TTXGP at Portland International Raceway - June 23-24, 2012

[Brammofan]

Sounds like they may have some limited Gas vs. Electric action. 
From the TTXGP Forum:

Portland's going to be a little different to the norm. EV Live providing a lot of exciting stuff to do and see on saturday with everything from1-4 wheels taking part, the folks at OMRRA are fantastic and are allowing some of the racers to join the grid in a gas race during the weekend (more on this tomorrow) and allowing the teams to practise on Sunday morning with the equivalent speed gas bikes, giving teams more options to perfectly hone the bikes ready for racing at 2pm

[Brammofan]

Nice shot of Steve Atlas on the TTXGP's EVLive graphic.

[protomech]

Interesting. "All Torque / No Gas" is a bit of a misnomer then.

Steve Atlas is healed up and ready to compete? Awesome news. Brammo had a terrible experience last time, hoping for some good racing this weekend..

Looks like Lightning won't make it? Disappointing. Empulse RR wasn't looking that competitive at early practice at Infineon, but it didn't really get a full shakedown. It'll be interesting to see if the Empulse can hang with the MotoCzysz bikes. Hoping for a close 3 way race : )

I see a journalist at motorcycle.com on one of the eSuperSport eSuperStock Zeros. Zero's Kenyon Kluge is returning, unfortunately all other eSS racers from Infineon are not on the list of racers. I wonder if the 4 bikes are being hauled around by Zero and they recruit whoever they can find to ride them.. two riders are listed as association OMRRA.

Here's the full track schedule:
http://www.omrra.com/pdf/OMRRA_Schedule_June-b_2012.pdf

TTXGP Practice @ 10:52-11:12 AM Saturday, qualifier @ 3:58-4:18 PM. Race is @ 2:05 PM Sunday.

I see on the schedule "Middleweight SBK / Formula II / Middleweight Classic SBK / Electric SBK" @ 4:10 PM Sunday, 2 hours after 9 lap TTXGP race. This is a 12 lap race.. so will be more energy limited.

Last year at PIR, MotoCzysz raced against the middleweight superbike class and dominated until retiring at lap 8. A repeat performance, with two MotoCzysz bikes and the Empulse (hopefully!) would be pretty sweet.

This weekend is looking pretty exciting. What's the best way to stay tuned into the race activities, Brammofan?

[Brammofan]

What's the best way to stay tuned into the race activities, Brammofan?

Good question.  I'll post answers here as I discover them.  
Always a good idea to follow @ttxgp on twitter.  And their page at www.egrandprix.com .
Other twitter names to watch:
@Brammodesigner (Brian Wismann)
@AtlasMediaLLC (Steve Atlas)

Non-Brammo:
@MotoCzysz
@emotorules (that's me, but it's more ttxgp and racing focused than @brammofan)
@VT_BOLT - (the Virgina Tech team - they've been posting during their cross country trip)
@ttxgpfan - (Richard Dort)
@brhiln - Member of the Virginia Tech team


(will add others as I come across them. If anyone has any additions/suggestions, post 'em up).

[protomech]

Here's a short onboard video capture of the race last year with the E1PC passing on lap 1 straight like a rocket @ 1:35:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AScD6TATMuw#t=1m30s

Pushing the race out to 12 laps from the TTXGP 9 laps will be tough on batteries. Speculation on elmoto is that the "shredded rain tire" withdrawal was really a "ran out of battery charge" withdrawal. I guess this year will be a good indication of how much they have to slow down to extend from 9 laps to 12.. give some insight into what would happen if IOM TT Zero went to two laps from one.

[Brammofan]

From PIR's site:

Track Length

Without "Festival Turns" - 1.915 miles and 9 turns.
With "Festival Turns" - 1.967 miles and 12 turns.

12 laps = ~ 24 miles. 

Snaefell Mountain Course, Isle of Man = ~37 miles.

[Gavin]

From a previous thread, but this thread made me want to reflect on it:

Started by Brammofan - Last post by protomech
You make it sound like I enjoy listening to the sound of my own voice..

I love Proto's posts....and I assume it's not that BFAN (or myself) thinks he enjoys listening to his own voice; it that his posts are smart, full of facts, yet easy to understand and grasp...it is a talent.

So for me to go and argue or convince somebody about their false concepts of electric "COULD" go well...or could end with me calling them "stupid poo poo pants in the pocket of big oil" or something similarly silly.

this thread is a great example....BFAN links to the TTXGP Portland site and I go, "ooohhh, pretty...shiny fast things make me happy happy joy joy, where is the like button to push and signal my approval."

Proto comes back here with facts, figures and insights to the race I would have never seen.

It's kinda like if Proto and myself are both shown a small sac filled with Tiger's Eye gemstones:



Proto's response would be along the lines of: Tiger's eye (also called Tigers eye or Tiger eye) is a chatoyant gemstone that is usually a metamorphic rock that is a golden to red-brown color, with a silky luster. A member of the quartz group, it is a classic example of pseudomorphous replacement by silica of fibrous crocidolite (blue asbestos). An incompletely silicified blue variant is called Hawk's eye.

Mine response: "ooohhh, pretty...shiny stone things make me happy happy joy joy, where is the like button to push and signal my approval."

Gavin

[Brammofan]

I love Gavin's posts, especially when he's at or above a [4]

[protomech]

I like pretty rocks.

Snaefell is long and high speed, but it's a momentum sort of track. None of the bikes have enough stored energy to run flat out for most of the course - but tires are good enough to carry high speed through most of the corners. A bit less than 14 kWh (E1PC) / 37 miles = 380 Wh/mile @ 104 mph average.

A shorter multi-lap racetrack is going to have a far more acceleration from low to high speeds - probably more energy required per mile to maintain the same average speed.

Laguna Seca is 8 laps @ 2.3 miles = 18 miles. Lightning fully depleted its pack last year - 12 kWh / 18 miles = 670 Wh/mile @ 81 mph average.

[Deadly Silent Ninja]

Steve Atlas is healed up and ready to compete? Awesome news. Brammo had a terrible experience last time, hoping for some good racing this weekend...

Was that info on Atlas confirmed? Also, ignore www.egrandprix.com  as source of news. The last post was more than two weeks ago. There are a few blogs that usually get the insiders' views online pretty fast. I dug some of them when I was looking for info on the accidents last time. Also, a few people also post news on elmoto.net.

[Brammofan]

Was that info on Atlas confirmed?

He just posted on twitter that he is headed to Portland to race for Brammo.

[Gavin]

Great news...

G

[protomech]

www.pirlive.com - watch on two fixed cameras and listen to race announcers.

NA TTXGP @ 2:05 PM PDT, 5:05 PM EDT.

Middleweight SBK / Formula II / Middleweight Classic SBK / Electric SBK @ 4:10 PM PDT, 7:10 PM EDT.

Anyone interested in hopping on Google+ to watch the race as a group?

[Deadly Silent Ninja]

It's a little weird to watch as you can only see 2 pieces of the track (if you are used to MotoGP coverage, lower your expectations), but I hope the commentary will give enough context to the webcast.

"Gentlemen: turn on your engines!" ... "I said turn on your engines!" "They're on! I promise!" "O.k., then..."

[Brammofan]

Congrats,Brammo: