Sobue wins ISTC Worlds Warm-up Race

Akio Sobue took the win at the official ISTC World Championship Warm-up race over the weekend, the Axon driver coming out on top of the small international entry to win ahead Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and Serpent’s Dominic Greiner.  With Finishline RC Raceway in Bakersfield, California, set to host the 12th running of the IFMAR World Championship for Electric Touring Car from Nov 5-10th, the official Warm-up race attracted 23 modified entries.  With reigning back to back World Champion Bruno Coelho and hotly tipped title favourite Michal Orlowski competing at 1:10 Offroad European Championships in Sweden, where they claimed a title each, it was 2022 Worlds podium finisher Sobue who set the pace throughout the event.  Topping all three qualifiers he secured the TQ ahead of Hagberg and former Nitro Touring Car World Champion Greiner and that’s how they ran & finished in the opening two A-Mains.  Hagberg took A3 from Greiner with multiple 1:10 Offroad World Champion Ryan Cavalieri getting a third that gave him fourth overall.  In Pro Stock it was Schumacher’s Ollie Payne who took the win.  Former World Champions Marc Rheinard and Atsushi Hara opted to not race and instead will begin testing at the track today.  Red RC will be travelling to Finishline RC Raceway in 5-weeks time to cover the main event.

Image: Serpent [Facebook]