September 17, 2024

Asian Buggy C/ships Season Finale track build – Indonesia

With the 2024 Asian Buggy Championships set to conclude in just under 2-weeks time (26-29 September) in Indonesia, the track build that will play host to the fourth & final round of the Championship has been revealed.  The first time the Asian Buggy Championship travels to Indonesia, the country hosting the 2006 IFMAR World Championship where Mark Pavidis took the title, West Side Raceway in Jakarta has created a technical jump filled track for the occasion.  Responsible for the Philippine Masters track build, the event hosting the second round of the ABC back in April, Edward Sio visited West Side Raceway prior to the season finale to check out the track.  Summing up the build, Sio said, ‘The track is smooth and technical with lots of jumps. Traction is low to medium.  The whole facility is top-notch, including the big driver’s area with 65-inch monitor on both ends to keep track of timing and scoring.  The challenge for the driver comes from the depth of the track, and the fact there is are no straight jumps and lines.  I think the only straight line is the straight-away.  Overall, it’s a super fun track once you get the flow.’  Red RC is excited to be making the trip to Jakarta to cover the conclusion of the second season of the Asian Buggy Championships with Scotty Ernst already well underway with plans for the 2025 Championship.

Source: Asian Buggy Championships [Facebook]

September 17, 2024

’24 1:8 Offroad World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

With the dust now settled on the 19th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championships at RC Redovan, we have put together a full index of all the buggies we were given access to to photograph for our ‘Chassis Focus’ during our time in Spain.  We were able to feature buggies from 8 different manufacturers with Xray and Kyosho notably absent from the list with both manufacturers not allowing their buggies to be photographed in detail.  Of the 180 drivers competing, it was Xray that proved the most popular brand with 33 buggies, just one more than Sworkz who were the brand with the greatest representation in the final filling 3 of the 13 spots on the starting grid.  With 27 buggies, Mugen Seiki was the third most used chassis.  Coming away with its 3rd consecutive 1:8 Buggy World title, Team Associated was fourth in terms of numbers with 18 driver while Tekno completed the Top 5 represented by 16 racers.  Of the 13 brands present in Redovan, 8 made it into the main showdown.

In terms of power, it was Japan’s O.S Engines who had a clear majority with 44 using the the World Champion manufacturer’s 3.5cc units.  Reds Racing was the second most popular engine supplier on 26 closely followed by Ultimate on 23.  A total of 20 engine brands were in use over the week.  Key to the performance of any chassis/engine combo, the bragging rights for the most popular tyre went to Hotrace, 49 drivers listing it as their preferred choice of rubber.  JConcepts was the second most popular on 32 with 6Mik next on 27.  Coming away with the title, Matrix was used by 16 drivers putting them 4th of the 13 manufacturers.  Nitrolux was the biggest fuel supplier with almost half the field.

Chassis Focus Index

Davide Ongaro (World Champion) – Team Associated  / Buggy as it came off the track after winning final

Juan Carlos Canas (Top Qualifier) – Sworkz

Joao Figueiredo – Tekno

Marcus Kaerup – Team Associated

Riccardo Berton – Infinity

Dakotah Phend – TLR

Berkan Kilic – Mugen Seiki

Joona Haatanen – Team Associated

Marco Baruffolo – WIRC

Ryan Cavalieri – Sparko

Pekko Iivonen – Mayako

Joern Neumann – Sworkz

Kouki Kato – Infinity

September 15, 2024

Welcome to my World (Finals) – Marcus Kaerup

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.

September 14, 2024

Chassis Focus – Berkan Kilic (Mugen Seiki)

Chassis –  Mugen Seiki MBX8R
Engine – Ninja B07
Fuel – Nitrolux
Tires – 6mik
Radio/Servo – Futaba TPX10 / Power HD GTS-6
Body – 6mik

Image Gallery

September 14, 2024

Canas on pole, Ongaro on for 3 in a row

The grid is set for the 2024 IFMAR 1:8 Offroad World Championship with Sworkz’ Juan Carlos Canas on pole position for the 1-hour showdown in Spain as World Champion Davide Ongaro starts right behind him attempting three in a row.  Top Qualifier at these Worlds after topping four of the sixth qualifiers, the back to back European Champion showed he hasn’t lost any of his blistering pace as he dominated the half hour encounter.  Pulling away early despite one or two mistakes, Canas would finish the half hour encounter 24-seconds clear of his nearest rival.  That driver was Joao Figueiredo, the Portuguese Tekno driver putting in a super steady race and holding off the rising talent of Team Associated driver Marcus Kaerup.  Unfortunately for Dakotah Phend what was looking like an easy progression to the Main Final came to nothing.  Running longer stops than his rivals, the TLR driver ran out of fuel as he approached the end of his in lap for his second stop but missing the loop, this dropped him to the back.  Luckily Phend would later get through by winning the 15-minute LCQ race after passing long time leader Joona Haatanen on the last lap having crashed on lap 1 to book the 13th starting spot on the grid.  The second Semi would see defending back to back World Champion Davide Ongaro get the win but the Italian didn’t have it all his own way with David Ronnefalk taking the lead on the opening lap.  The Swede however would hand it back a few laps later at the whoop section.  Behind Ongaro, Mugen Seiki’s Berkan Kilic took second, he and his older brother Burak once again making the final as they did here in 2022.  Sworkz Elliott Boots finished third ahead of 2016 World Champion Ronnefalk whose Xray makes it four different manufacturers in the first five grid spots.

Reacting to his pretty much text book Semi final that feature just one or two early mistakes, Canas said, ‘It felt good’.  Asked how his car dealt with today’s conditions, it much cooler than qualifying, the widely tipped pre-race favourite said, ‘the first part was my mistake more than the car mistake but maybe for the final the wear will be more ’cause of the temperature.  The tyre wear is super high for everyone, you see they all finished on slicks but I don’t think we will need a pit stop’.  On run time he confirmed it was ‘OK’ adding they checked it in the Semi by going ‘one lap more than before’.

Asked about his Semi final performance Ongaro replied, ‘it was good but we are thinking about going to clay compound for the final.  The normal compound is working great but I feel like when the thread disappears it is a bit too difficult to drive.’  He continued, ‘They told me that I was in front of Canas on the 30-minute prediction but I had two crashes that cost me some time.  We are confident for the main, at least the car is working great now, we are close for sure as you know.  I think the game will be on consistency because 1-hour here is long, fuel strategy and tyres is also key ’cause the tyre game is really difficult now.’

Set to start third on the grid, 18-year-old Berkan Kilic said his run came from ‘no mistakes’ adding, ‘I was just driving pretty clean and the others did 2-3 mistakes too much and I gained from that.’  Asked how he felt his car would be for the final, he replied, ‘the car is pretty good just the tyres are pretty gone but everyone has the same issue.  The tyres look slick but we can do the distance no problem on one set, also my run time is pretty good 7:30 is no problem, maybe longer we will see’. 

Making his first final since 2016, 2012 Top Qualifier Boots said, ‘We had a good start and didn’t want to do anything stupid or drastic and just get in the show.  We were hanging in there at the start with Davide but when they tyres bedded in they became kind of grippy so I had to back it down to stop it flipping.  We’ll make some adjustments for the main’.  On starting 4th in the main, the British driver’s plan is to, ‘tip away at it’.

View our event image gallery here.