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September 27, 2024

Kato takes Q1 in Indonesia

Having set the pace in seeding practice, Kouki Kato carried that form into qualifying to TQ the opening round at the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships in Indonesia, but only just. While putting together a perfect error few 5-minute run, the Infinity driver didn’t have the same outright pace as the morning with local Sworkz driver Jason Nugroho coming to within 0.1 of a second of denying him the top spot. With visiting drivers still finding their way in terms of how the track conditions change over the day, another local to open qualifying with a strong showing was track owner & builder Adrian Wicaksono who took his Team Associated to third ahead young Australian Christian Wolhunter.

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September 27, 2024

Kato Top Seed at Asian Buggy Championships Finale

Kouki Kato is the Top Seed at the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships, the Japanese driver leading an Infinity 1-2 in Indonesia from fellow countryman Naoto Matsukura. Racing on the completely natural dirt West Side Raceway track which is proving a big hit with the visiting drivers, Kato set the fastest two consecutive laps in the single seeding round. The only driver to dip into the 40-second lap times, Kato ended up almost 1-second quicker than Matsukura over the 2-laps. A regular in the Asian Buggy Championships finishing on the podium at the previous round in Brisbane, Sworkz driver Christian Wolhuter opened his third race of the current season with a Top 3 time. Just 3/10th back on the Australian, Indonesia’s own Rama Tribudiman took his Kyosho to fourth fastest time, the local racer saying afterwards that the traction is completely different to what he used as a result of the large entry who have made the trip to Jakarta this weekend so bring a close to the second season of Scotty Ernst’s Asian Buggy Championships.

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September 23, 2024

Matsukura wins 2024 Singapore Open

Naoto Matsukura was the winner of the annual Singapore Open race which once again took place over the same weekend as Formula 1 took to the streets of the small country’s capital. Attracting drivers from 12-countries, qualifying would see former winner Matsukura, fresh from the 1:8 Offroad World Championship, take his Infinity to the TQ at the Marine Parade Radio Control Modellers Club track. Fastest in 3 of the 4 rounds, the multiple category World Champion secured the top spot from former Electric Touring Car World Champion Jilles Groskamp who set the pace in Q4. Takaaki Shimo end qualifying 3rd ahead of reigning Nitro Touring Car & former 1:8 Onroad World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi but wining Super Pole Shimo joined Matsukura directly in to the 45-minute Main. In the race, Groskamp would be an early retirement as Matsukura lead all the way to win by a lap from Shimo with Thailand’s Chavit Saligupta completing the podium.

Image: Infinity [Facebook]

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 23, 2024

Boots claims 3rd consecutive British National title

Fresh from his podium finish at the 1:8 Offroad World Championship in Spain, Sworkz’ Elliott Boots clinched his third consecutive British National RallyX Championship title at a rain effected season finale hosted by NEMO Raceway over the weekend. Securing the TQ ahead of Xray’s Jonathan Skidmore, bad weather would see the finals cancelled and the Round 5 result declared on the best 2 from 4 qualifiers. With 149 drivers scoring points over this year’s BRCA National Championship in the overall ranking it was Team Associated’s Neil Cragg, who qualified P4 at NEMO, who finished runner-up with 2021 Champion Skidmore completing the season’s podium.

Image: BRCA [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 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.

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