Chassis: Senesi Motorsport S21 GTE
ESC: Hobbywing XeRun XR8 PRO G3
Motor: Hobbywing G3 2800 KV
Batteries: LRP 9400mAh Graphene 4
Radio: Sanwa Exces ZIII
Servos (Steering): Savox SB-3262SG
Body: Genius GT Fury
Tires (handout): Sweep D-SPEC GT 40
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In contention for the overall TQ in the established IFMAR 1:8 GT Nitro World Championship, Raptor’s Alessio Mazzeo leads the way in the inaugural Electric GT World title race which is also running in Chile. While just 10-drivers make up the entry list for the quieter class, it is again proving to be an all Italian battle at the front. EFRA’s inaugural eGT European Champion back in 2023, Mazzeo would post three TQ runs today with the only other driver to top a round being Natanaele Senesi when he took Q3. Behind them it is Capricorn’s Alex D’Angelo who sits third in the overnight ranking. With the final two qualifiers set to run tomorrow, potentially Senesi still has a shot at becoming the Top Qualifier in Santiago but he’ll need the perfect day to deny Mazzeo the TQ starting position.
Giving his reaction to Day 1 of eGT qualifying Mazzeo called it a, ‘A very good day’, adding , ‘we just had bad luck the third quali that I made a small mistake and broke the car. It was the last two laps and I lost a bit the focus on the race. It was my fault 100%.’ Explaining what happened, he said, ‘I crashed it alone, a super slow crash but the steering was on full lock so when I crashed it broke.’ Asked how he finds switching between the two categories, the fastest nitro heat immediately followed by the electric GT heat, he said, ‘the first laps are difficult because with the electric you have to break early, sooner. So the first few laps they feel super long.’ While the Raptor electric car is 300 grams heavier than the nitro version, he said the problem is actually the power. He highlighted, ‘with electric you make almost 120kph on the straight, with Nitro it is just 90kph so you see why I have to change a bit in the set-up.’
Speaking about his qualifying Senesi said, ‘Q1 we made P2 behind Alessio and also in Q2 but in Q3 we TQ’d because Alessio had a small problem.’ He continued, ‘We actually ran out of batteries in that one (Q3) but luckily D’Angelo did not close and we stayed in first place. So after that we made a few changes with speedo settings for Q4, it was a little bit slower but in the end we were able to make the 7-minutes.’ Asked if run time was a fine line in the opening two qualifiers, Senesi replied, ‘No, in the first two the power was super good but it became warmer so it heated the batteries too much and they went out of temperature range so it is always difficult to find a balance with these changing conditions.’ He added, ‘Overall we have P2 and we can maybe still shot for the TQ tomorrow because there are still two rounds. Alessio has 3 TQs, I have 1, so technically it can be. The strategy there is to start with used tyres in the final and only have one new set’. With three 7-minute finals awaiting the field, Senesi believes the lack of a warm-up in the finals will challenge drivers as they now only get one warm-up lap. A GT specialist, asked about switching between nitro GT to electric GT, he said for his driving style it’s very difficult because he likes ‘to push a lot into the corner, braking & turning at the same time, and in nitro this is more easy to do. In electric you have a lot of power and you should run like a touring car, so more attached to the corner and more easy while cornering.’
Asked how his eGT efforts had gone so far, D’Angelo replied, ‘We didn’t put too much attention into the class because I have no mechanic and we have to choose the one to do better in (that focus being nitro).’ On his car’s performance he said, ‘I have a little bit of understeer but overall it is not that bad but of course I am not the fastest on the grid.’ A self confessed nitro guy, asked how he felt driving the two different cars compared, he said, ‘because of the extra weight of the electric car you have to be more round on the corner. You can not stop, turn, and go on the gas. Also the brake feeling is a lot different because one is a normal brake and the other has a lot more brake.’ He finished up by saying, ‘let’s see for tomorrow, we are improving step by step. We should need two more days for this one (eGT) but we don’t have it but lets see the three finals, anything can happen.’
2025 will go down in the history books as the year that IFMAR staged the inaugural 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship with 116 drivers from around the world travelling to Portugal last week for 5 days of action at the Barcelos Buggy Arena track located in the north of the country. While 1:8 Nitro Buggy is the established blue ribbon category of offroad racing, 19 World Champions having been crowned so far, eBuggy is a hugely important market for the industry for both chassis and electronics manufacturers. Many manufacturers were very open about how eBuggy kits generate more main stream sales than nitro, all thanks to its plug & play and no mechanic required simplicity. Now the category has its first World Champion and a very worthy one at that in Danish talent Marcus Kaerup, the 17-year-old’s win bringing Team Associated’s tally of IFMAR World titles to an impressive 34!! While not achieving the same size entry as nitro, which enjoys capacity 180 entries, the first eBuggy Worlds was successfully executed and set a strong foundation for future editions, the United States the stage for the next eBuggy Worlds in 2027 (P.S. IFMAR can you please allow trackside commentary next time so everyone can experience an atmosphere that a World Championship deserves!). During our coverage, which was made possible thanks to electronics manufacturer Team Cayote, we managed to photograph buggies from 8 different manufacturers for our ‘Chassis Focus’. Interestingly, such was the desire to become the first ever 1:8 Electric Buggy World Champions, and have an edge on their rivals, two manufacturers only allowed their cars to be photographed after the event was complete on Saturday evening. With 13 drivers lining up for the triple A-Main, buggies from 7 different manufacturers added great variety with Team Associated, Xray and Sworkz sharing the honour of most cars in the final with 3 each. We have compiled the 8 buggies we got our hands on in our latest Chassis Focus Index –
Marcus Kaerup – Team Associated (TQ/Champion)
Elliott Boots – Sworkz (Q4/P4)
Bruno Coelho – Infinity (Q14/P8)
David Ronnefalk – Xray (Q5/P9)
Pekko Iivonen – Mayako (Q11/P10)
Joao Figueiredo – Tekno (Q12/P13)
Burak Kilic – Mugen Seiki (Q20/P22)
Gabriel Astorino – WIRC (Q59/P58)
Chassis – Team Associated RC10B4.1e
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR8 Pro G3
Motor – Hobbywing Xerun 4268 2200KV
Battery – Team EAM 7700mAh
Tires – Hot Race Sahara
Radio – Sanwa M17
Body – JConcepts S15
Notes – Marcus’ World Championship winning buggy is fitted with +5mm Shock Standoffs from Ruddog.
