September 25, 2024

Schumacher GP Scandiano – Announcement

ASD Team La Gang, the club behind the famous annual ‘Charity Race’ in Italy, have announced details of this year’s Schumacher GP Scandiano which will take place on the November 24th.   Taking place at the RC Landia indoor carpet track, the latest edition of the GP will see Touring Car racing for Modified, Stock, FWD and GT10 while 1:12 will cater for PanCar and GT12 classes.  The Schumacher GP counts Michal Orlowski and Mattia Mattia Collina as previous winners.

Source: Team La Gang [teamlagang.it]


September 25, 2024

1st Trofeo Nuova Games Segrate – Report

The first Nuova Games Segrate Trophy race was held recently at the NGS track in Segrate, Italy.  Scheduled to be a two days race, the forecast showed heavy rains on Sunday so the timetable was adapted so that everything got done on Saturday, sadly not all drivers were able to make it with the club thankful to all the those that were able to make it for the revised schedule. The race had an important purpose, beyond just keeping racers entertained there was also a charity element. The race was able to raise €800 through entry fees which was donated to “Fraternità di Misericordia Segrate”. On track maybe it the best race of the entire Summer season at the track which has catered for racers from Milan and Lombardy for years now! All classes gave a show of the highest level, fought fairly and with stratospheric times.

Continue reading report here


September 23, 2024

2025 FEMCA 1:8 Offroad C/ship returns to Vietnam

The FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championship is to return to Vietnam in 2025 with March 13-16th scheduled as the dates for the crowning of the official Champion of Asia.  With the FEMCA Championship returning last following its forced break due to Covid, it was Kyosho’s up & coming offroad star Phi-Long Nguyen who added the most significant win yet of his promising career.  Having made the investment that lead to it successfully hosting the race in 2024, with over 110 drivers from across the largest continent in the World attending, FEMCA has awarded the L.A Track the championship for a second year so as the organisers Vi Nguyen Hobbies can further recoup that investment.  This decision by FEMCA has the potential to help with the development of tracks across the region if hosts know that their investment and a well executed event could lead to a second opportunity to host the prestigious race.  Counting Atsushi Hara, Kyle McBride and Shin Adachi among its past champions, the 2025 FEMCA 1:8 Offroad Championship will be limited to 150 drivers.

Source: FEMCA [Facebook]


September 22, 2024

1:12 WC Top Qualifier Anderson set for MonTech NYGP

2023 IFMAR 1:12 World Championship Top Qualifier Kemp Anderson is the latest title contender to be confirmed for the upcoming MonTech New York Grand Prix.  Taking place from October 10-13th at 360v2 RC in New Rochelle, 2024 marks the sixth edition of the high profile US indoor race.  Recently turning his attentions to becoming a full time RC racer having graduated college, Anderson was runner-up to last year’s double NYGP Champion Sam Isaacs in 1:12, also joining his Awesomatix team-mate on the Touring Car podium.  The 22-year-old returns to take the fight for victory in both Mod 1:12 and Mod Touring Car to Isaacs, Xray’s Keven Hebert and 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Mächler with more high profile driver announcements expected.  With 12 class titles up for grabs,  Touring Car is divided into Modified, 17.5T SuperStock, 21.5 Stock, and 25.5 LMH (LeMans Hypercar) while 1:12 is divided in Modified GTP, SuperStock GTP, Stock GTP, and  GT12R.  Additionally there will be racing for USGT, PRO10, USVTA, and FWD.  To book your entry for the 2024 MonTech New York Grand Prix click here.  Red RC are excited to traveling to the 360v2 RC track for the first time to cover this year’s NYGP.

