September 17, 2025

Catanzani takes control in Q2 & 3

Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani has taken control of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships in Chile, the Italian producing back to back TQ runs as he topped the times in the second & third rounds of qualifying as things warm-up a little in Santiago.  With a cold start to qualifying this morning, the sun finally burned it’s way through the earlier fog with the snow capped mountain in the distance making up the back drop to the track as Q3 completed the first half qualifying.  Complaining of the cold after Q1, Catanzani would outpace Top Seed and Q1 winner Alessio Mazzeo by 1.1-seconds at the second time of asking, this time three drivers managing to put together 20-lap runs, the third of those being Capricorn’s Alex D’Angelo.  With Mazzeo having to pit during Q3 for an engine adjustment, D’Angelo would get a P2 for that round but Catazani’s advantage was now 2.2-seconds as he improved by almost 3-seconds over the 7-minutes despite feeling his car’s performance faded in the later part of the run.  Natanaele Senesi completed the Top 3 ahead of the WIRC of Brazilian nitro onroad racing stalwart Elias Flavio which overall means as it currently stands at the half way stage it is an all Italian line-up in the all important Top 4, direct to final, qualification rankings.

Changing his car after Q1, Catanzani said for Q2, ‘it was a little bit better, maybe more easy to drive, but still not perfect as it felt lose.’  Despite it not to his full liking the talented nitro onroad star still managed a TQ run and with the weather warming up together with a small set-up change he was confident for Q3.  However in the warm-up he said the car was even more lose than before causing him some concern but when the start of the timed 7-minutes came round the car was ‘really good’.  For the last 2-minutes of the run however the rear started to get lose and they are now considering a further change to end out the day.  Even if Catanzani can go three in a row, the overall TQ will remain up for grabs going into Day 2 of qualifying, with two more runs on the cards tomorrow along with lower finals.

Describing Q2 conditions as the same as Q1, Mazzeo explained, ‘Our car was super loose for Q2, but also in the middle of the quali I was unlucky when another car touched my body and it tucked and I drove all of the run like that.  Because of this I lose the change to fight with Andrea.’  On his third qualifying attempt he said, ‘now the track is warmer and my car was super nice, we made a small change to it for the run, but we had a small technical issue during the run when we were leading and we had to stop but the car was super.’  Quizzed about the issue, the Raptor/Gimar driver said his engine was too lean explaining this happened because it was much hotter for that round.  With Q4 wrapping up the first day of qualifying here at CACH, Mazzeo said, they ‘will do nothing to the car’ adding that the warmer it gets the better it suits his car.

Switching to a brand new set of tyres for Q2, his fifth run on the set he used for Q1 proving a little too much for the rubber, D’Angelo said his ‘pace was not bad’.  He continued, ‘my engine was a little too rich in the tuning so I had to manage it more and as a result I had less top speed and on the last lap the engine was shutting down but we managed to finish the round.’  Now with a fully broke in set of tyres for Q3, he would also make some small changes to his car, both for the hotter weather and also as part of the general quest to improve the car.  Leaning out his engine, he said it was better but still too rich, but this time he ‘could push the entire round and get P2.’  Overall the 2023 Worlds Top Qualifier said their biggest issue is still to make the car work in the first 2-minutes adding ‘the first 5-6 laps is were the gap to the top is, in the middle we are similar and at the end they have to manage fuel more and slow down.’   He concluded, ‘the focus is on the Top 4, to do the main final directly, and to work on the car to have a better situation in the main.’

