November 8, 2025

Ronnefalk delivers in Q3 at SIGP

David Ronnefalk has delivered a TQ run at the Sundapow International Grand Prix, the Xray driver ending Kouki Kato’s reign at the top pf the time sheets as he took the third round ahead of the Japanese driver and his Infinity team-mate Bruno Coelho.  Setting the fastest lap of the round with a 32.725, Ronnefalk would eventually finish a massive 13-seconds up on Kato who, like Ronnefalk the previous round, needed  to be marshalled only in Kato’s case he had double the mistakes on each opposite side of the track.  With drivers reporting track conditions as even more difficult for Q3, Coelho also had two bad laps resulting in him failing to run 15-laps however overall the time still gave him a three for the round.  5-seconds behind the multiple class World Champion, promising future hope Jung Hyunkyu enjoyed his best round result with P4 for the Team Associated teenager ahead of Mayako’s Joseph Quagraine.  Unfortunately for JQ’s lead driver Pekko Iivonen it was another throw away round as he lasted just over 2-minutes before his engine moved.

Reacting to his Round 3 TQ double, the 2024 eBuggy winner also going fastest in eBuggy for the first time, Ronnefalk said, ‘That was the first time I felt I could drive through some of the bumps out there.  Working on the shock package is key on this track and I think we found something that was really good there because both cars were on the same set-up change and improved a lot.  I was able to go mistake free pretty much in both nitro & eBuggy.  Now it feels good again.  I was kind of struggling a little bit with the feeling and not being able to drive the way I wanted to out but now I didn’t change much in my driving, the car was just absorbing the bumps out there a lot better.’  Asked about the changes he made to the shocks, the Swede explained, ‘mainly the piston and the amount of pack and how quick the rebound you want to have for the condition.  I felt I had good grip and support in landings before but they were a little too sensitive over the bumps especially high speed and now I felt maybe I sacrificed a little bit in the landings but they work much better over the bumps and it’s so much more drivable.’  On track condition the former World Champion said, ‘It’s not easy out there, it is getting more & more dusty.  I didn’t know they are not going to fix the holes.  They re-glued the track yesterday and it looks like they are not going to fix the holes until the end of the race so it is definitely going to be tricky this afternoon and come tomorrow it is going to be even more tricky so I need to stay on top of things.’

Suffering his first rough round, Kato said, ‘My car got a little bit nervous in that one and was difficult to drive.  The traction is getting lower so I needed to adjust (his driving) but I didn’t do it enough.’  On his two costly mistakes, the ABC Champion explained, ‘I hit a bump and had a mistake and I also had one on the left side on the back straight which was also a big mistake so it was a tough run.’  On his electric car, having said after Q2 he would change his diff oil, he said while it was a slight improvement he still needs to find more grip.

While a far from perfect run, Coelho was more positive about his nitro buggy this time saying, ‘the car was a bit better, I did some small mistakes, but I think we are on the correct direction now with the set-up details.’  Asked what they had discovered he replied, ‘we changed the wing to one that generates a little bit more stability on the car and we changed also a little the position of the shocks on the front to have more corner speed and less steering and it worked good so we will probably try to go more in that direction.’  Like Kato in nitro, Coelho was unable to seal the early overall eBuggy TQ explaining, ‘Electric was good but I got some traffic.  I got one guy coming out from the infield into the track and I crashed into him and I lost 1 or 2 seconds and basically lost the TQ by 1 or 2-seconds.  Without that it would have been OK.’

Asked how he was doing now, Hyunkyu replied, ‘Not good, I am struggling a lot.’  Despite recording his best run which sees him sitting P4 overall in the latest qualification ranking, the 14-year-old said, ‘It’s pretty terrible out there.  My car was pretty difficult to drive, it is better than yesterday but still we are pretty off the pace to the Top 3 guys.  The shock package is pretty important here so I will a different spring for the next one and see what happens.’  On his own driving he said, ‘I think my driving was so stupid.  Q2 in electric was super nice and I was only 1-second behind Kouki but the nitro I was over excited so I just need to settle down out there.  I need to be more smooth and calm.’

