September 30, 2025

Orlowski sets early pace at Offroad Worlds

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has set the early pace at the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship, the 2WD action getting underway on a lovely sunny morning here in Sydney, Australia.  With the first of the four timed practices more a break in of the new track layout and and opportunity for drivers to get their bearings, over half the track in the shade of the trees, the second practice was a much more telling run.  Orlowski would set the fastest lap with a best of 29.032 with the Team Associated of Davide Ongaro closest to that on a 29.112, that order the same over the best 3-consecutive laps.  On outright pace it was the Xray of David Ronnefalk who completed the Top 3 but over the full 5-minutes the early bragging rights went to newly crowned 1:8 eBuggy World Champion Marcus Kaerup with US drivers Aydin Horne, 1.6-seconds off, and Broc Champlin making up the Top3.

Asked to sum up his start to these World Championships, Orlowski said, ‘the track is really nice, it is a really nice layout for racing and for all levels of driver to enjoy’.  The former European Champion continued, ‘The surface is new but we have been here for the warm-up and we know how drastically the track changes as the day goes and also as the event goes on.  I mean it is going well now but the track will change so much for later in the event.  So we are not changing much and trying to just drive around but it’s nice to see we have good pace but it doesn’t mean anything at this stage.’  Backed by Elceram who just launched their new Generation 2 ESC yesterday evening, Orlowski said, ‘I am running it for the first time and it going really well so far, so I am happy about that.’  In terms of his buggy, he explained, ‘it is pretty much what we ran here at the Warm-up.  We stayed for many days after the race and put a lot of effort in to testing so at the minute we are running this with small tweaks here and there from what we learned through the Summer season racing and testing on dirt.’  With the Raw Speed supplied rear tyre controlled in 2wD, on the open front tyre Orlowski tried JConcepts Rips for the second practice.  Asked if that was his preferred choice he said, ‘it depends on the car set-up, driving style, and time of the day.  I think once you settle on the tyre it will be your choice for the whole day even when the lap times drastically change.  I just need to settle on one tyre which is now the JC but we are still looking at different options and seeing what’s best.’

The only defending 1:10 World Champion here, the reigning 2WD Champion Tater Sontag not making the trip Down Under, Ongaro summed up his first taste of the track by saying, ‘I have never been here so for sure the team helped me a lot with a good base set-up.  The second run was much better for me but I still need to work on the best line on the left side of the track because it was still a little bit wet.’  Asked about the track, the 1:8 Buggy World Champion replied, ‘the layout is good, lets say it is like an 1:8 track but smaller scale.’  Running the older 3-gear configuration on his Associated, for more weight in the rear, the Italian said for now he just needed to keep building his confidence with the track.  On front tyre choice, he has tried both pins and rips but with the conditions of each run very different however he said, ‘right now I prefer the rib, it was faster of course because of the track, so I will try the pins again and see which is faster.’

Returning to 1:10 Offroad World Championship action having not raced in Arizona 2-years ago as he only had a 1:8 programme with Mayako, summing up his first laps Ronnefalk said, ‘For sure the outright speed is there but I think the first round I was struggling a little bit.  I found some stuff I forgot to put on the car from the Warm-up like my best (set-up) here so for the second round I adjusted these things on the car.  I found that time around it was a lot better, obviously the track was a lot faster too, but I felt the car was now more similar to what I remember from July when I was here testing.  Definitely have the outright speed just didn’t have time to follow the temperature change because I was changing the car so didn’t go up in shock which I would have needed to do to be able to go at a more consistent pace.  I have the outright speed but wasn’t able to go close to that lap time too many times just because the car was moving around too much due to the shock oil being to soft.’   The reigning European 4WD Champion continued, ‘the track is going to be improving and I think is moving towards what works well for our stuff.’  Trying different front tyre options, he said he still hasn’t decided what to go for but he thinks we might see drivers using different tyre in the morning to when the track dries out.  ‘Obviously a lot of driver were on the Rips that time and I think we are going to see a lot of drivers choosing the Rips for when it is dry and then maybe pin tyres in the morning.’  In terms of his buggy compared to what he ran in pre race testing here, Ronnefalk said, ‘it is not too much different, a couple of small things that we learned we might need when I was here testing.  I came back to Xray and sent them the report and we talked about what stuff we needed to make to improve from our ideas.  There is not many parts at all, just small things here and there.’

