Virginia International Raceway, photo courtesy eGrandPrix
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This weekend at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) is the final race of the 2010 TTXGP North America series. This will be the fourth of the four 2010 North American races and it promises to be another history-making race. While the results are an almost foregone conclusion (Lightning Motors are likely to win, Agni will likely come in second, etc) the results almost do not matter because of the historical significance of the very existence of this race series. While motorcycle races are run worldwide almost every weekend, this is the first year where electric vehicle racing is in the mainstream spotlight. By stepping into the limelight, electric motorcycle racing aims to speed up electric vehicle technology development, and demonstrate that electric vehicles don’t have to be boring slow ugly golf carts.
The 2010 TTXGP is a series of 13 electric motorcycle races, four in North America, four in the UK, four in Italy and a final race in Spain. Three races have been run in North America, and two have been run in the UK, and the Italian series has yet to start. The North American season began in May at the Infineon Raceway north of San Francisco. In June the teams came to the Road America track in Wisconsin, and in July they came to the Mosport Raceway near Toronto, Ontario. The leading teams will be invited to the final race in Spain.
The standings are that the Lightning Motors team almost has the championship locked up. They have dominated the field this season with a more powerful bike than other TTXGP teams have fielded. Their bike is so much more powerful, that the real competition is for second and third places. By the points standings Agni Motors, Team Electra, Werkstatt Racing, and ElectricRaceBikes are close enough together to make predicting the final standings very tough.
Some wildcard entries could show up for this final race to make things more interesting.
The most likely is the recently announced Empulse motorcycle from Brammo. It was due to have its race debut at the e-Power race in Laguna Seca but a last minute equipment failure converted the Empulse into a very pricey decorative item in their booth. Brammo officials were heard saying they would race this year, without saying precisely where. The upcoming TTXGP race is the sole remaining sanctioned North America electric motorcycle race in 2010, and the remaining races are all in Europe.
An unlikely wildcard entrant is Motoczysz. The e-Power race at Laguna Seca showed their E1pc to be very competitive with the Lightning Motors bike. It’s extremely unlikely they will enter the race, but it would make for an extremely exciting race if they did.
Another wildcard entrant is the SWIGZ.COM team led by Chip Yates. In January they announced plans to race in the TTXGP this year. Their website contains a litany of design difficulties, redesigned systems, and no indication of whether they will be ready to race. If they do get to the race track their 194 hp electric motor should be more very competitive with Lightning Motors.
Roehr Motorcycles is another wildcard entrant who announced earlier this year they would race in the TTXGP. Their mid-July announcement came just before the Laguna Seca e-Power race, but they did not enter that race. Their race-ready bike has dual AC motors for 96 volts total, and a battery pack with only 7.7 kwh capacity.
The race is scheduled for Sunday, Aug 15, with practice and qualifying rounds beginning on Friday.
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