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April 15, 2024

2024 Speed King Tour Rd1 – Report

The opening round of the Speed King Tour 2024 was held recently at Super RC Omiya indoor tarmac track in Saitama prefecture Japan with Infinity driver Jin Sawada taking the main win from Axon’s Hayato Ishioka. The popular and competitive electric touring car series is now in its 11th year sand consisting of six rounds travels to circuits across Japan. Host of Round 1, the Super RC Omiya track is known for its high bite and the Speed King Tour specific rules specify controlled tyres and prohibit the use of tyre warmer, which are highly favoured by racers in Japan. A major boost for the series was the participation of RC legend Atsushi Hara at the controls of soon to be release limiteds edition Xpress Execute XQ11 Hara Edition.

Continue reading report here

April 15, 2024

Cragg & Hall win at British Championship opener

Chasing his 28th British National Championship title, reigning BRCA 1:10 2WD Offoad Champion Neil Cragg made the perfect start to his quest with victory at the season opener held at Robin Hood Raceway. In 4WD it was reigning Champion and Team Associated team-mate Tommy Hall who took the win for the perfect start to the 6 round championship. In 2WD qualifying it was Schumacher’s Josh Holdsworth who secured the TQ from Hall, both drivers topping 2 round each, while behind Cragg secured P3 on the grid ahead of Schumacher’s Lee Martin. While Holdsworth took A1 from Cragg, the rest of his day didn’t fair well and he ended up 5th overall. A2 saw a win for Cragg while Hall led them home in A3 but with a 1st & P2 it was Cragg with the overall win from Martin with a pair of second places while Hall’s win and P4 from A1 saw him complete the podium. Switching to 4WD, it was former European Champion Hall who secured the TQ from Martin, both drivers posting two TQ runs each with Cragg again lining up P3 ahead of Ben Smith. Despite Martin’s best efforts in A1, Hall took the first two encounters to wrap up the win with Martin get the A3 win to finish runner-up ahead of Cragg.

Image: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

April 15, 2024

Ment & Bakla win NSW State Titles

Boasting one of the largest entries for a state titles event in Australia, the 1:10 Offroad NSW State titles took place over the weekend at 2025 IFMAR Offroad World Championship host track Hills Off Road RC Car Club where Team Associated’s Jarod Ment (2WD) and Xray’s Ari Bakla (4WD) took the two big titles up for grabs. A low/med grip level track using molasses to bind the surface to maintain consistency throughout the day whilst reducing the need for water/blowing of the track, the State Titles attracted in excess of 220 entries with 60+ Mod drivers spread over the 3 day event. In Saturday’s 4WD action it was Bakla who secured the TQ ahead of the Q1 topping Team Associated of Lachlan Donnelly after he took the remaining 3 of the four rounds as Ment completed the Top 3. In the triple finals Bakla maintained that form to secure the title in A2 with the rest of the podium order ending up the same as how they qualified. Switching to 2WD on Sunday, qualifying saw three different drivers TQ a round but with his Q4 it was again Bakla on pole followed by Donnelly and Ment. In the finals however A1 would Donnelly force a pass in the final 30-second to snatch the win from the Top Qualifier. A2 would see the Top 2 again go at it but contact would drop them both down the order with Ment taking late win. With all on the line in A3, Bakla would make some early mistakes dropping down the field and releasing the 3 young talents of Donnelly, Ment and Jordan Isergin. With just over a minute remaining Ment would pull off one of the best passes of the weekend finding a line up the inside after the doubles. Donnelly would hassle Ment for the position right until the final lap where a small mistake would allow Jordan Isergin to take second. The result gave Ment the title ahead of Donnelly and Bakla.

Source: Mitch on the Mic [Facebook]

April 14, 2024

Orlowski takes back European 1:12 title

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has taken back his 1:12 EFRA European Championship title in Sicily, Italy. Having lost his 2022 title to 8-time Champion Alexander Hagberg last year in Great Britain, the reigning World Champion put in a pretty dominant performance at the Paradise RC Arena securing the TQ ahead of team-mate Ollie Payne as Hagberg’s Xray lined up third for his title defence. Winning A1 by a convincing margin over former World & European Champion Marc Rheinard, Orlowski wrapped up the title with another win in A2, this time over Hagberg. With A3 a battle for the other two podium placings, it initially looked like Hagberg would finish runner-up ahead of Rheinard as he crossed the line first but an earlier incident in the race with Payne was reviewed with race officials handing Hagerg 5-second penalty that promoted Rheinard to the A3 win and demoted the Swede to third on the overall podium. In 1:12 Spec, Simon Lauter secured the TQ with his Awesomatix from Payne and Jan Ratheisky. In the finals, Ratheisky’s Xray took the first 8-minute encounter. Lauter was able to convert his pole position into a win in A2 but it was then Payne who won the decider. In the end, Lauter got the title on tie break from Payne with Ratheisky completing the podium.

