October 10, 2026

Balestri tops seeding at Singapore Grand Prix

On a very humid morning at RCMC Marine Parade, Infinity’s Dario Balestri has topped seeding for the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix breaking the lap record on his run to the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the newly resurface track.  Knocking a another tenth of a second of the yesterday’s lap record pace, set in open practice by double World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi, Balestri was quickest over the single round of seeding from 3 times GP winner Naoto Matsukura.  With the Top 2, who between them have won 4 of the last 5 editions of the annual race, having a distinct early advantage in terms of outright pace, it was Finland’s Teemu Leino who completed the Top 3.  Making his first visit to the country’s only permanent track, this the 20th anniversary of the Grand Prix, Mugen Seiki’s reigning World Champion Shoki Takahata set the fourth fastest time ahead of fellow countryman Takakki Shimo.  Today’s scheduled will see drivers run three rounds of qualifying with the fourth & final round taking place Sunday morning ahead of the finals.

October 9, 2026

Track record tumbles at Singapore Nitro GP

The track record at the newly resurfaced RCMC Marine Parade track has tumbled today in practice ahead of this weekend’s Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix.  The 20th Anniversary of the race, lap times got quicker and quicker over Friday’s running with double World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi setting the latest benchmark with a 15.457-lap in his afternoon running.  With the previous record standing at 15.9 and set 10-years ago shortly after the track’s previous resurfacing, today’s times are considerable faster than last year’s best of 16.1-seconds.  With an entry list that reads like a World Championship, it was the Mugen Seiki of reigning 1:8 World Champion Shoki Takahata who set a new record in the morning before reigning Electric Touring Car World Champion Bruno Coelho upped that pace.  The Portuguese driver’s time was short lived however as Takahata produced a 15.5, his first visit to Singapore’s only permanent track clearly not hampering his form.  The day however would end up being Sahashi’s as he found another tenth of a second from his Infinity IF18-3 but with three rounds of qualifying tomorrow and the high level of drivers taking part it is widely expected the record will tumble further.

As the winner of last year’s Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix, and a driver with vast experience of the track, Infinity’s Dario Balestri was very complimentary of the resurfacing work which was crowd funded in a project led by Daryl Thong, who is this weekend’s Race Director.  The 2-time 1:8 World Champion said, ‘For sure they make a great job with the asphalt because last year there was a couple of bumps at the end of the straight and we needed to make a strange line, now it is really nice to drive.’  Here together with his engine sponsor and mechanic Massimo Fantini of Max Power, the Italian added, ‘the grip in the new asphalt is quite good so we are looking forward to enjoying the race this year.’  Another positive of the new surface is the reduced tyre wear, last year being relative high, with Balestri saying it is ‘now normal’ adding ‘it’s like 1mm in 3, 4-minutes which is good.’  In terms of his car and what he has been doing in open practice, drivers joined yesterday on the track by Formula 1 World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, he said, ‘we are using the days to test small things and also Massimo is making a lot of tests with the engines but this is a good race for this because we have many World Champions, it’s like a World Championship.’

Despite playing an active part in taking down the track record over the day, Takahata summed up his day’s performance as average.  What will be his final race of the 2026 season, the 32-year-old Japanese driver said he was still trying to adapt his driving style to the track.  More used to racing on tighter tracks that are common in Japan, he said the RCMC layout is much more open and high speed and this is something he is still getting comfortable with.  A driver who last year in Chile joined Balestri and Lamberto Collari as the only repeat winners of IFMAR original World Championship, on set-up he said he is trying something different on his MRX7 each run, mostly making small adjustments, as well as different engine set-ups given he is also a Max Power team driver and Fantini is on hand.

A driver who took the JMRCA Japanese National title away from Takahata earlier this year, at the Infinity International RC Speedway in Suzuka, Naoto Matsukura is another driver able to give a good insight into how much of an improvement the resurfacing has been.  Back to back winner of the event in 2023 and 2024, the newly crowned 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Champion said, ‘The new surface is really good and it’s a completely new feeling to drive, its pretty good for me.’  He added, ‘Now there is no bump and also the track is very consistent and with high traction.  The tyre wear is also a lot less.’  Asked about changes to his car he said, ‘I actually do no changes and just drive.’  Asked about adjusting back to 1:8 after racing 1:10 200mm, this his first 1:8 outing since Gubbio, he said, ‘actually after Gubbio I drive a lot of EP Touring Car but it feels good to drive 1:8 again.  It is fun, a good feeling, good steering, 1:8 is good.  It has high traction like 1:12 so I’m happy.’

