IFMAR 1:10 Electric Off-Road World Championship

The IFMAR World Championship for 1:10th Electric Off-Road Cars (officially "IFMAR 1:10 Electric Off-Road World Championship"), is a world championship radio controlled car race hosted by the International Federation of Model Auto Racing (IFMAR). It takes place biennially on odd years since 1987 in its current format but inaugurated in 1985 as a championship for Stock (stock handout motor) and Modified class (modified motors and seven cells)^[1] It is considered by the radio-controlled modelling industry to be the most prestigious event in the calendar that a number of mainstream hobby and toy brands have fielded factory entries.

The event is open exclusively to 1:10 scale electric off-road buggies with those of 2WD and 4WD drivetrain, competing separately. These are characterized by its large wheels designed for off-road driving and enclosed single-seater bodyshell with large rear spoiler.

Despite taking place under the same host and venue, the two championships are regarded as separate events, therefore in between them, the circuit is required to be rebuilt and reconfigured differently.

All the world championships took place on dirt or clay tracks until 2015 when the decision was made to run controversially on artificial turf.^[2]

In the 2WD class Associated Electrics, holds distinction for the most wins for manufacturers with a total of 11; Masami Hirosaka of Japan, hold the record with three wins. In the 4WD class Yokomo holds distinction for the most wins for manufacturers; Hirosaka, holding the record with three wins.

Significance to the other Worlds events

As it is considered by the industry to be the most prestigious event in radio-controlled modelling, in an attempt to "generate sale revenue from their products”,^[3] it has attracted some of the biggest brands from the hobby and toy industries that included Nikko,^[3] Tomy,^[4] Tamiya^[3] and Traxxas.^[5] Only the latter two had greater success at the A-mains with Tamiya achieving 2nd by Lee Martin in 2013^[6] and Scott Montgomery’s 8th for Traxxas in 1991, both in 2WD.

At the 1989 Worlds, it was claimed by Radio Control Car Action that virtually every manufacturers, who had a 1:10 buggy on the market, was represented. In a bid to defend their 4WD title the same year; Schumacher, a title sponsor, handed out their latest car, the Top Cat, to any contender who was interested in representing them.^[3]

As a number of manufacturers spend a large sums of money to prepare their teams to ensure a win, as a result a number of those enforce secrecy to protect their prototypes from view. In one notable example, Team Associated, who was the only brand to field a prototype, refused to allow it to be photographed, covering their RC10 up with a towel on anybody who tried to and when forced an Australian team member to hand his film over as he managed to take a few shot of its exposed chassis during technical inspection. Losi in comparison managed to escape scrutiny as experimental two-speed transmission was kept secret and gave misleading answers to prying eyes. They switched to their conventional transmissions in the finals.^[3] By the time of the 1991 Worlds, this practice was enforced by a majority of manufacturers.^[7] This was in contrast to the 1986 IFMAR 1:8 IC Off-Road World Championship, when Japanese entrants from Kyosho clearly knew their outdated cars had little chance against their European competitors, freely took numerous photographs of their competitor's cars to benefit their research. The outcome became the Burns in late-1987 and then, at the turn of the decade came the highly successful Inferno series that dominated racing from then on.^[8]

To prepare for the 1989 event, Yokomo technicians famously collected soil sample on the track for analysis back in Japan. They were allegedly spotted by locals wheeling around the circuit, a cart that had a video camera mounted on it to get a car’s eye view of the track. The end result was a duplicate of the track that became the Yatabe Arena back home.^[3] Nowadays, regulation require the circuit to be altered at over 60% of its layout, had it been used prior to commencement date and closed for a 2-day minimum, 3-day maximum prior to then.^[9][10]

Good preparation is key to winning as opposed to accessibility to prototype arts as Associated learned in 1993; when they felt their standard issue, aluminium chassis RC10 was best suited to the circuit, mechanics proceeded to modify Brian Kinwald’s chassis by rounding it’s square edges. It’s suspension arms was molded from a more rigid graphite.^[11]

Teams and drivers are prepared to bend rules in an attempt to win. In 1989, Yokomo's TR-31 tires, only made available to Yokomo and Associated drivers, became a subject of scrutiny due to its size, given the rate of speed its Yokomos and Associated were going.

