Drivers settle-in in Singapore ahead of biggest eSIC

With the biggest Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) taking place this weekend, drivers have been settling themselves in with open practice at the country’s only permanent track RCMC over the past few days.  Just 10-minutes from the country’s famous Jewel Changi Airport, the third edition of eSIC is living up to its international title with drivers from 14-nations making up this year’s entry.  This is also the first time the event has a greater number of international entries versus locals with 60% of the entry being drivers from other countries, Malaysia topping the visitor count followed by China.  2025 also marks the first factory entries from Xray and Axon.  Singapore’s very own Nicholas Lee, a driving force behind the race, takes on eSIC for the first time in Xray colours and is joined by Alexander Hagberg and Jan Ratheisky.  Hagberg returns to the track a decade on from his last visit.  Axon are here with their up coming TC10/4 touring car release and while Sobue has raced here before with his previous team Infinity, the Japanese driver says he is going to count this as his first visit as he was very sick on the previous occasion and doesn’t remember too much about that particular trip.  Another RCMC rookie this weekend is Atsushi Hara and the legend of the sport has a new Hara purple edition ride in the form of a Mi9 from Schumacher, this being his first run with the car on a ‘proper track’.

Originally built as a nitro track, eSIC runs on a shorter layout option that cuts out two sections on the left side, one of the reason’s being as the track is built on government owned land and surrounded by trees, if it was to rain the slightly banked section would become very difficult to drive even after drying in the shade of the trees.  Switching from the September date of the last two years to July, the hope is that they will enjoy a dry third edition although rain has effected open practice.  While now his home track that wasn’t always the case for Lee as the electronics available at the time of his early racing career struggled with the size of the track so he never race here.  That would change however for the country’s best known international racer, Lee explaining, ‘a few years ago I came back to test & try it and I thought it was really good to run electric again and then more & more people came to run electric here.’  Coming up with the idea for eSIC over a drink with Chhua Jookiah, the two local racers wanting to have another big race in Asia as there are not so many, and with the intention of exposing local racers to international competition to help develop the level of driving.  He added. ‘It took a lot of time & effort to come out with eSIC, we had our ups & downs, but this is our 3rd edition and everything is going well’.  On his own on track performance over the last few days he responded, ‘the track is proving to have much higher traction than normal this year.’  Asked why he felt this was, he attributed the high grip to the record number of drivers running, the use of controlled additive, and the fact there is no nitro cars on the track ‘so it is not oily and with the controlled additive everything is more consistent.’  Asked if he felt he was dialled in for the weekend, he responded, ‘I think it is going to be close, it is going to be close with Alex, with Akio and the Axon guys, EC Kim so everyone has a chance’.

‘It’s good to be back here.  It’s the first time in 10-years.  I love the atmosphere, the people are very friendly and the food is great.’ was Hagberg’s response when ask about making the trip to eSIC.  He continued, ‘the last time I was here was 2015, it was also for electric touring car, but a lot has changed since then.  The track has been resurfaced, the grip is a little higher than it was back then but on the other hand it is a little bumpier.  So the biggest challenge is to deal with the bumps and make the car aggressive enough but have good handling for the bumps.  Finding the right balance is what we have been working on the last few days.’  A big fan of the local food, he continued, ‘It looks like it is going to be a close race between the Top 4 or 5 guys.  I am working close together with Nicholas of course to find the right set-up, we are running a pretty similar set-up.  It’s not a huge race in terms of number but it’s still a very competitive race with many nations represented.’

Using a production version of the Axon TC10/4 for the very time at eSIC having run a ‘Concept’ version at the TITC earlier in the year, asked how open practice had gone, Sobue said, ‘for the first time here the performance is good I think’.  Looking to add an eSIC win to go along with wins of Asia’s most famous race, the TITC, the World Championship podium finisher said the biggest issue he has been dealing with is a bump towards the end of the straight.  With the bump on the inside line catching out a lot of drivers, he said it is very important to be careful there cause the car can get launched off the track.  On the pace he has seen so far he said ‘this is Nicholas (Lee) home track so he was fast but now I think a few of us have similar lap times.  Nicholas has the advantage of knowing how to change the car for the conditions at different stages but I think for us we are still good cause in every condition my car felt the same and was easy to drive.  With team-mate Hayato Ishioka also running the new TC10/4, having both started out on the same basic set-up but not liking the way the car worked for him, Ishioka has now gone his own direction with set-up ahead the race action.

The start of a busy back to back two weeks of racing, his eSIC trip followed by a quick flight back to Japan to swap his touring cars for his 1:8 Buggy gear for the Asian Buggy Championships in Brisbane, Hara likes the RCMC track layout.  He said, ‘The right side section is pretty similar to Apeldoorn I think’, the Japanese driver referring to the crowd favourite Dutch circuit.  ‘The left side is a bit different but having raced Apeldoorn last month I have easily adapted to the track here.’  Asked what set-ups he has been working on, he said, ‘I have a different car again.  This time I am running a Schumacher.  I chose it because they are the distributor for Cayote in England.  I was also interested to try one time the Schumacher.  I drove it one time in Japan but I never driven it on this kind of track and its working good but touring car is getting more & more difficult with small details needed in everything.’

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