View 1:12 Spec podium here

April 12, 2024

1:28 Marka Euro Cup – Report

The inaugural 1:28 Marka Euro Cup took place last weekend in Cluses, France, with 15-year-old Samuel Verdan among the main winners over the five categories. Organised by the MZCS Club with support from Marka Racing, 91 drivers from 15 nationalities created a 180 strong Mini Z entry for the 3-day event that featured National and World Champions for a very high level of competition. The RCP track layout was popular with drivers, a lap covering 77 meters and its 18 meter long straight allowing racers to gain a good top speed. While French teenager Verdan won the Pro-Stock title, it was another French winner in Open 4×4 with Thomas Robin taking victory, while in Open 4×2 top honours went to Portugal’s José Pequito. Austrian Philipp Stadler would do a double with victory in Stock and F1.

View more images here

April 11, 2024

FEMCA EP Offroad Championship – Announcement

FEMCA, the governing body of RC racing that represents 15 nations in Asia and Australasia, has announced details of the 2024 FEMCA EP Offroad Championship. Following the Covid shutdown, FEMCA, under the guidance of Vice President Leonard Kee has been proactive in re-establishing its various FEMCA title deciding races with 1:10 Offroad the latest event to be announced for July 19-21 at the GDC Indoor track in Foshan, China. The track operated by well known racer Gavin Kwok, is no stranger to international visitors having hosted a very successful inaugural Foshan International Invitational RC Championship for electric touring car in December where former World Champion Ronald Volker took the victory. In addition to its touring car track, GDC also has a dedicated astro turf offroad track on which it will host the FEMCA EP Offroad Championship. A total of four FEMCA Champions will be crowned at the event including 4WD Modified & 13.5 Stock Buggy and 2WD Modified & 17.5T Stock Buggy. The race will also feature 2WD & 4WD Vintage Buggy support races. While the controlled tyre for each class is still to be announced, the schedule with see 5 rounds of qualifying with 3 to count and triple finals for everyone. Former FEMCA EP Offroad Champions include multi discipline World Champion Naoto Matsukura.

View GDC offroad track images here

April 10, 2024

2024 IFMAR Large Scale World C/ship – Stage 1 Report

The organisers of this year’s IFMAR Large Scale World Championship which is set to take place in Sydney, Australia from October 21-27, has just published the Stage 1 Report for the event (link here). Having organised & executed an excellent 1:8 GT World Championship last year at its John Grant International Raceway, New South Wales Radio Control Racing Car Club are the hosts of the 12th running of the World Championship for 1:5 scale Touring Car. The third time the track has welcomed the World’s best drivers having hosted the 2001 1:8 Onroad WC, together with the host country’s governing body Remote Control Racing Australia (RCRA), the club is seeking expression of interest from all international and Australian racers to better understand the expected attendance at the event. Racers interested in attending – or who perhaps have already decided they are definitely attending are being asked to please complete the form (link here) to assist with host planning. The previous Large Scale World Championship took place at Steel City RC Raceway in Fontana, USA, in 2022 where Germany’s Markus Feldmann became the categories first ever repeat winner driving for Mecatech. Having travelled to Sydney last year to cover our first ever 1:8 GT Worlds, Red RC intends to return to this great city to report on our first ever Large Scale race.

Source: NSWRCRCC [nswrcrcc.org.au]

April 9, 2024

Hara ‘excited’ for Philippine Masters return

A former winner of the Philippine Masters, legend of the sport Atsushi Hara will make his return to the famed Manila based 1:8 Offroad event next week (April 18-21). The offroad and onroad World Champion, last contested the race in 2019 and will return to the Circulo Verde track at the controls of an Sworkz Buggy, a decade on from when he raced for manufacturer full time during the 2014 season. Joining the international entry that includes reigning World & Philippine Masters Champion Davide Ongaro, multiple Worlds finalist Kyle McBride, Asian Buggy Championship points leader & PM debutant Ryan Lutz, and another PM debutant Joern Neumann, on his return to the Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race former FEMCA Champion Hara said, “I am so excited to be back at Philippine Masters, because Philippine Masters is one of the best organizers in the world. This time, Sworkz and Cayote have helped me to enter the race! I am also looking forward to seeing my many friends and fans in the Philippines! See everybody at the track!”

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]