The tires, were 2 1/4 inches tall (equivalent to 22 inch in full scale) which was illegal under ROAR regulation (maximum 2 inches) though IFMAR did not have such restrictions and was shipped in 30 boxes of tires from Japan. In comparison, Associated was quick to point out to the critics that at the 1987 Worlds, Kyosho fielded tires on its Ultima that was too wide for ROAR regulations.

Team Losi in retaliation, countered this by taking all the stops in the States to produce and ship over 100 pairs of oversize front tires, 200 pairs of rears and five sets of hand-machined aluminum wheels across the Pacific. The tires, only permitted on its JR-X2, ended with mixed results for drivers as the rim ended up being bent out of shape and discarded for Losi's standard wheel.^[12][3]

Some who attempted to bend the rules were not lucky such as at the 1993 Worlds; the electric motor of Ben Sturnham's Schumacher CAT 2000 was found with a hybrid motor illegal under IFMAR regulation regardless if it was compliant with the host country BRCA's regulations, his Tanaplan motor consisted of parts by other manufacturer of approved motors including Epic can and armature with Yokomo endbell. Sturnham had his 3rd-place finish demoted to a 10th place after all his lap times was removed despite protests by Tanaplan's Martin Finnesey that it offered no performance enhancement.CITEREFHowell1993^[13]

Schedule

A maximum of 150 drivers take part, each continental blocs allocated 32 entries each, the host bloc an extra 10 and the final 10 allocated by IFMAR themselves; should any allocation be left unused, it would be reallocated to the remaining blocs. The event take place over eight days in total with the first reserved for competitor's registration followed by its opening ceremony in the afternoon then the two sets of three days for competitions.

The competitions begin with a minimum of six practice rounds over groups of fifteen consisting of ten drivers each, starting with the less experienced, this determine the number of heats required and the minimum time needed between rounds.^[14] Each heats consists of drivers who are ranked in order of priority; final ranking in the previous Worlds, then those of each countries and the domestic entrants and additional entries.^[15] In this case, in the 2015 Worlds, debutants Spencer Rivkin and Bruno Coehlo started at the lower-to-mid practice group 6 and 11 respectively, whereas Steven Hartson, Jared Tebo, Naoto Matsukura and Lee Martin start together in group 15 as the former two are defending champions and the latter given their performance or seeding in their home blocs whereas Travis Amezcua and David Ronnefalk, despite appearing at the A-main once previously, starts in practice group 14.^[15] Usually the final rounds are used as controlled practice.^[14] At the 2015 Worlds, practice rounds consisted of four rounds of open practice and two rounds of seeding practice to group the drivers together by skill levels.^[16] The second day of competition, following the second controlled practice, consists of four rounds of qualifying heats and for day three; the final qualifying session and race day. For each qualifying session, a group of up to ten cars start under the "staggered start" system (a driver each starting separately within of one second of being called).^[17]

After each 5 minute qualifying session, the best qualifier of the round is awarded zero points, 2 and 3 points for the 2nd and 3rd fastest qualifier and so on with the most points given to the slowest qualifier. Of five rounds in total, the best three overall performances (as opposed to lap times in full-sized motorsport) counts toward the driver's overall performance, two best rounds counts toward three or four rounds completed and one round count toward two or one rounds. After all the points is totaled up, the driver with the least points is the best qualifier, thus is awarded a TQ (Top Qualifier) spot, enabling them to start in front of each rounds. Should they tie in points with another driver, the one with the lowest points score of the three is used to break the tie, if this fails, then the next set of points will be used until the tie is broken. If the points fail to break the tie, then the driver's laps and time from the lowest score will be used.^[18]

The groups are then split into ten groups of ten drivers in alphabets, pending on their performance in qualifying with A being the fastest of the groups^[19] Race day starts with the slowest groups first, working its way to the next faster groups up to the fastest, the A-main, then progresses to the 2nd heat. Each race run for a total of five minutes with an extra time to allow the driver to complete their laps.^[20] Only the A-main, the group that carries the only hope of taking the world championship title, have three heats with only two best performances that counts and a final practice in the afternoon during race day^[21][22] and the rest run under a single 5 minute heat.^[16]

