The JConcepts Team traveled to Hutto, Texas and Thornhill Racing Circuit this past week for the 2026 IFMAR 1/8th Scale Off-Road World Championships. The team included over 50 drivers, Jason and Allison Ruona, Paul Wynn, and the media team of Hannah Hardison and Lia Gandini.
Photo Credit:
JConcepts Media Team
Elite RC Productions
Red RC
The team came with a host of new options including three new tread patterns, a new body, a fresh wing, and a new wheel design.
- Space Bar Tires: The Space Bar is a tread pattern returning to the JConcepts stable, a low tread height option that is easy to break in and instantly fast
- Euro Bar Tires: Long Lasting bar tire option for those longer main events
- Fubar Tires: A directional double edged tread pattern for unique bar tire applications where you need more grip
- F2 1/8th Buggy Body: The most iconic 1/10th scale body design from JConcepts is now moving into the 1/8th Scale Buggy lineup
- Saber Wing: A new aero rear option with cutout side dams, aero passages, and pre-dimpled holes
- Turbine Wheels: A directional, slightly softer, and more flexible wheel option for 1/8th Buggy
The first time racers were officially on the clock for something IFMAR would recognize was seeding practice. The team would start off hot with Mason Fuller top seeding the 1st of 2 rounds and ending up 2nd overall.
Seeding Practice:
2nd Mason Fuller
4th Juan Carlos Canas
5th Phi-Long Nguyen
6th Nate Sutherland
The Thornhill Racing Circuit layout was extremely tricky and technical. One of the most difficult layouts we have seen at such a high profile event and it allowed for some incredible racing. The track would start pretty much every day wet and lower bite with the grip increasing as the day progressed. Most drivers would spend the majority of their day on Silver, Gold or G3 compound tires.
The top 36 drivers would be spread across the final 3 heats with the next 36 drivers in the next 3 heats and so on and so forth. These qualifiers would stay the same for all 6 rounds with the order of the races changing every 2 rounds. Mason Fuller would once again carry the team taking the TQ in round 2, 4, and 6. This would give the Iowa driver the overall TQ for the event.
Qualifying Results:
1st Mason Fuller
4th Juan Carlos Canas
6th Spencer Rivkin
7th Ryan Maifield
10th Brandon Rose
11th Seth VanDalen
14th Burak Kilic
(Top 16 Direct Transfer to Semi-Finals)
The top 16 drivers would transfer directly to the semi-finals and 4 drivers would bump from each lower main up until they got the semi-finals. The top 5 drivers would qualify for the main event from each semi-final. Then the next 2 fastest runs from the 6th and 7th place finishers would move to the main event. For the final 13th spot in the main the winner of the 15 minute LCQ containing the rest of the semi-finalist would move on to the final.
1/4th B Transfers:
2nd Phi-Long Nguyen
1/4th A Transfers:
3rd Pekko Ilvonen
Semi-Final B Transfers:
David Ronnefalk would have a pretty good hold on the lead by the end of this semi-final but the rest of the main event transfers would be held by JConcepts drivers putting 4 into the main directly from their results in the semi.
2nd Juan Carlos Canas
3rd Spencer Rivkin
4th Brandon Rose
5th Phi-Long Nguyen
Semi-Final A Transfers:
This race would see a 3-way battle for the lead for the majority of the race with Chase Lemieux coming out on top ahead of Mason Fuller and Davide Ongaro. Fireworks would fly at the end with Berkan Kilic and Ryan Maifield making contact resulting in Maifield being forced to give up his position and potentially a chance at making the main. Luckily his pace would be fast enough to get him into the main as the fastest 6th place finisher.
2nd Mason Fuller
6th Ryan Maifield (Fastest 6th or 7th place finisher)
LCQ:
Seth VanDalen would hold a healthy lead for the large majority of the LCQ and make it to the main event ahead of a hard charging Pekko Ilvonen at the end of the race.
1st Seth VanDalen
Main Event:
Practice done, qualifying done, lower mains done, finally time for the big dance and JConcepts had 7 amazing drivers ready for the challenge of trying to win the world championships. Davide Ongaro and Chase Lemieux jumped out ahead of the field at the start but by the 2nd pit window both drivers would suffer issues either resulting in a DNF or a flameout. This would move us to the battle that would rage on for the last 40 minutes of the race. Mason Fuller and David Ronnefalk would battle it out despite being on different pit lane strategies to ultimately lift the big trophy. These two drivers would lap the rest of the field and put on a showcase of racing talent and acumen. Ultimately David would win the race with Mason less than 2 seconds behind. Juan Carlos Canas finished up 3rd putting 2 JConcepts drivers on the podium. Marcus Kaerup would finish up 4th with the JConcepts driver, Brandon Rose, in 5th.
1st David Ronnefalk
2nd Mason Fuller (JC)
3rd Juan Carlos Canas (JC)
4th Marcus Kaerup
5th Brandon Rose (JC)
6th Seth VanDalen (JC)
7th Aydin Horne
8th Chase Lemieux
9th Spencer Rivkin (JC)
10th Berkan Kilic
11th Ryan Maifield (JC)
12th Phi-Long Nguyen (JC)
13th Davide Ongaro
Junior World Champion: Phi-Long Nguyen
As well as crowning a junior world champion after qualifying the race also held a Junior Exhibition which Phi was excluded from after making it to the semi-final.
Junior Exhibition:
1st Hyunkyu Jung – JC
2nd Daemon Holon
3rd Dylan Toia – JC
Masters World Champion: Adam Drake
Masters Exhibition:
1st Adam Drake – JC
2nd Graham Alsop
3rd Jerome Sartel
JConcepts Team Highlight:
2nd Mason Fuller
3rd Juan Carlos Canas
5th Brandon Rose
6th Seth VanDalen
9th Spencer Rivkin
11th Ryan Maifield
12th Phi-Long Nguyen
17th Pekko Ilvonen
24th Burak Kilic
27th Jared Wiggins
28th Nate Sutherland
31st Daniel Kobbevik
34th Kaden Fuller
37th Jermaine Robinson
39th Davey Batta
42nd Jonah Wilson
44th Cole Kasten
48th Lee Setser
49th Ryan Lutz
55th Caleb Noble
58th Kyunkyu Jung
63rd Adam Drake
68th Ashton Abdul
72nd Tyler Hooks
74th Tyler Fenster
75th Julien Oliveras
82nd Donato Tradardi
84th Wade Piggott
85th Trevor Olins
88th Logan Toia
90th Renato Tradardi Jr.
95th Larry Wright IV
98th Braden Bruce
100th Dylan Toia
107 Dylan Bartlett
108th Paul Ciccarello
114th Peter Seckhold
115th Loic Deschenes
117th Joel Rodriguez
122nd Andrew Gillott
124th Diego Marroquin
125th Reggie Tongue
127th Josh Pain
128th Mitchell Pavel
129th Brendan Bartlett
135th Evan Roeth
140th Mario Rudy
145th Eric Deschenes
152nd Mike Garrison
157th Scotty Brewer
160th Renato Tradardi Sr.
Thank you to everyone involved, the drivers, support teams, parents and everyone else involved. A World Championship event is no small endeavor. Be proud of your accomplishments and we hope to see you at the next one!