October 8, 2026

F1 World C/Ship leader Antonelli warms up for Singapore GP with 1:8 testing at RCMC

Formula 1 World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli got himself warmed up for this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix with some 1:8 Onroad testing at the newly resurfaced RCMC Marine Parade track which officially reopens this weekend with the hosting of the 20th Singapore Nitro Grand Prix.  A race which sees the entry headed by Mugen Seiki’s 1:8 Onroad World Champion Shoki Takahata and newly crowned 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Champion Naoto Matsukura, Antonelli joined some of the biggest names in Nitro Onroad on Wednesday spending 3-hours at the track.  A regular at Lamberto Collari’s track in Bologna, Italy, where he is from, Antonelli drove an Infinity IF18-3 that had been specially prepared for him by the 9-time World Champion.  Impressing all the drivers with his RC driving skills, getting to drive alongside the F1 star, Matsukura was especially impressed by the 20-year-old’s enthusiasm for wanting to drive RC highlighting he spent most of his time at Singapore’s only permanent onroad track up on the drivers stand and working on his driving, taking just one or two 10-minute breaks.  On his best lap Antonelli was just a tenth of a second off Matsukura’s which was under the track record, the new surface increasing the speed quite a bit.  While Kimi will race for Mercedes on the streets of Singapore this weekend, his father Marco will race 1:8 at the Singapore Nitro Grand Prix.

Image: Dimas Ardian

September 17, 2026

’26 1:10 Nitro Onroad World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

A decade after Gubbio hosted the IFMAR 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship, the category was back in the world capital of nitro onroad racing with the return to Italy creating a real resurgence of interest in these 2.1cc powered cars.  With 114 drivers from 20 countries turning laps of the Miniautodromo Internazionale M.Rosati, six car manufacturers were represented at the 11th edition of the Worlds with Infinity the best represented with 39% of the entry and Shepherd the smallest with just 4 drivers.  In the 11 car Main final, we would see 5 x Capricorn, 3 x Infinity, an Xray, a Serpent and a Mugen Seiki make up the grid.  During our race coverage, which was made possible thanks to the support of LensBodies, Energy Fuel, Gimar Engines, and PowerHD Servos, we managed to photograph cars from all 6 manufacturers including the winning car of Naoto Matsukura.  In case you missed any of these we have compiled all 7 cars in our latest Chassis Focus Index –

Naoto Matsukura (Q3/World Champion) – Infinity

Filippo Domanin (Q2/P2) – Xray

Kyle Branson (Q4/P4) – Capricorn

Andrea Catanzani (Q19/P5) – Serpent

Dario Balestri (TQ/P6)- Infinity

Alex Thurston (Q6/P7)- Mugen Seiki

Alex Esser (Q50/P66 )- Shepherd

September 12, 2026

Title No.7 as Matsukura reclaims Nitro Touring Worlds in Italy

18-years after he took his first IFMAR World title as a 15-year-old in 1:12, Naoto Matsukura has added a 7th World Championship victory by reclaiming the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car crown in Italy.  The 11th running of the championships, the Infinity driver, who turns 33 on Monday, would take a convincing win in Gubbio, 8-years on from winning the same title in the United Stated.  Starting from 3rd on the grid, Matsukura would go to P2 on the opening lap and closely pursue team-mate & Top Qualifier Dario Balestri as they pulled clear of the field.  Unfortunately for Balestri, just like in 2016 when he TQ’d the same championships at the same track, the final wasn’t to go his way.  While finishing on this occasion, albeit in P6, the Italian would hit an issue during his tyre stop with the rear right wheel change delaying him by a lap & a half, effectively ending his quest to finally add a 1:10 title to the two he has achieved in 1:8.  The only driver to manage a 15-second lap of the Miniautodromo Internazionale Mario Rosati track in the Main, later in the race Balestri would also run out of fuel.  With his main rival out of contention, Matsukura could manage the race even adjusting his tyre stop strategy to just a single stop having started out planning two stops.  While he was on cruise control, with a 2-lap buffer, to becoming the first driver to win the categories biggest prize twice, the battle for second brought life to the final minutes of the 1-hour encounter as Capricorn’s Toni Gruber, having turned around a disappointing start to the week, tried to hunt down a very impressive Filippo Domanin.  This race marking his World Championship debut, the talented Italian teenager kept the highly experienced German at bay taking a crowd pleasing 2nd by one tenth of second.  Just off the podium, Kyle Branson claimed P4 on his World Championship return ahead Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani.

