Red RC

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.

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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.

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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.

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July 12, 2025

RC Maker SP1 | SP1F Optional Alu Chassis’

Australian Touring Car manufacturer RC Maker has released new optional aluminium chassis’ for both its SP1 and front wheel drive SP1F. Both made from 7075 T6 Aluminium with black anodising, the 1.5mm chassis for the SP1 has been developed extensively over several months of testing with team drivers on a variety of classes and surfaces. It has proven to be a great middle ground which works well on a very large range of surfaces, from low grip asphalt, to high grip carpet. Compared to the 2.0mm Aluminium Chassis, the 72-gram 1.5mm option allows more rotation, and makes the car more free in the corner. The overall stiffness of the chassis is comparable to the hard carbon chassis, however being 0.75mm thinner, the centre of gravity is substantially reduced. 110 degree screws are required to install this chassis, the standard 90 degree kit screws not fitting. An optional for the SP1-F, the 2.0mm Aluminium Chassis is a great option for carpet racing. The chassis offers a more forwards weight bias, as well as a very stiff front, and flexible rear thanks to the many cut-outs in the rear section of the chassis for optimal flex characteristics. This increases corner speed and keeps the car sitting flatter under high load cornering. Weighing 80-grams, this chassis uses the standard screws included in the kit.

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July 12, 2025

JConcepts S15 XB8’25 Body

JConcepts has updated its S15 body shell line-up with the addition of an option for the XB8’25 1:8 Buggy from Xray. The S15 blends performance features from the popular Silencer body with new features such as mid-body winglets and rear stabiliser kick-up. The roof of the body remains strong with the upper fin in position for stability and tracking ability. The front and rear body mount area is cleanly designed and allows for a drop-fit on the XB8’25. The S15 concept uses heavily chamfered side-pods blended into winglets made popular by JConcepts heritage designs. Each body comes with an exterior protective film, window mask and decal sheet.

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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’.

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July 11, 2025

Capricorn LAB GT2 Front Hub Insert EVO 2 Kit

Continuing the roll out of parts updates for its LAB GT2 1:8 GT chassis in this IFMAR GT World Championship year, Capricorn has released this EVO 2 Front Hub Insert Kit. The new kit provides a lightening of the suspended masses of 5 grams per hub carrier, which ensures a greater steering angle. The new steering horn has been strengthened and allows for double adjustment of the tie rods. The new structure, as with the rear hub stay, ensures greater smoothness of the wheel hub.

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July 11, 2025

Axon TC10/4 Electric Touring Car Pre-release Spec

Japanese Electric Touring Car manufacturer and 2022 World Championship podium finishers Axon has pre-released some of the features of its upcoming new offering, the TC10/4. Publishing three images of the car on social media, Axon, who are currently in Singapore for this weekend eSIC race with drivers Akio Sobue and Hayato Ishioka, list features of the new car to include a sophisticated lightweight upper and lower bulkheads. The car still shares the chassis with the current TC10/3, which was official announced in November 2023, but gets a new centred design of the front & rear dampers for improved cornering manoeuvrability. Axon will release further details on the final production kit shortly.

View Kit Features Overview & more images here