January 3, 2024

Euro Buggy Masters/Euros Warm-up – Announcement

The organisers of the annual Euro Buggy Masters in Sweden have announced that the indoor event will double up this year as the Warm-up Race for the EFRA 1:10 Offroad European Championships.  A club based in the south of the country, Furulund RC Klubb has secured use of a massive almost 4000 seater indoor sport hall in the city of Malmo for the 2024 edition of the EBM.  Taking place from February 23-25, the track will be built using completely new EOS carpet to create a bespoke track layout giving all drivers the same track time and opportunity for a close and fair racing.  Last held in November 2022 when Michal Orlwski took the 4WD win and Jessica Pålsson took the 2WD honours, the race moves to the start of the season this year on February 23-25 as the club hosts the European Championships from September 23-28.

Source: Furulund RCK [frck.se]


January 2, 2024

2024 EFRA Homologated Motor Lists

EFRA, the governing body for RC racing in Europe, has just published updated Homologated Motor lists for 2024 for all electric racing categories.  Competitors looking to compete at Europrean Championship and EFRA GP events in 1:12, 1:10 Touring Cars and 1:10 Offroad classes can only use Brushless Motors that are included on the 2024 EFRA Homologation Lists, a procedure that began in 2016.  When a motor (or rotor) has been approved and included on the relative list, the manufacturer must not change the technical specification, visual appearance or description.  Any changes require a new part number and the motor (or rotor) will have to be resubmitted for approval.  Drivers are also not allowed to make any changes to the motor, something that happened in Pro Stock at the 2022 European Championships when two driver’s motors were ‘found not to comply with the submitted samples to the EFRA Spec Homologation Lists’ promoting Olivier Bultynck to Champion.  Homologation has caused a number of manufacturers issues recently with team drivers having to switch motors or batteries at recent World Championships as their sponsors’ where not IFMAR approved.  ROAR, the North American governing body, has had a number of high profile cases where motors where randomly purchased and tested and found to not meet the specification of the original submitted motor that was approved for its sanctioned events.  A standard many independent races run by, the offending motors had their motors removed from the approved list.  View the full EFRA Motor Homologation lists here.

Source: EFRA [efra.ws]


December 23, 2023

New date confirmed for IFMAR 1:8 eBuggy World Cup

After being forced to cancel the event just days before its planned date of last September due to a lack of entries, IFMAR has announced the new date of April 5-7, 2024, for the first ever World Cup for 1:8 Electric Buggy.  Concerns were raised when the initial date was announced as it was just 1-week after the 1:10 Offroad World Championships in Arizona which was probably one of the biggest contributing factors to it getting only 15 confirmed entries but the new date should allow for a much stronger entry.  With eBuggy a hugely important category for manufacturers while 1:8 nitro has enjoyed World Championship status since 1986, the World Cup will be the first step for the electric category to become a World Championship category in 2025.  The World Cup will be hosted by the Club ACDB “OS BEIROES” at their 310m track in Guarda, Portugal whichk previously hosted the 2010 EFRA European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championship when Reno Savoya took the third of his European titles.  View the updated Stage 1 report here.

Source: IFMAR [Facebook]


December 23, 2023

2024 Philippine Masters registration opens

Having established itself as Asia’s biggest annual 1:8 Offroad race, the organisers of the Philippine Masters have announced the opening of registration for the 12th edition of the high profile Manila based event.  A sell out event in 2023, the race saw World Champion David Ongaro win the Buggy title for Team Associated while Sworkz’ Micha Widmaier came away with the Truggy victory.  With the Philippines famed as a holiday destination, the event has a truly unique vibe living up to the nations tourism tagline ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ with many of the large international driver entry combining the race with holidays at the country’s world famous white sand beaches.  Along with Ongaro and Widmaier, Robert Battle, David Ronnefalk, Adam Drake, Ty Tessmann, Atsushi Hara and Kyle McBride are just some of the other international drivers to enjoy both the racing and hospitality in the capital city.  Again a capacity entry is expected to be reached quickly as the Philippine Masters plays host to the second round of the Asia Buggy Championships which after kicking off in February in New Zealand will also visit Australia and Indonesia in 2024 and at the end of which there will be an overall Champion of the region crowned.

