September 27, 2024

Kato Top Seed at Asian Buggy Championships Finale

Kouki Kato is the Top Seed at the season finale of the Asian Buggy Championships, the Japanese driver leading an Infinity 1-2 in Indonesia from fellow countryman Naoto Matsukura.  Racing on the completely natural dirt West Side Raceway track which is proving a big hit with the visiting drivers, Kato set the fastest two consecutive laps in the single seeding round.  The only driver to dip into the 40-second lap times, Kato ended up almost 1-second quicker than Matsukura over the 2-laps.  A regular in the Asian Buggy Championships finishing on the podium at the previous round in Brisbane, Sworkz driver Christian Wolhuter opened his third race of the current season with a Top 3 time.  Just 3/10th back on the Australian, Indonesia’s own Rama Tribudiman took his Kyosho to fourth fastest time, the local racer saying afterwards that the traction is completely different to what he used as a result of the large entry who have made the trip to Jakarta this weekend so bring a close to the second season of Scotty Ernst’s Asian Buggy Championships.

Asked about his seeding run, reigning Japanese 1:8 Offroad National Champion Kato summed it up as, ‘Better’.  He explained, ‘yesterday in practice we tried a number of different set-ups and for today we combined the best bits and now it works better’.  Asked about the track layout and surface he said, ‘It is very interesting (the layout) to drive.  The grip is also good & stable and the surface is very smooth, it is quite similar to what we have in Japan.’  Planning no changes to his IFB8 for Q1, 5 rounds of qualifying on the schedule for drivers, Kato also said tyre wear is very low and he plans to continue on the same set of Hotrace Bangkok Soft tyres he ran in seeding.  On a busy program of racing currently having contested the recent 1:8 Offroad World Championship in Spain before travelling to Singapore last weekend to race 1:8 Onroad at the Singapore Open and now back to Buggy here in Indonesia, asked if he had any issues switching back & forth he said the adjustment between the two very different disciplines was ‘no problem’.

Matsukura described his seeding as having gone ‘OK’, feeling he had a much better car in practice yesterday.  He explained, ‘today there is low traction so the car was a little bit pushing.  The track was a little different but we also changed the set-up so I think for qualifying we will go back to yesterday’s set-up’.  Like his team-mate, this being his third consecutive race in as many weekends,  the multiple Onroad World Champion said he is enjoying the West Side Raceway track a lot more than Worlds track.  He said, ‘It is more fun for the jumps, this track is not as big but the jumps are not straight, they have more angle which makes it more fun.’

Changing diff oils on his buggy for seeding thinking it would give it more rotation with running bar tyres, Wolhuter said, ‘now that the track is a little bit dustier it’s too loose in the rear and hard to hang on to.’  Planning to go back up to a slightly thicker oil in the rear and keep the front and centre the same, ‘hopefully it will give us a little bit more drive and the ability to keep consistent.’  Asked his thought on the track, the recently turned 18-year-old said, ‘the track is fun, I’ve never driven on something this big before, the biggest jumps I probably ever experienced and I do like the natural clay.  I am used to the oiled tracks so it’s great being on natural dirt again.’

Pleased to open his home track’s first international race with P4 in seeding, asked about his run Tribudiman, who lives just 10-minutes away, said, ‘This is our first time to have an event this big at the track so the track is actually quite different in terms of grip and I need to adjust.  The track is very natural with no chemicals or anything so with the amount of cars running, also today it is quite hot, it is getting very dusty.  Every run I am trying different tyres’.  The 36-year-old confirmed he used Proline Electron M4 to set his seeding time.

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

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