Racing to Watch For: This Weekend 1st Rnd of Aussie eFX and Brammo Takes Gas Bik

[ttxgpfan]

http://esbk.co/2013/05/05/wismanns-notes-from-yesterday-with-the-afm/

[Shinysideup]

From Brammo's FB page:

Official results 250SB race: Shelina moves up from 14th on the grid to take 7th place. Great ride Shelina and all are happy with the results!

[protomech]

Brammo posts on twitter:

Shelina goes from 14th on the grid to take 7th place 250SB. Great ride Shelina!! ow.ly/i/22Jkd #brammo @Shelina93 #EmpulseTTX

Re-linking to fix the orientation.

[flar]

At this point my battery is just about dead so I'm not going to be broadcasting any more footage today, sorry.

[protomech]

Thanks for joining the hangout, flar. Pretty cool to see Shelina running around on the supermoto track!

If you have to spend a significant amount of time untethered from the grid, additional batteries (external or internal) are absolutely invaluable. Seems like racetracks never have power sockets where I want to be, or I'm running around the entire time, and I'm always fiddling with the phone on marginal signal.

This one will charge a typical smartphone twice, weighs about a quarter pound.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10831&cs_id=1083110&p_id=10069&seq=1&format=2

[flar]

I'm basically an idiot.  I do have a couple of those battery extenders and thought to bring it, but forgot to pack it.  Even worse, I was carrying around my AC phone charger (since I went up the night before and spent the night in the area) and was looking around for a spare USB charging cable, all the time forgetting that all I needed was a spot on one of their many power strips.

In any case, the next 2 races that they were competing in were booked against each other so I could only have broadcast one of them.  I chose to attend the 750SB and that was quite a bit more competitive than the earlier races.  I didn't catch the final order since they lapped the slower group so it was hard to figure out who was in the lead pack and who was trundling along.  Hopefully the results will be up soon.

[protomech]

Results are up for 250 Superbike:
https://trackintel.com/ti/afm/iphone/results_raid.html?event_year=2013&event=20130504%2fafm&raid=2500000000000872

Shelina came in #7 of 16 bikes. Her fastest lap was 5.5s behind the #1 fastest lap.

Each bike/rider combination was originally scheduled to race in a different event. Eric and Steve both raced in Formula I but retired with a DNF after 3-5 laps; per Eric this was to do some additional practice, nail down the RR's setup and charge back before the Superbike 750 race.

Both riders then raced in 750 Superbike. Results:
https://trackintel.com/ti/afm/iphone/results_raid.html?event_year=2013&event=20130504%2fafm&raid=2900000000000008

EBoz came in #14 of 20 bikes. Steve-O came in #17 of 20 bikes. Eric's fastest lap was 8s behind the #1 fastest lap.

I halfway suspect that the reason the bikes are all over the place in terms of race classification is because both Brammo and the AFM are trying to get a feel for how the bikes compete.

The Empulse TTX is probably right on target power-wise for 250 SB, but it's going to be about 100 pounds heavier than a race-prepped 250 to 450 cc bike. Since the TTX will likely remain tied to the production Empulse, changes will be less granular and will probably revolve more around motor mapping, gearing, suspension setup.

The Empulse RR likewise is right on target power-wise for 750 SB, but again it's much heavier than the gas bikes, perhaps by 100 pounds. I'm curious how well the single-speed drive handled the initial standing start. Flar, did you catch the start of the 750 SB race?

Also worth mentioning that the AFM only races 3 circuits, and many of the riders are quite experienced at these tracks. Eric and Steve and Shelina are all excellent riders, and I know Steve and the Empulse RR have raced at Infineon before, but familiarity with the track will let them pick up some speed.

Anyhow, it's a good day, Brammo and the AFM both learned some good lessons, and there were no show-stopping glitches like we saw at Daytona and Infineon last year *uncrosses fingers*.

[flar]

I was in the grandstands for the start of the 750SB, but I was still trying to get seated and get my camera to work so I wasn't watching closely.  I seem to recall that they jumped ahead initially, but that initial surge seemed to disappear before the first turn.  I believe in the 250SB Shelina jumped 5-7 places off the line, but the initial jump was less drastic in the 750.

Also, Eric went in to the Formula race intending to practice.  He didn't even jump off the line, but stayed back a bit and let the pack get out ahead.  On the other hand, Steve was in that race to compete but had some minor issues that got him into a little bit of trouble with some of the racers (judging from what I heard it seemed like the other racers were a little rude in reaction to a glitch he experienced).  In the end, he left the race because he was unsure if the issue would remain or get worse and, in particular, how the other racers might react.  I don't think he experienced the issues in the final 750 race, though, so it got sorted.

One thing that I expect may be an issue in trying to classify the bikes between ICE and EV is that the performance curve over the length of the race is different.  The EV comes off the line at its best performance and every lap sees the batteries no longer able to put out the same voltage/performance.  ICE bikes, I'm guessing, have much more consistent performance in comparison.  If an e-bike demonstrates a particular lap time, then placing it in the class that matches its best lap time may not produce competitive results if it can only do that best lap time towards the start of the race.

For instance, the Formula 1 race was black-flagged on the first lap and everyone came in to the pits.  I asked Brian if that would be a handicap due to batteries running out and he said that it wasn't so much the amount of energy in the batteries - they have plenty for extra laps - so much as not getting the same performance on a restart without significantly more time to recharge.

[protomech]

Gas bike performance will vary a bit. Less weight as the tank empties (and Cg lowers). Tires ideally are kept at optimum temp with blankets so start with good grip, depending on compound may start to fade over a longer event.

An electric bike battery will be at peak voltage as the race begins, but falls off of that peak voltage very quickly (maybe 1 lap?) to settle somewhere around nominal before slowly declining. That hasn't seemed to be a huge problem in races so far; I recall many TTXGP races where Steve-O would improve his lap time every lap. Lightning would get into trouble when they drew down too much energy and slowed before the end.

[ttxgpfan]

Shelina considers Sonoma her home track, and Eric is from the same home town.  Sonoma has hosted AMA races for years (until this year) so all of them being AMA racers have a lot of experience there.  Steve may actually have the least numbers of laps around it, but I don't know that for sure.  If you look at the lap times the Brammos were incredibly consistent, so in a club race they have no real disadvantage.  In one of my conversations with Brian, I think it was, he pointed out that even though the top speeds drop every lap due to less peak voltage, the lap times always got faster because the tires were warming up.  I think to them it seemed like the race was over just as they got the tires hot.  In club racing the bikes will be running only as much gas as they need (rider's discretion), but they will be having the same issues with the tires for such a short race.  Where gas bikes can maintain their top speeds in the later laps there may be a slight advantage, but I suspect not.