View our event image gallery here.

November 8, 2025

SIGP Day 2 qualifying opens with another Kato TQ run

Day 2 of qualifying at the SIGP in China has opened with Infinity’s Kouki Kato laying down another TQ run, the Japanese driver carrying the form that saw him top seeding and Q1 yesterday into another very hot day in Xiamen.  Managing to better his Q1 time by 3.5 seconds, Kato would lead an Infinity 1-2 as Bruno Coelho set the second fastest time 2.5-seconds adrift of his team-mate.  Having opened qualifying with a P2 yesterday evening, David Ronnefalk looked to be close to challenging Kato this morning but on his fuel stop in lap his edgy looking Xray crashed and needing to be marshalled he lost over 7-seconds to drop back to record the third fastest time.  After his P4 in Q1, round 2 would end up being a throw away for Pekko Iivonen, the Mayako driver entering the pits with caution after yesterday’s timing issues but finding a new bump that caused him to crash which he then followed up with a far more spectacular crash exiting the pits.  This allowed Indonesian Infinity driver Jason Nugroho to record the fourth fastest time ahead of Team Associated’s young Korean talent Jung Hyunkyu with Mr. Mayako Joseph Quagraine completing the Top 6.

Summing up his second TQ run, Kato said, ‘My car was very easy to drive for the 8-minutes and we had a good pit stop with my dad and Ricardo (Monteiro).  They did a super job.  I just had one little mistake but the run was still OK.’  Looking to Q3, when he could potential lock up the overall TQ, 3 of 5 to count, the 19-year-old said, ‘I think I will leave the car the same.’  Asked about his eBuggy, he replied, ‘It is a little bit loose on the rear so maybe I will change the diff oil for the next one.’ Regarding tyre choice plans to still stick with the Sahara from Hotrace for now.

Reacting to his P2, Coelho said, ‘It was again tough, we still haven’t found out what is making the rear to be loose during the run.’  Last year’s SIGP podium finisher continued, ‘The electric is pretty stable and the set-up is the same so we need try find out what is wrong to make it a little bit easier for the mind.  I need to be super careful driving, the rear is always catchy and basically the car is driving me and not me driving the car. I have no confidence and its is difficult to keep the pace for the 8-minutes.’  Asked about the comparison between his and Kato’s set-up he replied, ;we have very similar set-ups so I think there is something wrong on the car.  The electric and the nitro have exactly the same set-up and for some reason the nitro just has some weird stuff so we need to find.’  Making it two TQ’s from 2 rounds in eBuggy qualifying asked about that he said, ‘All good.  It was another clean run and the car is working pretty good so just keep it like that.’

Suffering a costly mistake in Q2, giving his thoughts on the run Ronnefalk said, ‘The grip seemed a little higher today so the car was a little more sensitive in the bumps for me and I had just one bad moment up there on the top right where I bounced and I wasn’t able to save it.  So landed on the roof and it cost me quite some time.’ He added, ‘I was pretty close at the time with Kouki on the overall run so I would have been right there without that one.  They didn’t do any mistakes and that’s what matters at the end so I need to improve a little bit the feeling of the package.’  Asked about changes to his buggy and running Hotrace’s Sahara tyre, he said, ‘I tried a softer tyre but it wasn’t working as good I thought cause the grip was higher and I didn’t expect that.  That was what happened to me in eBuggy as well because it was very hard to drive and I traction rolled twice on the back straight and lost a load of time.’

