When you see a photo with a trophy and the words WORLD CHAMPION, it can look like everything was decided in one one-hour final.

In reality, the road to this title started around one year before the World Championship. For some parts, even earlier.

Our job was to find something that could move us forward. Something that would make the car faster, easier to drive and more competitive on a track we still didn’t fully know.

We started working on new parts and prototypes. Some of them were quite complicated and required a lot of time for development, production and testing.

We managed to get the first prototypes ready early enough. But as always in development, every test creates new ideas. Eventually, what started as several new parts grew into an upgrade package affecting roughly 50% of the car.

And that isn’t something you simply bolt onto the car the day before a race and automatically go faster.

Every new part changes the car’s behavior. You need to understand it, find the correct setup and, most importantly, make everything work together.

Unfortunately, production took a little longer than planned, so much of the testing was done with only a very small group of drivers and mainly at the Hudy Arena.

It was a risk.

But once I saw the potential, I believed it was a risk worth taking.

We eventually brought 21 complete upgrade packages to Texas – around 25 kg of parts. Some of the final components were finished only about four days before we left.

None of this would have been possible without the people at XRAY. From development and engineering to production and the management who allowed us to keep pushing until the very last moment.

A World Championship is not won by one person, one driver or one mechanic. This result belongs to a huge number of people at the track and back at the factory.

This time, we approached the Worlds differently

In the past, I was sometimes frustrated that, as Team Manager, I didn’t always have all the information I wanted.

A driver can explain his feeling, of course. But sometimes you need to know exactly what the car is doing yourself.

So this time we did something different.

I decided to race.

Not because I was chasing my own result. My main job was to test for the team.

Every run gave me around 13 minutes on the track. That’s a huge amount of testing time where I could compare setups, tires and different combinations.

I won’t lie – sometimes it wasn’t easy to drive into the pits during a run, change tires or make adjustments while watching other drivers pass me. The racer inside you doesn’t particularly enjoy that. 😄

But I believed this strategy could help the whole team.

And it did.

Our drivers were fast from the very first practice. We could give them information about tires and setup before their runs. The results came, confidence in the car grew and so did the confidence of the entire team.

I think we even surprised ourselves with how competitive we were from the first practice all the way to the final.

But there was no way I could do all of this alone

Racing, testing and managing the entire team at the same time is impossible without people you can completely rely on.

That’s why I knew I needed Max Götzl RC driver with me. He is someone I have taught almost everything I know in RC, I have known him for many years and I knew I could trust him. He did everything necessary to keep things running and allowed me to concentrate on the areas where I was needed most.

Then there was my other role – being David’s mechanic together with his father, Pierre.

David Ronnefalk and I have worked together for a long time, so for this race it was an easy decision. When the three of us work together, there is a chemistry that is difficult to explain. Everyone knows his job, we trust each other and historically we have achieved very good results together.

But this time we knew one mistake could cost us everything.

The Thornhill track was extremely demanding and a DNF could happen at almost any moment.

Our first major goal was simply to survive the semifinals and put the cars into the main final.

The result?

We started the World Championship final from P1 and P2.

That’s a situation you can only dream about before a World Championship. And fortunately, both of our drivers are experienced professionals who understand that a race isn’t won in the first corner and know how to respect each other on track.

Then came the real pressure

Before the final we made the last changes to David’s car.

Our strategy was clear. We wanted the car to become especially strong in the second half of the one-hour final, when everyone would be dealing with worn tires.

Before the start, I was probably more nervous than I have ever been.

A 1/8 Nitro Off-road World Championship title is one of the biggest achievements possible in our sport. It’s something we had been chasing for many years.

And suddenly hundreds of scenarios start going through your head.

Set the engine idle incorrectly. Make a mistake gluing a tire. Lose a few seconds during a pit stop. Miss one tiny technical detail.

One small mistake and a year of work from dozens of people can disappear in seconds.

And when something doesn’t work, as Team Manager I ultimately take responsibility. From the decisions behind the development and management of the team to what happens in the pits and on pit lane.

That naturally adds another level of pressure.

RC is my life. It’s my job, my hobby and something I live practically every day. Maybe that’s why moments like this affect me so much.

And then the final started…

The start was great.

But shortly afterwards David made two mistakes in quick succession – something we had hardly seen from him all week.

Suddenly everything changed.

At that moment, being a mechanic isn’t just about refueling the car. You have to calm your driver down and get him mentally back into the race as quickly as possible. That’s difficult even for the best professional racing drivers in the world.

Fortunately, David is an absolute professional.

He found his rhythm again and we could start working our way back according to our plan.

The first stint changed our fuel strategy slightly, but this was exactly where the strength of the team became important. Pierre Ronnefalk was prepared for every scenario and together we were able to react.

Throughout the week we had extremely fast pit stops. During the final, our work in the pits even helped us in the fight for the lead.

Then we simply had to execute.

Pit stop after pit stop. Lap after lap.

No mistakes. No technical problems. No hesitation from the car, engine or team.

And then David crossed the finish line…

as World Champion. 🏆

At that moment, everything came out.

The emotions in the pits and in the grandstand probably showed better than anything how much this title meant to us.

It wasn’t the result of one final.

It was the result of a year of development, production, testing, decisions, risks and the work of a huge number of people.

XRAY XB8 – WORLD CHAMPION.

FX Engines – WORLD CHAMPION.

David was the one who completed the job on the track and handled the enormous pressure when it mattered most. But behind that trophy stands an entire team – the people everyone saw in Texas and many more who will never appear in the photos because they were back at the factory, working for months to give us the opportunity to fight for this title.

Without them, this result would simply not have been possible.

Thank you to David, Pierre, Max, our entire race team, every XRAY driver and every single person at XRAY and HUDY who contributed to this project.

I think this World Championship added quite a few grey hairs to my head. 😂

But every single one was worth it.

This is a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. ❤️🏆