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August 28, 2024

Sahashi to defend Nitro Touring Car World title

While the cancellation of Costa Rica staging the IFMAR 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship this year was a blow for the racing community in the FAMAR Bloc, the switch to the Huge RC Circuit in Thailand has given a major boost to the 10th running of categories biggest race with reigning Champion Tadahiko Sahashi confirmed to defend his title. With a number of manufacturers confirming at the time they would not be sending team drivers to Costa Rica, the Worlds was set to be void of many of its top drivers including those of reigning back to back Champions Infinity. Following the announcement in July that the Worlds was to return to the FEMCA Bloc, the previous hosts, the switch to the second of Bangkok’s international circuits has resulted in a ‘Who’s who’ of onroad racing entry list topped by Sahashi. Infinity’s reigning 1:8 World Champion Dario Balestri is also confirmed meaning the potential for crowning the first ever reigning 1:8 & 1:10 Champion. Sahashi gained the elusive ‘Double Champion’ status with victory at RC Addict in 2022 to go with his 2013 1:8 WC title. In doing so he became only the second ever driver to win both IFMAR titles, Adrien Bertin’s feat finally being matched 18-years after the Frenchman became the first to achieved it in 2004. While entries are still open for the November 15th to 23rd event, there are already 7 IFMAR World Champions confirmed with it widely expected Huge RC Circuit owner & former Electric Touring Car World Champion Surikarn Chaidajsuriya will bring that number to 8. Other factory entries include Capricorn, with current 1:8 GT World Champion Toni Gruber, 2012 World Champion Meen Vejrak & 2016 Worlds Runner-Up Alessio Mazzeo, while Serpent are sending Jeff Hamon and Bryce Butterfield. Red RC will travelling to Huge RC for the final stop on our 2024 World Championships coverage schedule.

Source: IFMAR [ifmar.org]

August 22, 2024

Niko Saarinen crowned Finnish 1:8 Onroad Champion

Mugen Seiki driver Niko Saarinen is the 2024 Finnish 1:8 Onroad National Champion, the title being decided at the fourth & final round which took place in Hyvinkää over the weekend. Three drivers went into the final race still with a chance of the overall with drivers counting 3 from the four races with Pekka Koivula leading the standings from Niko Saarinen and the defending Champion Jere Saarinen. The race was run in tricky conditions with the track changing from wet to dry. Practice was run on a drying track but luckily when qualifying came around the track had dried up allowing for 2 rounds in the dry before the rain returned. Based off the dry runs it would be Niko Saarinen who took the TQ, from Panu VehniäinenI and Jere Saarinen. The main final was driven in drying conditions meaning everybody had to be very careful to not push over the limit. Niko took the early lead followed by VehniäinenI while there was a collision on the straight between Jere, Joona Lempiäinen and Koivula, which forced the Champion to change tyres due to a broken rim and while Lempiäinen required a bodyshell change. After 20 minutes Niko was till leading followed by Vehniäinen until the second placed driver ran into transmission problems and was forced to retire. Allowing Niko to take the win ahead of Jere with Lempiäinen completing the podium, overall Niko’s Max Power engined Mugen took the title ahead of the similar O.S powered car of Koivula. Also driving a Mugen, fitted with a Max Power engine,the outgoing champion complete the Top 3 ahead of the Infinity of Lempiäinen with Vehniäinen’s Mugen 5th.

Source: Teemu Saarinen

August 21, 2024

1:8 Buggy World Championship preview by Scott Guyatt

While attending this year’s Philippine Masters we had the pleasure of meeting Scott Guyatt who has been working as part of the media team behind Scotty Ernst’s Asian Buggy Championship this year. Talking all things RC and sharing old RC stories with this Aussie over dinner each night while in Manila, talk of him creating some content for Red RC was floated. Having worked with Scott on content from the ABC and now with the greatest spectacle in RC, the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship, just around the corner, when Scott put together a preview of event for his own Action R/C podcast we thought what a great opportunity and way to introduce his writings to Red RC readers. Sharing his thoughts is the ideal way to start building up this great race as we get ready to build up to our own coverage from Spain which is presented by Ruddog. So take it away Scott – What will almost certainly be the most-watched race of 2024, the IFMAR IC Buggy World Champs, is just a few weeks away. You have to believe we’re excited about this one, and can’t help but cast an eye over the field to preview the event. We’ll do it by producing our own Tier List for the event (yeah, we know Tier Lists are a bit 2018, but we’re so old-fashioned that we’re still all about the long-form story here, so let’s go with a Tier List as well). We’ve picked the drivers we think most likely to run up front, those aiming for a semi- or quarter-final, and a few wild cards with enough talent to up-end the predictions completely. Disclaimer: We used the most recent entry list we could find – so forgive us if some we’ve named don’t make it to Redován come September.