‘The track layout is absolutely amazing, a nice flow in it when you hit the lines’ was how Kaerup described the new Hill RC Offroad track layout.’  He continued, ‘The car is really consistent, I think we are just lacking some one lap speed but I am pretty happy with how it is working it.’  Regarding front tyres, the Dane said, ‘we are working on the pin tyre, I know all of the other guys besides me, Donnelly and Jared are on the Rips or something that is not a pin tyre.  It’s just about feeling and I think we are going to get there.  I just think the pin is more consistent through out the run, I just feel it gets to darty with other tyres.  If it is necessary to run the other tyres we are going to do that.’   A previous visitor to the track having raced at the Pre-Worlds, asked about the track characteristics at different times of the day and if they are changing much for this he replied, ‘We are doing some stuff, we have the Donnelly’s and we are doing some great team work, he (Lachlan) is giving us a lot of information on how the track evolves so we have a great idea of what to change so I am sure we will be right there with great team work’.

View our event image gallery here.

September 29, 2025

Racers settle in in Sydney ahead of 1:10 World Championship action

Officially the opening day of the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championships, while there was no track action today in Sydney the pits were busy with drivers completing their registration, gluing tyres and making final preparations to their buggies ahead of tomorrow’s first laps on the new layout at the Hills Off Road RC track.  With the official duties of Day 1 concluding with the opening ceremony, a huge Australian team, which make up over half the entry kicking it off, and the United States, the biggest visiting nation, concluding the presentation of countries, drivers had plenty of talk about after their long journeys Down Under.  In terms of the longest journey time to get to here, this year the 40th anniversary of the first 1:10 Offroad World Championships, that honour goes to Xray’s Bartek Zalewski, the young Polish talent enduring a brutal 61-hour journey!  There were travel dramas for many drivers including 2-time 2WD World Champion Spencer Rivkin and Schumacher’s Broc Champlin, flooding in Phoenix causing their original flight to be cancelled.  Driving to LA to get a new flight, they finally arrived but without their original baggage.  Luckily carrying their buggies and radios as hand luggage, Rivkin was able to stop at his home to repack tools etc. from his 1:8 gear bags.  Newly crowned 1:8 Electric Buggy World Champion Marcus Kaerup is another without his baggage, which went awol on his stop over in Istanbul.  While a headache for Team Associated team manager Brent Theilke to have two drivers without their bags and some equipment, he said they won’t be stuck for anything while Kaerup joked he had plenty of team-mates he could ‘rob stuff from’.

Talking to the various team representatives, Sworkz a notable absentee of these Worlds, it seems teams have come with new parts more than all new cars.  Team Associated have their new the new 3-gear transmission for the 2WD, providing the new set-up to all the drivers using their buggy here.  Talking to Kaerup he said he hasn’t run the set-up before but he did try it in testing here previously in Lachlan Donnelly’s car and he liked how it felt.  In 4WD, Theilke said their buggy ‘just has some new parts’.  In the Schumacher camp designer Trish Neal said their 2WD has some modified front end parts which they previously ran at the Warm-up race.  Running a new 4WD prototype car then, that has since gone into full production, he said it’s nice to be able to hit the track with that standard car.  Asking Martin Bayer if they had anything new, the man responsible for Xray’s offroad programme, smiled and said ‘of course’ but gave little else details however they are using a different length chassis on the 2WD.  Mugen Seiki, whose efforts here will be led by Burak Kilic, are running their standard 2WD and will run their prototype/close to preproduction 4WD.  Speaking to designer Shin Adachi, he said the buggy is the same as what Kilic raced at the European Championship at the start of August at the Hudy Arena, adding they haven’t had much opportunity to test it since then as the don’t have any tracks like Hills Offroad RC in Japan.  Kyosho, who are here with factory Japanese driver Fuma Saito, have said they are running a pretty standard 2WD but designer Yoshiyuki Chikuba said they have brought a 4WD that features some new design developments, which we suspect are the basis of a new 4WD kit from the iconic Japanese manufacturer. 

Aside from the car manufacturers, Jason Ruona said after attending the warm-up race JConcepts saw some opportunities to rework their 2WD body for better aerodynamics to suit the dirt track conditions here.  With a wider rear end, the body is set to go into full production after the words.  Bringing a painted display example of the new body, that has now become a race body for Kaerup whose race bodies are in his missing baggage.  With the host club doing a great job presenting the track & facility, a huge marquee meaning plenty of space in the pits for all the drivers, the action gets underway in the morning (Tuesday) with the first round of free practice off at 07:30 local time

View our event image gallery here.

