Red RC

December 3, 2025

Catanzani takes close opening qualifier as Kurzbuch finds form in Chile

Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani has taken the opening qualifier at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship in Chile, this morning’s first of the six schedule rounds a close encounter as Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch found his form after a below par seeding yesterday. With a first lap error from Catanzani, it was 2019 World Champion Shoki Takahata who set the early pace but soon it was Top Seed Catanzani who was back at the top of the timing screens but all the while Kurzbuch was executing a strong run getting to within 0.156 of a second of the Italian, the two drivers the only ones to run 23-laps of the CACH track over the 7-minutes. The star of yesterday’s seeding, Xray’s Maxime Ripoll would complete the Top 3 despite the French driver having a poor pit exit after his fuel stop, his car bouncing off the steel barrier. Capricorn’s Toni Gruber would open with a P4 run after a driver error dropped Takahata back to P5 with the Capricorn of Thilo Diekman completing the Top 6.

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December 3, 2025

Catanzani Top Seed in Chile, as Ripoll impresses with P2

Andrea Catanzani is the Top Seed for the 24th running of the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship but it is the pace of French driver Maxime Ripoll which is the big surprise in Chile. The Top Qualifier at the 1:8 GT Worlds back in September, Catanzani’s Serpent would top the times in opening and closing runs of the day, the schedule made up of fourth seeding rounds. In the second round it was Rapoll’s Xray that raised a few eyebrows as he set the fastest time ahead of 2019 World Champion Shoki Takahata. Round 3 would see Takahata go fastest and the factory Mugen Seiki driver seeds 3rd for qualifying tomorrow when we will have the first 3 of the 6 rounds of 7-minute qualifiers. After a bad start to seeding, Toni Gruber would make it four different manufacturers at the top as the Capricorn driver solved his engine/glowplug issues and managed a 4th and a 3rd to end the day 4th. One of the favourites coming into this World Championship, Japan 2023 Top Qualifier Simon Kurzbuch, didn’t have the day he was looking for finding himself in P5 and with work to do for tomorrow. Celebrating his birthday today, drivers from the 16 nations racing at these Worlds singing Happy Birthday to him at the end of the opening ceremony, British driver Alex Thurston made it three Mugen MRX7s in the Top 6.

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December 2, 2025

Xray X12 1-Piece 2mm Carbon Chassis for Floating Servo

Xray has released this 2.0mm carbon 1-piece chassis for their X12 1:12 car which reduces drag and improves cornering speed. The carbon material ensures the chassis is more flexible than the aluminium chassis and generates more traction. The Slovakian manufacturer suggest the chassis, which is CNC-machined from premium high-grade US made carbon fibre. for low traction carpet & asphalt tracks.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

December 2, 2025

VP-Pro MP11 Front Bumper

Following the release of a number of front bumpers, VP-Pro’s latest addition is a new front bumper specially designed for the Kyosho MP11 1:8 Buggy. Made from high-quality material with strong durability, it is specially designed to protect your chassis in the event of knocks and crashes by minimising contact with the track on jump landings. It is easy to install not requiring extra tools and it comes packed as 2 pieces in one bag.

Source: VP Pro [vp-racing.com]

December 2, 2025

2025/26 RugRacers Round 2 – Report

The second round of the 2025/26 RugRacers took place over the weekend and in Modified defending champion and championship leader Elliott Harper showed no signs of wanting to let either slip. Producing a clean sweep in qualifying taking all 4 rounds ahead of Stefan Chodzynski & Matthieu Dambrine, the finals didn’t show any sign of letting up either. The Scumacher driver stormed to the win in both legs with all the action on track taking place behind him, Stefan holding onto 2nd by a few tenths from Matthieu, Leg 2 shuffled the order a little with Chris Grainger taking 2nd ahead of Liam Tyrrell in 3rd. With the action taking a break for a while, the final round will be held on the 1st March 2026, only 1 champion is left to be crowned in FWD, but expect Zak & Elliott to be looking towards keeping a clean sweep for the shortened series this season.

