Red RC

September 7, 2026

1:10 Nitro TC Worlds coverage presented by LensBodies, Energy, Gimar, and PowerHD

The 2-year wait is over with the week on which IFMAR will crown the latest World Champion of 1:10 Nitro Touring Car having finally arrived, and thanks to LensBodies, Energy fuel, Gimar engines, and PowerHD servos, Red RC are travelling to Gubbio in Italy to tell the story of how these championships unfold. Racing in the ‘world capital of nitro onroad racing’, the 2026 World Championships has attracted a bumper entry and one of the biggest nation counts in the classes history with over 120 entries from 21 countries. A decade since Club Automodellistico 5Colli previously hosted the championship, it is reigning World Champion Jilles Groskamp who heads the entry for Infinity on the return to the beautiful Gubbio track which is located in central Italy. The Dutch driver added the nitro title to his 2012 Electric Touring Car World title when he took the win at Huge RC two years ago, and he has been enjoying great form leading into the event claiming the Euro Nitro Series title with an emotional win in Austria last month. With numerous drivers capable of winning come Saturday, all looking to put heir names into the RC racing history records, we also must remember that particular at a World Championship things need to go right. As Jared Tebo famously said at the 2023 1:10 Offroad Worlds in Chico, USA, where he won the 2WD title, ‘To win you have to have so many things go right, to lose you only have to have one thing go wrong.’ With Nitro Touring Car you have so many inputs, and that’s what makes it so exciting. Red RC’s coverage will begin on Tuesday (Sept 8th) with Controlled Practice before we quickly get down to the serious business of 2 days of qualifying with it all culminating with the crowning of a new World Champion on Saturday (Sept 12th).

Coverage Update – Having been in Jakarta over the weekend to cover the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships, a volcano eruption has lead to the closure of all airports meaning Red RC’s is currently grounded in Indonesia. While our original flight has been rescheduled to take off 14-hours later than planned, the situation is on going but it looks like we might be a little later getting to Gubbio than planned.

View past IFMAR World Champions here

September 6, 2026

Bernadzik wins ABC finale as Iivonen’s gamble fails

Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik has won the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships in Indonesia, his safe fuel strategy paying dividends in the 1-hour Nitro final as main rival Pekko Iivonen gambled on going one less stop, that high risk approach eventually ending the Finn’s quest for his first win of the championship. His first international race win, it would see Bernadzik pocket US$1,000 for his efforts. On securing the overall TQ at West Side Raceway on Saturday, Bernadzik declared he would ‘play it pretty safe’ in terms of refuelling in the final, a decision that was to be key to the Australian claiming his first ever international race win. From the front Bernadzik established a lead over Iivonen as they quickly pulled clear of the field with the first notable moment being the retirement of third pace qualifier Hyunkyu Jung at the 18-minute mark. Having won eBuggy earlier in the day the young Korean talent’s chance of a double was thwarted by drivetrain failure. While the differing pit strategies had still to play out, holding the lead on track, a mistake as the race entered the final 20-minutes saw Bernadzik on his roof and needing to be marshalled as Iivonen went through for the lead. The Mayako driver’s fuel gamble however was about to take this bonus opportunity of the leader’s mistake right back away from him. Coming in for his penultimate stop, he would run out of fuel rolling to a halt at the start of the pit lane. While JQ, who was positioned the other end of pit lane, got him quickly back up & running, Bernadzik was back in front and now with a 13-second lead. With Iivonen making his final stop and still on the lead lap despite his rear left tyre starting to come unglued, Bernadzik had the opportunity to play it even more save with a splash & dash with two minutes to go. As Bernadzik began his final lap, Iivonen’s gamble to run long would again get him as he ran out of fuel, this time before the loop, and losing a lap but rejoining to cross the finish line he still secured second spot. Behind Infinity’s Jason Nugroho would complete the podium a further lap down, the Indonesian championship regular delighted to claim his first podium ahead of the championship newly crowned overall champion Jayden Edmunds in fourth.

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September 6, 2026

Jung wins exciting eBuggy battle at ABC Indonesia

Team Associated’s Hyunkyu Jung has taken the eBuggy win after an exciting battle that went right down to the wire in A3 at the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships in Indonesia. With a relatively uneventful A1 until a last lap error from Jung that dropped him to fourth bringing Saturday’s action to a close at West Side Raceway in Jakarta, the Mayako of Top Qualifier Pekko Iivonen leading from tone to tone, Sunday’s racing would prove far more entertaining. With A2 having stretched out a little, Jung and third place qualifier Alex Bernadzik again following Iivonen in their starting order, with the race approaching the final minute the race came alive as the leader made a mistake. This allowed Jung to attempt a pass but the pair collided in the air over a jump, gifting Bernadzik the lead but the Australian would then have his own mistake at the back of the track. Iivonen went back to the lead momentarily but crashed on the landing handing Bernadzik back the lead ahead of Jung. With a lap to go, Jung was applying the pressure on the leader who in a side by side final dash to the line with his AE team-mate landed badly and went rolling off the track – Jung the winner ahead of Iivonen with Bernadzik rejoining for third.