September 25, 2025

2025 1:8 GT World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

While some had their reservations regarding how the cars would perform around the large Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track and in particular its long straight, it would ultimately prove a huge hit with drivers at the IFMAR 1:8 GT Worlds and showcase the impressive speeds at which 1:8 GT cars now run.  The third running of the 1:8 GT World Championship, it was great to see such a diversity of manufacturers make up the World Championship deciding 1-hour final with 7 different brands forming the 11 car grid.  A very popular brand in South America, it was Italian manufacturer WIRC who was best represented with three cars, Brazil’s Flavio Elias going from winning the last chance final to finishing on the podium.  A brand which at the last World Championships was a solo personal project of its driver Michael Kocher, the Andrea Contarini designed car only offered then to customers as a eGT kit, Raptor has since through the involvement of Gimar become a major player with their star driver Alessio Mazzeo doing the World Championship double in Santiago.  In Nitro GT their two cars on the grid would go on to achieve a 1-2 finish.

Taking the TQ honours, Serpent would also have two cars in the final.  With one car each Senesi Motorsport, Xray and IGT8 completed the line up of different brands.  In terms of engines Gimar was the most popular with it powering 5-drivers.  While absent from the event as a car brand, Italy’s Genius Racing, who were Top Qualifiers in Sydney, proved the most popular body with 8 drivers running their GT Fury shell.  With Red RC able to make the very enjoyable and welcoming trip to South America to cover the GT Worlds for  a second time thanks to the support of Sweep tyres, Energy fuel, and 2023 World Champions Hong Nor, over the condensed schedule we managed to photograph 8 cars from 6 different manufacturers for our ‘Chassis Focus’ including the Top 2 finishers in the inaugural IFMAR 1:8 Electric GT World Championship.  As the supplier of the controlled tyre with is D-SPEC GT 40, Sweep came in for a lot of driver phrase for how its tyre performance as his Energy who fuelled everyone for the event.

 

Nitro GT

Alessio Mazzeo – Raptor (Q2/World Champion)

Flavio Elias – WIRC (Q5/P3)

Andrea Catanzani – Serpent (TQ/P4)

Natanaele Senesi – Senesi Motorsport (Q3/P5)

Alex D’angelo – Capricorn (Q4/P10)

Diego Morganti – IGT8 (Q7/P18)

 

Electric GT

Alessio Mazzeo – Raptor (TQ/World Champion)

Natanaele Senesi – Senesi Motorsport (Q2/P2)

 

September 19, 2025

Chassis Focus – Alessio Mazzeo (Raptor)

Chassis: Raptor
Engine: Gimar Jupiter GT
Radio: Sanwa Exces ZIII
Servos (Steering/Throttle): Sanwa XB2
Body: i-Fenix
Tires (handout): Sweep D-SPEC GT 40
Fuel (handout): Energy 16%

Notes: 
Mazzeo’s car was fitted with Raptor’s own optional Front and centre weights.

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September 19, 2025

Mazzeo becomes double World Champion in Chile

Raptor/Gimar driver Alessio Mazzeo has gone from being close in the past to becoming a double World Champion in less than 24-hours, the Italian taking the biggest win of his career today when he executed a flawless drive to win the IFMAR 1:8 Nitro GT World Championship final in Chile.  Winning the Electric GT World title yesterday in Santiago, and having hinted at what was to come as he put in a sterling performance in the battle for the Nitro TQ honours in the final qualifier, lining up behind Serpent’s eventually Top Qualifier Andrea Catanzani, he and Catanzani were the class of the field.  From the start of the 1-hour Main they pulled clear of the field around the Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track with it looking like the stage was set for a battle between the two different generations of drivers.  Unfortunately that anticipated fight to become the World No.1 lasted just four & a half minutes.  Catanzani would suffer a flame out and his demise was only the start of more problems to come for Italian drivers, the nation dominating qualifying and locking out all four direct qualifying spots in the main.  11-minutes in and Natanaele Senesi suffered the first of numerous flame-outs.  With Alex D’Angelo holding a comfortable second, just as Mazzeo put a lap on the Capricorn driver 36-minutes into the race, the 2023 Worlds Top Qualifier would come to a stop on track.  The issue proved terminal, his throttle servo having failed.  This promoted Carli Lopez to second making for a Raptor 1-2 on track.  Despite this being his first World Championships, the 21-year-old drove a superb final to maintain his position and take a hugely popular second place.  A driver who is no stranger to the World Championship stage, Brazil’s Flavio Elias would turn around a day that started off in the worst way possible when he was taken out of his Semi by another driver in pit lane while in a bump up position.  Having to go through the Last Chance Final, the WIRC driver won that to line up as the 11th car in the final and through all the drama found himself finally achieving a World Championship podium finish, a recovering Catanzani just 3-seconds back when they crossed the line.