A regular of the Philippine Masters and Asian Buggy Championships, qualifying third for his home race in 2024, this is Nugroho’s first race outside of his country in 2025 but the former National Champion has been keeping himself race sharp at home finishing runner-up in the 3 round National Championship.  Asked about his P4 run this morning he said, ‘It went well.  I tried to keep it safe. I made a few mistakes last night so I figured I had to play it safer.  The car felt good but it might need it might need a little bit more off throttle cornering.  Overall the shocks are good so maybe some geometry set-up and diff set-up change and all is good I suppose.  Just play it safe and make no mistakes.  It is very bumpy and hard to predict where the car will land after a bump.’  His first time to the 3 Circles track, asked if he is enjoying the bumps he replied with a diplomat answer calling it ‘a new experience for sure.’

View our event image gallery here.

November 7, 2025

Kato takes SIGP Q1 ahead of Ronnefalk & Coelho

Infinity’s Kouki Kato has opened qualifying at the Sundapow International Grand Prix with a TQ run, the top seed fastest over the 8-minute heat ahead of Xray’s David Ronnefalk and Infinity’s Bruno Coelho.  While Kato TQ run was never in doubt there would be some issues with timing in the top heat as a result of the qualifiers being extended from the traditional 5-minutes to 8-minutes.  With drivers forced to stop for fuel in the qualifier, a number of drivers would not have their laps counted as the came in to pit lane, Coelho, David Ronnefalk, and Jason Nugroho all effected by a problem with the loop under the paved pit lane entry.  While there was some deliberations following the completion of qualifying with buggies being push back & forth over the loop on the main straight and in pit lane, it was finally decided to credit drivers with the missed laps meaning Ronnefalk got his second 3.162 seconds off Kato’s pace with Coelho joining them on 15-lap runs a further 1-second back.  Showing P2 on the timing screen’s at the end of the run, Mayako’s Pekko Iivonen would end up 4th after the corrections with Adrian Wicaksono from Indonesia completing the Top 5.

Reacting to his TQ run Kato said, ‘I was able to make a good run.  I ran a good pace and was consistent.  I think it was a clean race and I had no issues with traffic.’  With the run bringing Friday’s action to a close, the reigning Japanese National Champion, that title defence coming up very soon, said he struggled a little with the fading light adding it was not easy to see in the distance.  In terms of the track conditions, he felt Q1 traction was ‘a little low’.  Heading into Day 2 of qualifying, 4 rounds on the schedule, Kato feels tyres are going to be his focus saying, ‘maybe we need to find a good tyre.  Now I am using the (Hotrace) Sahara but sometimes the Bangkok is better so tomorrow I need to choose the right tyre for the time.’  Asked about eBuggy, him setting the second fastest time behind his team-mate Coelho, the 19-year-old said, ‘I made some mistakes, 3 mistakes for me.  On the last lap I also lost 2-second.  The car is ok so hopefully I will be better tomorrow.’

Pleased his corrected result, Ronnefalk said, ‘Nitro was good.  I had a mistake in pit lane and also some traffic on the first laps and then of course the issue with the loop.’  With his pitman here in Xiamen, Adam Izsay, having given more details on his ‘mistake in pit lane’, highlighting the Swede crashed on the way in and then again on the way out, Ronnefalk laughed and replied, ‘You can mention that’.  Overall the 2016 World Champion said, ‘the speed was very good but I had the mistake with a lapped car on the second lap and the shit in the pit lane, which I need to solve myself for tomorrow.’  On how the track is evolving he said, ‘I think it was better than the first day I was here cause it didn’t get as rough in the end of the day.  They put a lot of glue, like they are doing again this evening, so I think it is holding up pretty well compared to what we expected.’  P3 in the first eBuggy qualifier, which was held just as the sun began to set, last year’s winner said, ‘Electric was interesting because Bruno and I were adjusting the sun blind because he needed it down but if it was down I couldn’t really see the track so we came to a compromise were I pushed his loose part up but then after three laps that part came back down and I couldn’t see the track.  I had to stand tilted sideways which made it difficult for a few laps and I had a mistake because I was not focusing on what I should have been focusing on.’