Following the conclusion of the first championship, the event will have an off day as the circuit would have to be rebuilt and reconfigured to a different layout required by IFMAR regulations as accordingly the two Worlds are considered to be a separate events.^[23] The practice would instead start with drivers who are ranked according to their performance in 2WD the day before.^[24]

IFMAR World Championship Winners

2WD

Year	Bloc	Name	Car	Motor	ESC	Transmitter	Host Club	Venue	Location		Surface	Source	Report
1985	ROAR	Jay Halsey	Associated RC10	Reedy	Novak NESC-1	Novak	Ranch Pit Shop	Ranch Pit Shop	Del Mar, San Diego, California	United States	Dirt	[25][26]	Report
1987	EFRA	Joel Johnson	Kyosho Ultima	Trinity Monster Pure Gold	Novak NER-2X	KO Propo EX-1	Romsey Off-Road Club	Malthouse Inn	Romsey, Hampshire	United Kingdom	Dirt	[27]	Report
1989	FEMCA	Masami Hirosaka	Associated RC10GX	Reedy	KO Propo CX-III	KO Propo Esprit	Castle Hill Off Road Radio Control Club	St. Ives Showground	St Ives, New South Wales	Australia	Dirt	[28]	Report
1991	ROAR	Masami Hirosaka	Associated RC10GX	Reedy	Novak 410-M1c	KO Propo	Team SEMROCC Racing	Freedom Hill Park	Sterling Heights, Michigan	United States		[29]	Report
1993	EFRA	Brian Kinwald	Associated RC10	Reedy	Novak 410-M1c	Airtronics CS2P	Thames Estuary Model Auto Circuits	Pipps Hill Leisure Complex	Basildon, Essex	United Kingdom	Clay	[30][31]	Report
1995	FEMCA	Matt Francis	Associated RC10B2	Reedy Sonic	LRP ICS Digital	Airtronics Caliber 3Ps		Yatabe Arena	Tsukuba, Ibaraki	Japan		[32]	Report
1997	ROAR	Brian Kinwald	Losi XX-CR	Trinity	Novak Cyclone	Airtronics	Ranch Pit Shop	Ranch Pit Shop	Pomona, California	United States	Clay	[33]	Report
1999	EFRA	Masami Hirosaka	Associated RC10B3	Reedy	GM Racing V12	KO Propo Esprit Vantage	Rauman Urheiluautoilijat	Uimahalli	Rauma, Satakunta	Finland	Clay	[34]	Report
2002	FAMAR	Matt Francis	Losi XXX	Trinity	LRP	Airtronics M8	Tshwane Raceway And Promotions	Skilpad Tortoise Hall	Pretoria	South Africa		[nb 1][35]	Report
2003	ROAR	Billy Easton	Associated RC10B4	Reedy Rx	LRP QC2	Airtronics M8	Minnreg RC Car Club	Minnreg RC Speedway	Largo, Florida	United States	Blue groove	[36]	Report
2005	EFRA	Neil Cragg	Associated RC10B4	Reedy Ti	Nosram Razor	KO Propo EX-10	AF Model Rings	AF Model Rings	Collegno	Italy		[37]	Report
2007	FEMCA	Hayato Matsuzaki	Associated RC10B4	Checkpoint	KO Propo VFS-1 Pro Competition 3	KO Propo EX-10 Helios C2	Hakusan Ichirino RC Club	Hakusan Arena	Ishikawa	Japan	Clay	[38]	Report
2009	FAMAR	Martin Achter	Associated RC10B4	CS Magnetic Delta	CS Rocket Competition	Sanwa EXZES Plus	Tshwane Raceway and Promotions	TRAP R/C Venue	Pretoria	South Africa	Clay	[39]	Report
2011	EFRA	Ryan Cavalieri	Associated RC10B4.1	Orion Vortex VST Pro	Orion Vortex R10 Pro	Airtronics M11X	Vaasan Urheiluautoilijat	Pitkämäki Race-Centre	Vaasa	Finland	Clay	[40]	Report
2013	ROAR	Jared Tebo	Kyosho Ultima RB6	Orion Vortex VST2	Orion Vortex R10	KO Propo EX-10 Eurus	A-Main Hobbies	Silver Dollar R/C Raceway	Chico, California	United States	Blue groove	[41]	Report
2015	FEMCA	Spencer Rivkin	Associated RC10B5M	Reedy Sonic Mach 2	Reedy Blackbox 410R	Airtronics M12S	JMRCA Kanto	Yatabe Arena	Tsukuba, Ibaraki	Japan	Artificial turf	[42]	Report
2017	FEMCA							ARC International Raceway	Xiamen, Fujian	China		[43]	Report

