Sobue wins Hongyu GDC opening race

Marking the official opening of the brand new Hongyu GDC track in Foshan, China, Axon driver Akio Sobue claimed victory at the 2026 IFMAR ISTC World Championship host venue.  In qualifying the Japanese driver secured the TQ ahead of team-mate Hayato Ishioka, the latter claiming the first of the four qualifiers before Sobue went fastest in Q2 & 3.   Schumacher’s Pekko Iivonen, the eBuggy World Championship finalists a late entry after the cancellation of the Asian Buggy Championships finale in Indonesia, would top the final qualifier to secure third on the grid ahead of top Chinese racer Alfred Lao.  In A1 as the two Axon drivers pulled clear, Sobue’s car would come to a stop 3-minutes in allowing Ishioka to cruise to the win ahead of Iivonen and Lao.  In A2 and 3, Sobue ran trouble free to win both encounters and locked in the overall win at the hugely impressive multi-track facility with Ishioka and Iivonen completing the podium.  In Stock it was RC Maker driver Zaccheus Lam who secured the TQ and win ahead of Awesomatix’s Max Machler with fifth place qualifier Wang Haifeng claiming the final step on the podium.  In the nitro categories, the 1:8 Onroad TQ and victory went to Infinity driver Poon Ray while Xray driver Hudson Hu claimed victory in the 1:8 GT class.

Image: Axon [Facebook]