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February 28, 2024

Lutz confirmed for Philippine Masters debut

With the best electric touring car drivers in Asia this week for the legendary TITC in Bangkok, its offroad equivalent, the Philippine Masters, has confirmed Kyosho’s Ryan Lutz will make the trip to Manila for the April 18-21 event. Having established itself as Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race, this is the 12th edition and will be Lutz’s debut appearance at the Philippine Masters which is famed for its truly unique vibe that lives up to the nations tourism tagline ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’. This year the race will count as the second round of the Asian Buggy Championships with Lutz the current standings leader having won the season opener in New Zealand recently. Commenting on the news Lutz said, “After a fantastic first round in New Zealand I am blessed to continue the journey to round two in Manila, Philippines at the Philippine Masters ‘24. Edward Sio has been after me for so many years to attend and finally, the schedule allows this year. I can’t wait to battle it out on what has always looked like one of the most amazing R/C tracks on the planet. And I have heard nothing but amazing things about the track, facility, and the Philippines themselves from everyone who knows I’m coming. I’m excited for the adventure to start!”

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

February 27, 2024

Lucas Urbain – ‘Hiring Marc pi$$€d me off’

While racers are not known for always agreeing, one thing all the professional team drivers do agree on is that the TITC is the most difficult race in the world! After the World Championships, this annual Bangkok based race has become the most significant electric touring car title drivers can secure. Racing at the TITC you are putting yourself on a World class stage with the best in the business with the additional unique element of every driver having had the opportunity to complete days of pre race practice, something that eats into your excuses when the race doesn’t go your way. So for these reasons it might not be the first race of choice at which to make your international race debut as the newest member of the full time professional driver ranks but that is exactly what Lucas Urbain will do later this week. At the age of 34, Urbain will tell you himself that the opportunity to become a full time professional racer ‘came out of the blue’ adding ‘the idea was never a topic we talked about’. An announcement on February 2nd however from Awesomatix changed all that and now this popular French racer switches from a decade of working in signalling with the French railway network to living every young RC racers dream of travelling the world racing and getting paid for the privilege. Lucas’ journey to becoming a ‘Pro’ is an interesting one that started in 2000 when a certain Adrien Bertin came to his home town of Longwy and gave a demo with a 1:8 Nitro Onroad car. That was the moment Lucas was ‘blown away’ by radio controlled cars and with his parents getting him his first RC car from a local hobby shop for Christmas that year, the seed was sown for his 24-year long road to obtaining the job description of Pro RC Racer.

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February 26, 2024

Pålsson & Ronnefalk win at Euro Buggy Masters

Schumacher’s Jessica Pålsson and Xray’s David Ronnefalk took the spoils at the annual Euro Buggy Masters in Sweden, this year’s event also doubling up as the Warm-up Race for the EFRA 1:10 Offroad European Championships. In 2WD it was the Xray of Hampus Berg who took the TQ after taking two of the five qualifiers. Behind the Swede it was Pålsson fastest in Q2 who would start second ahead of Sworkz’ Joern Nuemann, Ronnefalk and the Associated of reigning European Champion Marcus Kaerup. In 4WD it was Ronnefalk was Top Qualifier over Kaerup, both drivers recording two TQ runs each. Fastest in the final round Pålsson would complete the Top 3 on the grid from Berg. In Sunday’s finals it was Pålsson who took the first A-Main as Berg had a DNF. Berg would bounce back to take A2 and leading A3 with with 30 seconds to go he taken out from behind dropping to fourth handing the overall win to Pålsson as the A3 win secured Ronnefalk the final podium placing at the Malmo based event. In 4WD, Ronnefalk failed to capitalised on starting out front in A1 with a mistake ending his challenge and allowing Kaerup to take the win. He would reset for A2 however and convert pole into wins in A2 and 3 to claim the overall ahead of Kaerup and Pålsson.

Image: Jessica Pålsson Motorsport [Facebook]

February 26, 2024

Ryan Maker – ‘Using this World stage as a test ground is both the most exciting and nervous thing I have done.’

Growing up I was a huge fan of Formula 1 and always tended to supported the underdogs. Pre-qualifying was my favourite part of the Grand Prix weekend and my favourite team was Zakspeed. That interest in the German team stemmed from an article in an F1 Magazine that compared the Zakspeed team and its budget to that of the all conquering McLaren. In the article it covered how the high cost of wind tunnel testing meant Zakspeed’s small budget forced them to come up with an alternative and they used a water tunnel that was used by boat manufacturers to test hull designs. Racing 1:8 Onroad nitro at the time, in the form of a very basic Team Associated RC250, I was inspired by the Zakspeed story I wanted to build my own R/C car and become a ‘Constructor’.