4WD

Year	Bloc	Name	Car	Motor	ESC	Transmitter	Host Club	Venue	Location		Surface	Source	Report
1985	ROAR	Gil Losi, Jr.	Yokomo YZ-834B	Trinity	Novak NESC-1	Airtronics	Ranch Pit Shop	Ranch Pit Shop	Del Mar, San Diego, California	United States	Hardpack	[25][26]	Report
1987	EFRA	Masami Hirosaka	Schumacher CAT XL	HPI UNO Blue Label	KO Propo CX-I	KO Propo Esprit	Romsey Off-Road Club	Malthouse Inn	Romsey, Hampshire	United Kingdom	Hardpack	[27]	Report
1989	FEMCA	Masami Hirosaka	Yokomo YZ-870C	Reedy	KO Propo CX-III	KO Propo Esprit	Castle Hill Off Road Radio Control Club	St. Ives Showground	St Ives, New South Wales	Australia	Hardpack	[28]	Report
1991	ROAR	Cliff Lett	Yokomo YZ-10 Works '91	Reedy Mr. M	Novak 410-M1c	Airtronics	Team SEMROCC Racing	Freedom Hill Park	Sterling Heights, Michigan	United States		[29]	Report
1993	EFRA	Masami Hirosaka	Yokomo YZ-10 WC Special	Reedy	Novak 410-HPc	KO Propo Esprit II	Thames Estuary Model Auto Circuits	Pipps Hill Leisure Complex	Basildon, Essex	United Kingdom		[30][31]	Report
1995	FEMCA	Mark Pavidis	Yokomo YZ-10	Reedy Sonic	LRP ICS Digital	Airtronics CS2P	JMRCA Kanto	Yatabe Arena	Tsukuba, Ibaraki	Japan		[32]	Report
1997	ROAR	Masami Hirosaka	Yokomo MX-4	Reedy	Tekin M-Star Red	KO Propo	Ranch Pit Shop	Ranch Pit Shop	Pomona, California	United States	Hardpack	[33]	Report
1999	EFRA	Jukka Steenari	Losi XX-4	Team Orion	Novak Cyclone	Sanwa M8	Rauman Urheiluautoilijat	Uimahalli	Rauma	Finland		[34]	Report
2002	FAMAR	Jukka Steenari	Losi XX-4	Orion	Novak	Sanwa	Tshwane Raceway And Promotions	Skilpad Tortoise Hall	Pretoria	South Africa		[nb 1][44]	Report
2003	ROAR	Ryan Cavalieri	Losi XXX-4	Trinity	Novak GTX	Airtronics M8	Minnreg RC Car Club	Minnreg RC Speedway	Largo, Florida	United States		[45]	Report
2005	EFRA	Ryan Cavalieri	JConcepts BJ4 Worlds Edition	Trinity Epic Shock	LRP QC3	Airtronics M11	AF Model Rings	AF Model Rings	Collegno, Piedmont	Italy		[37]	Report
2007	FEMCA	Jared Tebo	Associated RC10B44	Checkpoint	LRP QC3	Futaba 3PK Super	Hakusan Ichirino RC Club	Hakusan Arena	Hakusan, Ishikawa	Japan	Clay	[46]	Report
2009	FAMAR	Martin Achter	Team Durango DEX410	CS Magnetic Delta	CS Rocket Competition	Sanwa EXZES Plus	Tshwane Raceway and Promotions	TRAP R/C Venue	Pretoria, Gauteng	South Africa		[47]	Report
2011	EFRA	Ryan Cavalieri	Associated RC10B44.1	Orion Vortex VST Pro	Orion Vortex R10 Pro	Airtronics M11X	Vaasan Urheiluautoilijat	Pitkämäki Race-Centre	Vaasa, Ostrobothnia	Finland		[48]	Report
2013	ROAR	Steven Hartson	Associated RC10B44.2	LRP Vector X20	LRP Flow WorksTeam	Futaba 4PKS-R	A-Main Hobbies	Silver Dollar R/C Raceway	Chico, California	United States		[49]	Report
2015	FEMCA	Bruno Coelho	XRAY XB4 16	LRP Vector X20	LRP Flow WorksTeam	Sanwa M12S	JMRCA Kanto	Yatabe Arena	Tsukuba, Ibaraki	Japan	Artificial turf		Report
2017	FEMCA							ARC International Raceway	Xiamen, Fujian	China		[43]	Report

