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 sanctioned 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) 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.
In the 2WD class Associated Electrics, holds distinction for the most wins for manufacturers with a total of 13; 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.
Venues
Ed. Year Bloc Host Club Venue Location Country Surface Source 1 1985 ROAR Ranch Pit Shop Ranch Pit Shop Del Mar, San Diego, California Hardpack 2 1987 EFRA Romsey Off-Road Club Malthouse Inn Timsbury, HampshireNumerous sources promoted the event as taken place in Romsey. Dirt 3 1989 FEMCA St Ives Off Road Radio Control Car Club St. Ives Showground St Ives, New South Wales Dirt 4 1991 ROAR Team SEMROCC Racing Freedom Hill Park Sterling Heights, MichiganNumerous sources promoted the event as taken place in Detroit. Dirt 5 1993 EFRA Thames Estuary Model Auto Circuits Pipps Hill Leisure Complex Basildon, Essex Dirt 6 1995 FEMCA JMRCA Kanto Yatabe Arena Tsukuba, Ibaraki Dirt 7 1997 ROAR Ranch Pit Shop Ranch Pit Shop Pomona, California Blue Groove 8 1999 EFRA Rauman Urheiluautoilijat Uimahalli Rauma, Satakunta Dirt N/A 2001 FAMAR DELAYED TO 2002 Pretoria, Gauteng Dirt 9 2002 FAMAR Tshwane Raceway And Promotions Skilpad Tortoise Hall Pretoria, GautengBecause of the September 11 attacks which occurred prior to the championships, the event was delayed until 2002. See also list of entertainment affected by the September 11 attacks. Dirt 10 2003 ROAR Minnreg RC Car Club Minnreg RC Speedway Largo, Florida Blue Groove 11 2005 EFRA AF Model Rings AF Model Rings Collegno, Piedmont Dirt 12 2007 FEMCA Hakusan Ichirino RC Club Hakusan Arena Ishikawa, Chūbu region Dirt 13 2009 FAMAR Tshwane Raceway and Promotions TRAP R/C Venue Pretoria, Gauteng Dirt 14 2011 EFRA Vaasan Urheiluautoilijat Pitkämäki Race-Centre Vaasa, Ostrobothnia Clay 15 2013 ROAR A-Main Hobbies Silver Dollar R/C Raceway Chico, California Blue Groove 16 2015 FEMCA JMRCA Kanto Yatabe Arena Tsukuba, Ibaraki Astroturf 17 2017FEMCA 3-Circles ARC International Raceway Xiamen, Fujian Dirt 18 2019EFRAHudy ArenaHudy ArenaTrenčín, Trenčín RegionClay 19 2023 ROAR Hobby Action Hobby Action RC Raceway Chandler, Arizona 20 2025 FEMCA Hills Offroad RC Car Club Castle Hill, New South Wales Dirt
IFMAR World Championship Winners
YearNameChassisElectronicsSourceReport Brand Model Motor ESC Transmitter Batteries Stock 1985 Jay Halsey Associated RC10 Reedy Novak NESC-1 Airtronics Report Unlimited 1985 Gil Losi Jr. Yokomo YZ-834B Trinity Novak NESC-1 Airtronics Report 2WD 1987 Joel Johnson Kyosho Ultima Trinity Monster Pure Gold Tekin ESC100 KO Propo EX-1 Trinity SC Report 1989 Masami Hirosaka Associated RC10GX Reedy KO Propo CX-III KO Propo Esprit Report 1991 Masami Hirosaka Associated RC10GX Reedy Novak 410-M1c KO Propo Yokomo SCE Report 1993 Brian Kinwald Associated RC10 Reedy Novak 410-M1c Airtronics CS2P Report 1995 Matt Francis Associated RC10B2 Reedy Sonic LRP ICS Digital Airtronics Caliber 3Ps Sanyo/Reedy/Orion Report 1997 Brian Kinwald Losi XX-CR Trinity Novak Cyclone Airtronics Caliber 3PS Report 1999 Masami Hirosaka Associated RC10B3 Reedy Sonic II (9x3) GM Racing V12 KO Propo Esprit Vantage Yokomo 2000mAh Report 2002 Matt Francis Losi XXX Trinity LRP Airtronics M8 Report 2003 Billy Easton Associated RC10B4 Reedy Rx LRP QC2 Airtronics M8 Report 2005 Neil Cragg Associated RC10B4 Reedy Ti Nosram Razor KO Propo EX-10 Report 2007 Hayato Matsuzaki Associated RC10B4 Checkpoint KO Propo VFS-1 Pro Competition 3 KO Propo EX-10 Helios C2 Report 2009 Martin Achter Associated RC10B4 CS Magnetic Delta CS Rocket Competition Sanwa M11X Report 2011 Ryan Cavalieri Associated RC10B4.1 Team Orion Vortex VST Pro LRP SXX Airtronics