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, the father & son team 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 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 for the first time having not tested like many of his rivals 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 driving 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.’