Statistics

Most Wins

Drivers

2WD Rank Driver Wins 1 Masami Hirosaka 3 2 Brian Kinwald 2 Matt Francis 4 Jay Halsey 1 Joel Johnson Billy Easton Neil Cragg Hayato Matsuzaki Martin Achter Ryan Cavalieri Jared Tebo Spencer Rivkin

4WD Rank Driver Wins 1 Masami Hirosaka 4 2 Ryan Cavalieri 3 3 Jukka Steenari 2 4 Gil Losi Jr 1 Cliff Lett Mark Pavidis Jared Tebo Martin Achter Steven Hartson Bruno Coelho

Car manufacturers

2WD Rank Manufacturer Wins 1 Team Associated 12 2 Kyosho 2 Team Losi

4WD Rank Manufacturer Wins 1 Yokomo 6 2 Team Losi 3 Team Associated 4 Schumacher 1 JConcepts Team Durango XRAY

Motors

2WD Rank Manufacturer Wins 1 Reedy 8 2 Trinity 3 3 Team Orion 2 2 Team Checkpoint 1 CS Electronic

4WD Rank Manufacturer Wins 1 Reedy 5 2 Team Orion 3 Trinity LRP Electronic 5 HPI 1 Team Checkpoint CS Electronic

ESC

2WD Rank Manufacturer Wins 1 Novak Electronics 5 2 LRP Electronic 3 3 KO Propo 2 Team Orion 5 GM Racing 1 Nosram CS Electronic Reedy

4WD Rank Manufacturer Wins 1 Novak Electronics 5 2 LRP Electronic 4 3 KO Propo 2 2 Tekin 1 Team Orion CS Electronic

Transmitters

2WD Rank Manufacturer Wins 1 Sanwa 8 2 KO Propo 7 3 Novak Electronics 1

4WD Rank Manufacturer Wins 1 Sanwa 10 2 KO Propo 4 3 Futaba 2

By Member Blocs (Drivers)

Win(s) by Nations (Drivers)

2WD Rank Nation Wins 1  United States 10 2  Japan 4 3  United Kingdom 1  Germany

4WD Rank Nation Wins 1  United States 8 2  Japan 4 3  Finland 2 4  Germany 1  Portugal

Most represented in final

Note: Italics on year represents in which a driver of the country or car manufacturer who failed to score a championship title, italics on nationalities indicate host nation.

Nations (drivers)

2WD Rank Total Nation Year 1 9  United States 1985  United States 1995  United States 1997  United States 2003 5 8  United States 1993  United States 2001 7 7  United States 1989  United States 1993  United States 2005  South Africa 2009 11 6  United States 1999  United States 2007 13 5  United States 1987  United States 1991  United States 2011  United States 2013  United States 2015

4WD Rank Total Nation Year 1 9  United States 1985 2 8  United States 1995  United States 2003 4 7  United States 1991  United States 1999  South Africa 2009 7 6  United States 2001  United States 2013 9 5  United States 1987  United States 1989  United States 1993  United States 1997  United States 2007

Car manufacturers

2WD Rank Total Nation Year 1 8 Associated Electrics 1985 Associated Electrics 2007 3 7 Associated Electrics 2005 4 6 Team Losi 1997 5 5 Kyosho 1987 Associated Electrics 1987 Associated Electrics 1989 Associated Electrics 1995 Team Losi 1995 Team Losi 1997 Associated Electrics 1997 Associated Electrics 2011

4WD Rank Total Nation Year 1 8 Yokomo 1995 Team Losi 1999 3 7 Yokomo 1985 4 6 Yokomo 1993 5 5 Kyosho 1987 Yokomo 1989 Yokomo 1991

Notes

References

Bibliography

1. ↑ Howell 1993, p. A15.
2. ↑ Howellb 1993, pp. A7-A15.