While somewhat muted after his Electric GT Championship win, given the classes small entry, it was contrasting raw emotion for Mazzeo on taking the nitro title win.  Joining Toni Gruber and Joern Neumann as champions of the category, asked how it felt to become a double World Champion in the space of 24-hours, the super friendly Italian replied, ‘It’s incredible, I don’t think I realise yet what has just happened.’  He continued, ‘Today was a special day.  I was not stressed, I was really calm, and I was really confident in the work of Giovanni, Marco and my father back home, and I think we deserve this title.  I followed this dream from when I was young.  I was scared to make this long distance from my home but I did it to realise my dream and what I suggest to everybody if you are scared of something you need to fight it so you can realise you dreams.’  On his title win race, which looked near perfect from the outside, Mazzeo explain, ‘we lost almost 1-lap.  In the pit lane two times we had problems with the body, and I also lost 5-seconds with a crash with a lapping car but from the beginning I saw I had the speed.  When I see Andrea flame out, and I am really sorry for Andrea but he will be the future of this sport and will be a champion for sure, but when I see his car stopped I said “today can be the day”.  After that I just managed the car to the end and said to Giovanni when there was 2-minutes remaining we had won but before the last lap at the end of the straight I lose the rear and we broke the wheel and we arrive at the finish with a broken wheel, for this my last lap was 25-seconds.’  While many of his rivals had engine issues, the long time Gimar driver said, ‘we choose not the power, we chose to be safe and with the decision to risk or not I prefer to be safe because I was fast so I didn’t want to go faster.  I know this kind of final is very long, I had done them many times and I lose many times, so the choice was perfect.  The car was really perfect, everything worked good, the fuel was amazing, the tyres were perfect – that’s a dream.’

Reacting to his second place, Lopez said the biggest stress of the race for him was traffic, saying he had to deal with it a lot.  Asked how his race had panned out, the Puerto Rican driver replied, ‘All the time was OK, no flame out, the only issues was in the final 10-minutes one tyre exploded which we had to change.  With the one new tyre I put more steering on my radio but once the tyre warmed up it as all OK.’  With the Sweep controlled tyre coming in for much phrase for its performance at these championships, he added, ‘I don’t know why we had this failure with the tyre because for me they are a good tyre and I like them a lot.  Maybe it was just the 1-hour final.’  Qualifying sixth overall to line-up on pole for the Semi B Final, which he went on to win in the fastest time of both Semis putting him fifth on the starting grid, Lopez said while this is his first World Championships it is not his first time to race with the Italian.  Last year he travelled to Italy to take part in a round of their National GT Championship, the standard one of the best in the World as highlight here in Santiago, adding he ‘wasn’t surprised’ by their speed here and that he ‘needs to go race with them more in future’.

Getting close to a podium with fourth at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in Brazil back in 2015, a decade on Elias was delighted to finally secure a Worlds podium finish.  After his dramas in the Semi, the Main Final started out looking like it might go the same way.  From last in the grid, a good start would move him up to fifth briefly before he was flipped over after contact from another car which put him back in last place.  With the pit lane closed for the first 7-minutes of the race, he would then run out of fuel after six & a half minutes however by the time his car was recovered and restarted, pit lane was open and he did suffer any penalty.  He said after that, pitting between 6 and 6:15, that the rest of the race was fine and he could climb back up the order and capitalise on the issues of other drivers.  Elias will return to track in a month and a half’s time when it is the turn of the 1:8 Onroad class to decide its next World Champion at the impressive CACH facility.

An understandably dejected Catanzani summed up the outcome of looked like a promising championship as ‘disappointing’.  Making a name for himself on his Worlds debut two years ago in Sydney, the 20-year had an impressive Day 1 of qualifying securing the TQ honours with three consecutive TQ runs ask about his final he explained, ‘We flamed out at 4 or 5 minutes for no reason, I don’t know why.  Then we restart, the race was long so we continue to race but we flamed out another time in the pit stop so we changed glow plug.’  He continued, ‘we also broke a wheel so we had to change tyres so maybe without his a podium was still possible.  The car was feeling strange and I thought the car was broken but when we checked it it was the wheel.’  With the fastest lap of the final, asked about the chance of having another go at Worlds success in Chile at the 1:8 Onroad World Championship, which start at the end of November, he said he still needs to discuss his participation with Serpent.

September 19, 2025

Chassis Focus – Alex D’angelo (Capricorn)

Chassis: Capricorn LAB GT2 GP’25
Engine: ONE GT
Radio: Sanwa Exces ZIII
Servos (Steering/Throttle): ONE Kratos
Body: Genius GT Fury
Tires (handout): Sweep D-SPEC GT 40
Fuel (handout): Energy 16%

Notes: 
Alex’s car featured an new brass centre diff mount that was debuted at CACH to utilise the car’s weigh distribution.  With the dedication and attention to detail we witnessed in the work done by driver’s mechanics at the GT World Championships we want to highligh that we photographed Alex’s Capricorn after the final, his mechanic Dany’s still trying to clean the car as he handed it over to be photographed.

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