Summing up his qualifier, at the end of which he said he was shocked to hear over his headset from his pit man that he was showing in last place, Coelho said, ‘In total I missed 5-laps.  I only had a small bobble and the run was pretty good.  The lap time was there, I had the fastest lap time of the qualifier.’  He continued, ‘The car was a bit difficult to drive but was very fast, it was a pity the laps were not counting.  Luckily there was more people having a problem which means there was some problem with the loop which the organisation is trying to fix for tomorrow.’  Back on his Buggy he said, ‘We didn’t find a little more stability on the nitro but it was fast so I was happy.’  Asked how far apart his Nitro and eBuggy are in terms of set-up, his eBuggy taking the Round 1 TQ, he replied, ‘they are very close.  Weight distribution is different but we need to find out why the nitro is more difficult to drive than the electric because the nitro has the pace but is not amazing the pace, I mean I am little bit faster but nothing almost, so there is no reason for it to be so difficult to drive because sometimes when you are a second faster it is ok to be difficult but if it is only zero something there is something we can still work on.  The electric one is very easy to drive and fast so I am pretty happy with it.’

‘Nothing special to really say’ was Iivonen’s thoughts after Q1.  The Finn continued, ‘The car felt the best it has actually been.  I have been the whole day with Bangkok (tyres) and I think Sahara would have been faster so tomorrow I will test that and see if it will be the case.  If that’s the case then my car is actually quite good and should be on pace.’  With his car standing out on track as the darkness fell, he explained, ‘It was actually getting quite dark already and it was good that I had the Glow Stick RC antenna on my car and that was the only thing I saw when I was driving, it was good.’  On eBuggy, in which he also got a P4, he said, ‘I made a small mistake on the back and got the worst out of it and lost a third place there otherwise it was quite good.  The pace was better and also that car is much better than before.’

Another first timer to the 2017 1:10 Offroad Worlds track along with Kato, Iivonen, young Korean talent Jung Hyunkyu, and fellow countryman Nugroho, Asian Buggy Championships podium finish Wicaksono was pleased with his Top 5 opening effort.  Describing the track as ‘challenging’, the Team Associated driver said ‘it has been a while since I drive on a track like this but I think it not only requires speed but also requires consistency & patience on top of set-up of course.’  Happy with his run, he said he had only one bobble in which his car turned over itself so he didn’t need to be marshalled and he didn’t lose much time.’  Owner of the West Side Raceway offroad track in Jakarta, asked if he was happy with where he was on car set-up, he replied, ‘No, no, still many thinks to work on but I think the last few days I worked mainly on shocks but I think I need to work on the diffs a little bit.  Although it is bumpy and dusty on the outside, I think the racing line is starting to groove so I think I need a little bit thicker oil in my car.’

View our event image gallery here.

November 7, 2025

Kato tops seeding at SIGP in China

Japan’s Kouki Kato is the top seed at the SIGP Offroad Race in Xiamen, the Infinity team having the early advantage in China on the challenging 3-Circles track as team-mate Bruno Coelho managed to set the second fastest 3-consecutive laps.  Over the two rounds of controlled practice Kato would set his best time in CP1 while Coelho would top the second round improving on his earlier time but unable to better that of Kato.  Fresh from his double win last weekend at the new Hongyu GDC track in Guangzhou, Xray’s David Ronnefalk completed the Top 3 with his opening effort.  Building his confidence on the bumpy track, Korean youngster Jung Hyunkyu took his Team Associated to the fourth fastest time ahead of Mayako pairing Pekko Iivonen and Joesph Quagraine.

A driver of few words, asked about seeding Kouki said, ‘The first one was very good but for the second one we made some camber changes and also changed the engine which took time to get right but I think we will go back to the CP1 set-up for the first qualifying.’  Pleased to have to deal with less traffic today, yesterday’s session open by class making for a lot busier track, the 2025 Asian Buggy Championships Champion said it is still hard to get around without mistakes.  Running on Hotrace’s Sahara tyre, he added, ‘3 laps is already hard to make consistent so 5-minute is going to be very hard’, those were his thoughts before finding out qualifying will in fact 5 rounds of 8-minute heats!

