See my full race report at: Lightning and Brammo win 2012 e-Power/TTX race at Laguna Seca during Red Bull US Grand Prix
The big takeaway is the speed & lap time improvements over the 2011 and 2010 races. Where last year 1 bike was ridden at speeds matching the 600cc superbikes (Steve Rapp riding for Mission Motors), this year three bikes were ridden at that speed. See Lightning and Brammo wins Laguna Seca e-Power/TTX electric motorcycle race
Michael Barnes had the fastest laptime last weekend during qualifying, 1:33.860. This didn't beat Steve Rapp's 1:31 last year, but came close, and Barnes did not attempt to beat that time during the race. He was focused instead on staying just far enough ahead of Steve Atlas to win, but not so far ahead that he would have risked running out of kilowatt-hours.
However, Barnes, Steve Atlas and Eric Bostrom (new rider for Brammo) all had lap times during the race which were faster than the slowest of the bikes which qualified in the Daytona Sportbike (600cc gas bike) race held the same weekend.
This is a big stride forward for electric motorcycle racing - last year it was one bike reaching this level, now there are three. And the next two bikes were ridden for lap times within one second of the slowest of the 600cc gas bikes, making it five bikes in total that are within range of speed parity with gas bikes.
The big takeaway is the speed & lap time improvements over the 2011 and 2010 races. Where last year 1 bike was ridden at speeds matching the 600cc superbikes (Steve Rapp riding for Mission Motors), this year three bikes were ridden at that speed. See Lightning and Brammo wins Laguna Seca e-Power/TTX electric motorcycle race
Michael Barnes had the fastest laptime last weekend during qualifying, 1:33.860. This didn't beat Steve Rapp's 1:31 last year, but came close, and Barnes did not attempt to beat that time during the race. He was focused instead on staying just far enough ahead of Steve Atlas to win, but not so far ahead that he would have risked running out of kilowatt-hours.
However, Barnes, Steve Atlas and Eric Bostrom (new rider for Brammo) all had lap times during the race which were faster than the slowest of the bikes which qualified in the Daytona Sportbike (600cc gas bike) race held the same weekend.
This is a big stride forward for electric motorcycle racing - last year it was one bike reaching this level, now there are three. And the next two bikes were ridden for lap times within one second of the slowest of the 600cc gas bikes, making it five bikes in total that are within range of speed parity with gas bikes.
It's worth noting too that the 2011 race was done for 8 laps. Both the 2010 and the 2012 races were 9 laps long.
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