In 1987 a relatively unknown (outside his own country) Masami Hirosaka stunned the world to win the IFMAR 4wd World Championships in Romsey, England.  History records what he went on to achieve as the greatest of all time. Without applying any sense of pressure on new World Champ Tater Sontag, you can’t help but wonder if this is a similar breakthrough win on the world stage, the first of many. The nature of his win today makes the comparison with a young Masami an apt one to make. It’s hard to imagine a more poised performance than Sontag’s, running in front of multiple world champions Spencer Rivkin and Davide Ongaro and under the kind of pressure unique to a World Championship race. After a slightly lucky recovery from an early mistake in A1 (thanks Rivkin!), his A2 performance from lights-to-flag was the stuff that Championships are made of. We can’t help thinking that kind of poise and mindset is going to see him running up front for many years to come. Huge congrats to 2023 IFMAR World Champ Tater Sontag, and to Spencer Rivkin and Broc Champlin who round out the podium. It was the US-dominated result we kind of expected from the whole week – even if the winner was a (pleasant) surprise.

TLR GET ONE: For a company that has been one of the mainstays of World Championship racing since the JRX2 first broke cover in 1988, TLR/Losi haven’t converted as often as perhaps the quality of their cars might have indicated. In a nice closing of the circle, it was Brian Kinwald who first won the Worlds for Team Losi in 1997 – Hobby Action being the late superstar’s home track. 26 years on and Sontag adds the 6th (in 10th Offroad) for the US-based manufacturer, and the first since Ryan Cavalieri won 4wd in 2003. That 20-year wait is done, and in an emphatic fashion – the company’s 2wd platform looking the best all week long.

WHY WAIT YOUR TURN?  The conventional wisdom (including from me, it must be confessed) was that the Worlds this week would likely go to the established superstars – Rivkin, Phend, Orlowski being in the top line of tips. We figured some of the young guys would be in the final, and perhaps lay down a marker for the future. It’s been anything but that, the emerging talent of the likes of Sontag, Horne, Kaerup, Tollard and Schimmel showing they have no intention of waiting their turn while the current stars do all the winning. We’ll see how the next couple of years shake out, but these guys are now established front-runners while still mostly being in their teens. The future looks bright.

THE MANUFACTURER BATTLE: That the podium was split between TLR, AE (Rivkin) and Schumacher (Champlin) seems a fitting outcome. That said, TLR take the spoils, and they’ve, as we said above, looked amazing throughout the 2wd event. Running on an aging platform there have been all kinds of rumours about prototype parts, components from other manufacturers and so on. Time will tell whether the car that won the Worlds surfaces as a new production model. We do know that other manufacturers aren’t standing still either. Schumacher had a prototype Cougar LD3 well in the hunt in the hands of Champlin on the podium), Cavalieri and Orlowski. XRAY apparently just missed bringing their new 2wd platform to this event (at least that’s been the public statement) while we saw the debut of the new Mugen 2wd chassis in the hands of designer Shin Adachi – a car certain to draw a lot of attention on its release in the months ahead.  Team Associated’s new for 2023 chassis continues to do the business with Rivkin in 2, and Horne and Ongaro just off the podium. SWorkz were a little unlucky not to have Jorn further up the order

THE SURPRISES: It has to be said that Orlowski is possibly the biggest surprise in 2wd, missing the final with an up-and-down qualifying performance. Phend had his moments but never really settled into consistent speed all week. XRAY would have to be a little underwhelmed with two-time champ Coelho closer in 4wd but not in the mix in 4wd. And, while by no means a failure, Spencer Rivkin came into this event the hottest of hot favourites and might leave with just the tiniest of regrets – and not anywhere near as close in 2wd as he was in 4wd.

AND NOW TO….? The countdown is on, and it’s just two years until the IFMAR 10th Offroad World Championships will be contested again in 2025. With the event scheduled to be hosted in the FEMCA bloc, it seems a high chance that it will return to Australia for the first time since 1989. I’m not aware that this is confirmed, nor the likely host track – but what we do know about Australian 10th racing is almost all outdoors on dirt (whether that be natural or treated). That will make it the first outdoor dirt Worlds since 2017 in China – and just possibly the last ever given the way this category is developing toward indoor and artificial surfaces. All of that is to say that a Worlds in Aus, outdoors on dirt will be something of neutral territory for most of the top racers at this current Worlds. We’ll let the dust settle on 2023, and celebrate the performances of Davide Ongaro and Tater Sontag…but we’ll just quietly be keeping one eye on that race.

PROPS: It’s been an event we’ve all been looking forward to ever since the venue was announced. From a distance it looks like Hobby Action RC Raceway have killed it with the facility and organisation, and outside of the little tyre glitch on day one, it’s been outstanding. MOD LIVE MEDIA’s coverage has been good fun, and we’ve personally enjoyed additional coverage from Mitch on the Mic, Red RC and Racewayone. Ongaro and Sontag leave as the fitting champions of an excellent IFMAR Worlds.  

For 2023 there are three more IFMAR Worlds events in the coming weeks – GT8 in Sydney, 8th IC in Japan, and 12th in Florida to round out the year – so still plenty of good international racing to look forward to.  Down Under we’re about to head into Nationals season, with 10th Offroad, 8th Offroad and 10th on-road events over the next couple of months.

We’ve had fun writing a few words and thinking about the event – and hopefully when 2025 rolls around we can be trackside to witness it first-hand.  Thanks for reading and hanging out.

Photo from Mitch on the Mic.