Second fastest in Nitro but the Top Seed in eBuggy from defending class Champion Ronnefalk, Coelho said, ‘The second one was better for nitro, electric was pretty good in both seedings.’  The Portuguese driver, who is an SIGP regular both for the onroad and offroad events, added, ‘In nitro the first round was a bit tricky, the second round I had much more confidence so like I said yesterday it’s all about being consistent and not doing any mistakes.’  He continued, ‘The track is getting more and more bumpy.  Yesterday at the end of the day it was really tough to drive on the track.  They fixed it overnight but I heard they are not going to fix it until Sunday now which means the track is going to get worse and worse over the event so we need to be ready to have car easy to drive and have the shock package well set-up for the tough conditions that are coming.  We also need to keep calm and learn the new lines that are coming.’  On his buggy set-up changes between rounds he said, ‘we changed quite a lot, we went more in the direction of the electric car.  As we have two cars and the platforms are very close, so we tried two directions to know which one to go with and then we decided to go in the electric direction.’

Summing up his seeding performance Ronnefalk said, ‘The first nitro run was good.  I was a little behind Kouki I thought but the pace was pretty strong and then we changed a couple of things for the last one to try a little bit on the tyre and the shock package and it wasn’t any better so we are just going to go back to what we ran in the first seeding and it should be all good.’  The Swede continued, ‘I just find out that, I mean I should have known, but I got to know they are 8-minute qualifiers so I guess we are going to see some pit stops in the qualifiers.’  He explained, ‘the lap is pretty long, you have an out lap, and then like if cross at like 7:50 you probably need like 9:20 to be safe on fuel.’  On his eBuggy he said for the first run his shock package was too stiff for the bumps, which made the car very sensitive, and he also had a lot of traffic in his heat.  Redoing the shocks for the second one he said ‘it was a lot better.’

Giving his reaction to seeding, Hyunkyu said, ‘It’s not bad for me.  My car is better compared to yesterday but I need to do more work to find a good set-up but I think we are on the right way for sure but its still quite off pace compared to Kouki, Bruno, David, and Pekko as well.’  He continued, ‘I will try some different things for qualifying and we will see how it goes.  Having spent time in Italy with his World Champion team-mate Davide Ongaro testing at the Ongaroring as well as running a round of the Italian National Championships, asked if last year’s SIGP Champion was offering him any set-up advice, he replied, ‘I spoke with Davide yesterday and he gave me some pretty good advice but I need to figure things out by myself.  I am driving here, he is advising from watching my videos.’  The 14-year-old continued, ‘I think the tyre is pretty important and I don’t have many set of bar tyre, I think everyone else is using the bar tyre right now, so I will just try to find the best set-up with JConcepts.  I think it is good right now but bar is better.  I only have a few sets of bar tyres so I save them for tomorrow.’

Asked how seeding had gone for him, Iivonen replied, ‘Not too bad but I just need to find a bit of pace to catch Bruno and Kouki.  I think the car is quite easy to drive so it should be easy to make the apparently 8-minute qualifier, with one pit stop in there, but I think with a bit more steering and support in the rear the car will be super good.  I am looking forward to the qualifiers.  On his eBuggy, the Finn said, ‘electric was kind of the same, I just need to find a bit but pace wish electric is a bit better than nitro at the moment.’

View our event image gallery here.