Source: Philippine Masters [philippinemastersrc.com]


December 21, 2023

’23 Foshan Invitational RC C/ship Chassis Focus Index

Last weekend saw the inaugural running of the Foshan Invitational RC Championship at the GDC Indoor Track in China’s central Guangdong Province.  The biggest international race hosted in the country post Covid, FIRC attracted a number of international racers to the impressive indoor track with former World Champion Ronald Volker taking the win ahead of an impressive drive from Chinese racer Vening Zhuo with Japan’s Yugo Nagashima completing the podium.  During our coverage of the event we featured 10 cars from 5 different manufacturers for our Chassis Focus including some of China’s top Modified Touring Car racers and we have compiled them all here in our latest Chassis Focus index.

View Chassis Focus Index here


December 21, 2023

2024 MIBO International registration opens

Following the hugely successful inaugural running of the MIBO International Race in the Czech Republic in March of this year, the race is back for 2024 with registration now open for the February 16-18 event.  Organised by former international touring car racer Michal Bok the race brings together both electric onroad and offroad racing on two tracks build side by side by the team from Mibosport.  A long time dream of Bok to host his own major international event in Hrotovice, the first edition of MIBO International saw Mugen’s Ronald Volker crowned the inaugural Touring Car Champion and Xray’s Bruno Coelho take double buggy honours at the Sport V Hotel venue. With everything from the track, restaurant, bowling alley and hotel rooms all under one roof, the venue was a hit with racers who travelled from 13 different countries. With a capped entry limit the relaxed schedule also meant plenty of time in the evening to wind down and socialise over dinner after each day’s racing. On the onroad track, the racing action will again cater for Modified, Stock & FWD Touring cars plus Formula.  The Offroad track will cater for 2WD and 4WD Buggy as well an open class of ‘Offroad Kids’ that will give the future stars of racing an opportunity to be a part of this international event.  Red RC is looking forward to making the return trip to Czech Republic for the 2nd edition of the race which will kick off our 2024 race coverage.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]


December 21, 2023

British GT12 Nationals RD4 Eastbourne – Report

Round 4 of the BRCA GT12 Nationals took place on the 17th of December and was hosted by the Eastbourne club at their facility in Robertsbridge.  24 of the nations keenest racers took to the track to compete at one of the countries best tracks. A superb venue with a  fantastic technical track layout and some great track markings.  Along side the GT12 racers they had the mini super cup entries with a support class of LMP12 featuring the former world David Spashett.  The day consisted of the usual format of 1 practice, 4 qualifying rounds and 1 final to decide the winner of the Event.  Round one saw the usual front runners and title contenders taking the lead with smooth and fast driving from Adam Mackman to TQ the first round of qualifying with a 4 second gap back to his closest rivals Sam Coult and Morgan Williams who was making his return to GT12 after racing LMP at the IFMAR world championships. Round 2 was a virtual stalemate in the top 5 with no improvements in the top 3 and only Ewan Thompson and James Taylor swapping places in the top 5. The big winners of round 2 were Matt Hunter and Matt Gammons as they both made big jumps in the standings.

Continue reading here


December 19, 2023

Schumacher Winter Series Round 3 – Report

The 2023/24 Schumacher Winter Series presented by the Louth Radio Control Car Club reached its midway point with Round 3 taking place last weekend. Schumacher front runner James Hart joined the series and set the fastest times in the opening qualifier and continued on to take four commanding rounds. Chris Lovely would lead the Xray charge and take 2nd spot in the qualifications with two 2nd places, 3rd would belong to 1:8 nitro ace Tim Wood and his Mugen.  In 4th would be Paul Sleight with his Awesomatix mixing it with the front times, 5th was Dave Sedgewick with his Awesomatix showing consistent speed. Daniel Burks would round out the A-final with his Destiny.

Continue reading here