There are a number of brothers here, racing together. From the well-known UK pairing of Tommy and Jamie Hall Brothers RC, to Florian and Nico Schmid, to NZ duo Logan and Dylan Toia – sibling connections are everywhere.

There are fathers and sons racing too – think Aydin and Allen Horne, Ray and Lachlan Munday, Loic and Lucas Didier, Ben and Zac Panic, Simon and Nathan Healy, to name just a few examples.

And in the case of well-known race commentator Scotty Ernst, it’s father/daughter/son-in-law, with daughter Sarah and her husband Chad joining Scotty on a family trip down under with a side serving of World Championship action. So many parent/child pairs or trios racing together at an IFMAR World Championship is unusual, for sure.

And, of course, there are the families that have travelled to support their racer children – the Sutherland, Pole, Holdsworth, Eggleton, Hall, Rivkin, Batta, Esbeck, Alt, Sims families, and many (many) more. Families are everywhere.

Even behind the scenes, there are family connections – families working together within the Hills Off Road RC volunteer teams, the RC Race Media team, and more. Family is everywhere.

Amongst all these family connections, a few special moments caught my eye. The first, watching legendary racer (and ’89 Worlds A Finalist) Jurgen Lautenbach carry the German flag for his son Moritz Lautenbach in the opening ceremony on Monday. Similarly, past EFRA Touring Car champ Jonas Kaerup bore the flag for son Marcus Kærup RC Driver as the sole Danish representative. Those were moments to treasure both for the families themselves and for onlookers, as second-generation World Championship competitors were uniquely supported by their fathers.

And today, day two of on-track action, threw up two more of those special family moments.  

First, I stood trackside near Ben Panic as he watched his son Zac's final heat of the day. Ben stood with another proud dad, Scott Hill, as the two sons - Zac and Caden - went head to head. Riding the final minute of the heat alongside Ben was absorbing, as he rode every bump, every half-spin, every close call with traffic as if to will Zac home by sheer force of will. It must have worked too – Zac took the lead on the final tour, winning his heat to the delight of the pair of them. It was lovely to watch.

And then there is Marcus Kaerup. What can you say about his day today as we completed four rounds of qualifying? The newly crowned eBuggy World Champion came into this event on a high. In an interview we screened on RC Race Media yesterday, legendary racer Atsushi Hara described Kaerup as having a “winning face” – by which Hara meant a face filled with confidence, the face of a racer in a very good place. Kaerup’s face only got happier today as he went three-from-three in Q1/2/3 to wrap up TQ before we even reached mid-afternoon. It was an extraordinary performance.

And if Marcus’ face was happy, that was nothing on Jonas. A huge bear hug from a dad who was an elite racer himself, and who missed the opportunity to see Marcus take that first WC win a few weeks ago in person, spoke volumes of Jonas' pride in his son. There were tears in his eyes and a catch in his voice as he joined Marcus and I in a post-race interview. Both know the job is only half-done, but it was a special family moment nonetheless – and one that encapsulated everything that is wonderful about families going racing together.

Of course, there were a load of other stories out there today. Davey Batta sits P3 overnight – a breakthrough Worlds performance for sure – with every opportunity to climb higher tomorrow. Tommy Hall is just outside the A main but looking to force a way in in Q5 tomorrow, on a very unfamiliar surface. Daniel Pole is an impressive P21 overnight.

We could talk about teamwork – and we’ll do that for sure in the wrapup from this event. We could talk about the impending AE vs Schumacher battle for 2wd supremacy at this Worlds, but that will play out in front of all of us tomorrow. We could talk (again) about how fun the track is, how amazing the Hills crew is. There are loads of stories out there.

But the one that captured my attention today is the story of family. And at the 2025 Team Cayote IFMAR World Champs, as in just about every corner of life, that’s just maybe the greatest story of all.

Here’s to the RC families.

📷Red RC