November 6, 2025

SIGP returnees & debutants agree over challenging track

After successfully returning to the international 1:8 Offroad race calendar last year, the latest edition of the Sunpadow International Grand Prix is under way with the moving of the race date to a month earlier than last year making for much warmer conditions.  The 2017 IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship host track’s signature annual event, there also an SIGP Onroad race earlier in the season, last year’s winner Davide Ongaro is absent from the entry which is now headed by last year’s eBuggy winner David Ronnefalk.  Fresh from a double win at the opening race of the new Hongyu GDC 1:8 Offroad track last weekend in Foshan, drivers making their way between races on the China’s bulletin train system, Ronnefalk’s main challenge is going to come from his old team-mate Bruno Coelho, the then Xray driver finishing on the SIGP podium in the nitro final.  Now part of the Infinity team, the Portuguese driver is joined at the 3-circle ARC International RC Racing Track in Xiamen by Kouki Kato, the Japanese driver making his 1:8 Buggy debut on the large track which is built on the grounds of the massive Sunpadow batteries factory.  Also making his SIGP debut, Pekko Iivonen joins his returning Makayo team boss Joseph Quagraine, in taking on the challenging track the Finn more enthused about the track conditions than his main rivals for the large cash prize fund on offer.  With no Ongaro this year, Team Associated will be pinning their hopes on young up & coming Korean talent Jung Hyunkyu, who like Ongaro last year is struggling to get to early terms with bumpy track.

Summing up the track after Thursday’s free practice, Ronnefalk said, ‘The track is similar to last year but a little bit more grip.  I felt last year with the temperature being cooler it was a bit more slick on top and that was a big challenge for us then but this time you have the grip.  The amount of bumps & stuff is the same pretty much.  Last year we were sliding and then grabbing the holes, now we have the grip and we are driving through the holes a little harder.  So this requires a little bit of a different set-up with the tyres and the shock balance but in the end it was pretty close to what I ran here last year.’  Asked about coming off his double win last weekend, the Swede said, ‘I think this is the complete opposite to what I ran there last weekend.  There we were really fast so hopefully we can fine tune it tomorrow and be ready for qualifying here too.  It is a pity the competition is a little less this year compared to last year but we are going to try make the most out of it and so far so good today.’  As last year’s eBuggy winner asked how each of his buggies have been working he said, ‘the schedule was pretty tight today running 2 times in an hour so I already decided to go with only one car and that was nitro.  Then once that was feeling good I just changed the whole electric (buggy) to the set-up on the nitro and made one pack this afternoon and the electric car was feeling good too.’

With this race last year marking his final Xray outing after a successful decade with the Slovakian manufacturer, wrapping up Thursday’s practice Coelho said, ‘It’s tough as always, the track is very challenging and always changing getting more and more bumpy during the day but we know and already expect this’.  Claiming the final step on the podium in Nitro Buggy last year behind Ongaro and a very impressive Mattia Polito in second, he added, ‘It is a race that is very tough and we need to work a lot on the car and be very careful with everything.  We want to go faster but we know we cannot so we need to be patient and work on the car to make it safe and easy to drive.  With electric I am pretty happy at the moment, with nitro we have some more to do.’  The reigning Touring Car World Champion explained, ‘because the car is always jumping it is a kind of mix.  When it has the wheels on the ground it is very good but as soon as it starts to jump it is very difficult to drive.’  On this year’s grip levels, the temperature hitting in the range of 30 degrees today, he said, ‘last year we had a heavy rain which made the track very polished on the top and the cars were sliding all around.  This year we had no rain and I don’t expect any rain before Sunday so the grip is like it was at the beginning of last year.  The grip I would say is not high but medium.’

While he raced here previously 8 years ago when it hosted the IFMAR 1:10 Buggy World Championships, giving his first impression of the track for 1:8 Buggy, Kato said, ‘It’s a big track and the traction is ok but there are many bumps.’  The new Asian Buggy Championships Champion, added, ‘It is a challenging track but a super fun track drive, I’m enjoying it.’  Finishing the day’s practice, things getting more official tomorrow with seeding and the first two of the 5 rounds of qualifying, with almost half his Lexan rear wing missing, he explained, ’There was a lot of traffic and many crashes, so my bad.’  On the switch from last weekend’s low traction conditions of the covered Hongyu GDC track to the higher traction here, he said, ‘the traction is quite different because GDC is quite low.  Will still need some fixes but I think I am already fixing things n the right way so I think we are looking good for when racing starts.’

