SIGP favourites expect challenging race in Xiamen
With 2024 marking the return of the SIGP Offroad Race with its highest profile international entry yet, the three leader contenders for the race’s major cash prize have all predicted a challenging weekend ahead in Xiamen. Organised by Sunpadow Batteries, the entry for this year’s edition of the race is led by Team Associated ‘s 3-in-a-row World Champion Davide Ongaro. The first time the Italian has been to the former IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship track, on paper his biggest rivalry should come from Xray pairing David Ronnefalk and Bruno Coelho but talking to all 3 at the end of Thursday’s free practice they all believe it’s the track surface that is going to be their biggest challenger. The dirt offroad track, which together with an onroad track and 200m long driver stand!, is located on the grounds of the almost 500 strong workforce 3 Circles factory that manufacturers batteries, has not seen race action since the last running of the SIGP in 2019. Joern Neumann was the winner on that occasion, but having lay idle for 5-years the track had to undergo some significant preparation to clean it up with Max Lim, who put on the World Championships here in 2017, tasked with the track preparation over the last three weeks. Getting the track back to looking like an active one, it is the surface bumps that are going to challenge man & machine with buggies being very unpredictable to drive.
Having not yet started racing in the 1:1o Electric Offroad category when the track hosted the 1:10 World Championship 7-years ago, asked his first impressions of the track, Ongaro replied, ‘The layout is fun but the surface is…. not super bumpy but rough. The bumps are small but lets say everywhere.’ He continued, ‘we struggled a little today and yesterday with nitro, and yesterday I didn’t run eBuggy, but we arrived at the end of today with a good set-up for both cars.’ Watching out his pit area window while final repair works were being made to the bigger holes and some of the jumps, Ongaro continued, ‘It is an amazing place and I am driving for Sunpadow so it was nice to the see the factory’, his battery sponsor bringing him on a tour of the factory yesterday which is adorned with a huge poster celebrating his 1:10 4WD World title win and Coelho’s Touring Car World title.
Asked his thoughts on the track layout, the 1:8 build very different to the 1:10 layout he raced on here before, Ronnefalk said, ‘From what I understand it the same as what they used the last time but they have just changed the direction. I think the track layout is totally fine, what makes it super difficult is the roughness of the track. It is super bumpy, edgy, even though you might think you are on a good line then something just catches the car and just spins it out or flips you over, so it’s really tough to manage, also mentally. You are trying to make clean laps and sometimes you are not even trying but still you would flip. It is frustrating.’ The Swede added, ‘car set-up is definitely important and I have been working a little bit on the shock package as well as some small stuff on the rear geometry to make it a little bit easier.’ The 2016 World Champion concluded, ‘overall the track is the same for everyone and everyone is struggling, so it’s definitely going to be tough. I don’t mind the track being bumpy in between the jumps but what makes it so difficult is the jumps are totally broken in the faces so sometimes the car just comes out super weird in the jump and then you are not able to save it. It is a long time since I drove a track as difficult as this one, which would probably be the Euros in 2017 in Sweden, but its good fun when you are able to make a clean and it frustrating when you are not so its all about being smooth out there.’
Fresh from his FEMCA ISTC Championship title win at the GDC Indoor track in Foshan last weekend, asked how he was enjoying being back in Xiamen, Coelho replied, ‘It is always nice to be here at the Sunpadow factory cause they are one of my sponsors and who I have been with them for many years. This is like my 4 or 5 time here and the facilities are among the best in the World. I just visited their new showroom and I didn’t know that they existed since 1952.’ Having been to the track earlier in the year for the SIGP Onroad race, which he won, on the offroad track he said, ‘It’s an offroad track but it’s a bit rough, it’s very difficult. It feels like the old time of offroad. I think we are so used to super flat tracks and this looks like a track we raced in the past with the holes and everything and we are not used to this anymore but it is nice to be back in these conditions. It’s still offroad, it is still the same for everybody, of course nobody was ready for that but we need to work on that and that’s it.’