Continue reading Scott’s preview here

August 19, 2024

ENS Champion Gruber claims 1st win in Netherlands

Euro Nitro Series Champion Toni Gruber claimed the first win of his title defence over the weekend, the Capricorn driver taking the win at the third round at the Apeldoorn track in the Netherlands. In qualifying it was the Mugen Seiki of Round 1 winner Simon Kurzbuch who secured TQ ahead of Gruber with the Infinity of Swiss driver Oliver Krahemann completing the Top 3. With rain washing out Friday’s action, qualifying would be reduced to just two rounds with the fastest to count and for Shepherd’s Lars Hoppe, the winner of Round 2 in Austria, he ended up P9 on the grid. While former World Champion Kurzbuch lead away the 12 car field for the opening minutes of the 45-minute final, once Gruber hit the front with his Ielasi Tuned C804R he was able to edge out a comfortable gap to win by more than 2-laps from Krahemann who put in an impressive showing. The Infinity of Teemu Leino would completed the podium, the Finn just holding off Hoppe with Kurbuch rounding out the Top 5. In 1:10 Nitro Touring it was reigning Champion Melvin Diekmann made it a double for Capricorn, securing victory ahead of the Infinity of former Champion & Round 2 winner Jilles Groskamp with Top Qualifier Milan Holthuis taking the final step on the podium.

Image: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]

August 12, 2024

Rönick wins German 1:8 Nitro Buggy Nationals

Aaron Rönick is the new DMC German 1:8 Nitro Buggy National Champion, the Team Associated driver claiming the title for the first time at the 2-time European Championship host track of Sand am Main. In qualifying it was defending champion Berkan Kilic who took the TQ after 5 rounds of qualifying but on completing the Semi Finals it was his brother Burak who lined up on pole for Mugen Seiki followed by Berkan, Rönick and the Sworkz of Joern Nuemann. At the start of the 45-minute final Berkan would hit problems on lap one before eventually retiring just after the 10-minute mark. After their 1-2 finish last year, 2-time German Champion Burak was the next to retire with his race coming to an end just before 1/3 distance. Having taken the lead early on Rönick would stay out front to take his Ruddog Racing engined RC8B4.1 to the victory & title by almost a full lap from Nuemann with Sworkz team-mate Max Hesse completing the podium.

Image: Ruddog [ruddog.eu]

August 10, 2024

Ruddog supports Red RC 1:8 Offroad Worlds coverage

While the entire World currently watches sport’s greatest spectacle as athletes do battle in Paris for the greatest prize in their chosen sports, in just one months time RC Racing’s best will do battle for our sport’s biggest prize at the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship, and Red RC is excited to announce we have teamed up with Ruddog Racing to bring our readers full trackside coverage from Spain. Having supported our coverage of the 2023 1:10 Offroad World Championships in Arizona, we are delighted to be teaming up once again with Ruddog to attended our sixth 1:8 Offroad World Championship, our first being 2010 in Pattaya, Thailand where Cody King was crowned Champion. In addition to our regular event coverage from Redovan, we are excited to bring you a new daily ‘Welcome to my World’ column from Ruddog sponsored driver Marcus Kaerup. The reigning European 1:10 2WD Champion & 2022 4WD Champion as well as a double finalist on his EP Worlds debut last year, the 16-year-old, who will campaign a Ruddog Racing engines powered Team Associated, will give a daily insight into how his World Championship effort is going. As a company German based Ruddog is steeped in offroad racing history being a distributor for 32 times World Champion manufacturer Team Associated and iconic offroad tyre brand JConcepts to name but a few. Founded in 2006 by Sven Rudig, himself an avid offroad racer, they have developed their own product ranges such as Ruddog Racing which offers a line of electronics and engines. They are also behind Revolution Design Racing Products which has established itself as a designer & producer of high-quality tuning parts and are popular upgrades among offroad racers. The first of three World Championships Red RC will attend this year, our coverage will kick off on September 10th with seeding practice.

Source: Ruddog [ruddog.eu]

August 8, 2024

Thurston crowned British Champion with 5 in a row

Alex Thurston is the new 2024 BRCA British 1:8 Circuit National Champion, the YMC Racing supported driver claimed the title with a perfect season of 5 wins from 5 races. With round 5 of 7 taking drivers to the centre of the country and to the Wombwell Circuit, Thurston would take his Ielasi Tuned powered Mugen Seiki to the TQ ahead of the Shepherds of out going champion Tim Wood and Andrew Hastings. In the process of his Q4 FTD, Thurston claimed a new track record with a fastest lap of 16.02. In the half hour final Wood would keep Thurston on his toes but a late push in the final minutes allowed Thurston to build as gap he could maintain to the finish to make it 5 from 5 by a margin of 6-seconds. Behind Wood, Hastings completed the podium 2-laps down. The title win sees Thurston retake the title he had previous held for three years in a row in 2022. The penultimate round of the 2024 championship will see drivers return to Halifax, having hosted previously Round 5, on September 7/8th.

Image: Alex Thurston [Facebook]

August 4, 2024

D’Amico new European Large Scale Champion

Large Scale Touring Car racing has a new EFRA European Champion after a dominant performance in Switzerland from Italian Emanuele D’Amico. Having secured the TQ by going fastest in all 5 rounds of qualifying at the Lostallo circuit, the Mecatech driver would lead the half-hour final from start to finish setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. With second place qualifier & 2016 Champion Giovanni Verbrugghe suffering a bad start and later becoming the race’s first retirement approaching the 20-minute mark, in the closing stages of the race it did look as though World Champion Markus Feldmann might be able to make a late challenge on D’Amico. As the German reduced the gap on the leader, unfortunately just inside the final 5-minutes his car would come to stop on track. This promoted the MCD of the defending Champion Dario Veseli, who started P5, to second but such was the gap D’Amico could back right off the pace and cruise to his first European title. The podium would be completed by the Genius of 2003 World Champion Hessel Roskam from the Netherlands.

Source: AMSCI [Facebook]