SIGP returnees & debutants agree over challenging track

After successfully returning to the international 1:8 Offroad race calendar last year, the latest edition of the Sunpadow International Grand Prix is under way with the moving of the race date to a month earlier than last year making for much warmer conditions. The 2017 IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championship host track’s signature annual event, there also an SIGP Onroad race earlier in the season, last year’s winner Davide Ongaro is absent from the entry which is now headed by last year’s eBuggy winner David Ronnefalk. Fresh from a double win at the opening race of the new Hongyu GDC 1:8 Offroad track last weekend in Foshan, drivers making their way between races on the China’s bulletin train system, Ronnefalk’s main challenge is going to come from his old team-mate Bruno Coelho, the then Xray driver finishing on the SIGP podium in the nitro final. Now part of the Infinity team, the Portuguese driver is joined at the 3-circle ARC International RC Racing Track in Xiamen by Kouki Kato, the Japanese driver making his 1:8 Buggy debut on the large track which is built on the grounds of the massive Sunpadow batteries factory. Also making his SIGP debut, Pekko Iivonen joins his returning Makayo team boss Joseph Quagraine, in taking on the challenging track the Finn more enthused about the track conditions than his main rivals for the large cash prize fund on offer. With no Ongaro this year, Team Associated will be pinning their hopes on young up & coming Korean talent Jung Hyunkyu, who like Ongaro last year is struggling to get to early terms with bumpy track.









