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September 11, 2024

Canas holds overnight Worlds TQ

Day 1 of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship is complete and it is Pre Race favourite Juan Carlos Canas who holds the overnight TQ in Spain. The Sworkz driver made it 2 out of 3 when he backed up his Q2 TQ performance in the final run of the day, however it wasn’t a perfect Q3 from the Spaniard. In the end however he took another max points haul ahead of World Champion Davide Ongaro. Opening qualifying with a TQ run, Ongaro’s Team Associated holds P2 overall with Bruno Coelho with a pair of Top 3 times from Q1 & 2 sitting 3rd. It wasn’t a good Q3 for the former 1:10 Offroad World Champion, a number of errors after a wrong tyre choice leaving him with the 6th fastest time. Instead the Top 3 for the round was completed by Dakotah Phend, the TLR driver continuing his rise to the front as the top US contender sitting fifth overall behind 2016 World Champion David Ronnefalk.

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September 11, 2024

One a piece as Canas takes Q2

It is one a piece for the World Champion and European Champion in qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship, the later, Juan Carlos Canas taking the second round of qualifying ahead of Round 1 TQ winner Davide Ongaro. Posting a new fastest time, Canas’ Sworkz would stop the clock 3/10ths up on the World Champions Team Associated as Xray pairing Bruno Coelho and David Ronnefalk joined them on 13-laps runs. While it has been the European drivers leading the way at RC Redovan, TLR’s Dakotah Phend continued to close the gap, the American posting a P5 for the round.

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September 11, 2024

Ongaro kicks off World title defence with TQ run

Reigning World Champion Davide Ongaro has kicked off his IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championships title defence with a TQ run in Spain. The Team Associated driver, who was third fastest in seeding, would hit the top of the time sheets for the first time when he topped the first of the 6 rounds of qualifying ahead of Sworkz’s Juan Carlos Canas, the pair managing 13-laps efforts. Third fastest with 12-laps was Bruno Coelho ahead of top seed David Ronnefalk, both Xray driver’s opening efforts affected by pitstop issues. The Tekno of Joao Figueiredo was fifth fastest with WIRC’s Marco Baruffolo rounding out the Top 6. With the World Championship’s back to back return to the RC Redovan track widely expected to even the field between the Europeans and the US drivers, Q1 showed that the visitors still have a bit of work to do with TLR’s Dakotah Phend their best placed driver with a P8.

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September 11, 2024

Welcome to my World (Practice) – Marcus Kaerup

At 16-years of age he is already a double European Champion and 12-months ago on his World Championship debut he made both the 2WD and 4WD finals in Arizona but that’s in 1:10 electric. This week however Marcus Kaerup is in Spain for the larger and noisier IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship, the power and noise for the Dane’s efforts coming his Ruddog RNX22.3 engine, the German brand also supporting Red RC’s coverage from the event. In the first of our daily columns following his progress at the spectacular sloping RC Redovan track, we caught up with Marcus to get a quick round up of how the first 3-days of practice has faired for him in his ‘second class’.

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September 10, 2024

Ronnefalk is Top Seed at Offroad Worlds

Coming into the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship in Spain with some new found confidence, Xray’s David Ronnefalk has further boosted his form for the most important bi-annual racing week of the year by claiming the Top Seed honours for the start of qualifying tomorrow. Fastest in first seeding practice from reigning Champion David Ongaro, the former World Champion went quickest again in the second round motivated by the hard charging back to back reigning European Champion Juan Carlos Canas. Over the counting 3-consecutive laps only 0.038 of seconds separated them. Third fastest for the round, that is where Ongaro finds himself seeded for quali in front of Boots, the British driver struggling with the increased grip and only managed 7th fastest time time for the round. Fourth fastest in the second run of the day, Tekno’s Joao Figueiredo is the 5th seed, one spot ahead of fellow countryman Bruno Coelho, the Xray driver having to pit during the evening run after a rear tyre parted way from the rim.

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September 10, 2024

Ronnefalk fastest in first seeding round at WC

After two days of free practice, today drivers finally got down to some serious business at the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship with the first of the two seeding rounds that saw Xray’s David Ronnefalk set the pace on the sloping RC Redovan track. The 2016 World Champion was almost a second faster than the Team Associated of defending World Champion Davide Ongaro with Elliot Boots completing the Top 3 for Sworkz. Overall it was a good start to the day for Xray with Bruno Coelho posting the fourth fastest time just ahead of WIRC Racing’s Marco Baruffolo. Having set the pace both on Sunday & Monday, hotly tipped race favourite Juan Carlos Canas opened the day with a P6. The back to back reigning European Champion won the first of those title at the RC Redovan track.

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September 9, 2024

‘We don’t have to show to anyone who we are’ – Ongaro

Two years ago Davide Ongaro reigned in Spain making history as the first driver to defend his IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship, the previous 17 Champions who went before him unable to execute a successful title defence. Having been forced to wait double the length of time to defend his 2018 Perth victory due to the global Covid pandemic, the likeable Italian again finds himself in a unique title defence situation. Originally set to travel to Brazil to chase the title hat trick, São Paulo was cancelled, and now he is this week lining up on the very same dirt he skimmed across for an hour 2-years ago en route to his historic feat of winning 1:8 Nitro Buggy’s biggest prize for the second time. Now a 23-year-old veteran of the sport, this year marks a decade since Ongaro announced himself to the World on his championship debut in Sicily. Having added a 1:10 Offroad World title to his CV last year in Arizona, putting himself into a very exclusive driver’s club, many a driver might find the prospects of lining up for an attempt at three in a row daunting. However with Ongaro one might ask is the Team Associated star a master poker player and just one of the most laid back kids on the block? While Davide was making his final preparations ahead of travelling out to Spain we took the opportunity to have a quick chat with him on the story so far and get his take on where things are at for the second coming of the Worlds at RC Redovan.

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September 8, 2024

‘I feel that I am in the right place again’ – Ronnefalk

In the same year that his official status got upgraded from ‘Kid’ to ‘Teenager’, a then 13-year-old from Sweden would showcase driving skills that marked him as having a talent that was going to take him places. Attending the European Championship that year, his speed on track was enough for US Offroad star Richard Saxton to state to Red RC during our coverage from that Austrian event that EFRA was about to get its first ever B and A Champion. While he didn’t make the Main on that occasion, that hotly tipped talent would go on to become a European Champion not once but three times as well as taking home the greatest prize our sport offers – World Champion. That year was 2009 and that talent was David Ronnefalk and now 15-years on from making that memorable first impression, he goes into the 19th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship confident he is in the hunt to add a second World title to the one he claimed in Las Vegas in 2016. Just before David made the trip Redovan, Spain, where today (Sunday) drivers hit the track for the first of two days of free practice, we chatted to him to get his take on the race that only comes around every 2-years and that last time round he came rather close to winning.

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