By Chuck Squatriglia

SONOMA COUNTY, California — Seasoned pro Shawn Higbee won North America’s first-ever electric motorcycle grand prix today in a race that was tighter than the finish would suggest.

Ten riders competed in the 25-mile race around Infineon Raceway, but all the action was at the front of the pack. The 11-lap race was a dogfight most of the way as polesitter Higbee (No. 22) and Michael Barnes (No. 80) repeatedly traded the lead. Higbee would take the lead in the turns, only to have Barnes pull away on the straights. Everyone knew the race would come down to battery management, and in the end Higbee did the better job.

“Michael snapped off the line a little quicker than I thought” to start the race, Higbee said. “It made me nervous. It became a strategy race, like an endurance race. I kept an eye on the volt meter to make sure I’d have the range to finish.”

Source: Wired.com

By BOB NORBERG

A new generation of racing technology rolled onto Infineon Raceway Tuesday, where sleek, handcrafted motorcycles reached racetrack speeds while sounding no louder than a kitchen blender.

“Just a low whine,” said Kenyon Kluge of Santa Cruz, the owner and rider of K Squared Racing. “That is part of the resistance … people want the noise.”

The class is Time Trial Xtreme Grand Prix, or TTXGP, and the motorcycles are electric-powered and a new, loosely regulated international class that is racing for the first time in the United States this weekend.

“The challenge is still there, the rules are wide open,” said Jon Bunne of Milwaukee, Wisc., who is an engineer on the Zero Agni team. “It’s a breeding ground for innovation. There are as many different ideas here as there are people here.”

Ten teams will be racing in the new class Saturday as part of the Sonoma race track’s annual weekend of professional and traditional motorcycle racing, the first of four electric motorcycle races in the United States.

Source: PressDemocrat.com

LAS VEGAS, NV (May 7, 2010) – Drew Gosselaar and his Quantya “Track” electric motorcycle scored the top spot in the first ever AMA-sanctioned electric versus gas-powered dirt bike race, dubbed the Energy Crisiscross (ECX) at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, NV this past weekend. Gosselaar led an electric bike sweep of the top six spots, with the first gas-powered bike taking seventh. The rules for the Energy Crisiscross event restricted the modifications to the gas- powered bikes and required use of the stock frame, forks, cylinder, carburetor and engine cases.

Gosselaar, the fastest qualifier of the day, pulled the hole-shot and never looked back while on his way to the checkered flag. Drew and his Quantya “Track” also scored the fastest lap of the race. “Quantya gave me the best equipment possible,” said Gosselaar. “Even though they’re a new company, they’ve made an all around awesome machine. I was comfortable from the second I got on the bike. It just shows the potential of electric bikes and how easy they are to ride and even win major events.”

Source: Dirt Rider

Also here: AMA

If the inaugural TTXGP on the Isle of Man whetted your appetite for more electric motorcycle racing, you can look forward to lots of feasting in 2010. In addition to another stand-alone island race (this time with a 2 lap class replacing the open class) plans are afoot for a 3-continent, 5-race Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) sanctioned World Championship, as well as a 4-race UK national and a 3-race national American series. The 25-mile contests are likely to piggyback Endurance Championship and World Superbike Championship rounds as support events with the relationship starting at the Nürburgring edition of the 2009 World Superbike series in September from the 4th to 6th. Participants at that single-lap exhibition affair are said to include some of the Isle of Man teams as well as newcomers.

Speaking of newcomers, if you’re itching to get in on some of this racing action yourself, there are some exciting developments that may facilitate that. First, you can buy a £10,000 ($16,490) package based on the TTXGP-winning Agni motors bike that includes a motor, batteries, controller and electronics that you can integrate into your own chassis. If that option tickles your fancy, better contact the TTXGP folks soon as interest is said to be high. Fabricator fledgling? Word is that an as-yet-unnamed American company will be selling race-ready replicas of the Agni Motors bike for under $40,000. The first batch could be ready by February and consist of 40 examples. If your significant other is looking over your shoulder at the moment repeating, “No way, no how chickee-poo/mister-man” you can always scratch your racing itch by getting a copy of the just-released Isle of Man affair on DVD or Blue-Ray and settle back on the couch with some popcorn. Happy racing.

Source: Automotive Reviews

May 7, 2010

By Cycle Canada

Twelve teams have entered the first-ever TTXGP race to take place in North America at California’s Infineon Raceway on May 16. This is a better turn out than the 5 entries in the first race of the rival FIM e-Power series, but still far fewer than the 20 teams that participated in the fledgling series’ first race at the Isle of Man last June. As expected Brammo, MotoCzysz and Mission are missing from the field of eclectic entrants that run the gamut from a production built Mavizen TTX02 and an as-yet-unseen Zero/Agni collaboration to Brian Richardson’s Electra, a 1966 Norton Atlas conversion (pictured).

Here’s the complete list of entries:

Source: Cycle Canada