After a quiet race (in more ways that one) Brammo's Empulse showed us it's stuff in a victory over Team Electra in this weekends TTXGP 2011 season opener at the Infineon Raceway. In the TTX75 class it was Volt Motorcycles winning over Protomoto. In a weekend full of snafu's and weather induced changes of plans, only the four teams were able to race, but in spite of the small pack it was a good race and a good opening to the season.
New this year are two classes, the TTX75 class where bikes are limited to a 7.5 kilowatt-hour battery pack, and the Open class with almost no limits. Of the four bikes this weekends, two (Brammo and Electra) were in the Open class and two (Volt and Protomoto) in the TTX75 class.
Various snafu's prevented several expected teams (notably Mission and Lightning) from racing and It would certainly have been a very different race had they participated. However we race the race that is rather than the race which could have been. Weather problems (a massive unseasonable storm is expected tomorrow) which may stop all racing at Infineon on Sunday, resulting in TTXGP rescheduling their race to Saturday during what would have been the qualifying race.
The two leaders, Brammo and Electra, were close together the first two laps, but the Brammo Empulse, with Steve Atlas aboard, pulled ahead and just kept going.
This was the first race for the Empulse (which was due to have raced last summer, but had to bow out due to a failure) and it performed flawlessly. The design is derived from the bikes Brammo raced on the Isle of Man in 2009 but with nearly two years of further development. It was a pre-production prototype (souped up for racing) of the Empulse they plan to sell next year, except it did not have the 6 speed transmission that's causing the delay in going to production.
Team Electra came with a brand new old-bike, the same dimensions as the vintage Norton Featherbed they ran last year, but built over the winter from Chromolly and with beefier controller and motor. It ran much better than last year, despite snafus and failures, but the Empulse was simply better. Thirty seconds better. Which roughly puts this Empulse in the league of last years Lightning Motors bike. Team Electra was joined by John Wild, co-founder of last years Square Wave Racing team.
In the TTX75 class we had Volt Motorcycles racing Protomoto. The Volt team is led by a college student who last year was associated with Thunderstruck Motors, but this year has an internship with Zero Motorcycles. This years team was largely Zero employees racing under their own name but with Zero as a sponsor. They too had a new motor and improved battery pack over last year.
Rounding out the pack was Protomoto, a one man team with Ely Schleiss as owner, designer, builder and rider. He has decades of experience in electric vehicle racing and participated in the 2009 TTXGP on the Isle of Man with the Barefoot Motors team. Unfortunately his bike didn't perform well due to it being incorrectly geared.
Despite the small pack and two highly anticipated teams missing in action, a dramatic leap forward was made over last year. In last years race the best lap times were by the Zero/Agni and Lightning Motors bikes, each giving best lap times of 1:57ish, and the next bikes last wear were much slower. This year the best lap times were 1:57 for Brammo (equalling Zero/Agni and Lightning), 2:01 for Team Electra, 2:09 for Volt, and 2:31 for Protomoto. These are much closer together than last year, and assuming both Mission and Lightning also would perform at or better than 1:57 lap times it means the whole sport has moved ahead over last year. -- UPDATE: Gaps in the weather permitted a race on Sunday, in which Brammo beat their time. Brammo sets new TTXGP lap record at Infineon
While disappointing that some teams did not show, it was an excellent start to a new racing season.
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