Sobue takes opening 2 qualifiers in Singapore

Having topped seeding, Axon’s Akio Sobue has showed no signs of letting up on being the pace setter at this year’s Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) as he took the opening two rounds of qualifying at the annual race.  With main challengers Nicolas Lee and Alexander Hagberg both sitting out Q1, Hagberg more forced than opting, the first of the four scheduled qualifiers opened with Sobue leading an Axon 1-2 ahead of team-mate Hayato Ishioka with Chinese National Champion Jerry Dai completing the Top 3.  With all the eSIC contenders back on track for Q2, Sobue proved Q1 was in fact a true indication of the Japanese driver’s speed at the controls of his new TC10/4 as he held off Lee to go two from two by a margin of 1.3-seconds.  After missing Q1 due to his huge off in seeding, Hagberg proved he had rebuilt a good car being the only one to match Sobue in posting a 13.6-second fastest lap time.  A spin however from the Swede in the second minute of the qualifier ended that challenge and he registered a P7.  The benefactor would be Ethan Cheng, the Xray driver adding a P3 to go with his P6 from the opening round.

Summing up his performances, Sobue said, ‘In Q1 the track condition was still changing a lot but my car was still easy to drive and was good for the 5-minutes.’  Happy with the consistency of the car, he continued, ‘Q2 I used new tyres because Nicholas and Alex used new tyre and I also I don’t want to keep tyres and play like this.  I had good pace but so did Alex until he made a mistake.  I thought he was out then but then saw he kept going.’   Looking to the remaining qualifiers, Q3 & 4 due to be completed today due to chances of rain in the morning, Sobue said he will leave the car unchanged but will run used tyres.  Best of the drivers on used tyres in Q2 posting a P4 run, team-mate Ishioka is also enjoying the performance of his new car opting to run an unchanged set-up since seeding.  With a set of tyres in hand, the Japanese driver has the potential for a TQ run in the final two rounds.

Making a strategic decision to skip Q1 to save tyres, on his second round qualifier Lee said, ‘Overall today I think we have less grip because of the rain but I think it effects us more than the others’.  The Xray driver continued, ‘I think we need to find more grip today from the car set-up.’  Asked if had any idea on what changes he would make he replied, ‘I think I will go with what Alex is running because he was pretty fast in the last round.’

Asked how his rebuilt Xray was after its high speed off in seeding, Hagberg said, ‘It was alright.  I think it was very similar to how it was before.  I rebuilt the car completely with probably 60% new parts.  It felt OK and I was running second but I made a stupid mistake over a bump and onto the grass which cost be at least a second.’  Asking about Q3 the former multiple World and European Champion said, ‘we are going to try and collect some points and make sure first of all we have a result and then we can try to push forward.’

Giving a run down on his opening qualifying efforts, Cheng, who has contested all 3 editions of eSIC, explained, ‘I had a small crash in seeding and I think after that my car was tweaked.  For Q2 I checked everything and changed everything new and the car felt a lot better, there was a lot more grip.’  The 19-year-old, who like fellow Singaporean Lee switched from Yokomo to Xray for the 2025 season, added he is really enjoying his new Xray chassis with the inaugural eSIC Open Brushless Champion aiming to better his previous two Modified class results at RCMC.

Sobue ‘Top Seed’ at eSIC

Axon’s Akio Sobue has got his debut with the new TC10/4 off to a strong start as the Japanese driver topped seeding at the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC).  After drivers woke to rain this morning in Singapore, once the track dried out and the first official laps of the event where completed it was Sobue who laid down the fastest 3-consecutive laps ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg. Separated by 4/10ths of a second over the 3-laps, Sobue’s fastest around the RCMC track a 13.695, unfortunately Hagberg’s run would be cut short as he found the circuit’s dreaded bump on the straight.  Sending his car flying off the track, the impact means the Swede will miss the opening qualifier as he rebuilds his car.  Completing the Top 3 would be Jan Ratheisky, the German visitor 7/100ths faster than pre-race favourite & team-mate Nicholas Lee, the Singapore driver struggling with a set-up change he made for seeding.

‘Completely different to yesterday’, was Sobue’s reaction after topping the times.  The former TITC Champion added, ‘I mean the traction is completely different and the line I had to drive was different compared to yesterday.  Some inside lines are still dusty so it was difficult to find a good line’.  While his Swedish rival didn’t compete the full run, Sobue feels the former World Champion has found extra pace saying, ‘Today Alex is faster.  I think 3-laps for me is fast but over 5-minute I think it is super close with Alex.’  Having changed his set-up based off his expectations of this morning’s track conditions, Sobue thinks now that the track will have even more time to dry he will revert back to yesterday’s set-up for Q1.

‘That wasn’t good.  The car flew on the bump on the straight and hit the wall and it is now completely destroyed’, was Hagbrerg’s summary after the single seeding round.  Prior to his off, he said his package was ‘not too bad in terms of pace’, adding ‘the track didn’t feel all that different to yesterday even though it was after raining.  The car just needs a bit more steering but I was pretty happy with the car.  I will try and repair it and see, I am definitely not going to have time to run Q1 because the car is needing some repairs.’  He concluded, ‘with some small adjustments for Q2 I hope to be competitive.’  Team-mate Ratheisky appeared to have no issues with adjusting to the track saying, ‘for me it was a little more slippery which I technically super like cause I have more steering.  Everything worked so I can’t complain about anything and I will leave the car the same for Q2.’

Lee described his seeding run as ‘not very good’.  The most experienced among the record field with two eSIC podiums to his credit, he explained, ‘it was drizzling a little bit during the run so I had no grip.  Also though, I did some changes which I think were worse so I will revert back to the same set-up as yesterday.’  Behind Lee the Top 6 was completed by the the Axon of Hayato Ishioka and Schumacher of Atsushi Hara.  With the move to July not having the desired positive weather effects, more forecast overnight/morning rain has forced the the organisers to push through with trying to get all four rounds of qualifying in today so as to leave tomorrow’s schedule free for just finals.

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.’

Track Images

Haberg confirmed for eSIC debut

Two time World Champion Alexander Hagberg is the latest driver to be confirmed for the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC), the factory Xray driver set to make his debut at the third edition of race on July 12-13.   A race that continues to establish itself as a key race on the international touring car calendar, 2025 will mark the first factory representation at the event which is the headed up by Singapore’s touring car racer Nicholas Lee together with Chhua Jookiah.  Racing at the Marine Parade Radio Control Modellers Club track, the event has attracted official team entries from Mugen Seiki, Infinity, Awesomatix, Yokomo, ARC and Xpress and in 2025 adds both Axon, with  Hayato Ishioka, and Xray whose challenge will be led by Hagberg.  On the confirmation of his trip to Singapore, the Swede said, ‘Looking forward to racing in Singapore again after a few years!  The eSIC has established itself as one of the most competitive Asian TC events.  Can’t wait to be a part of it – and to meet both old & new friends as well as Xray customers and team drivers!  See you in Singapore in July!’

Source: eSIC [Facebook]