Chassis – Xray X4’25
ESC – Hobbywing G3
Motor – Hobbywing V10 G3 4.5T
Battery – EAM Graph-X 6000
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17s / Sanwa PGS LHR
Body – Xtreme Speciale
Notes –
In terms of upgrades Alexander’s X4 is fitted with an optional 1.5mm Aluminium chassis, optional stiffer rear springs, optional Alu diff bearing holders, optional Ackermann plate and optional stiffer rear anti roll bar.
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Action from the opening A-Main of Modified Touring Car at the 2025 Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC) at RCMC, Singapore.
View full results here
Chassis – Awesomatix A800R
ESC – Hobbywing G3
Motor – Hobbywing V10 G3 4.5T
Battery – Cayote 6300
Tires (handout) – Sweep
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17s / Power HD GTS2
Body – Xtreme Speciale
Notes –
E.C is using the optional steel chassis from Awesomatix on his A800R here at eSIC.
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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 the 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 team-mate Nicholas Lee early on. While running on used tyres, Lee was holding fourth but then a mistake half way into the race dropped the home hero 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 a little 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.
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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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.’