A driver who is enjoying a jet set 2025 season that also included him making his first visit to Australia where he took on Round 3 of the Asian Buggy Championships in Bribane, giving his thoughts on the SIGP track Pekko said, ‘I think it looks quite cool.  It’s a nice big track and I think it’s kind of how I like it, more like offroad  to have some bumps and character.  I think it will be a good race for sure.’  Describing traction levels as ‘medium grip’, the Finn continued,  ’so we have the grip and there are sharp kind of bumps so that doesn’t make it easy but I think it will be nice racing here.’   On his car and asked if had change much over the and after coming from Hongy GDC, he replied, ‘Not too much.  I will make for changes overnight, change the diffs oils because we didn’t have much time today.  Today was almost all about trying to get as much track time as possible for me because I have never been here but other guys have been and the layout is the same as last year so I just wanted to get laps in.’

Asked his initial opinion of the SIGP track, 14-year-old Hyunkyu replied, ‘The track is so difficult.  I think the shock set-up is so important here because it’s so bumpy.’  He continued, ‘Today was a bit of a lost day for me.  We tried to find the right shock set-up but in the end we couldn’t find it today so I think I need to try a different piston tomorrow and see how that goes.’  In terms of the track he is used to racing at at home, the 14-year-old said, ‘It actually pretty big compared to my Korea track and it is my first time to see this like high grip and a rough track.  It’s a pretty difficult track so I think the car is pretty important here.  We will see tomorrow, I need to do fine tuning.’  Coming off his podium finish at Hongyu GDC last weekend he said ‘its a completely different track, there is low grip while here it is high grip & rough.’

October 10, 2025

2025 1:10 Offroad World C/ships Chassis Focus Index

It is one of those World Championships that will be etched in the memories of everyone for many years to come both in terms of the dirt track racers got to race on, the new World Champions that were crowned, and the great efforts of the Hills RC Off Road track to put on a World class event that marked the 40th anniversary of the 1:10 Offroad World Championships.  Thanks to Radbody, Red RC was able to make the trip Down Under and witness the crowning of two new World Champions – Broc Champlin giving Schumacher their first title in 2WD and Marus Kaerup taking the Team Associated’s tally to 35 with his 4WD victory!!  As we experienced during our coverage of the recent inaugural 1:8 Electric Buggy World Championships in Portugal, manufacturers where being protective of the set-ups/new parts and again we had to wait till after racing was complete to get to photograph some of the buggies.  The most exciting Chassis Focus would be the brand new Mugen Seiki 4WD.  While it has been raced before by Burak Kilic at the European Championship, we were honoured to get the permission of its designer Shin Adachi to unveil his latest work to the World.  Kyosho came to Australia with some new designs for its upcoming 4WD buggy release but they were not quite ready to unveil it to the World.  We managed to photograph buggies from 6 manufacturers including the two winning buggies and we have compiled the 9 buggies we got our hands on in our latest Chassis Focus Index –

2WD Chassis Focus

Broc Champlin – Schumacher (Q2/World Champion)

Marcus Kaerup – Team Associated (Top Qualifier/P3)

Burak Kilic – Mugen Seiki

Fuma Saito – Kyosho

Antoni Caretti – Yokomo

4WD Chassis Focus

Marcus Kaerup – Team Associated (Top Qualifier/World Champion)

Dakotah Phend – Xray (Q3/P3)

Burak Kilic – Mugen Seiki (Q7/P4)

Logan Toia – Yokomo

Bonus Chassis Focus

Atsushi Hara – Tamiya Lunchbox
.