Italians, but today in Chile Mugen Seiki’s Shoki Takahata became a multiple 1:8 Onroad World Champion with a perfectly executed 1-hour main. Starting from fourth on the grid, once the 2019 World Champion worked his way to the front he would take control of the race eventually winning by over a lap from Simon Kurzbuch to give the new MRX7 a 1-2 finish. Takahata’s win would be made all the easier after issues for Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani, who needed to make a body change in the race, and star of this week’s action Maxime Ripoll, the French teenager robbed of a second place finish as reward for his impressive efforts when his engine came to halt with 6-minutes remaining. While Kurzbuch benefited from this, with a fast charging Catanzani recovering ground, there would be a late & intense battle for the runner-up spot that also involved Capricorn’s Toni Gruber, the trio all running together on track. As the race approached the final minute, Catanzani having just got passed Gruber would then attempt a pass on Kurzbuch but contact was made resulting in his Serpent having a spin as the other two continued. The super fast Italian, who was the only driver to run a 17-second lap in the Main, would however get back up to Gruber and snatch the final podium position on the last corner of the last lap.

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December 6, 2025

Kurzbuch cruises back into contention in Chile with Semi win

Having missed out on a Top 4 direct to final qualifying position as he ended P5 at the end of the 6-rounds, Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch has put himself back in contention for a second IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship title by cruising to victory in his Semi final this morning in Chile. Winner of the World title in Brazil in 2015, a decade on the Swiss racer returned to South America as one of the pre-race favourites but on arriving at the CACH track in Santiago he struggled to find his true form. Leading away the second of the half hour Semis, Kurzbuch drove a calculated race with his crew executing a swift tyre change en-route to him winning by over a lap from the similar car of Britian’s Alex Thurston who together with third placed finisher Christope Louis progresses to their first World Championship final. The 24th running of IFMAR’s original World Championship, the first of the Semi Finals woulds see 15-year-old German driver Leon Fuhrmann head a Capricorn 1-2 from team-mate Thilo Diekmann, the separation 4.7-seconds at the finish. In third, a driver who needed the Last Chance Qualifier race to make Main here at the 1:8 GT Worlds back in September, Brazil’s Flavio Elias booked himself another 1:8 Onroad Worlds final appearance after recovering from a plug change during one of his pit stops to overtake leading Shepherd driver Tim Wood for the bump up position. Wood however would take the win in a very close finish to the 15-minute LCQ, 2/10ths of a second ahead of a Ricardo Hofmeijer, to become the 11th car on the grid and make it five different manufacturers in the final.

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December 4, 2025

Deja vu! Catanzani is Top Qualifier in Chile again

It was a case of Deja Vu at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Chile today as Serpent’s Andrea Cantanzani claimed his second overall Worlds TQ of 2025 in the sixth & final round of qualifying, the super quick Italian having pulled off the same feat 11 weeks ago to the day when he was Top Qualifier at the 1:8 GT Worlds. With Catanzani equalling Maxine Ripoll with a second TQ run of the event in Q5, this set the stage for a thrilling duel between the two young drivers. The highly anticipate battle however wouldn’t go the full distance. Steeling time from his rivals with his super quick fuel stops to TQ Rounds 3 & 4, unfortunately this time round Ripoll would have issues in pit lane, his engine flaming out during refuelling. This ended what has been a super impressive and entertaining to follow challenge from the 19-year-old for the top spot on grid. With Ripoll out, Catanzani would TQ the round ahead of Capricorn’s Toni Gruber and Mugen Seiki’s Shoki Takahata to secure the overall TQ, the first in a long time for 1:8 Onroad pioneering manufacturer Serpent. For Gruber and Takahata the result will see the go directly to the final as Top 4 qualifiers. One of the favourites ahead of championship, Simon Kurzbuch would end quali with a P4 which wouldn’t be enough and now the 2015 World Champion has a Semi final between him and lining up to try and claim a second World title.

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