July 13, 2025

Sobue cruises to eSIC A1 win ahead of Hagberg

Having feared they might wake to rain, racers at the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) have instead been greeting by the hottest day of the week in Singapore however that hot humid conditions still weren’t enough to stop the reign of Axon’s Akio Sobue at RCMC as he took a convincing A1 win ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg.  Leading away the international field, Top Qualifier Sobue and his team-mate Hayato Ishioka pulled clear with Hagberg getting by Nicholas Lee  early on.  While running on used tyres, Lee was holding fourth but then a mistake half way into the race dropped him to last.  While the race was ticking off laps, Hagberg would suddenly find himself with Ishioka.  Unfortunately the hot conditions causing the Japanese driver to lose power resulting in Hagberg making contact as the came onto the straight.  Once into P2 Hagberg could do nothing about Sobue who took the win by 2 & a half seconds.  Benefiting from Ishioka and Lee’s issues, having lined up P6 Atsushi Hara came through with his Schumacher to complete the Top 3 just ahead of E.C Kim’s Awesomatix.

Asked if his win was as easy at it looked, Sobue replied, ‘It was Easy but not easy’ adding ‘the conditions today is completely different we have both sunshine and hot conditions and that is something we didn’t get to practice in this week, but I didn’t make any changes to the car from yesterday and it was still easy to drive.’  Asked if over heating his tyres was a concern, Sobue said, ‘I pushed for the first two minutes but after I had a gap I drove a little more safe to help the tyres.’  Looking to A2, Sobue said he hopes he can ‘just do the same again’.

Summing up his first final, Hagberg said, ‘I was on new tyres obviously and I was able to pass Nicholas early on.  I think I lost a little time at the start of the run but then I was basically the same pace as Hayato but not quick enough to catch him.  We stayed at the same gap for most of the run and then he had some sort of issue and I was able to move up to second but I need to change something small on the car to pick up a bit more space to be able to battle for Top 2 in the remaining finals.’  Asked about tyre choice for A2, the Swede replied, ‘I need to discuss with my team-mate and see what he plans and then do the opposite.’

‘Starting from 6th you just have to wait for something to happen and it did.  I am going to do the same thing for the next one, wait!’, that was Hara’s reaction to his P3 in A1.  On today’s conditions, he added, ‘the car feels the same as yesterday but it is much hotter temperature today so if I overdrive then it’s easy for the tyres to overheat.  I think this is the only thing I have to do, be careful not to push too much.  I’m sure everyone go new tyres the next one and I think I have top keep one more set for A3.

July 13, 2025

Chassis Focus – Nicholas Lee (Xray)

Chassis – Xray X4’25
ESC – Hobbywing G3
Motor – Hobbywing V10 G3 5.0T
Battery – GensAce 6600mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17s / PowerHD GTS2
Body – Xtreme Speciale

Notes –
In terms of optionals Nicholas is running Hudy tungsten weights and a Hudy fan.

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July 12, 2025

Sobue is eSIC Top Qualifier as Axon claim 1-2 in quali

Akio Sobue is the Top Qualifier at the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC), the Japanese driver leading an Axon 1-2 in qualifying today at the country’s RCMC track.  Making his debut at the third & biggest eSIC race to-date, Sobue took early charge of today’s first official day of action by topping seeding and carrying that momentum into qualifying.  Taking the opening two encounters, when team-mate Hayato Ishioka took Q3 it was assured a TC10/4 would start on pole.  With Xray’s Nicholas Lee finally managing to break the Axon stranglehold in the fourth & final qualifier, taking the round ahead of Atsushi Hara, Sobue was confirmed the Top Qualifier.  Trying to split the Japanese pair, unfortunately for Lee he came up 6/10ths of a second shy of bettering Ishioka’s TQ time meaning a 1-2 on the grid for the eSIC debutant Japanese manufacturer.  With 2025 also marking Xray’s factory team debut at the international race, their new for 2025 driver Lee one half of the driving force behind the event, it will be the Singapore driver who starts P3.  Team-mate Alexander Hagberg lines-up P4 with the top half of the grid being completed by E.C Kim, the leading Korean driver spinning out of a potential TQ run in Q4.

