TL;DR summary: 2012 Zero S is roughly 12s slower than a Ninja 250 at PIR on a damp track, and roughly 16s slower than a Ninja 250 at Laguna Seca.
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The TTXGP race weekend at Portland International Raceway wrapped up two weeks ago. The TTXGP race had two TTX75 class bikes on track as well as Brammo's Empulse RR, but it also had 4 Zero S bikes fielded by Zero in the eSuperStock class (pardon, award). The ESS class is basically showroom stock bikes, the onboard charger is removed and I believe they're running sticker - but street-legal - tires. Lap times:
saturday practice;
saturday qualifying;
sunday raceThe Zero S bikes had a very close race, each racer was pulling off lap times in the 1:37 - 1:38 range. Note this is faster than their qualifying times, but the race track was damp on saturday and each racer was likely still familiarizing himself with the track.
Electric Race News did a pretty good report of the race.
Just after qualifying on Saturday, two Zeros
gatecrashed a Ninja 250 race. They were pretty close in time to the slowest two 250s on the track at 1:40-1:43 laptimes. A mid pack of 250s were racing in the 1:38-1:39 range, and a fast group were turning in 1:31-1:33 laptimes. Chris Page won the race with a 1:31.574; on sunday he hopped on a Zero S and turned in a 1:38.400.
Given that sunday Chris Page was competitive with the other Zero riders, I think it's reasonable to compare his time in the gas/electric race on a race-prepped 250 (1:31.574) to the Zero S in that race (1:43.292) .. so on a damp track the Zero is about 11.7s slower. Also note that the qualifying tracktime and 6 lap gas/electric race were back to back .. and supposedly the Zero bikes had a lot of charge left after the 9 lap TTXGP race on sunday. I wonder how a ZF6 would have done..
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Also, a number of Zeros showed up at Laguna Seca last weekend for REFUEL (including Electric Cowboy on his 2011). The fastest 2012 bikes turned in 2:08-2:12 laptimes, approximately 10 seconds faster than the 2011 bikes. I can't find a definitive 250cc laptime record for Laguna Seca, but 1:52 seems to be a pretty good time (rider was described as "one of the top AFM and WERA racers").
Compare the noise:
If you want to see them race at the same time, skip ahead to 1:14 on the Ninja video and 0:56 on the Zero video.
