July 12, 2025

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.

July 11, 2025

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

May 10, 2025

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]

February 26, 2025

2025 TITC Chassis Focus Index

21 editions of the TITC have been completed and thanks to the support of Hobbywing, Red RC was once again able to make the annual trip to the Infinity RC Addict Circuit in Bangkok to cover this truly unique event.  By far the greatest one yet in terms of all the pre-race hype, 2025 was the year the race got to play out moments that will forever be engrained in the sport’s history.  Bruno Coelho’s first ever race with Infinity, Michal Orlowski’s first ever TITC.  As the saying goes, ‘you only get one chance to make a first impression’ and wow was an impression Orlowski made on the ‘world’s toughest race’ – complete domination.  We also have to mention A3 and the last lap between Marc Rheinard and Bruno Coelho, that pass was pure Rheinard gold and having been reporting on his racing at the top level for so many years it was brilliant to see he still has that magic.  It was interesting to chat with a number of drivers for whom this was their first time experiencing the TITC, they didn’t actually need to tell us they were loving it because it was already written all over their faces,  it was like they had rediscovered the joy of racing again.  We get to go to our fair share of races around the world and none come close in terms of everyone enjoying themselves.  The laughter in the pits and the enthusiasm of the crowd watching the racing is infectious, and we still get to see the best in the World race head to head for a title they all desire so much – it truly is the unofficial World Championships.

In terms of cars there was lots to see and not see.  Unfortunately Mugen Seiki is still not quite ready to show off its new MTC-3 just yet and Infinity understandably want to keep their brand new prototype under wraps for now.  Kyosho also had a new car but having given us access to a prototype last year it caused some issues and we had to remove it from the site.  For our chassis focus we did get access to the new Axon ‘Concept’ car, we like the choice of title, of Akio Sobue.  In total we managed to photograph 10 team cars from 7 different manufacturers for our Chassis Focus.  A little insight on our chassis focus that you might be interested to know, some drivers will only allow us access to the car on the final day of the event because in the past they discovered their rivals were analysing our photos and getting ideas for their own set-up!  Anyway it was great to see such variety of manufacturers in the A-Main with 7 different brands represented.  One very noticeable absence from the A-Main this year however was that of Xray but they did make up half of the Open Brushless A-Main grid.  It’s only over 3 days now but we are already looking to the 22nd edition of the TITC.  If you race Electric Touring Car put the TITC on your bucket list and that’s not just our advice its Michal Orlowski’s too.

Michal Orlowski (Top Qualifier/Champion) – Schumacher Mi9

Marc Rheinard (Q3/P3) – Awesomatix A800R

Akio Sobue (Q6/P4) – Axon TC10/4 Concept

Lucas Urbain (Q4/P5) – Awesomatix A800R

Goto Souta (Q8/P8) – Tamiya TRF 421

Yugo Nagashima (Q10/P10) – Xpress XQ 11R

Atsushi Hara – RC Maker SP1 ‘Hara Edition’

Antoine Brunet – RC Maker SP1

Alexander Hagberg – Xray X4’25

David Ronnefalk – Xray X4’25

February 24, 2025

JQ at the TITC – The Wrap Up

The 21st edition of the TITC is now done & dusted and having made his debut at the world’s greatest annual Electric Touring Car race, it was great to see Offroad racer Joseph Quagraine leaving the track on Sunday evening on high after the whole experience.  Maybe the high was not from his own racing exploits in Bangkok, but the process of car set-up and the fact he ended up helping out some pretty big names has the man behind Invisible Speed wanting to come back for more.  Having entertained us with his daily column from the race, here is his wrap up piece from the Infinity RC Addict Circuit.  Take it away JQ……..

The race is over, we got dominance by Michal Orlowski, another classic Marc Rheinard last lap pass, and Pekko won his C-final. I also had my second E-final where my hands were only shaking for 1 out of 5 minutes, and I finished 3rd. I managed to enjoy my final laps.

Let’s take a look at a few setup ideas that I found to be very good on this high grip, edgy feeling, and for Touring Cars bumpy track.

