The Lion City Electric Touring Cup announced the postponement on Wednesday, 23 September, after engineers found that a car’s dashboard continued displaying an old battery reading while the pack grew hotter. The final round was due to run on a temporary 2.4 km (1.5-mile) circuit at Marina South on Saturday, with the season title still undecided.
During a stationary test on Tuesday, one display held at 31°C (88°F) as a separate instrument measured the battery pack at 74°C (165°F). Organisers said the dashboard had stopped refreshing its data for 43 seconds but gave no warning that the reading was stale. No car caught fire, and no one was hurt.
The fault behind the decision
“Nobody is going to race a car that tells its driver yesterday’s temperature,” said Satish Ganesh-Mitra, the cup’s safety director. He said the defect appeared in the telemetry gateway fitted to every entry, and that teams would not be allowed to drive until the system passed new checks.
The decision removes all 18 cars from a finale that could settle a close contest. Juan Manuel Pelayo and a rival driver are tied on 148 points; the champion is due to receive a share of a SGD 2.8 million (about €1.9 million) season payout, distributed among drivers and teams.
Nobody is going to race a car that tells its driver yesterday’s temperature.
Satish Ganesh-Mitra, cup safety director
A dashboard can only warn a driver if its sensors keep sending current information, said Fred K. Eklund, an electronics specialist at the fictional Straits Institute of Mobility who reviewed the test data for the organisers. “The alarming part is not just the wrong number; it is the absence of a fault signal,” he said.
Teams wait for a new test
Organisers have cancelled Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions and offered ticket-holders refunds or credit for a rescheduled date. The circuit’s temporary barriers and timing equipment were already being installed near the bay, where afternoon heat and sudden rain showers can complicate race preparations.
Teams were told to leave their cars in their garages while the telemetry units are checked. Pelayo said the delay was difficult but necessary: “We prepared for a championship fight. We cannot ask drivers to guess whether the temperature display is telling the truth.”
The cup plans to test each gateway against an independent temperature instrument before deciding whether the final can proceed. Ganesh-Mitra said organisers would publish a new date only after every car passed; if the checks cannot be completed in time, the points table will stand and the title will be awarded on its current standings.
The telemetry supplier has been asked to explain why the dashboard kept showing a valid-looking number after updates stopped. The cup has not said whether the failure followed a recent software change, and did not give a deadline for the supplier’s report. For now, teams face an empty race weekend and a title fight without a finish line.
