Class – SnagRC 21.5 Touring Car (TQ & Winner)
Chassis – Awesomatix A800R
ESC – Hobbywing XR10 Pro G3
Motor – R1 Wurks
Battery – Team EAM 5000mAh
Tires – Gravity
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Power HD S15
Body – Xtreme Twister Speciale
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Class – Gravity USGT (TQ & Winner)
Chassis – Xray X4’24
ESC – REDS Gen3
Motor – Motiv Gravity USGT
Battery – Psycho cells racing 6600mAh
Tires – Gravity USGT
Radio/Servo – FlySky Noble Pro / MKS X6
Body – SuperRad ZGT
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RC Racing has many IFMAR World Championships that come around every two years but none of them come even close to the hype, interest, and spectacle that is 1:8 Nitro Offroad. It is the ‘Rockstar’ category of RC Racing, a 3D spectacle to watch with a field stacked with manufacturer rivalries and the greatest number of proper professional drivers. That’s not to detract from the other World Championships, each with deserving Champions, however results in 1:8 Offroad are hard earned. It is also a category that is full of young up & coming talents one of which is Marcus Kaerup. When a capacity entry of 180 drivers from around the World converge for a week of intense racing in a single category, coming away with a Top 10 finish is a mark of something special, especially when 1:8 Nitro is your ‘second class’. Getting to first meet Marcus when he made his World Championship debut in his preferred category of 1:10 Offroad World last year in Arizona, we witnessed him becoming a double World Championship Finalist, making both the 2WD & 4WD Finals at Hobby Action. Already an impressive feat that will elude many drivers, over the last week in Spain we once again witnessed Marcus exhibited why so many people are tipping him for greater things. With the Ruddog sponsored driver putting his Team Associated in the main show, his racing CV now requires updating to ‘3-time World Championship Finalist.’ Having loved over the years following and reporting on the rise of the careers of the likes of Naoto Matsukura, David Ronnefalk, Dakotah Phend, Michael Orlowski and the GOAT of offroad himself Davide Ongaro, after enjoying following his journey at RC Redovan, Red RC are super excited to do like wise with Marcus. We caught up with the 16-year-old for a quick recap on his impressive showing on Saturday’s finals day.
As his 7-years his senior Team Associated team-mate celebrated 3-in-row 1:8 Offroad World titles, catching up with Marcus at the end of his second ‘Nitro’ Worlds, his debut attempt ending with P51 overall, Marcus took this year’s impressive achievement of making it into the title decider & finishing 9th in his stride. With Scandinavians known for preferring to do their talking on the track, Marcus summed up his Finals day with a quietly spoken, ‘Top 10 in the World feels really good’. Going into a little more detail about his big day, he continued, ‘Going into the Semi I was a bit nervous because in the (Semi) practice the car felt really bad but we made some changes for the Semi and from the first lap it just fast and easy to drive’. Completing the Top 3 behind Top Qualifier Juan Carlos Canas & Joao Figueiredo and ahead of Bruno Coelho, he added, ‘I had a really good race finishing third in that one, I just focused on keeping calm and doing no mistakes’.
With his 30-minute Semi race time putting him 10th on the grid for the Main from where he would go on to finish 9th, he said, ‘The final was also really good at the start but then I kept crashing and crashing, I am just not used to the car changing so much. It was my first time doing 60-minutes so it was really difficult but I am very happy, it was an awesome experience’. Asked if his impressive performance might lead to the world seeing more nitro race outings from him and him putting extra mileage on his Ruddog RNX22.3 engines, the Dane laughed before replying with, ‘It will stay the same, I don’t think I will do more because electric (1:10 Offroad) is still the passion for me.’ Asked though if he plans to return to the 1:8 Nitro Offroad Worlds, which are scheduled to take place in the USA in 2-years time, the double 1:10 European Champion didn’t fully commit relying, ‘we’ll see, we’ll see’. Given the abundance of talent this young Dane has shown, we think Marcus probably won’t have much of a say in the decision on booking those flights, with, we expect, plenty of sponsors keen to give this quick learner a chance to put his World Final appearance experience to work.
In 1:8 Offroad the journey to the World Final starts at best with securing a spot on the grid in the Semi Finals, so making the Top 16 is Stage 1 successfully completed for Ruddog Racing supported driver Marcus Kaerup. From 180 starters in Spain, the 16-year old Dane completed 2 days of qualifying with 13th position ahead of former World Champion Robert Battle which ain’t to shabby for a guy who is more an 1:10 Electric Offroad specialist. Set to line-up in the same Semi Final as Top Qualifier Juan Carlos Canas, he will carry the number 7 on his Ruddog powered Team Associated RC8 B4.1. Catching up with Marcus at the end the second & final day of qualifying, he summed up his performance with ‘it’s being pretty good’ adding, ‘I had four consistent runs in a row so that is pretty good. Then because I knew I was safe (into the Semis) we just tried some different stuff coming into the last 2 qualis which didn’t go very well but we have the data and know how to change to what ever track conditions we drive’.
Going into the specific of the day’s 3 rounds of qualifying, on the first run of the day (Q4) he said, ‘My first clean run without any mistakes which was enough for a ninth in the round so it was pretty good. I was pretty nervous in the first stint so quite slow laps but then after the pit stop I got my confidence back and we settled in.’ On his penultimate 10-minute effort he explained, ‘We tried some different set-up stuff which didn’t work very well, the rear became too stiff and it was just too hard to drive so I had a couple of mistakes and I think I finished 17th for the round which was not great.’
Using the final qualifier to try something different with his Ruddog RNX22.3 engine, he said, ‘The last run we tried tyres and a lot of new stuff on the car and different stuff on the engine to see if we could get even more mileage out of the engine. I didn’t really like the power feel of it, it was quite different also because you had to time different the jumps which cause me to do a lot of mistakes.’
Ending the day with a debrief call with multiple European Champion & AE’s European frontman Craig Drescher, a man who played an important role in Marcus double European Championship successes in 1:10 electric offroad, Marcus said, ‘It was nice to hear from Drescher again, we probably see him at the Euros (1:10 Offroad) but he had some good set-up ideas and tyres ideas because of the new rules. It was great to get that feedback because he has a lot of experience of 1:8’.
With a down day to rebuild his car, as the lower finals take up Friday’s schedule, Marcus is looking forward to Saturday which will kick off with 10-minutes of Semi practice.
Chassis – Sparko F8
Engine – Nova Engines B3R Evo
Fuel – TNR
Tires – TZO
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17 / Savox SB-2290 SG
Body – JConcepts
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After 8 rounds of practice over 3 days with the emphasis being on 3-laps, the time finally arrived for racing proper to start with 3 rounds of qualifying making up Wednesday’s schedule. Placed in Group 13 of 15 after Tuesday’s seeding, Ruddog Racing’s Marcus Kaerup kicked of the first of the 6 rounds of qualifying with 9th place just behind Dakotah Phend. Bigger mistakes in his second effort however meant he stopped the clock in the 15th fastest time but the 16-year would go on to closing out the day with a 12th for the third round. With his Ruddog RNX22.3 powered Associated RC8B4.1 doing what he wants it to do, the big take away from the day for this Danish talent is the need to tidy up his driving and charge his headset!
‘We started out great with a pretty decent qualifying in the first round, 9th with some mistake so it could have been a lot better. Second qualifying I was pretty confident going into it after the first one but once again a stupid mistake, also on the last lap, so two mistakes and that was pretty annoying with still 15th for the round. In the last one the car felt really good but coming up to the left on the 180 on right side I hit the pipe and rolled over, so a stupid mistake again and I needed to be marshalled’. Asked about his mistakes and if it was from the pressure of the occasion or just his determination to prove a point, he said, ‘it is just over doing it, clipping a pipe or shorting a jump, just basic things that are not supposed to happen’.
Asked about his car he said, ‘I haven’t been doing much to the car really, no changes, I am really just checking screws after each run to make sure they are tight’. On track conditions Marcus said, ‘It has been pretty consistent, for sure the last heat had the most grip of the day’. Looking to Day 2’s qualifying action, three more rounds on the cards around the challenging RC Redovan track, he said, ‘We will probably just change tyre component for the different times of the day but I think the car is good so we don’t need to change it’. Asking his stand in pit man Brent Thielke how his driver was doing, the Team Associated Team Manager said, ‘he needs to remember to charge his headset’. The American having to revert to good old shouting up at his driver as a form of communication for Q3 due to a dead headset.