October 17, 2025

Anderson kicks off NYGP title defence with TQ run

Defending Montech NYGP 1:12 Modified Champion Kemp Anderson has opened the 7th edition of the New York based event with a TQ run, the Awesomatix driver fastest from team-mate Sam Isaacs and CRC’s Ollie Payne.  Having topped seeding in AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified class, the 23-year-old carried that form in to the first of the four scheduled qualifiers at the 360V2 track taking the 8-minute run by almost 3-seconds from Isaacs.  After a strong start, Payne dropped back finishing a further 2.3-seconds off the TQ pace.  Organiser of the NYGP, Donny Lia would get a fourth for the round despite the multiple World Championship finalist struggling to get his Awesomatix to his liking.  Excelerate’s Josh Cyrul and 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Mächler completed the Top 6, with the later having to be marshaled, which cost his almost 6-seconds on a track where Anderson’s fastest was an 8.415.

‘It’s feeling pretty good’, that was Anderson’s reaction after Q1.  He continued, ‘so it’s just small changes from here. My car has been pretty good since I got here. I made a couple of small changes, it was a little too aggressive at first so we backed it off a little and it’s now pretty good.’  For the second of today’s qualifiers, the World Championship Top Qualifier said he plans a little change explaining, ‘I think I need to go back the other way make it a little more aggressive. I got a solid run in so now it’s time to push.’  Asked about the track, he said, ‘it is very similar to last year, the left side is slightly different with the circle of curbs I think it was squarer last year but it’s very similar. I love it. I has got a bunch of fast speed stuff and then two 180s in the middle. It’s a good mixture.’

Winner of the ROAR Nationals which were held at 360V2 earlier this year, 1:12 Mod Champion Isaacs said his first qualifier, ‘was decent first run’ adding ‘the car is a little hard for me to drive so I’m not the most consistent with it right now but a decent run so I’ll take it.’   Asked what he needed to improve for Q2, the 31-year-old replied, ‘I just need to make it round the corners a little bit better and be a little bit smoother so I can push it harder right from the start instead of waiting a minute or two in.’  A late withdrawal from last year’s NYGP as the then defending champion, as the difference between the National layout and the 2025 NYGP layout, he said, ‘I think both layouts are great, the way Donny does the curbing and the coloured infield, it looks beautiful, but I think this layout is maybe a little more difficult than the Nationals, the lap times are little slower, but another great layout from Donny and his crew for sure.’

Making a return to the event, his last visit to New Rochelle being in 2022, Payne summed up his Q1 with, ‘it wasn’t too bad, the car started off pretty well but it developed a push pretty early on, too early on for this level of grip so I ended up over working the tyre a little too much so for the last 2-minutes I had not tyre left to compete so I just had to settle for where I was.’  The reigning 1:12 Spec European Champion, on the track layout, ‘it flows quite nicely but it’s a little more open to what we are used to in Europe. The grip is high but I can’t really comment because I think it has been higher here before but obviously for me it’s a lot harder to what I am used to.’  Having spent much of yesterday’s free practice day working on his 13.5 car for the Excelerate RC Super Stock class, the 26-year-old has only got 2 or 3 runs with the Modified car saying, ‘there is still a lot of changes to make in Modified to get it to where it needs to be.’

Asked how he felt his opening run went, Lia replied, ‘I am struggling with the car.  I have tried three different cars, destroyed one car, so I think it was a decent run.’  He continued, ‘I’m struggling with drivability and grip.  Right now I am just disconnected from the car and no matter which car I tried, and different set-ups, different tyres, it feels disconnected.  We are getting close but it’s still not great. We just haven’t found what we need, I don’t now why or what it is but we’re working on it.’

View our event image gallery here.