Summing up his Q2 & 3 runs, on his P4 in the second qualifier Senesi said, ‘We changed to 60k oil in the diff for Q2 and while we thought it was better at first, towards the end we lost a little traction and the car out of the corner was not so fast as the first one even though the weather was a little better.’  Also taking into account how much the weather heated up for Q3, he would go back to 80K oil describing that combination with the hotter track as ‘way better’.  He would however suffer a different issue as midway through the run he overheated his tyres a little and with them ‘out of temperature’ he dropped off the pace.  Feeling this cost him 6/10th of a second and a potential P2, he said once they cooled down again he ‘was there again’ in terms of his rivals pace.  Looking to Q4,  the 1:8 GT specialist said the plan is to ‘run same car, same everything, and just try to manage tyres’, Q4 will be his fourth run on same set of the championship’s controlled Sweep tyres which he started out with in Q1.  With Top 4 his goal for qualifying, he said after that the 1-hour final becomes ‘a completely different game and you push in a different way.’

September 17, 2025

Mazzeo tops opening GT Worlds qualifier in chilly Chile

Raptor’s Alessio Mazzeo has taken the opening qualifier at the IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships in Santiago, Chile, drivers at the 3rd running of the championships experiencing chilly conditions at the Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track.  Having topped yesterday’s seeding practice, Mazzeo was able to maintain his form as the driver to beat despite temperatures today being 10-degrees cooler than the previous days of practice.  The only driver to manage 20-laps over the first of the six 7-minute runs, the large circuit with its blue infield proving a big hit with drivers, Mazzeo’s closet challenger would be 2023 Sydney Podium finisher Andrea Catanzani – that was once the Serpent driver had a post tech disqualification revoked for failing the rear wing height inspection when it was discovered the measurement was incorrectly taken.  2.5 seconds off Catanzani, Capricorn’s Alex D’angelo completed the Top 3 ahead of Natanaele Senesi who posted the fastest lap of Q1 with Puerto Rico’s Carli Lopez recording a P5 ahead of IGT8’s Diego Morganti.  With IFMAR referee Javier Garcia summing up the CACH facility best when he called it ‘A Disneyland for RC’, unfortunately it looks like GT’s opportunity to shine on its stage could be dampened by the weather which is set to turn bad going into the weekend.  With that in mind, today drivers face a busy schedule of 4-rounds of qualifying with the final two rounds scheduled for tomorrow as IFMAR look to beat the weather in that particular off track race.  Based off that revised schedule, the new 1:8 GT World Champion, as unfortunately Hong Nor’s Toni Gruber made a late decision not to travel to Chile and defend his title, is set to be now crowned on Friday.

Well wrapped up in his Raptor winter jacket, Mazzeo reacted to his TQ run by saying, ‘the car worked good like yesterday even though today the track had less grip because it is super cold, like 10-degrees less compared to yesterday.  So there was a big question how the car would work but it was good.’  Running a new set of tyres for the opening qualifier, the Italian said, ‘I’m not sure it was the right choice’ explaining that the first few laps slick tyre’s mould line means the full tyre surface isn’t working.  As a positive however he thinks he should have the best tyre possible now for Q2 that this set is fully broken in.  Asked about changes for Q2, the former 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship podium finisher, replied, ‘We leave everything the same.  My car is better for the warmer conditions so I hope it will become warmer’.  While that was the case over the previous days, teams pitting with containers needing to switch the heating in the morning to air condition by midday, the foggy conditions that created drivers this morning do not appear to be clearing.  On the CACH track, Mazzeo called it, ‘One of my favourite tracks, also the location and the facilities’.  The 33-year-old also congratulated the organisers of these Worlds on the their choice of controlled tyres, saying the Sweep’s D-SPEC GT 40 tyre are ‘perfect for this class’.  The Gimar engines factory driver also gave a thumbs for choice of controlled fuel, which is supplied by Italy’s Energy Fuel.