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December 2, 2025

Catanzani from Ripoll in early 1:8 Worlds seeding

Having taken the overall TQ at the 1:8 GT World Championship in Chile back in September, it is Serpent’s Andrea Catanzani who leads the way in early seeding at the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship from Maxime Ripoll, the French Xray driver impressing onlookers with his speed here at the large Club de Aeromodelos de Chile track in Santiago. With Catanzani the benchmark in free practice, the Italian carried that momentum into the first of the four seeding rounds with a best time of 55.443 over 3-laps with Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kurzbuch his closest rival with a 55.459 as team-mate Shoki Takahata complete the Top 3 ahead of Ripoll. With changing track conditions the biggest challenge for drivers, as things hotted up after the first seeding on a cool track, it was Ripoll who had everything perfect to go fastest with a 55.499 just ahead of Takahata. Making a changed that didn’t do what he expected, Catanzani was 3rd fastest ahead of the Mugen Seiki of top British racer Alex Thurston. One of the pre-race favourites coming into the 44th running of these championships off the back of a championship winning ENS season, it has been a tough morning for Capricorn’s Toni Gruber, the German experiencing engine issues in both runs. While the car runs fine in the warm-up out on track it loses power and when they pit they find the plug is bad leading them to believe, having had the same problem twice, that a bad batch of glow plugs is the issue. The 2023 1:8 GT World Champion will be hoping plugs from another batch will give him a change to seed strongly over the final two practices round for tomorrow’s start of qualifying, each driver’s best two points finishes from the four rounds determining the order for the heats.

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December 1, 2025

A decade on – life is different, but the drive & focus on winning in Chile are the same for Kurzbuch

2025 marks a decade since Simon Kurzbuch became the Champion of the World. A driver Red RC have had the pleasure of following on his journey up through the ranks and into 1:8 Onroad racing history books, we first got to know him through the early days of the Euro Nitro Series and as one half of the talented Swiss racing duo that was himself and Silvio Hachler. Unfortunately we would miss him claiming the biggest prize the sport has to offer, Brazil in 2015 the only 1:8 Onroad World Championship we have missed since going online in 2006. Thankfully Simon, being the super nice guy he is, hasn’t held that against us and just before he caught his long flight to Chile we had a quick chat to get his thoughts on where he feels he is at as he attempts to become only the 3rd driver to ever win IFMAR’s original WC category more than once. If he can pull off that feat he would also be the first non Italian to ever do so. While legend of the category Lamberto Collari won’t be in Santiago for a chance at a 10th World title, and defending Champion Dario Balestri’s chances of a hat trick are on hold as he also wont be there, Simon did address the big talking point around this year’s 24th running of the Worlds – the absence of the entire Infinity team. ‘I am disappointed that the Infinity drivers are not coming, it is a real shame for Kenji that none of them are coming, but no Infinity does not affect anything from my side in how we approach this race. In the end there are still very good drivers there and you need to beat them and to beat them you need to work properly before the race in your preparations and then work hard when you get to Chile. I have a really good focus on the race so from this side it does not change anything if Infinity are there or not.’

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December 1, 2025

Pariente wins Spanish finale on Sparko debut

Adrian Pariente got his new deal with Sparko off to the dream start as just days after officially being announced as joining the manufacturer for the 2026 season he won the final round of the ultra competitive Spanish 1:8 Nitro Buggy National Championship. Racing at Circuito RC Silla on the outskirts of Valencia, the event attracted over 70 drivers and in the F1 category it was Spanish international offroad legend Robert Batlle who took his Sworkz to the overall TQ honours ahead of team-mate Juan Carlos Canas. Young Team Associated driver Erik Becerril Rodriguez, who learned his craft at RC Silla, completed the Top 3 ahead of 2024 Euro B Champion David Todd while Pariente ended the five rounds of qualifying in 5th. In the semi Finals their where wins for Tekno’s new crowned Korean National Champion Daniel Pariente and Canas with the 2024 World Championship Top Qualifier getting to lead away the 11-car field at the start of the 45-minute Main but starting from 3rd it would be Adrian who would come out the race winner by 10-seconds ahead of Canas in second which was enough for him to successfully defend his National title. The podium was completed by Rodriguez ahead of the Batlle brothers, the younger Dani very pleased with securing P4 from 10th on the grid as a disappointed Robert finished 5th having lost his qualifying pace come the finals.

Image : Dani Batlle [Facebook]