October 17, 2025

Chassis Focus – Jan Ratheisky (Xray)

Chassis – Xray X4’26
Class – 21.5 Super Stock Touring by JACO
ESC – Hobbywing XR10Pro G3X
Motor – Hobbywing V10 G4R 21.5T
Battery – Nosram 5100Mah
Tires – Jako (Handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Savox SB-2263MG
Body – Xtreme Twister

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October 11, 2025

Anderson confirmed to defend MonTech NYGP title

Having finally added his name to the MonTech New York Grand Prix‘s list of Champions last year, Kemp Anderson has been confirmed as heading the entry at the seventh running of the event at 360v2 RC from October 16-19th.  The 2023 1:12 World Championship podium finisher took his Awesomatix to the both the NYGP TQ and win in 1:12 Modified beating Donny Lia and Max Machler.  With the New Rochelle located track just a 20-minute train ride from the centre of the City That Never Sleeps, this year’s entry also includes Awesomatix’s French Touring Car ace Lucas Urbain, reigning 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Mächler from Germany, CRC’s reigning European 1:12 Spec Champion & British National Champion Ollie Payne, Xray’s Jan Ratheisky, and 2025 ROAR 1:12 and Touring Car National Champion Sam Isaacs.

Source: Fordham 360 Hobbies & Raceway [Facebook]


October 10, 2025

2025 1:10 Offroad World C/ships Chassis Focus Index

It is one of those World Championships that will be etched in the memories of everyone for many years to come both in terms of the dirt track racers got to race on, the new World Champions that were crowned, and the great efforts of the Hills RC Off Road track to put on a World class event that marked the 40th anniversary of the 1:10 Offroad World Championships.  Thanks to Radbody, Red RC was able to make the trip Down Under and witness the crowning of two new World Champions – Broc Champlin giving Schumacher their first title in 2WD and Marus Kaerup taking the Team Associated’s tally to 35 with his 4WD victory!!  As we experienced during our coverage of the recent inaugural 1:8 Electric Buggy World Championships in Portugal, manufacturers where being protective of the set-ups/new parts and again we had to wait till after racing was complete to get to photograph some of the buggies.  The most exciting Chassis Focus would be the brand new Mugen Seiki 4WD.  While it has been raced before by Burak Kilic at the European Championship, we were honoured to get the permission of its designer Shin Adachi to unveil his latest work to the World.  Kyosho came to Australia with some new designs for its upcoming 4WD buggy release but they were not quite ready to unveil it to the World.  We managed to photograph buggies from 6 manufacturers including the two winning buggies and we have compiled the 9 buggies we got our hands on in our latest Chassis Focus Index –

2WD Chassis Focus

Broc Champlin – Schumacher (Q2/World Champion)

Marcus Kaerup – Team Associated (Top Qualifier/P3)

Burak Kilic – Mugen Seiki

Fuma Saito – Kyosho

Antoni Caretti – Yokomo

4WD Chassis Focus

Marcus Kaerup – Team Associated (Top Qualifier/World Champion)

Dakotah Phend – Xray (Q3/P3)

Burak Kilic – Mugen Seiki (Q7/P4)

Logan Toia – Yokomo

Bonus Chassis Focus

Atsushi Hara – Tamiya Lunchbox
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October 6, 2025

Chassis Focus – Marcus Kaerup (Team Associated 4WD)

Chassis – Team Associated RC1084D
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro G3
Motor – Hobbywing Xerun V10 G3 6.5T
Battery – Team EAM 4200mAh
Tires – Raw Speed (Handout)
Radio/Servos – Sanwa M17 / Savox SB3262SG
Body – JConcepts S15 with JConcepts 6.5 Turf Wing

Notes
Marcus’ 84D is running a Revolution Design Bellcrank Set on his B84D along with a Revolution Design Marcus Kaerup Edition Ultra Titanium Turnbuckle Set.

