March 30, 2023

IFMAR World Cup 1:8 Electric Buggy – Announcement

IFMAR has announced details of the first ever World Cup for 1:8 Electric Buggy.  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 event will take place on September 22-24 and be hosted by the Club ACDB “OS BEIROES” at their 310m track in Guarda, Portugal.   The track previously hosted the 2010 EFRA European 1:8 Nitro Buggy Championship when Reno Savoya took the third of his European titles.  While taking place only one week after the 1:10 Offroad World Championships at Hobby Action in the USA, the 1:8 Electric Buggy World Cup is still expected to be well supported by the industry given the growing future importance of the category.  View Stage 1 report here.

Source: IFMAR [imfar.org] 


March 29, 2023

2023 Portugal Touring Series (PTS) – Announcement

The Portugal Touring Series has announced its schedule for 2023 with the popular Lisbon based series being made up of three rounds.  Taking place on the 2008 1:10 200mm IFMAR World Championship hosting Monsanto track, the home track of a certain Bruno Coelho, the series kicks off on April 23th with Round 2 scheduled for May 21st.  Organised by CRB-Clube Rádio Modelismo de Benfica, each round caters for Touring Car and Formula with the addition of a Carten M Cup for 2023.  The PTS will conclude on July 23rd and with Lisbon the home to both Coelho and Alexander Hagberg don’t be surprised to see either of these World Champions turn up at a round.

Source: PTS [Facebook]


March 29, 2023

Tamiya Championship Series Rnd3 Cal Raceway – Report

The third round of the 2023 Tamiya Championship Series made its way to Cal Raceway in Orange, California last weekend with the event attracting an impressive 186 entries.  Now in its 28th year, this year’s series regional race at Cal Raceway hosted 119 racers competing for honours in 8 different classes.  Fielding the biggest grid was the Euro-Truck class with 49 entries with Michael Monaghan taking the win ahead Mark Brown and Brian Ruvalcaba.  Monaghan would also take the win in M-Chassis class.  The next largest grid was GT2 (17.5 Tamiya tub chassis class) with Matt Allen the winner over Hector Martinez.  The other Round 3 winners were Brian Ruvalcaba (Formula 1), Cory Belanger (GT Spec NOVICE), Pete Teh (GT-PRO SPEC), Edgar Fiallos (GT-1) and Phillip Enriquez (GT-E).

Source: Tamiya USA [tamiyausa.com]


March 28, 2023

Ceseña wins 2023 Mexican Offroad Nationals opener

Last weekend, the first round of the Mexican 1:8 Off Road National Championship was held in the beautiful city of Los Cabos, BCS where Mayako driver Jose “Tito” Ceseña took the win.  Drivers from all over Mexico and the US showed up for the opening round of the 2023 season.  In qualifying it was Luis Gudiño who was the Top Qualifier topping 2 of the 3 rounds with Ceseña topping Q2.   Qualifying directly into the Semi Finals HobbyShop.MX’s star driver Ceseña faced some electrical gremlins that forced him to retire from the race.  This meant that the Last Chance Qualifier Race was the only way to make it to the A Main.  Ceseña led from start to finish and secured the last spot in the 60-minute-long main final. Starting 13th on the grid, the Mayako driver was able to push forward his Energy Fuel powered car to the top 3 by lap 7. Here is where the real battle started with Sworkz team drivers Diego Marroquin and Gudiño. Strategy played a huge role during the race too. Mayako Mexico Team Manager Daniel Ornelas, performed lighting fast pits stops with Tito’s wife Dani, that helped close the gap to the lead drivers. Ceseña continued to push placing fast lap after fast lap.  After 65 laps Ceseña was able to dispose of both Sworkz Mexico drivers to secure the first win of the season for the Mayako/HobbyShop.MX team.  Marroquin and Mark Morrow completed the podium.  Next round will be held in Guadalajara at the new Huecos Track in May.

Report: Juan Herrero


March 27, 2023

Balestri wins Italian 1:8 Onroad National opener

Dario Balestri opened the AMSCI Italian 1:8 Onroad National Championship over the weekend with a dominant winning performance at Locorotondo.  The former World Champion would take three of the four qualifiers to secure the overall TQ from the Xray of rising talent Filippo Domanin who was quickest in Q3 with Carmine Raiola securing third on the grid.  With reigning European Champion Dominic Greiner taking part, qualifying his Capricorn 5th, in the half hour final Balestri took control of proceeding setting the fastest lap of the race en route to winning by lap as his Infinity team-mates Raiola and eight place qualifier Francesco Tironi battled for second.  With Domanin retiring after 12-minutes, Raiola held off Tironi by just 2/10th of a second at the finish.  Having qualified 6th, Jonathan Gandin took his Serpent to fourth followed home by Davide Caporossi and Shepherd’s Luca Romagnoli.

Image: Francesco Tironi [Facebook]


March 27, 2023

Kobbevik wins Springcup 2023 Rnd 3 at Stoa Raceway

The third round of the 5 round Springcup 2023 in Arendal, Norway, took place over the weekend with Daniel Kobbevik taking his second win of the championship having won the previous round.  Issues in Q1 and Q3 the factory Schumacher driver started from 4th on the grid in the A-mains but it took just one lap for Kobbevik to take his LRP powered Schumacher LD2 to the front for the rest of the final with A2 and repeat of A1.  With the overall win decided it was up to the rest of the field to fight for the two last places on podium in A3, and it was a thriller with 4 drivers, Daniel Tonnesen, Halvor Gran, Bastian Andreassen and Mats Isaksen, in contention for second place.  Unfortunately Tonnesen was out early with some electronic problems, Bastian also made a mistake in the start, and that gave Halvor the chance to go away, they were almost on the same speed all the time, but Bastian started to catch up in the end, but a small mistake handed the control over to Halvor and he could secure the second place.  That gave Bastian Andreassen the third place on podium.

Continue reading report here


March 27, 2023

Senesi dominates UISP 1:8 GT Italian National opener

The opening round of the UISP 1:8 GT Italian National Championship in both GT and GTE classes took place over the weekend with Natanaele Senesi dominating to take the TQ and win in both categories.  The Xray team driver took the win at a temporary track that was build in Gropello Cairoli, in the north of Italy.  Senesi topped all four rounds of qualifying with his Senesi Motorsport powered X-RAY GTX8 ‘23 and his Hobbywing powered X-RAY GTXE ‘23 and would confirm both the results after the finals.  The podium in the GT class was completed by Adriano Tarragoni in second and Filippo Beretta in third, while Fabrizio d’Aietti in P2 and Stefano Tallarico in P3 completed the GTE podium.

Source: Natanaele Senesi [Facebook]


March 22, 2023

BRCA LMP12 Nationals Rd 5 & 6 – Report

The concluding rounds of the 2023 BRCA LMP12 nationals took place last weekend at the new venue of the Chesterfield club in Alfreton. The Chesterfield club have been hosting 12th circuit nationals for many years, so it was great to be able to visit the club in their new venue following the redevelopment of their previous home.  Stock and modified classes were on track with around 75 drivers competing at the event. This weekend’s racing would see the conclusion of the Stock national championship which was the closest fought competition, having had four winners from four rounds up to this point. Going into the final two rounds the championship was tied between Andy Smith and Mark Stiles, with a further four drivers having the potential to win the championship.  The Chesterfield club now have a smaller track area than previously but laid a technical track that was all about carrying corner speed to maximise lap time. It was a track that rewarded the best drivers and perfect for the championship battle.

Continue reading report here