Initially disqualified for his rear wing being too high, something the 20-year-old was at loss to explain when he was informed given the same wing passed pre-Tech yesterday, Catanzani was relieved to have his P2 count after much deliberation and to & fro’ing to the tech room.  In the end in it transpired that the blocks the cars are placed on where to far apart and the reading had been taken from the front tapered section of his Serpent’s chassis plate causing the front to sit lower and the rear higher making it not inline with the height of the roof of the body.  On the run itself, the recently crowned Italian GT National Champion said, ‘It was not easy because today is like new condition because it has never been cold like this so the car was not really easy to drive.  Also the driver was not good because my fingers were freezing.’  For the next qualifier, he said, ‘we have to check if we can change something on the car to be easy to drive.’

Joining Capricorn for 2025 from Genius Racing, with whom he was Top Qualifier at the previous World Championship,  D’angelo explain, ‘We were on completely used tyres which we did four rounds on yesterday and while the car was good we suffered with making the tyre work in the first 2-minutes.’  He continued, ‘After that we were level on pace with Catanzani, maybe Mazzeo is a bit faster, but let’s see what we can do with fresher tyre in Q2.’  Referring to the cold, he said, ‘In this condition the grip is not good at all cause yesterday everybody went a lot faster and also the humidity is really high and I think if you have a good used set it is good but my set was too old.  Also yesterday I hit a curb so the rim was also slightly broken.’  On his car set-up, he said the only change they made for today was to adjust the rear toe.  Describing the track layout as ‘really cool’, the Italian said he had concerns before driving it that the straight was too long for GT but since driving it he was happen to be proven wrong saying ‘it fine for the GT class.’

Reacting to his first qualifying effort and how his Xray based Senesi Motorsport S21GT ran, Senesi said, ‘It was a little bit slippery in the beginning because the temperate is lower so I think my rear diff was too high in the oil viscosity so it took a lot of time to get up to temperature.’  He continued, ‘The mid to the end of the run was good and I was able to set the fastest lap of the heat, so the car was there, we just lost a few seconds at the beginning so for the next round for sure we will go lower with the diff and try to be there with the pace from the start.’  On the weather conditions he explained, ‘Usually during the morning it is like 10-degrees hotter but now it is very cold, and during the afternoon it goes to about 25-27 degrees so today is sure much colder and you need to find small changes to make the car perfect.’   Another to opt to start qualifying with a new set of tyres he said, ‘Considering I was on new tyres, which in my opinion are not fastest, as is the case in Touring Car, because you are not able to use the full surface.  Asked how he is enjoying the track, the 2024 European GT Champion said, ‘It’s a huge track but I really like it and I think with the compromise they made with the tyres & track it is very good because these tyres you are able to run more than one round and have the car always consistent which is a big plus and I am super happy for that.’

September 14, 2025

1:8 GT World C/ship coverage presented by Sweep, Energy, and Hong Nor

Having covered our first ever 1:8 GT World Championship in Australia 2 years ago, Red RC is excited to be travelling to Santiago, Chile, for the next chapter in IFMAR GT class history.  Drivers will not only battle it out to become the 3rd Nitro GT World Champion but also the inaugural eGT World Champion as the electric class gains World Championship status in 2025.  Taking place at the very impressive Club de Aeromodelos de Chile (CACH) facility, our coverage of how these championships unfold is being made possible thanks to Sweep Racing, Energy Fuel and reigning GT World Champion chassis manufacturer Hong Nor.  Sweep Racing are the official controlled tyre supplier for the event while Italian fuel manufacturer Energy is the controlled fuel for not only the 1:8 GT Worlds but also the 1:8 Onroad Worlds which also take place at CACH later in the year.  Red RC is looking forward to travelling to South America, our last trip to this part of the world being for the 2012 1:8 Buggy Worlds in Argentina.  Chatting to the winner of that World title, Robert Batlle, at the recent inaugural 1:8 eBuggy Worlds in Portugal about the upcoming GT Worlds, the Spaniard described CACH as the best facility he has ever visited – and he has raced at a lot of tracks around the world!  Our coverage of the 2025 IFMAR 1:8 GT World Championships will, after a full day of travel, begin this Wednesday, September 17th, with the first round of qualifying.  We hope you enjoy following our coverage as we get to tell the story of how the sport’s latest World Champions are crowned.