Capping off qualifying with two Top 3 runs, explaining his Q3 & Q4 performances Sobue said, ‘In Q3 I used old tyres but I still got solid points, it was a good run.  I was only 1.2-seconds behind the leader which is not such a big different between new and used (tyres).  Q4 I spun out three times and I don’t know why but the main thing is I was lucky I didn’t hit the wall.’  Asked about tomorrow’s triple finals, the 2-time TITC Champion said, ‘I think this track is hard to overtake.  If you go on the outside it is easy to run wide and then if you try the inside the curb is too high.  I am also lucky that I have my team-mate Hayato starting in second, (a pause and laughing then followed with) I hope!’  Asked about making any set-up changes to his car he replied, ‘no need, the car is already good so I will just rebuild and make fresh for the finals.’

Another international driver making his eSIC debut this weekend, Ishioka is enjoying the experience adding he likes the track layout and is very happy with the performance of their new car.  Taking his TQ run on new tyre, being only 1/10th off Sobue’s TQ best from Q2, running the final qualifier on used tyres, like Sobue, Ishioka said, ‘the car & the pace was still good but I had one mistake.’  Asked jokingly if Axon would imply team orders tomorrow, Ishioka replied, ‘the aim is to have a fair race, no team orders’.  On his car and any potential set-up changes for the finals, the 29-year-old said, ‘the car’s balance is really good and has been like that from the start so I don’t think we need to change anything for tomorrow but I’ll think about if we should change anything.’

Summing up his final two efforts, Lee said, ‘Q3 was just a normal run on old tyres because I wanted to save new tyres for the last one’.  He continued, ‘On Q4 I knew I had to make a TQ and also make a faster run than Hayato to start ahead of him.  I pushed maximum but I lost out by 6/1oths overall to him, I couldn’t do more.’  On starting P3, Lee said, ‘I have to find something more for tomorrow.’  A driver who know the country’s only permanent RC track better than most, asked what racing on it is like he said, ‘honestly it is really hard to overtake if you just cover the lines so I just have to put pressure on Hayato to make a mistake, otherwise this track is impossible to overtake I think.  Although the track is wide it has a very fine racing line.’  Coping Hagberg’s set-up for Q3, he said the difference was too small to matter and not wanting to take any risk given his new set of tyres for Q4 he planned safe.  He will instead try something for the first final tomorrow but overall he feels they are sticking lacking something in terms of grip.

Unable to be ready for Q1 due to a crash in seeding, and then suffering a mistake in Q2, asking Hagberg how the second half of quali went, the Swede replied, ‘In Q3 I was fighting for the TQ with Ishioka, it was very close, 1/10th, 2/10ths separating us the whole run and it came down to the small mistakes which in the last 2-laps I had a couple of small errors and that probably cost me the TQ.’  He added, ‘the car was competitive I felt, maybe not perfect, but good enough to TQ I just made small mistakes.’  In Q4 he said ‘I tried my luck with old tyres to save two sets for the finals and ended up fourth.  Obviously the car was understeering more on old tyres as you would expect so I start fourth on the grid which is lower than I would of liked.  We will see what we can do tomorrow and make some small adjustments overnight to try and find more pace.’  On now switching to heads up racing rather than against the clock, Hagbeg said, ‘this track is more about staying consistent, it is really east to make small mistakes and that’s what it is going to come down to.  If you catch a bump or something and the curbs are kinda big so whoever touches the curb will loose out on position as well.  It’s hard to be aggressive on this track because of the nature of the track so for the same reason it is going to be hard to pass people.’

July 12, 2025

Chassis Focus – Atsushi Hara (Schumacher)

Chassis – Schumacher Mi9 ‘Hara Edition’
ESC – Cayote Crest X
Motor – Cayote Modi 4.5T
Battery – Cayote 6800mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17s / Sanwa SXR PGS-LH II
Body – Xtreme Speciale

Note – Racing a Schumacher for the first time here at eSIC, Atsushi is running the car because of the British manufacturer’s links with Cayote.  With Hara a brand ambassador for Cayote, Schumacher are the electrics company’s UK distributor.  Of course it’s not any ordinary Mi9 either but one that has been given the ‘Hara Edition’ treatment.  With a friend in the anodising industry, Hara is able to get his trademark purple done on very limited numbers.

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July 12, 2025

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.

July 12, 2025

Chassis Focus – Akio Sobue (Axon)

Chassis – Axon TC10/4
ESC – Orca OE1 Mark II
Motor – Orca Modtreme 3 4.5T
Battery – Orca 6090mah
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17s / Sanwa SXR PGS-LH II
Body – Xtreme Speciale

Notes –
Akio is running the first production example of the new upcoming TC10/4 kit release from Axon with eSIC being the first time Akio has got to race the Japanese manufacturers final iteration of its latest touring car.

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