M11X Report 2013 Jared Tebo Kyosho Ultima RB6 Team Orion Vortex VST2 Team Orion Vortex R10 KO Propo EX-10 Eurus Report 2015 Spencer Rivkin Associated RC10B5M Reedy Sonic Mach 2 Reedy Blackbox 410R Airtronics M12S Report 2017 Ryan Maifield Yokomo YZ-2 DTM Team Orion Vortex VST2 Team Orion HMX Airtronics M12S Report2019 Spencer RivkinAssociated RC10B6.1DLHobbyWing XeRun V10 G3 HobbyWing XeRun XR10 Pro Elite Futaba 7PX Report2023 Michael “Tater” Sontag TLR 22 5.0 DC ELITE HobbyWing G3 7.0T Fantom Pro 2.0 M12S Protek 4800mAh Report2025 Broc Champlin Schumacher Cougar LD3 Hobbywing Xerun V10 G3 8.0T Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro G3 Sanwa M17 / PowerHD GTS-3 Report 4WD 1987 Masami Hirosaka Schumacher CAT XL HPI UNO Blue Label KO Propo CX-I KO Propo Esprit UNO Report 1989 Masami Hirosaka Yokomo YZ-870C Reedy KO Propo CX-III KO Propo Esprit Report 1991 Cliff Lett Yokomo YZ-10 Works'91 Reedy Mr. M Novak 410-M1c Airtronics Reedy Report 1993 Masami Hirosaka Yokomo YZ-10 WC Special Reedy Novak 410-HPc KO Propo Esprit II Sanyo Radio Control Model Cars, Report 1995 Mark Pavidis Yokomo YZ-10 Reedy Sonic LRP ICS Digital Airtronics CS2P Sanyo Report 1997 Masami Hirosaka Yokomo MX-4 Reedy Tekin M-Star Red KO Propo Esprit Vantage Yokomo Report 1999 Jukka Steenari Losi XX-4 Orion Chrome Novak Cyclone Sanwa M8 Orion V-Max Report 2002 Jukka Steenari Losi XX-4 Orion Novak Sanwa M8 Orion Report 2003 Ryan Cavalieri Losi XXX-4 Trinity D5 Novak GTX Airtronics M8 Trinity Report 2005 Ryan Cavalieri JConcepts BJ4 Worlds Ed. Trinity Epic Shock LRP QC3 Airtronics M11 Trinity Report 2007 Jared Tebo Associated RC10B44 Checkpoint LRP QC3 Futaba 3PK Super Autopoint Report 2009 Martin Achter Team Durango DEX410 CS Magnetic Delta CS Rocket Competition Sanwa M11X Report 2011 Ryan Cavalieri Associated RC10B44.1 Orion Vortex VST Pro Orion Vortex R10 Pro Airtronics M11X Orion CBN Pro 5500 90Deg Saddle Lipo Report 2013 Steven Hartson Associated RC10B44.2 LRP Vector X20 LRP Flow WorksTeam Futaba 4PKS-R Report 2015 Bruno Coelho XRay XB4 16 LRP Vector X20 LRP Flow WorksTeam Sanwa M12S LRP Report2017 Ryan Maifield Yokomo YZ-4 SF Team Orion VST2 Team Orion HMX Sanwa M12S OrionReport 2019 Bruno Coelho Xray XB4 20 HobbyWing XeRun V10 G3 HobbyWing XeRun XR10 Pro Elite Sanwa M17 Report 2023 Davide Ongaro Associated RC10B74.2 Hobbywing v10 g3 Hobbywing xr10 G2s Sanwa Sunpadow Report 2025 Marcus Kaerup Associated RC1084D Hobbywing Xerun V10 G3 6.5T Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro G3 Sanwa M17 / Savox SB3262SG Team EAM 4200mAh Report
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”, it has attracted some of the biggest brands from the hobby and toy industries that included Nikko, Tomy, Tamiya and Traxxas. Only the latter two had greater success at the A-mains with Tamiya achieving 2nd by Lee Martin in 2013 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 add to their 1987 4WD Title; Schumacher, a title sponsor, handed out their latest 2wd car, the Top Cat, to any contender who was interested in representing them.
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. By the time of the 1991 Worlds, this practice was enforced by a majority of manufacturers. 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.
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 result was a duplicate of the track that became the Yatabe Arena back home. 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.
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 its square edges. Its suspension arms was molded from a more rigid graphite.
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 speed its Yokomos and Associated were going.
The tires, were 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.