Red RC » R Off Road

December 13, 2024

Polito takes Q1 ahead of Ronnefalk & Ongaro at SIGP

Having topped seeding on his SIGP debut, Sworkz’s Mattia Polito capped off an impressive Day 1 of official action in Xiamen, China, by topping the opening round of qualifying. The Italian who executed a clean run to record the only 13-lap run took the first of the four scheduled qualifiers ahead of Xray ‘s David Ronnefalk and Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro, both drivers having mistakes that would prove costly due to the race’s supplied marshals. While Polito put together a very impressive first qualifier, setting the fastest lap in the process, it would be contrasting performance from Xray’s Bruno Coelho who had many mistakes eventually claiming the fourth fastest time. Behind, Mayako’s Joseph Quaqraine put together a run that allowed him to the fifth fastest time but the Finn believes he as driver has more to give tomorrow.

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December 13, 2024

Kobbevik teams up with Power HD

Servo manufacturer Power HD has announced that top international Norwegian offroad racer Daniel Kobbevik is joining its team. Kobbevik is a 22-time Norwegian National Champion, Nordic Champion, a multiple EFRA and EOS podium finisher and was a finalist at the IFMAR World Championship. For the coming new season, he will use Power HD professional racing servos in all his cars, including 1:10 2WD and 4wd, 1:10 Touring Cars, 1:12 and also 1:8. On his deal with Power HD, the 20-year-old, who also announced today he is to continue with Schumacher, said, ‘I am very happy and proud to be joining the team. I was immediately impressed by the feeling the Power HD servos gives you and how strong they are! I am sure I will have top quality servos in my cars for the coming years.’

Source: PowerHD [chd.hk]

December 13, 2024

Polito tops seeding at SIGP in China

Sworkz’s Mattia Polito is the top seed at the SIGP Offroad Race in Xiamen, the Italian fastest in both Nitro and Electric Buggy on the return of China’s biggest annual offroad race after a 5-year break. Over 3-consecutive laps of the challenging 3-Circles track, overnight repairs making for improved conditions for today’s two seeding rounds, Polito would go fastest in both ahead of Xray’s Bruno Coelho. It was however the first round that was the fastest for the 21-year-old who had 1.6-seconds on Coelho. With Coelho’s fastest time coming from CP2, the margin on that occasion was down to 2/10ths of a second as Polito’s best was 7/10ths slower than his earlier attempt. Behind Davide Ronnefalk took his Xray to the 3rd fastest time with his CP1 time ahead of Davide Ongaro, the reigning World Champion improving by over a 1-second in CP2. WIRC’s Gabriel Astorino and Mayako’s Joseph Quaqraine completed the Top 6.

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December 12, 2024

SIGP favourites expect challenging race in Xiamen

With 2024 marking the return of the SIGP Offroad Race with its highest profile international entry yet, the three leader contenders for the race’s major cash prize have all predicted a challenging weekend ahead in Xiamen. Organised by Sunpadow Batteries, the entry for this year’s edition of the race is led by Team Associated ‘s 3-in-a-row World Champion Davide Ongaro. The first time the Italian has been to the former IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship track, on paper his biggest rivalry should come from Xray pairing David Ronnefalk and Bruno Coelho but talking to all 3 at the end of Thursday’s free practice they all believe it’s the track surface that is going to be their biggest challenger. The dirt offroad track, which together with an onroad track and 200m long driver stand!, is located on the grounds of the almost 500 strong workforce 3 Circles factory that manufacturers batteries, has not seen race action since the last running of the SIGP in 2019. Joern Neumann was the winner on that occasion, but having lay idle for 5-years the track had to undergo some significant preparation to clean it up with Max Lim, who put on the World Championships here in 2017, tasked with the track preparation over the last three weeks. Getting the track back to looking like an active one, it is the surface bumps that are going to challenge man & machine with buggies being very unpredictable to drive.

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December 10, 2024

Baruffolo confirmed at Kyosho

In no way breaking news, Marco Baruffolo has officially confirmed his move to Kyosho. The Italian who moves to the Japanese manufacturer after a short 14-month stint with a small Italian brand WIRC Racing, where he joins fellow countryman Riccardo Berton who returns to the brand after 4-years with developing the IFB8 at Infinity. One making the news official Baruffolo posted, ‘As many of you already know, I will join Kyosho Corporation for the next years! I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and I will do my best on and off track.’

Source: Marco Baruffolo [Facebook]

December 10, 2024

Xray announces 1:10 Offroad progam with Martin

Xray has announced that the multiple EFRA European Champion Lee Martin has joined their factory team to represent the brand in 1:10 offroad. The very experienced British race who spent the last 2-years with Schumacher in 1:10, will have a program with hte Slovakian brand that includes BRCA Masters, MKGP & EOS, EFRA Euros and BRCA Nationals. Competing on his new signing the Multiple British National Champion, who will continue with Agama in 1:8 Offroad, said, ‘I am very pleased to be joining Xray for the foreseeable future. The quality of these luxury products and Xray’s constant pursuit for racing perfection is inspiring and hugely motivating. I can’t wait to get started.’

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

December 9, 2024

Schumacher support young offroad star Ben Mohamed

Schumacher Racing has announced they are to support the career of young French offroad racer Noha Ben Mohamed. At just 15 years old, Ben Mohamed has already amassed an impressive CV that already includes results such as being a 3 time French Elite Champion, an EFRA European Championship podium finish and being an EOS Finalist. On joining the British manufacturer for his 1:10 program having raced previously with Xray, Ben Mohamed said, ‘It is with immense honour and great pride that I join the prestigious Schumacher Team family. I am ready to take on challenges and excel together in this promising collaboration.’

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]

December 9, 2024

Schimmel & LeMieux win at U.S. Carpet Offroad C/ships

Recent TLR departee Brennan Schimmel and Xray’s Chase LeMieux where the Modified winners at the U.S. Carpet Offroad Championships held in Cleveland over the weekend. A week after the same venue hosted the 44th running of the U.S. Indoor Champs, which is the world’s longest running RC race, it was the turn of Scotty Ernst to call some 1:10 offroad racing action. In qualifying it was Schimmel, with a car he borrowed for the event, who took the 2WD TQ ahead of Aydin Horne having topped 2 of the 3 rounds. Fastest in Q1 Brandon Foote would qualify third. In the final the World Championship finalist would wrap up the overall victory with wins in A1 & 2. Qualifying down in 6th, LeMieux would win A3 to secure the runner-up spot ahead of Davey Batta. While Schimmel would take Q1 in 4WD Buggy, LeMieux took the next to secure the overall TQ. Just as it looked like he was going to walk away with it after his A1 win, a series of misfortunes would knock LeMieux to the back of the pack in the A2 final. It would all come down to A3 for the overall win. LeMieux would show exactly why he was the TQ as he would have a super clean run and fend off the hard charging Schimmel and Batta and that was how they would like up on the podium.

Image: US Carpet Off Road Championships [Facebook]