September 4, 2025

’25 1:8 Elec. Offroad World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

2025 will go down in the history books as the year that IFMAR staged the inaugural 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship with 116 drivers from around the world travelling to Portugal last week for 5 days of action at the Barcelos Buggy Arena track located in the north of the country.  While 1:8 Nitro Buggy is the established blue ribbon category of offroad racing, 19 World Champions having been crowned so far, eBuggy is a hugely important market for the industry for both chassis and electronics manufacturers.  Many manufacturers were very open about how eBuggy kits generate more main stream sales than nitro, all thanks to its plug & play and no mechanic required simplicity.  Now the category has its first World Champion and a very worthy one at that in Danish talent Marcus Kaerup, the 17-year-old’s win bringing Team Associated’s tally of IFMAR World titles to an impressive 34!!  While not achieving the same size entry as nitro, which enjoys capacity 180 entries, the first eBuggy Worlds was successfully executed and set a strong foundation for future editions, the United States the stage for the next eBuggy Worlds in 2027 (P.S. IFMAR can you please allow trackside commentary next time so everyone can experience an atmosphere that a World Championship deserves!).  During our coverage, which was made possible thanks to electronics manufacturer Team Cayote, we managed to photograph buggies from 8 different manufacturers for our ‘Chassis Focus’.  Interestingly, such was the desire to become the first ever 1:8 Electric Buggy World Champions, and have an edge on their rivals, two manufacturers only allowed their cars to be photographed after the event was complete on Saturday evening.  With 13 drivers lining up for the triple A-Main, buggies from 7 different manufacturers added great variety with Team Associated, Xray and Sworkz sharing the honour of most cars in the final with 3 each.  We have compiled the 8 buggies we got our hands on in our latest Chassis Focus Index –

Marcus Kaerup – Team Associated (TQ/Champion)

Elliott Boots – Sworkz (Q4/P4)

Bruno Coelho – Infinity (Q14/P8)

David Ronnefalk – Xray (Q5/P9)

Pekko Iivonen – Mayako (Q11/P10)

Joao Figueiredo – Tekno (Q12/P13)

Burak Kilic – Mugen Seiki (Q20/P22)

Gabriel Astorino – WIRC (Q59/P58)

August 30, 2025

Chassis Focus – Marcus Kaerup (Team Associated)

Chassis – Team Associated RC10B4.1e
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR8 Pro G3
Motor – Hobbywing Xerun 4268 2200KV
Battery – Team EAM 7700mAh
Tires – Hot Race Sahara
Radio – Sanwa M17
Body – JConcepts S15

Notes – Marcus’ World Championship winning buggy is fitted with +5mm Shock Standoffs from Ruddog.

Image Gallery

August 30, 2025

Kaerup rules in Portugal to become first eBuggy World Champion

Marcus Kaerup is the first ever 1:8 Electric Offroad World Champion, the 17-year-old taking his first World title with a dominant performance today at the Barcelos Buggy Arena in Northern Portugal.  Taking Team Associated’s tally of IFMAR World titles to 34, Kaerup secured the victory when he backed up his impressive opening A-Main win over Michal Orlowski by again ruling proceedings in A2, this time ahead of none other than back-to-back-to-back 1:8 Nitro Buggy World Champion Davide Ongaro.  Having announced his talents to the world by making the finals of both 2WD and 4WD at the 2023 1:10 Offroad Worlds in Arizona and again at last year’s 1:8 Nitro Buggy Worlds in Redovan, this week the likeable Dane delivered on what was widely tipped as he made first entry into the sport’s history books.  With Kaerup taking the top step on RC’s newest World Championship podium, it was Orlowski with the A3 win, and Ongaro, who got to stand either side of him.