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February 24, 2024

Hills Offroad RC announced as 1:10 Offroad Worlds host

RCRA, the governing body of RC racing in Australia, has announced the Hills Offroad RC track as the host venue for the 2025 IFMAR 1:10 Electric Offroad World Championships. With it the turn of the FEMCA Bloc to host the championships, Australia was awarded the 20th running of the category’s biggest prize during the 2023 World Championships in Arizona, with a number of tracks emerging as candidates for the event. Based in the Castle Hill suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, the hosting of the WC will coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Hills Offroad RC club which was founded the same year as IFMAR hosted the first ever 1:10 Offroad Worlds – 1985 in Del Mar, USA. One of the premier offroad track in the country, the club has hosted the Australian Nationals and will do so again this year along with the NSW State titles. While Worlds dates have still to be confirmed but expected to be between September & November, making the announcement RCRA posted, ‘It is now with Great Pleasure we can announce that Hills Off Road RC has been formally selected as official venue of the 2025 IFMAR 1:10 Off Road Electric World Championships on behalf of FEMCA as the Host Bloc! We would like to extend a big congratulations to Peter Couper and the rest of the Hills Off Road Club for presenting a very strong submission that will form the basis of the Stage 1 Report to be presented to IFMAR for Final Approval.’

Source: Hills Offroad RC [Facebook]

February 23, 2024

Schumacher Winter Series Finale – Report

The 2023/2023 Schumacher Winter Series presented by the Louth Radio Control Car Club concluded last weekend with the sixth & final round of the popular Indoor Series. In the Contact RC 17.5 Touring Car class, outgoing Champion and Schumacher racer Alex Brocklebank took a commanding Top qualifier position after the four qualifying rounds. The battle for the second spot was a close affair between the Awesomatix of Daniel Leonard and Mugen of Tim Wood. Tim taking the 2nd spot on count back with Daniel in 3rd. In fourth place was Awesomatix racer Paul Sleight from fellow Awesomatix racer James Herring and Matt Cook with his Mugen Seiki. The single leg final started at a quick pace with Wood making an early overtake on Brocklebank who would fall to the rear of the field. Tim and Daniel would battle with Daniel making a mistake, which would allow Paul Sleight through. A minute in Paul would make a move and claim the lead, with the rest of the field clawing themselves back. Wood would Gather himself up and give the spectators a race for the lead, contact between himself and Paul would see the recovering Alex Brocklebank take the lead and create a gap which he would see to the end. Daniel and Matthew Cook would recover and take advantage of the melee and place themselves in the final two podium positions. Paul and Tim would recover to 4th and 5th respectively with James Herring round out the field.

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February 19, 2024

Lutz takes buggy win at Motorama

Ryan Lutz took the big win at this year’s Motorama taking his Kyosho MP10e TKI2 to the TQ and win at the Pennsylvania event. In qualifying Lutz, fresh from his Asian Buggy Championship winning trip to New Zealand took two of the four qualifiers with the other two going to Tekno’s Ryan Maifield but on tiebreaker it was Lutz who took the overall Expert Buggy TQ honours. In the triple 5-minute finals Lutz took the first two for the overall win with Maifield taking A3 to finish second. They where joined on the podium by the Tekno of Spencer Heckert. In Expert Truggy, Maifield completed a clean sweep of all four qualifiers and from the TQ spot secured the win ahead of Heckert with Lutz third.

Image: Motorama RC Racers [Facebook]

February 19, 2024

Collina retains Italian Indoor National title

While Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski was busy winning MIBO International in the Czech Republic, in Italy his mechanic Mattia Collina was also adding to the silverware collection of the British manufacturer’s new prototype touring car by being crowned the 2024 Italian National Indoor Champion. Racing at the RC Landia track in Scandiano, Collina got his title defence off to the perfect start securing the TQ honours by topping 2 of the 4 rounds before securing the title with wins in A1 & A2. Winning A3, Awesomatix driver Gabriele Berselli finished runner up with the Xray of Alessio Menicucci completing the podium. In Stock Nico Catelani took the title ahead of Federico Collina while in 1:12 Alessio Tolomelli became the Champion.

Image: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]