We spent some time this week looking back over all that history, and picked out our top ten stories from the 40-year history of 10th Off-Road World Championship racing. Let us know your favourite memories, the best results or biggest stories.

🔟: The 2015 Astro Worlds
Traditionally the 10th World Champs have run on dirt. A wide variety of dirt, to be sure, but always dirt. So when the 2015 event was announced for Yatabe Arena in Japan, one of the most storied venues in the world, and host of the ’95 event, we all assumed it would be on the facility’s long-time dirt track. The hosts had other ideas though, running on an astro surface with artificial jumps and features. It was the first Worlds on an artificial surface, and almost certainly won’t be the last with surfaces like astro and carpet gaining popularity all around the world. Super impressive first WC 2wd win for Spencer Rivkin (Team Associated) on an unfamiliar surface, and Bruno Coelho RC Driver crossing over from an on-road background (joining a long tradition of such cross-overs that dates back to 1987 World Champ Joel Johnson) to take the 4wd win for XRAY.

9️⃣: Mark Pavidis and Matt Francis ’95 Win on Yokomo Home Turf
We already mentioned just how hallowed Yatabe Arena was as a race track. And as home-turf for Yokomo and for the legendary Masami Hirosaka, when the event visited Yataba in 1995, the expectation was for yet another Hirosaka-dominated event. US superstars Mark Pavidis (4wd) and Matt Francis (2wd) would have none of it, winning for Yokomo and Team Associated respectively in a stunning performance.

8️⃣: The Ryan Cavalieri Sweep in 2011 (Vaasa, Finland)
There are a few IFMAR events that have been swept. Masami Hirosaka in Australia in 1989, Ryan Maifield in China in 2017, Martin Achter in South Africa in 2009. And Ryan Cavalieri at the picturesque Vaasa track in Finland in 2011. Ryan’s double win came at the heights of the Cavalieri/Maifield/Tebo domination, and he took Team Associated cars to the double win. 2wd was notable also for Dakotah Phend’s first appearance in a 10th off-road Worlds A final.

7️⃣: Jukka Steenari Back-to-Back (Finland 1999, South Africa 2002)
After a decade of domination by US and Japanese drivers, Jukka Steenari’s breakthrough 1999 win in Finland (after just missing out in 1997) marked the first European winner of a 10th Off-road Worlds, and the first 4wd win for Team Losi Racing. Steenari backed it up again in  South Africa in 2002 after the scheduled 2001 event was delayed due to 9/11. Steenari joins Masami and Cavalieri as the only three to win back-to–back in the same class.

6️⃣: Neil Cragg’s 2005 Win in Italy
In terms of feel-good wins, they don’t come much better than Neil Cragg’s 2005 2wd triumph over Ryan Cavalieri and Ryan Maifield in Collegno, Italy. Perhaps that’s been brought into focus this month with Cragg’s retirement from international racing after an amazing career – but for a man acknowledged as one of the best and fairest, and who grew up on a country with limited dirt track options, for Cragg to win over the might of the US 2wd mod team was a stellar effort.

5️⃣: Losi vs Associated (1989-2023)
It’s the rivalry which shaped the IFMAR World Championships for the best part of 35 years. Team Associated have been around since Jay Halsey won the first World Champs in 1985, but from the moment Team Losi arrived at St Ives in 1989, to the most recent win for the US company at Hobby Action in 2023, it’s been the AE vs TLR battle that is RC’s equivalent of Ford vs Chev. The battle raged at World Championships across the globe, perhaps most ferociously through the 90’s, and at just about every club track on the planet. It’s one reason we’re still a little sad that the new owners of TLR have scaled back their factory effort, and the team won’t be present at Hills Offroad this week.

4️⃣: The 91 Detroit Track 
When it comes to World Championship tracks, few are more memorable than the extraordinary 1991 circuit at Freedom Hill Park, Michigan USA. Carved into the side of the hill, the track had an incredibly soft, loamy surface, one that shifted and changed not only across the week, but seemingly within a race as well. The signature “Surfs Up” section, inspiration for a thousand similar features around the world in the years that followed, was particularly gnarly, pushing drivers and cars to their very limit. Masami Hirosaka triumphed over Team Associated teammate Rick Vehlow in 2wd, with Kyle Reed third in the prototype Losi XX. In 4wd it was a Yokomo shutout, Cliff Lett taking his only WC win, from Hirosaka and Jack Johnson.

3️⃣: The RC10 Stealth Prototypes
Winning any World Championship takes a special car. Over the whole history of World Championship racing there have been plenty of examples of prototypes, hand-build one-off designs and specially made parts. None, however, have been anywhere near as famous at the two Team Associated RC10 Stealth cars from the 1989 and 1991 World Championship events. On both occasions the US manufacturer stunned onlookers, arriving with completely hand-build prototype versions of their RC10 platform. The cars were kept hidden away throughout and it would be only well after the Worlds that any details would emerge. In the modern era, replicas of the ’89 and ’91 cars have been produced around the world, with Team Associated capitalising on the long-lived mystique of the ’89 car with a re-release in recent months. Adding to the story of that ’89 car were of course the larger than standard Yokomo tyres – taking advantage of a rules loophole to produce a tyre uniquely suited to the St Ives surface, and one that would ultimately change the direction of tyre design.

2️⃣: Brian Kinwald’s 1993 Win
Few drivers hold an equivalent status to Brian Kinwald. The US driver (RIP) sadly passed a few years ago, but is almost universally admired and respected. His first World Championship win came in 1993 at Basildon England. The Team Associated cars had looked up against it all week against the Losi XX, with Kinwald qualifying all the way back in P8. A combination of changed weather (and hence track) conditions, and grafting a Losi Hydradrive onto his RC10 Team Car transformed Kinwald’s hopes. His A final performances were astonishing, culminating in A3 with the race and Championship win. Kinwald would later switch across the divide to join Team Losi, winning again in 1997 and becoming the first to win a World Championship for two different manufacturers within the same class (a feat later matched by Matt Francis and Ryan Cavalieri).

1️⃣: Masami Hirosaka (England 1987, Australia 1989 double, Detroit USA 1991, Basildon UK 93, Ranch 1997, Finland 1999)
When it comes to the history of World Championship racing, no name looms larger than Masami Hirosaka. He emerged as a relative international unknown to win the 4wd title for Schumacher in 1987, then doubled-up in both 2wd and 4wd for Team Associated and Yokomo in 1989. That partnership endured throughout his career, winning again in 1991 (2wd), 1993 (4wd), 1997 (4wd) and 1999 (2wd). An astonishing 7 World Championship wins from a possible 14 in that 1987-1999 period. No other driver has ever come close. It wasn’t just on track, of course, that Hirosaka’s performances were built. His partnership with his mechanic and car-builder father Masaaki was legendary, and the support for Hirosaka from Yokomo, Team Associated and Reedy unmatched. He was perhaps the first true professional, leaving no stone unturned in his pursuit of victory. It’s fair to say that Hirosaka set the standard to which every other driver aspired.

So there’s our top ten stories from the forty-year history of IFMAR 1/10 Off-Road World Championship racing. There are a load of things we haven’t mentioned. On-road racer Joel Johnson winning on his first attempt. Davide Ongaro winning at Hobby Action with a car build a few days before the race and otherwise not driven. The Reedy vs Trinity rivalry of the 90’s. The fantastic race track at Hakusan, Japan for the 2007 Championship race, the disqualification of Ben Sturnham from a podium position in 1993, and so many more.

How about for you? What stories make your top ten from across the amazing history of this race? And the biggest question – what new chapter will be written at Hills Offroad RC next week?

📸 LiveRC, RED RC, Team Associated