With the TTXGP underway, what's happening with the e-Power and TTZERO races?

Logo's courtesy TTXGP, FIM and IOMTT

The electric motorcycle racing season is underway ushering in an exciting period for electric motorcycle fans. FIM's e-Power race series has held two races in Europe, and expects to hold another at the Laguna Seca track in July. The TTXGP series has held one race three weeks ago, and another race this coming weekend in Wisconson. On the Isle of Man, site of last years TTXGP race, the TTZero race is scheduled for next week.

Earlier in the year there were big concerns that the schism between TTXGP and FIM that led to these parallel race series might be bad for the sport. It remains to be seen how real that fear is, and the proof will be in the participation of racing teams and the attention of the fans.

Both FIM and TTXGP have held races at this writing and one result is the TTXGP race had more participants (10 teams) than either of the two FIM e-Power races (6 teams). It is too early to jump to conclusions, for example the difference could be that the Infineon track is smack in the middle of a hotbed of electric motorcycle activity and it was a short drive for most of the participants whereas the e-Power teams are coming from all over Europe.

On April 16, 2010 the FIM held the first of the e-Power races at the famous le-Mans track. The participants and results are given below. The press articles about this race echo a blog post by Ivar Kvadsheim in which he called this race a "flop". Prior reporting on the TTXGP/FIM schism discovered that the FIM had demanded that TTXGP fill a grid of at least 15 bikes per race, and the FIM managed to only field a grid of 6 bikes for their e-Power opener. Of those bikes one, a cheap commuter electric scooter, was disqualified and only three of the remaining bikes finished the race. One of those riders admitted to riding in "economy mode" for most of the race to ensure finishing the race, which by the way was shortened from 8 laps to 6. Those saying this is a "flop" point to the lackluster results compared with the demands FIM made of TTXGP and say FIM's race series is flailing, and that they should give up and concede to TTXGP. The riders turned in a total time ranging from 14m37s588 (average lap time of 2m26s) to 16m21s337 with a best lap time of 2m21s092.

On May 22, 2010 the FIM held the second of the e-Power races at Albacete in Spain, with the same field of entrants. The riders went for 9 laps turning in a total time ranging from 17m24s975 (average lap time of 1m56s) to 18m38s828 with a best lap time of 1m54s544, a large improvement from the first race to the second. In this race the Crystalyte-Europe team beat the Betti team, after not finishing in the first race.

On June 9, 2010 the TTZERO race will be run on the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man TT organization is directly involved with running TT Zero, instead of the arrangement last year where TTXGP ran the electric races. The Isle of Man TT organization has not posted a list of participants but twitter traffic gives a few clues to entrants. The expected participants include the following

Team Ecolve, rider Mark Buckley (who finished in third place of the 2009 TTXGP Pro Class): a GSXR chassis, 30kw liquid cooled AC motor, 72 volts, air cooled controller, and what appears to be a 14 kilowatt hour battery pack. The intend to bring out a road version of this bike in Sept 2010. Pictures of their team have been posted on the Amadeus Photography website linked below.
SERT Racing from Sweden. Pictures of their team have been posted on the Amadeus Photography website linked below.
Motoczysz's bike is pictured on the TTZERO home page giving a strong hint to their participation.
The Tork India team was unable to make it to the TTZERO race but expect to be participating in TTXGP races

For July 24, 2010, FIM has announced they expect to run an e-Power race at the Laguna Seca raceway. This weekend is during their Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix but curiously the e-Power race is not mentioned on either Laguna Seca or Red Bull web sites. The Laguna Seca track is very near the Bay Area making it convenient for many of the teams who came to the TTXGP race at Infineon. A blog post by Ivar Kvadsheim reprints an email from FIM to potential e-Power participants stating the entry deadline was May 31 and that 5 European teams will be participating and they hope for an equal number of other teams.

By no means is this the entirety of electric motorcycle racing activities this year. On Eva Håkansson's blog she has described taking her electric motorcycle on what she believes is the first climb of Pikes Peak by an electric motorcycle, and plans to participate in the Pikes Peak race next month. The various EV drag races schedule through the year will doubtlessly include electric motorcycles as they have in previous years.

One may wonder, is it "green" to race an electric vehicle? Obviously it is a waste of energy to drive any vehicle around in circles just to see who can do it the fastest. But just as obviously it is more green (rather, less bad) if the vehicle being driven in circles doesn't emit pollution. Further racing has always led to technology advances for the vehicles sold to regular (non-racing) folk and in theory an electric vehicle race series accelerates electric vehicle technology development.

Results: FIM e-Power, April 17, 2010, le Mans

No	Rider	Team	Country	Position
17	AMENDT, Christian	EPI-Bike.de	GER	3
22	DE RIDDER Thijs	CRYSTALYTE EUROPE. COM RACING	BEL
38	BETTI Luciano	BETTI MOTO	ITA
48	KOPP Reiner	MUNCH RACING TEAM	GER	2
61	GASSE Harald	PEACE-E-RIDER TEAM	GER
115	BETTI Thomas	BETTI MOTO	ITA	1

Results: FIM e-Power, May 22, 2010, Albacete, Spain

No	Rider	Team	Country	Position
17	AMENDT, Christian	EPI-Bike.de	GER	5
22	DE RIDDER Thijs	CRYSTALYTE EUROPE. COM RACING	BEL	1
38	BETTI Luciano	BETTI MOTO	ITA	3
48	KOPP Reiner	MUNCH RACING TEAM	GER	4
61	GASSE Harald	PEACE-E-RIDER TEAM	GER
115	BETTI Thomas	BETTI MOTO	ITA	2