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Marcus Kaerup is the first ever 1:8 Electric Offroad World Champion, the 17-year-old taking his first World title with a dominant performance today at the Barcelos Buggy Arena in Northern Portugal. Taking Team Associated’s tally of IFMAR World titles to 34, Kaerup secured the victory when he backed up his impressive opening A-Main win over Michal Orlowski by again ruling proceedings in A2, this time ahead of none other than back-to-back-to-back 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Champion Davide Ongaro. Having announced his talents to the world by making the finals of both 2WD and 4WD at the 2023 1:10 Offroad Worlds in Arizona and again at last year’s 1:8 Nitro Buggy Worlds in Redovan, this week the likeable Dane delivered on what was widely tipped as he made first entry into the sport’s history books. With Kaerup taking the top step on RC’s newest World Championship podium, it was Orlowski with the A3 win, and Ongaro, who got to stand either side of him.
‘It’s crazy unreal. I don’t know what to say’, was Kaerup’s response when asked had the significance of what he just achieved had even started to set in yet. On his A2 drive he said, ‘I got a good start and Michal crashed so I was able to pull a small gap but I made a small bobble so they caught up again. After that I was then able to hit my lines and find the rhythm early on and get away.’ Asked how he dealt with the pressure of closing in on the biggest prize in the sport, he replied, ‘On the second to last lap I cased the quad and I was asking Brent (Thielke) when the hell does this end. And he was like ‘there is 30-seconds to go, don’t worry, don’t worry’ and I was like ‘OK’ and thankfully I got across the line first. The relief then was crazy.’ Marcus is the son of former European Electric Touring Car Champion Jonas Kaerup, who unfortunately wasn’t in Barcelos to witness his son’s win but did however get to share the momentous occasion via an RC Racing TV’s livestream studio link up. Joking that his dad never achieved what he just did Kaerup said he was looking forward to celebrating with him when he gets home. Thanking Team Associated for their support, asked how long he has driven for the American brand he replied, ‘all my life.’ Pointing out the AE logo replacing the ‘ae’ in the surname of his race body name decals, he added, ‘it was a calling from when I was born’. On achieving Associated’s 34th World title he said, ‘BT is going to be busy on Monday morning a new batch of ’34’ t-shirts’, to which the AE Team Manager, and avid cyclist, said, ‘first thing Monday morning we are going cycling, a celebration ride for my new World Champion’, this a tradition Thielke apparently has with his title winning drivers.
Reacting to claiming the runner-up spot, Orlowski said, ‘For sure not what I was hoping for but at the end of the day it’s 1:8 scale, we don’t have a car yet and we are such a small team against guys racing this class only. Coming here from the Touring Car Euros I really felt the tiredness today, a little too much maybe, we need to recharge the batteries.’ The reigning 1:12 World Champion and one of the the sport’s most versatile racers, he continued, ‘all in all I guess if I look back at it we are happy to finish second, of course one spot higher would be better but I am really proud of finishing on all these podiums in all these classes. Now I need some holidays.’ Finishing second in A1, on his A2 he said, ‘we made a change to the car and I think the pace was better but it was very hard to drive, still Marcus was super fast so I don’t think I would have been able to put enough pressure on him.’ On his win of the third encounter, which he looked to have thrown away with a late mistake approaching the final minute only for Ongaro to have a mistake too, he said, ‘A3 was good. I made a small adjustment to the car. It was really good on the flat stuff but really struggling on the bumps but it was still good and I was pulling away and feeling good but I just cased the triple.’ He added, ‘I had no idea how long was left, it was a mistake on our side, we should have been using the headset from the beginning but I thought it would be uncomfortable for me. I am not used to using a headset but with no announcements what so ever and everyone else using the headsets I think this information during the run is a benefit. The next time we will be using the headset, I will get used to having it on my head, so we have better information and know when to push, when to drive smoother. I just didn’t know how long til the end and lost my concentration for a split moment.’
‘Probably the worst race weekend ever’, was how Ongaro summed up his championship effort. The reigning 1:8 Nitro Buggy and 1:10 4WD Buggy World Champion explained, ‘We never struggle like that at a World Championship race. I was a bit unlucky at the end, I don’t know if I hit a bump but my car just flipped so OK P2, P3, it’s pretty much the same but it would have been better P2 cause Marcus won. First & second would be good but anyway P3 considering where I started on Tuesday when I was 45th or 50th place I can say I am happy. We will come back stronger for sure.’ Asked about his finals, on A1 the Italian said, ‘we went with the same tyres as the shakedown this morning which I think was super fast but the conditions of the track were completely different so I lost a lot of grip and then I had some bad luck with one guy especially on the rostrum. For the next two I just say ,OK just leave that behind and focus on trying to do my best, and this is the best result I can do today.’
View our event image gallery here.
Chassis – Xray XB8e ’25
ESC – Cayote Crest 8 Evo
Motor – Cayote 1900KV
Battery – Cayote 6500mAh Shorty
Tires – Hot Race Sahara
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17S/Hitec DB951WP
Body – Xray Easy
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