There is no one correct way to set a car up, but there are better and worse ways. I believe that for the best base, you need to adjust your roll centers by checking the geometry in some CAD software for example. To put it simply, I generally want the front RC to be slightly lower than the rear RC, and both to be below ground level. There are different ways of achieving this, with different levels of camber gain and geometric stiffness, and that’s where experience comes in. A setup like this results in a car that is stuck to the track, rotates naturally, and at the limit tends to push. Then you need to adjust everything to this base. Depending on the track there are a few decisions you need to make early on.

1. Long upper camber links/arms help to slow everything down, calm down response, give less initial grip, more overall grip. On a flowing layout, inconsistent grip, bumps and hot weather where conserving tyres is important, long upper links is a good option to decide on and stick to.

2. Hard rear diff: A thicker rear diff oil will help maintain rear grip off power, and through a corner, and give better acceleration out of corners. If the car pushes, or is loose out of corners, it is often better to solve those issues in other ways, and keep the thick rear diff oil.

3. A basic principle of car handling, is understanding how load transfer increases or decreases the grip of an end or a corner of a car. More load on a tyre = more grip up to a point, and faster load transfer = more initial grip. The grip changes occur faster, the car is more responsive, you have a higher peak of traction, but losing your car into a slide also happens faster without warning. The suspension of the car is what determines how quickly load transfers. The chassis moving and rolling in corners is delaying load transfer. No suspension would mean instant load transfer. The long links is one way to slow down load transfer, allowing the car to roll more. The most powerful way however, is the shocks. For a condition where we want to slow down load transfer, we want heavy damping, but still enough pack to have good response and control. A way to achieve this is to increase the amount of holes in the pistons of the same size you are running, and use a thicker oil. The heavier slower damping will give your car more consistent grip and easier more controllable handling in an edgy high grip surface.

There you have 3 key setup points that I feel are important to lock down early on, and then you start fine tuning your car with camber, toe, droop, bump steer etc. We can talk more about that later.

I just want to reiterate one point.  The difference between Q4 and A1 for Michal was a 0.5mm bump steer shim, making his outside tyre bump in under compression, increasing entry steering, allowing for less wheel input, resulting in more steering, corner speed, and a 3.3s win margin with a car that for him felt easier to drive.

The previous significant evolution in TC was when Oleg released his Awesomatix.  The next evolution will be a setup developed for a particular driver, giving him exactly what he needs to perform at his best, while maintaining….invisible speed.

View previous ‘JQ at the TITC’ columns here – Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

February 23, 2025

The TITC inside line with Salton Dong – Day 4

The 21st edition of the TITC is in the books and once again it has been an epic event that is like nothing else in the world.  As the newly crowned Modified Champion, having just had his first TITC experience, Michal Orlowski put it perfectly with, ‘everyone needs to experience this at least once in their life.’  During this year’s event we have been having daily catch ups with Hobbywing’s technical support guy Salton Dong to get an insight into his work but today we are handing you over to the man himself to wrap up thing here at Infinity RC Addict.  A huge thank you to Hobbywing for making Red RC’s coverage of the 2025 TITC possible, this was a special one.  Now, over to you Salton…

Today, our team completed the statistics on the market share of power brands for three classes in the inspection area of the race.  This was a very time-consuming task, but we felt it was essential to understand the power choices of participants in major events like TITC.

In the hot environment of Bangkok, choosing a reliable power system is crucial. If you weren’t on-site, it might be hard to imagine the various electronic equipment failures that occurred on the RC Addict track during the race.  Some led to serious crashes, while others caused sudden loss of control.  Whenever these strange incidents happened, as a technical support representative, I always tried to understand the situation and speculate on possible causes as quickly as possible.  Regardless of whether the incident was caused by a specific brand or device, it served as a warning for us as well.

Fortunately Hobbywing has gained recognition from a significant portion of users and has demonstrated exceptionally high reliability.  The data we collected, as mentioned earlier, shows that in the OBL class, 75.6% of users chose our ESC and 65.5% opted for our motors.  In the Non-Boost class, these figures were 70.8% and 88.9%, respectively.  While we are pleased with these results, I would also like to express my gratitude. We look forward to seeing you again next year.