‘It’s crazy unreal.  I don’t know what to say’, was Kaerup’s response when asked had the significance of what he just achieved had even started to set in yet.  On his A2 drive he said, ‘I got a good start and Michal crashed so I was able to pull a small gap but I made a small bobble so they caught up again.  After that I was then able to hit my lines and find the rhythm early on and get away.’  Asked how he dealt with the pressure of closing in on the biggest prize in the sport, he replied, ‘On the second to last lap I cased the quad and I was asking Brent (Thielke) when the hell does this end.  And he was like ‘there is 30-seconds to go, don’t worry, don’t worry’ and I was like ‘OK’ and thankfully I got across the line first.  The relief then was crazy.’  Marcus is the son of former European Electric Touring Car Champion Jonas Kaerup, who unfortunately wasn’t in Barcelos to witness his son’s win but did however get to share the momentous occasion via an RC Racing TV’s livestream studio link up.  Joking that his dad never achieved what he just did Kaerup said he was looking forward to celebrating with him when he gets home.  Thanking Team Associated for their support, asked how long he has driven for the American brand he replied, ‘all my life.’  Pointing out the AE logo replacing the ‘ae’ in the surname of his race body name decals, he added, ‘it was a calling from when I was born’.  On achieving Associated’s 34th World title he said, ‘BT is going to be busy on Monday morning a new batch of ’34’ t-shirts’, to which the AE Team Manager, and avid cyclist, said, ‘first thing Monday morning we are going cycling, a celebration ride for my new World Champion’, this a tradition Thielke apparently has with his title winning drivers.

Reacting to claiming the runner-up spot, Orlowski said, ‘For sure not what I was hoping for but at the end of the day it’s 1:8 scale, we don’t have a car yet and we are such a small team against guys racing this class only.  Coming here from the Touring Car Euros I really felt the tiredness today, a little too much maybe, we need to recharge the batteries.’  The reigning 1:12 World Champion and one of the the sport’s most versatile racers, he continued, ‘all in all I guess if I look back at it we are happy to finish second, of course one spot higher would be better but I am really proud of finishing on all these podiums in all these classes.  Now I need some holidays.’  Finishing second in A1, on his A2 he said, ‘we made a change to the car and I think the pace was better but it was very hard to drive, still Marcus was super fast so I don’t think I would have been able to put enough pressure on him.’  On his win of the third encounter, which he looked to have thrown away with a late mistake approaching the final minute only for Ongaro to have a mistake too, he said, ‘A3 was good.  I made a small adjustment to the car.  It was really good on the flat stuff but really struggling on the bumps but it was still good and I was pulling away and feeling good but I just cased the triple.’  He added, ‘I had no idea how long was left, it was a mistake on our side, we should have been using the headset from the beginning but I thought it would be uncomfortable for me.  I am not used to using a headset but with no announcements what so ever and everyone else using the headsets I think this information during the run is a benefit.  The next time we will be using the headset, I will get used to having it on my head, so we have better information and know when to push, when to drive smoother.  I just didn’t know how long til the end and lost my concentration for a split moment.’

‘Probably the worst race weekend ever’, was how Ongaro summed up his championship effort.  The reigning 1:8 Nitro Buggy and 1:10 4WD Buggy World Champion explained, ‘We never struggle like that at a World Championship race.  I was a bit unlucky at the end, I don’t know if I hit a bump but my car just flipped so OK P2, P3, it’s pretty much the same but it would have been better P2 cause Marcus won.  First & second would be good but anyway P3 considering where I started on Tuesday when I was 45th or 50th place I can say I am happy. We will come back stronger for sure.’   Asked about his finals, on A1 the Italian said, ‘we went with the same tyres as the shakedown this morning which I think was super fast but the conditions of the track were completely different so I lost a lot of grip and then I had some bad luck with one guy especially on the rostrum.  For the next two I just say ,OK just leave that behind and focus on trying to do my best, and this is the best result I can do today.’

View our event image gallery here.