A New Era for EFRA: RC Motorsport Europe

Today we are proud to unveil the first step in EFRA’s Development Plan: Our new logo and the adoption of RC Motorsport Europe as our title, mandate and statement of intent to do more than ever before to spread the word and create modern routes into this hobby and sport we all love.

As part of EFRA’s Development Plan – Every area of our organisation, infrastructure and core goals are to be strategically examined, evaluated and developed as we look to the future of RC racing in Europe. However, we believe that EFRA’s values, constitution and rich heritage have never been more important, so as we unveil EFRA’s new brand, let’s take a moment to appreciate just some of the activities that have lead to where we are today. Thank you to every, organiser, racer, referee, official, federation member and club who have given your time and effort. EFRA and RC Motorsport Europe belongs to you.

Footage: Thank you to Ray Wood, Stefano Solaroli, Sander de Graaf, Rody Roem, Christophe Rolland, Racing Time Sweden and RC Racing TV

Building on a Rich Heritage of RC Motorsport

EFRA (the European Federation of Radio-controlled Automobiles) has been at the forefront of organised radio-control motorsport in Europe since 1976. For 45 years, the hardworking volunteers at EFRA have worked closely with manufacturers, clubs and tracks across the continent to provide annual sporting events that have given thousands of people a rich racing heritage year after year.

No one can speak to the history of RC and the other federations that formed over the years better than the late, great Ted Longshaw. Hear it in his own words back in 2010:

Read all about it!

Dating back to 1977, our fantastic archive of magazines covers the very first RC world championships and many early European events filled with some great images and nostalgia – Check it out here!

Can you name this multiple World Champion??

Check out Sander de Graaf’s RC Heritage gallery here!

EFRA and IFMAR President Dallas Mathiesen

Back in 2007 a young RC Racing TV team recorded what would be the first of many interviews with the late president, Dallas at the ISTC Worlds in Bangkok

Racing RC through the years

We can learn so much looking back through the ages of changing cars, tracks and fashions! But the thing that has remained the same through the years is the sportsmanship, friendships and desire to welcome all into the hobby.

RC racing across Europe and beyond!

Check out Roddy Roem’s Heritage gallery here!

Hall of Fame, EFRA European Championship finals videos and classic magazines

You can find all the compiled historic EFRA content on the RC Heritage page here

EFRA’s Development Plan

In 2020 EFRA president Javier Garcia presented the plan that will take the events, media coverage and sport as a whole into the modern age. This process will be guided by a series of working groups with members from all aspects of RC racing, from racers, to organisers, to federations, to manufacturers. You can download that presentation below.

EFRA development plan 2020-2023

Federations

The work of the federations within EFRA is absolutely paramount, they are the ones on the ground in each country overseeing the National Championships and fostering the great sportsmanship and talent that represent them at the European Championships. EFRA’s Development plan can only be a success if we continue to work and collaborate in partnership with the Federations. For this reason, each working group will have at least one Federation representative who can speak on all plans and ideas from a national perspective.

Do you know who your national Federation is? Check out the database here. Via this page you can send a message to members of the exec board and representatives of each class of racing in your country. Why not reach out today!?

Associate Members

EFRA was originally established to promote the use of R/C Cars and to organise racing with the further aim of promoting cooperation and friendship between countries. These are still very much our aspirations. Our target is also to keep as uniformed technical rules as possible within Europe.

This is where working with Associate Members comes in. Thanks to these companies we have been able to provide some of the best media coverage our sport has seen. Two key areas within the Development Plan are to push that media coverage forward and to be able to provide better than ever value to Associate Members. You can find a complete list of Associate Members here.

EFRA through the decades

Over the years the European Federation of Radio Operated Automobiles has had a few different “looks!”

Developing a new brand for EFRA

During 2020 working with CTRL, we engaged with key representatives outside of EFRA in a working group focused on a complete evolution of our brand identity. Here is Mat McCallum explaining the process for the 2020 EFRA AGM

With the new brand launched, EFRA will transition between logos during the course of the 2021 race season in order not to waste existing medals, banners and clothing, with the new logo and branding guide being centre stage from 2022.

We’d like to take a moment to thank all of the people who gave their time in this project, we would not have got to this stage without without your valuable expertise and input.

What’s next? It’s your time to get involved!

With the new brand launched we move onto the second step of the Development Plan – Event Coverage & Promotion – In fact the group has already begun work and you can read a report on that here.

Finally, we want to hear from you! We’re inviting you to have your say on what you feel are the priorities for Event Coverage & Promotion for EFRA in 2021. If you’d like to get involved, please take a moment to fill out this questionnaire here covering some key decisions faced by our group!