Weekend Recap

[Mr.Rodgers]

AutoBlog Green has a decent write-up of how the weekend at Sonoma:

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/05/13/zero-motorcycles-prove-resilient-in-crash-marred-ttxgp-weekend/

[protomech]

Looks like the ABG article has the same video twice:


Key points:
1:05 green flag, Martin Szwarc on the Zero. What's amazing is Szwarc largely keeps the second Lightning bike in sight for well over a minute .. at least until they hit a longer straight. Tim Hunt rode the second Lightning bike, and he is new to the Lightning team. (I had initially thought the slower bike was an older Lightning, but David Herron at examiner.com believes they are identical bikes).

1:25 The other Zero hanging with Szwarc for a minute is #96 Kenyon Kluge, not sure what he's doing with his arm (1:30). Maybe lowering drag?

I'm glad Zero showed up .. without Brammo, there would have only been two bikes on grid, and both races would have eventually been down to a single bike. TTXGP suffers from very intermittent attendance - some races (Laguna Seca) have a pretty wide grid, other races are sparsely populated at best.

Brammo won the 2011 TTXGP NA Championship by contesting each race and being very reliable. They're off to a rough start this year, though it sounds like the Lightning bikes have less of a points lead than they might otherwise.

[Deadly Silent Ninja]

Zero just proved again what Brammo showed last season: reliability is everything.
At least, in this beginning for electric motorcycles. Once reliability becomes a given, then everything else will matter. For now is a "finish the race and you will be fine" deal.
I am now even more curious to see where Brammo fits in this race.

[FreepZ]

"reliability is everything."

That's so true.

I think that the Empulse RR was certainly capable of finishing the race, but there was a lot of pressure on Steve-O to out-do the Lightnings before the unveiling of the Empulse. Result: Crash 1. Then there was a lot of pressure on Brian and the team to get the bike fixed in a short time. Result: Crash 2.

There were heroic efforts all around. It's unfortunate that they didn't pay off for Brammo.

In the end, Martin Szwarc and Kenyon Kluge (on Zeros) ended up in 1st and 2nd place, in front of the two Lightning riders. Of course if one of the Lightnings had managed to finish both races, it would have been a different story.

That's what makes racing so exciting. There are no certainties!

Results for Infineon: http://www.egrandprix.com/news.php?id=280

[Brammofan]

"reliability is everything."I think that the Empulse RR was certainly capable of finishing the race, but there was a lot of pressure on Steve-O to out-do the Lightnings before the unveiling of the Empulse. Result: Crash 1.

I am not sure why he felt compelled to "out-do" them during the first practice, however, when his seat time was still so short.  However, I am not a racer so I'll leave the big decisions up to the riders.

[CliC]

I'm not a follower of electric motorcycle racing (yet), so maybe someone can explain this all to me.

You have the eSuperStock class that includes stock (? mostly stock? what are the restrictions?) bikes. I  don't know if there are any homologation requirements -- surely Zero sells a lot more bikes than Lightning, and Brammo would have had to get a pass this year since the Empulse is brand-new.

In this class is a $14k bike with 9kWh and ~25hp (Zero S), a $19k bike with a 10-11kWh pack, ???hp and a transmission (Brammo Empulse, though I read somewhere that their race bikes shun the tranny in favor of higher-voltage motors), and a $39k bike with a 14kWh pack and 160hp (Lightning).

I know there aren't a lot of elmotos out there to race, but this hardly seems like fair competition (though, as someone commented, reliability can sometimes carry the day). It's like Joe Pesci vs. LeBron James in a little 1-on-1.

[protomech]

The only bikes in the eSS class at Infineon were the Zero bikes.

Once the Empulse / Empulse R are homologated, they could also race in that class. There should be no contest between the two - so it would be like having two spec classes racing at the same time as actual race bikes.

The Empulse RR is only tangentially related to the Empulse R. Different motor, different motor controller (both sevcon gen 4 iirc), no IET, different wheels/brakes/forks/shocks/swingarm, no onboard charger, fairing, bigger battery pack. It does use the same cells (just more of them) as the Empulse R, and I believe the frame is the same.

The eSS Zeros used different tires than stock (still DOT street legal) and had some minor changes to comply with the race restrictions, eg taping over the headlight and forcing the taillight to blink. Other than that they were very close to stock. I don't know if the onboard chargers were removed but I suspect they remained intact.

It wasn't a fair competition - the eSS, TTX75, and TTX bikes race all at once but they're in vastly different realms of preparation. If the race entrants supported it, I'm sure they would be moved to a separate race .. but for now they're just keeping the racing going.

Without the Zero bikes:

* the two TTX75 entrants were no-shows
* the Empulse RR withdrew after two riders crashed in qualifying
* in both races one Lightning bike suffered a mechanical failure and DNFed

Not a good way to start off the race season.

[Brammofan]

ESS is an award, not a class, although it is likely to made a class for the 2013 season.  I don't have the announcement in front of me, but I think the requirement is that entrants must be on a bike that has sold 9 (?) production models.  I know... it's a bit confusing to me, too.

[FreepZ]

According to autoblog:
"The rules for the new class allows for bikes from manufacturers with sales of more than 25 units."

So, for example, as soon as Brammo sells 26 Empulses, they can enter the race with an Empulse and participate in the eSuperStock class. It remains to be see when that will actually happen.

[Brammofan]

According to TTXGP:

In order to qualify for this category, a minimum of 25 units/motorcycles will have to be available for sale to the general public, at the time of the race.

(Emphasis added).

[Vibetrippin]

Is a waiting list not general public? I thought that was so you couldn't have built them to order for exclusive clientele.