Source: Fordham 360 Hobbies & Raceway [Facebook]


September 22, 2024

Balestri retains 1:8 Onroad European C/ship Title

Infinity’s Dario Balestri has retained his EFRA 1:8 Onroad European Championship title, the Italian claiming the title for a fourth time with victory at Miniautodromo Locorotondo in Italy.  Qualifying fifth and having to come through the Semi Finals, winning his encounter, the reigning World Champion would line 5th for the 45-minute decider behind the Top 4 direct qualifiers.  While the Mugen Seiki of Top Qualifier Simon Kurzbuch lead way the field, the Swiss driver’s quest to retake the title he last held in 2018 ended in the first round of fuel stops.  With his engine running lean, he suffered a glow plug failure dropping him to last from where he could only recover to eventually finish 6th.  A race that saw a number of contacts between drivers, leading to a post race protest against Balestri which EFRA would reject, despite being on a three tyre stop strategy Balestri would take the win by 2 seconds from his 2-stop team-mate Carmine Raiola.  Suffering a crash earlier in the race after contact with Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani in which he then got collected by Raiola, 1:8 GT World Champion Toni Gruber would take his damaged Capricorn to the final podium position only half a lap down.  Winner of the Last Chance Final to secure P11 on the grid, Lamberto Collari came through to take P4 followed by Xray’s Filippo Domanin.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]


September 20, 2024

Kurzbuch Top Qualifier at 1:8 European Championship

Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch is the Top Qualifier at the EFRA 1:8 Onroad Championship.  The former World Champion came out top of the 5-rounds of qualifying at the Miniautodromo Locorotondo in Italy, where 4 different drivers posted TQ runs.  Thursday’s opening day of qualifying would see defending Champion Dario Balestri  kick off proceedings by taking his Infinity to a TQ run before Kurzbuch posted the first of his two TQ in Q2.  Friday’s second day of qualifying would open with the Serpent of Practice Top Seed Andrea Catanzani topping the times sheet for Q3 before Kurzbuch went on to take Q4.  With the overall TQ wide open going into the fifth & final round, it would be Infinity’s Carmine Raiola who set the pace from the Capricorn of Toni Gruber, Kurzbuch, Catanzani and Balestri.  With 3 from 5 to count overall, Kurzbuch was declared the Top Qualifier from Catanzani with the all important Top 4 direct Main Final qualifiers being completed by Raiola and Gruber, the latter’s 1-2 in Q5 knocking Balestri back to P5.  The 22nd running of European Championship will be decided tomorrow over 45-minutes with Kurzbuch going for his second title having previously won it in 2018 when the race was also held in Italy.

Image: Simon Kurzbuch [Facebook]


September 18, 2024

IFMAR publishes ISTC World Championship entry list

IFMAR has just published the latest entry list for the upcoming 1:10 Electric Touring Car World Championship with 6 of the categories 8 World Champions set to make the trip to the US in November.  The 12th running of the ISTC World Championship will be hosted by Finishline RC Raceway in Bakersfield, California, from Nov 5-10th where reigning Champion Bruno Coelho will try to emulate Davide Ongaro’s recent 1:8 Offroad feat of three consecutive wins of the biggest prize in racing.  With the ISTC Worlds first held in 2000, it is great to see inaugural Champion and all time great of the sport Atsushi Hara back on the entry list.  Hara’s last ISTC Worlds was in China in 2016 but this year the Japanese legend has enjoyed a return to competitive international racing.

Continue reading here


September 17, 2024

2024 1:8 Offroad World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

With the dust now settled on the 19th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championships at RC Redovan, we have put together a full index of all the buggies we were given access to to photograph for our ‘Chassis Focus’ during our time in Spain.  We were able to feature buggies from 8 different manufacturers with Xray and Kyosho notably absent from the list with both manufacturers not allowing their buggies to be photographed in detail.  Of the 180 drivers competing, it was Xray that proved the most popular brand with 33 buggies, just one more than Sworkz who were the brand with the greatest representation in the final filling 3 of the 13 spots on the starting grid.  With 27 buggies, Mugen Seiki was the third most used chassis.  Coming away with its 3rd consecutive 1:8 Buggy World title, Team Associated was fourth in terms of numbers with 18 driver while Tekno completed the Top 5 represented by 16 racers.  Of the 13 brands present in Redovan, 8 made it into the main showdown.

Continue reading here