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September 6, 2026

DAS Speed RTA V3 Adjustable Rear Pod

Swiss 1:28 specialists DAS Speed has released this Adjustable Rear Pod for the RTA V3 1:28 competition car from French manufacturer RTRC. CNC machined from 7075 aluminium and finished with black anodising, the new rear pod developed specifically for RTA V3 platform to give racers more setup flexibility from a single rear assembly. One of the key features is the ability to run both 98 mm and 102 mm wheelbases with the same pod. Moving to 102 mm can provide a calmer, more stable car—particularly useful on larger, faster tracks and in higher-speed classes. 98 mm remains available when a more reactive setup is preferred. Several practical tuning features of the pod include the ability to add shims to lower the chassis while retaining larger-diameter rear tyres. Optional axle carrier are planned for setups requiring increased ride height with very small-diameter tyres. Additional clearance allows the use of larger pinions and taller gear ratios. The machined centre reference markings to help accurately centre the diff axles while the centre reference point underneath the pod allows the rear assembly to be balanced on two points for checking set-up.

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September 5, 2026

Bernadzik ‘Top Qualifier’ at ABC Indonesia with blistering Q5 run

Team Associated’s Alex Bernadzik is the Top Qualifier at the Asian Buggy Championships Finale in Indonesia, the Australian putting together a blistering Q5 run to secure pole for tomorrow’s 1-hour Nitro Buggy main on the tie-breaker with Pekko Iivonen. Having hinted in the penultimate round of quali that he had the potential to better Iivonen’s Q2 time, a mistake on lap 6 of 8 ending that effort, with nothing to lose Bernadzik went for it in the decider. Opening with a 41.7 second lap he then added to his tally of fastest laps for each round by taking the benchmark down to a 41.098 with Iivonen unable to respond. Passing Sparko’s Ken NG on his final lap with just two corners to go, he look like he might again through it away when he clipped the pipping and sending his RC8 into a spin. Luckily he bounced off NG’s buggy to recover facing in the right direction and most importantly crossing the loop with a time that bettered Iivonen’s Q2 by 1.5-seconds. Despite adding a 3rd TQ run to his tally when he took Q4, with only 2 from 5 to count, Iivonen will start P2 tomorrow at West Side Raceway. Counting P2 runs from Q3 & 4, Hyunkyu Jung will line-up 3rd on the grid ahead of Indonesia’s very own Jason Nugroho. Newly crowned FEMCA Champion Jayden Edmunds completes the Top 5 on what will become a 15-car final after bump ups from the lower finals.

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September 5, 2026

Schumacher Mi10 +2mm Axle

Schumacher has introduced this new +2mm Rear Axle for their Mi10 1:10 Electric Touring Car. It changes the position of the rear driveshaft joint, moving it further inboard and altering the rear drivetrain geometry. The key performance benefit is improved forward traction on corner exit. The car is able to put the power down more effectively when the throttle is applied, allowing drivers to accelerate harder and earlier without sacrificing rear-end stability. This makes the +2mm Rear Axle an especially useful tuning option when looking for additional rear grip and forward drive, whether conditions are low grip or the driver is simply looking to extract more performance from the Mi10.

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

September 5, 2026

Alexander Hagberg ‘AH’ Signature T-shirts

2-time IFMAR Onroad World Champion and all round good guy of the sport Alexander Hagberg has released his own line of ‘AH’ Signature T-shirts. The Swede, who is a long time factory Xray driver, winning both his 1:12 and 1:10 Nitro Touring World titles with the Slovakian manufacturer, has together with his business partner and fellow racer Antonino Mangiaracina, created alexanderhagberg.com. Starting with green, Hagberg’s signature body colour, white, and black colour options of his tees, long term feature a more extensive line of RC accessories for competition racing.

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September 5, 2026

Bernadzik takes Q3 at Asian Buggy Champs

Alex Bernadzik has kicked off Day 2 of qualifying at the Asian Buggy Championships finale in Jarkarta with a TQ run, the 3rd of the 5 qualifiers producing a Team Associated 1-2 as Hyunkyu Jung recorded the second fastest time on what was a slower track than yesterday. With Pekko Iivonen making the first day of qualifying at West Side Raceway his own, topping both qualifiers, it was Jung and Bernadzik who battled out Q3 as the Finn used the round to test a harder compound tyre. Unfortunately for Jung traffic in the closing stages of the run cost him the top spot with Bernadzik, once again setting the fastest lap of the round, securing his first TQ by half a second from the young Korean. With the run the slowest of the three so far, the track almost 5-seconds off yesterday afternoon’s Q2, the Top 3 would be completed by Infinity’s Jason Nugroho. A 46-second lap half way through the round saw Iivonen stop the clock with the fourth fastest time ahead of Jayden Edmunds, the Sparko driver struggling for pace after putting on a brand new set of tyre for the run.

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