2012 IFMAR 1/8-Scale Off Road World Championships are almost here!

We’re just days away from the official start of the IFMAR World Championships for 1/8-scale nitro off-road buggy, which has grown to be one of the most competitive classes on an international scale. Every two years, the fastest nitro off-road buggy racers in the world convene in a different continent to compete for the most coveted championship in radio control, and though the hosting facility may change each time the race is run, the battle for the title is always exciting. For example, here are the last couple of laps from the 2010 Worlds:

After swapping the lead dozens of times throughout the 60-minute final for the 2010 Worlds, held in Thailand, Team Kyosho’s Cody King bested the defending champion Atsushi Hara by less than two seconds to capture his first-ever World Championship. King’s breakthrough win was just the third for an American driver (following Greg Degani’s 2002 win in Uruguay and Mark Pavidis’ 2006 triumph in Indonesia), but it perpetuated yet another staggering statistic: Maurizio Monesi’s 1994 win in Kirschshlag, Austria, marked the only time that a driver earned a second title in this class. Here’s a list of the prior winners:

Year	Driver	Country	Chassis	Host
1986	Frederic Veysseyre	France	Yankee	France
1988	Maurizio Monesi	Italy	Garbo	Italy
1990	Koji Sanada	Japan	Mugen	Thailand
1992	Kokushi Toge	Japan	Kyosho	Germany
1994	Maurizio Monesi	Italy	Kyosho	Austria
1996	Alex Laffranchi	Italy	Kyosho	UK
1998	Daniel Reckward	Germany	Kyosho	Portugal
2000	Yuichi Kanai	Japan	Kyosho	USA
2002	Greg Degani	USA	Kyosho	Uruguay
2004	Guillaume Vray	France	Mugen	Sweden
2006	Mark Pavidis	USA	Kyosho	Indonesia
2008	Atsushi Hara	Japan	Hot Bodies	USA
2010	Cody King	USA	Kyosho	Thailand
2012	???????????	???????	??????????	Argentina

Stay tuned to RCCarAction.com all week long for coverage, and don’t miss LiveRC’s live broadcast of the race.

What are your predictions for the race, and who do you think will win? Leave us a comment below and let the world know!