Laguna news

[protomech]

It's interesting that the Lightning bike had a much larger top speed advantage vs the other bikes but ran low on energy at the end (allowing the E1PC to pass). I'm guessing that the other bikes limited their top speed in order to use that energy to go faster elsewhere.

Indeed. Mission R had a top speed during race between 189.2 km/h and 190.1 km/h .. very tightly regulated. During qualifying they reached 215.7 km/h on the same track, so the bike had significantly more speed than demonstrated during the race. Indeed, their best race lap of 1:33.394 significantly trailed their qualifying lap of 1:31.376.

Lightning reached a top speed of 217.2 km/h on one lap, but you can see the other laps were quite a bit slower: 213.6 km/h, 208.9 km/h, 190.1 km/h, 181.8 km/h. Similarly, their hot-in laptimes successively decreased as the race progressed: 1:37.455, 1:37.417, 1:37.941, 1:38.927, 1:42.615, 1:40.236, 1:41.206. 2-3s faster than E1PC in the first couple of laps, 3-4s slower than E1PC in the last several. Possibly the battery was weakening or the rider began to reign in power output in order to complete the race.

[Brammofan]

I don't know if this was mentioned anywhere, but the Lightning bike did not make it through the cool down lap.  It was brought to Parc Ferme on the back of a truck.

Just for those who don't recall, this basically happened to Lightning last year.  It pooped out as it neared the finish line and Czysz zoomed by it for first place.  This year, the race (for second) was much closer as Czysz overtook Barnes in the final few feet before the finish line.  It's been a challenge for Lightning lately.  They were a no show at Infineon.  They showed up on the Isle of Man with an unfinished bike on which they worked nonstop for the days before the race.  They ended up walking it across the finish line, if I recall correctly.  Now this.

As Mission demonstrated, preparation is crucial for these bikes. Run what you brung... but don't bring it until it's ready to run.

[protomech]

I don't know if this was mentioned anywhere, but the Lightning bike did not make it through the cool down lap.  It was brought to Parc Ferme on the back of a truck.

I hadn't heard that. I hope they can work through their problems - their bike is clearly very fast, but seems to have the weakest battery relative to power output.

Last year's #1 bike (2010 E1PC) would have not just not made this year's podium - it would have been well behind the #6 bike this year (79.14 mph vs 75.94 mph average). Not only were the bikes much faster during the endurance race (albeit with 8 laps instead of 9 as in 2010), qualifying times free of energy limitations went up dramatically: MotoCzysz improved by 8.0s, Lightning Motors improved by 8.2s, Münch Racing improved by 10.4s. Power is up, battery capacity is up, weight is down.

I don't think anyone will be able to race last year's bike or battery pack and be seriously competitive. That means big $$ (likely $15-30k just for the battery, absent battery manufacture sponsorships), and a good incentive to offer a 7.5 kwh class to lower development costs.

[Brammofan]

I don't think anyone will be able to race last year's bike or battery pack and be seriously competitive. That means big $$ (likely $15-30k just for the battery, absent battery manufacture sponsorships), and a good incentive to offer a 7.5 kwh class to lower development costs.

I totally agree.  One thing that the Brammo people where unhappy about (understandably, of course) was the move from last year's 11 laps to this year's 8 laps.  It's pretty clear that Brammo would have been on the podium with even one more lap, given Lightning's inability to make it through the cool down.  So, why was the race shortened this year?  Remember that last year, it was exclusively an FIM event and TTXGP was not involved.  This year, because it was a joint event, it had to include the TTX75 class and they would not have been able to complete 11 laps.  You can't have a race combining these two classes and divide it by saying, for example, "you bikes go 11 laps and these bikes only have to go 8 laps."  It just wouldn't work.  So, until we get enough bikes of each class to justify two separate races, it's going to be shortened to allow the 75 bikes to finish. 

Interesting, to say the least, how this has affected the Brammo team.  I was really hoping they'd make the podium this year.  They changed the gearing on the bike each day - never had the same rear sprocket on it from practice to qualifying to race.  This is going to take more than a gearing change. To beat MotoCzysz and Lightning it is going to take a different motor and controller combination.   Mission, as it stands, is untouchable.  They may be the team to beat, but the victory over them will not come this year. 

The question has been raised about where Mission will go from here.  With such a decisive victory will the bike be put to pasture as the ultimate marketing tool?  Or will they bring it to the final TTXGP round (to be announced in a matter of days) to clinch the North American championship title, and then over to Europe (or Asia perhaps?) to the TTXGP World Championship to win that title?  I asked the Mission folks and they couldn't/wouldn't give me a straight answer.  Understandable.  We'll just have to wait and see. 

I am going to write up a post (or posts) for Brammofan.com with the story of the weekend that will include all of this stuff and more.

[protomech]

I need to check the brammofan blog once I get off of work - somehow missed that post.

HFL posted an interview with Mission rider's Steve Rapp and Mission's PR Director.

http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2011/08/steve-rapp-and-david-salguero-on-lapping-the-mission-r-on-par-with-600s/

A couple of germane quotes:
David Salguero:

The bike is, theoretically, according to all our logging and logarithms and stuff, capable of over 160mph. Again, the electric motorcycle race is basically one big multi-variable mathematical equation where you take into account speed versus corner speed versus range versus all this other kind of stuff, so to say get to a lower top-speed more quickly, is a more efficient way to get good lap times than to go extremely fast and get hard on the brakes. I think the 133 was a safe lower limit of what the bike can do.

Logarithms?

So they were in fact sandbagging during the race to preserve battery. Lightning's strategy of go fast and go hard on the brakes hasn't seemed to work out for them.

Steve Rapp:

There’s nothing coming up right now and I’m bummed because I wanna ride the bike because it’s such a fun bike to ride.

I wonder if that means Mission is not showing up at Miller.

[Brammofan]

Steve Rapp:

There’s nothing coming up right now and I’m bummed because I wanna ride the bike because it’s such a fun bike to ride.

I wonder if that means Mission is not showing up at Miller.

It probably means that Rapp was interviewed before the announcement that the final would be at Miller.  I'm pretty sure they are planning to be there.

Oh, and I haven't written a post-Laguna wrap-up.    Sometimes life gets busy on you.