‘An amazing feeling to be a World Champion again’, was Matsukura’s reaction to title number 7.  On the race that brought him that title, he said, ‘In the beginning my car was good but after 10-minutes it became a little bit loose so I cannot push a lot so I then also had some small mistakes.  Then the gap was 4-seconds or something but my mechanics tyre change was very fast so I can get the lead.’  He continued, ‘After the tyre change my was car was much better and even on small tyres it was not loose.  I think the track was different in the second half of the race because of more & more running on it.’  Asked at what stage he felt he had control of the race, he said, ‘I didn’t push in the race because I was trying to drive controlled.  My mechanic told me every lap my times compared to Dario.  If he said Dario is .3 then I made .2.’  On his tyre strategy he explained, ‘At the start we were thinking 1.5 or maybe two stops but we watched Dario and he didn’t change so I also then went with just one stop.  We planned before to change one side and then all four, but when he had 4-seconds on me if we did this he would have got too big a gap and could then have manage so I waited to see if he changed.’  On the tyre wear, he said, ‘After 25-minute you do feel like you are running out of tyres.  You have less steering and I even asked Muira to check my tyre on my last fuel stop to see if I have tyre or not because of the understeer but he said I have so I can continue no problem.’  Asked if winning today still felt as good as his first Worlds win in 2008 he said, ‘It’s the same.  Once you taste Worlds victory you need more and to get this 7th one is amazing.  Everything was really good, apart from the car being a little loose in the beginning but still easy to drive, the car, the engine, and my pitmen were all good.  Muira is special and also this time my mechanic Kitagawa, who built my car and made everything on the set-up.  In 2008 he was my mechanic with Yokomo so I got the 1:12 title many times because of him.’  Asked his thoughts now on adding the 1:8 title to his tally next year, having lapped the entire field by the mid point of the 2017 final on his 1:8 Worlds debut in France, before a dead battery ended his race, he replied, ‘1:8 I think is more high level.  For me it is the highest level, it’s the F1 of racing so I want to win it and I will be my best but in Italy it will not be easy.’ – the 2027 1:8 Worlds set to be staged at the famous Fiorano track.

A week that will be remembered as the one he firmly him put his name on the map as rising star of the sport, on his first World Championship final, Domanin said, ‘My race was very clean, I make only one mistake, and it was a very good fight with Toni in the last minutes.’  Impressing everyone with his racecraft and how he dealt with the pressure in the closing laps, clearly pleased with his result, he added, ‘I am excited by the race result because two months ago I made 3rd in European Championship in 1:8 and now second in the Worlds.  I am super happy.’  On his strategy, the 18-year-old Xray driver said, ‘We changed tyres at the half way of the race and the change was a clean change.  Fuel we stopped at 4 & half minutes, which saved one stop.’  Asked about his tyre management, he said, ‘in the last 5-minutes with Toni it was super super tight because I had zero tyre left and Toni I think had a bit more than me.  It was a good fight and I am happy I stayed second.’

Gruber seem to suprise even himself with his podium finish saying, ‘I was never thinking about a podium this week, because I think if people saw how we struggled in the practice days we were never even thinking about the final, the Semi final yes but not final.’  The 2017 and 2023 European Champion added, ‘In the qualification we made some good changes after Patrizio (Rossi) arrived.  He had some good ideas on what we had to change and it paid off as we closed the gap to the front.  Also the 7-minutes instead of the 3-laps was better for me and we managed P10.’  With the rain that cancelled Day 2 of qualifying on Thursday, washing the track clean and causing drivers like the defending champion Jilles Grokamp to struggle for a set-up, Gruber explained, ‘After the rain the track changed and I think that was good for us.  In the Semi Final we managed the tyres good and we didn’t change and we had good laps times compared to the other Semi final.  We survived the half hour but I am alway pushing so tyres for us is always critical but I tried to manage a little bit different this time and it paid off.  So then the thinking was we make the same in the final also, change one time in the middle, but in the end we decided that because in the Semi final I couldn’t push (to save tyres) we decided in the final I needed to push more and with that I can’t survive half an hour.  So then we decide to make one right side and then one time full (tyre change) which was in my opinion the best decision.’  On late his battle with Dominan, the 2023 World GT Champion said, ‘I played in my head with getting a P5 or P6, never the podium, but when I saw after the tyre change I was P5, then P4, and then Dario’s flame moved me to P3 we worked on closing the gap to P2.  I knew I had a little fresher tyres than him, in the end he managed the pressure.’  He added, ‘I thought maybe he makes a mistake because of too much pressure but he was calm in this way.  We had a good fight til the end.’  He concluded, ‘In the end P3 was too good for us if you think were we where in practice but everything was then on point in the final but for sure more was not possible.’

Lining up P4 on the grid as one of the four direct qualifier, finishing fourth Capricorn’s Branson said, ‘We kept our position so not bad but obviously you always want more.’  The British driver, who finished runner-up to Matsukura in 2018 in Miami, continued, ‘We kept with Filippo for the first 12-minutes and then the car became tricky to drive, loose on power, and pushing a little bit.  It felt like a front sway bar came of the car potentially, I just need to check after we get it back after tech.  It was a little bit disappointing cause I knew the pace was there right with Filippo at the start but that’s how the race goes sometimes.’  Running 3:50 fuel stops and one complete tyre stop, he felt that was the right strategy.  Starting with a brand new set of the championship’s handout Hotrace tyres and running them for 32-minutes, he then change to a new set that had been scrubbed in for 2-laps.  On the second set, he said the feeling of something being wrong with the car was amplified by the change to the new set.  ‘It felt like I had drag brake and the front sway bar was off.’  On checking the car after it was released from tech, it was discovered that a stone was stuck in the rear wheel.  On his impressive return to nitro racing, having switched to electric racing after his 2018 podium, asked if this week has lit the fire to come back and do more nitro racing, he said, ‘Absolutely.  I am happy with the result considering the time we put in, which was just one ENS and a couple of days at home.  The guys ahead do it all the time so hopefully if we can put more time in now and potentially have a better result next time.’

Asked for a run down on his disappointing race, Balestri replied, ‘I would say all was under control and I was managing the tyres til the tyre change when lost one & half laps because they cannot fit the rear (tyre).  We lost the race there!’  The reigning back to back European Champion continued, ‘later we also ran out of fuel because we didn’t get it full the previous stop so it seems like it was just not my day.’  He added, ‘The important thing is to just say it was a mistake and I am sorry for this mistake.’  With Italy, the World capital of nitro onroad racing, set to stage next year’s 1:8 Onroad World Championship, a class Balestri is most revered in, asked if that could be the race he gets to finally take a World title on home soil, Balestri replied, ‘1:10 is the one I am missing so I would really like to take one but for sure we will keeping pushing and do our best.’  With the next 1:10 Worlds potentially set to be staged in the US, the most winning European Champion must wait the 2-years for the title that eludes him despite numerous TQ honours.

2026 IFMAR Nitro Touring Car Worlds, Italy
Main Final Result
1. (3) Naoto Matsukura (Infinity) – 212/60:08.868
2. (2) Filippo Domanin (Xray) – 210/60:08.303
3. (8) Toni GRruber (Capricorn) – 210/60:08.490
4. (4) Kyle Branson (Capricorn)- 208/60:01.076
5. (7) Andrea Catanzani (Serpent) – 208/60:04.855
6. (1) Dario Balestri (Infinity) – 208/60:05.349
7.(10) Alex Thurston (Mugen Seiki) – 207/60:14.968
8.(11) Quentin Leroux (Capricorn) – 202/58:58.146
9. (9) Jakub Rozycki (Capricorn) – 201/60:10.582
10.(5) Melvin Diekmann (Capricorn) – 175/60:12.674
11.(6) Milan Holthuis (Infinity) – 144/41:47.097