IFMAR history: how RC racing got a world body.

By the late 1970s RC car racing had national bodies in the United States, Britain and Japan and a European federation, each with its own rules. IFMAR was set up to put a world body above them. This page tells its history from IFMAR's own undated constitution page, which is the main source, with Wikipedia and Red RC where they add to it and with each source named.

Founding in 1979

IFMAR says it was officially inaugurated in 1979, after earlier attempts to form a world governing body, and that Ted Longshaw of Great Britain was its driving force and first president. The sources agree on the year and differ only in detail:

• IFMAR's own page gives the year, 1979, without a day.
• Wikipedia gives the date as 9 July 1979 and says Longshaw created IFMAR to bring fragmented organisations, each with its own rules, under one governing body.
• Red RC's obituary of Longshaw (8 September 2011) says he proposed a world governing body with uniform rules after a World Championship held in Switzerland in 1979.

Longshaw had already taken part in Britain's first race meeting in 1971 (Red RC and Wikipedia), Wikipedia says he formed the BRCA that year, and Wikipedia lists him as EFRA president until 1983; that earlier story is on early racing and ROAR and EFRA and Europe.

Presidents, seats and legal form

IFMAR's own page records the changes at the top and in its legal standing. In date order:

IFMAR's 2019 electric off-road rule book gives the result in its footer: an international non-profit association (a.i.s.b.l.) registered in Belgium, with its seat in Kampenhout.

Wikipedia lists the presidents as Ted Longshaw (1979 to 1995), John D. Grant (1995 to 2005), Erhard "Dallas" Mathiesen (2005 to 2018), Jeff Parker (2018 to 2023) and Eric Anderson (from 2023). IFMAR's own page confirms the handovers of 1995 and 2005. The 2018 and 2023 changes rest on Wikipedia alone and were not found on an IFMAR page.

The blocs

IFMAR works through continental blocs. Wikipedia lists four: EFRA (Europe), FEMCA (Asia and Australasia), ROAR (North America) and FAMAR (South America and others), and calls FAMAR the newest. It gives no dates for when each joined. Its results tables first show FEMCA organising a world championship in 1985 and FAMAR in 1997.

Australia's national body, AARCMCC, founded in 1979 according to Wikipedia's FEMCA member table, is a national member of FEMCA, not a bloc of its own. The blocs as they work today are on IFMAR and the blocs.

From events to championships

IFMAR's own history lists a 1/8 IC track race at Pomona in 1977 and a 1/8 IC track event in Geneva in 1979 as events, then names 1981 as its first championship and 1982 as its first electric World Championship, in 1/12 stock and modified. The 1977 race came before IFMAR existed, and Wikipedia counts it as the first world championship anyway. That disagreement, and how the classes were added after it, is on the world championships.

Rule steps on the record

IFMAR's rule books apply to its World Championships only. Dated steps found in the research:

• 2009: Red RC (2 August 2009) reported that EFRA proposed to the IFMAR annual general meeting, held at the 1:8 on-road Worlds in Lostallo, Switzerland, that LiPo packs be allowed at the 1:10 ISTC and 1:10 electric off-road World Championships. The same report said FEMCA had submitted draft truggy rules that could lead to a 1:8 off-road truggy World Championship. The outcome of the LiPo vote was not found.
• March 2023: IFMAR's Electric Racing Batteries and Motors document says IFMAR approves only lithium-based batteries.
• 2024: IFMAR's 1/10 IC track rules say no radio impound is needed because, in the rule's words, 99 percent of drivers use 2.4 GHz systems, though the race director can reinstate impound after complaints from at least three countries.

The first year IFMAR allowed LiPo batteries or brushless motors at a World Championship was not found. More on those changes is on motors and batteries history and radio history.

Gaps in the record

• No IFMAR results archive or history document listing every first World Championship by class was found; class first years rest mainly on Wikipedia and LiveRC.
• IFMAR's page is undated, and no IFMAR page confirming the 2018 and 2023 presidencies was read.
• No founding date for FAMAR was found.