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October 6, 2025

2025, the year Kaerup came of age & became a double World Champion

2025 will go down as the year the Danish teenager Marcus Kaerup came of age with the Team Associated driver becoming the new IFMAR 1:10 4WD World Champion just 37-days after winning the inaugural 1:8 eBuggy World title in Portugal.  The son of former European 1:10 Electric Touring Champion Jonas, becoming a double World Champion on a Monday was made even more special by the fact this time his dad was here in Australia as his mechanic – this father & son team’s working relationship & bond special to watch.  Having secured the TQ, his second of the week as he also started on pole in 2WD, a podium the end result there, Kaerup would see off a brilliant title defence effort from his own team-mate Davide Ongaro.  Taking the win in A1 ahead of the Italian, he would have to work even harder in A2 to keep his main challenger at bay, but he did to secure a title that is widely viewed as just the beginning, the legend of our sport Atsushi Hara one to tip Kaerup for greatest.  With Ongaro going onto win A2 ahead of the Xray of Dakotah Phend, a long 9-days in Sydney would concluded with an AE 1-2 with Phend taking the final step of the podium.  Driving his Mugen Seiki 4WD prototype, Burak Kilic would just miss the podium taking fourth ahead of European Champion David Ronnefalk.

Reacting to his win having had the opportunity to watch A3 from the sidelines and let the result sink in, Kaerup said, ‘It’s still completely unbelievable.  I feel like this was way harder than Portugal because I didn’t have such a pace advantage but we managed to hold off Ongaro’s pressure.’  On that pressure from the 4-time World Champion he said, ‘He didn’t really let me off easy.’  With his father having been unable to travel to Barcelos for eBuggy but making the long trip Down Under for these Worlds, the 17-year-old said, ‘It’s more than amazing to have him here, he missed out on Portugal, so it was really special to have him here.’  Asked what goals he had for these, the 40th anniversary of the 1:10 Offroad Worlds, before boarding the long flight to the Hills RC Off Road track he revealed, ‘I didn’t even expect to be in the Top 3.  I didn’t really do any practice for this event because the focus was on 1:8 but not winning the 2WD fuelled me to do everything I could for 4WD.’  Asked what was next for him, he replied, ‘Well I have a lot of school work to catch up on.’

Grateful in defeat, Ongaro said, ‘I am happy with P2, we were trying to defend my title but actually it didn’t work out.’  Coming close in A1 to a win on A2 he said, ‘I was confident with my car after Q5, I knew I had the pace to stay with Marcus but the track is really tight and lets say you can’t overtake easy so I tried to pass him fair because I can’t take him out.  I tried it, I tried my best, and I gave 100% so I am happy.’  On A3 he said, ‘On the first lap I jumped a little bit short on the right step-up which cost me a little bit of time but then I was confident with me pace and I knew I was good.  It was great to give AE a 1-2.’  He concluded, ‘next year it’s 8th scale, that’s the main one’, Ongaro going for an unprecedented 4-in-row in the USA in 2026.

Summing up his finals, Phend said, ‘Obviously the goal was to win, that’s why we come here, but a podium is still decent.’  The US Champion continued, ‘We definitely lost pace today come main time with the weather being a little bit colder and stuff.  I made some changes and got it better for that last run, but yeah it is what it is and we did what we could do.’  Getting close to Ongaro for a time, he said, ‘I felt I was a little bit faster on the left side and was kind of able to reel him in there but he was able to gap me a little bit on the right side, so we yoyo a little bit.  This track is really tough, you give a little bit of wheel spin it’s a couple of tenths.’

While making his first 1:10 World Final in Sydney and finishing fourth with a prototype car, which he has had little wheel time with, Kilic’s deep disappointment at missing the podium was written all over his face.  With the Turkish driver, who didn’t have any pre-event experience of the dirt track, impressing many with how he drove in 4WD, the 21-year-old said, ‘My car and electronics were mega good and I drove good in A1 and A2 but I’m a bit sad to not make the podium but at least I made Top 5 with a prototype car on only the second time running it.  It’s really promising and I will come back for the trophy in 2-years for sure.’  Only racing 3 or 4 1:10 events a year, 1:8 Offroad his speciality, the two 1:8 Nitro Buggy World finalist said, ‘Still Top 5 in the world is really good but I wanted that podium really bad, I just didn’t quite find the speed in the last one.  I made a small bobble in the second lap, it was the first time I made a mistake in the triple.’

View our event image gallery here.