GREG TRACY AND HIROSHI MASUOKA WILL COMPETE FOR MITSUBISHI IN ELECTRIC MODIFIED DIVISION AT THE BROADMOOR PIKES PEAK

Colorado Springs, May 9------------One of the top competitions at the 2014 The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb will be the quietest of them all.

The talent-heavy Electric Modified Division already includes Nobuhiro Tajima, who won the Electric Division last year when he drove his Tajima Monster Sports Special E-Runner to a blazing time of 9:46.530, an Electric record and the seventh fastest time in the history of the race.

Now, this exciting division has added two of the race's veteran stars to go head-to-head with Tajima for top honors in the world's most famous hill climb and America's second-oldest motorsport competition behind the famed Indianapolis 500.

The powerful Mitsubishi Motors team will again field two factory teams on America's Mountain on June 29, driven by two of the most accomplished drivers in the history of the race.

Greg Tracy, a six-time Pikes Peak motorcycle champion, will pilot one of the Mitsubishi Motors entries in the chase to the 14,115-foot summit of America's Mountain. Tracy, in his last ride on a bike, a Ducati, broke the ten-minute mark with a clocking of 9:58.262.

Last year, Tracy surprised race experts and turned a lot of heads around by finishing third in the Electric Division, his first year with Mitsubishi Motors, with a nifty 10:23.649 and an average speed of 74.77 MPH.

The other powerful Mitsubishi Motors entry in the Electric Modified Division is the veteran Hiroshi Masuoka, second last year in the Electric Division with a time of 10:21.866.

His Mitsubishi Motors debut came in 2012 when he finished second behind winner Fumijo Nutahara, but his performance was a look into the future for the talented Masuoka, who was the 2002 and 2003 Dakar Rally Champion for Mitsubishi Motors. Masuoka is one of only four drivers ever to garner back-to-back Dakar titles.

Details about this year's cars aren't being released by Mitsubishi Motors at this time but look for the brand to field cars using its proven MIEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle) technology found in its all-electric i-MIEV on sale globally.

Lightning Motorcycles makes motorsports history at Pikes Peak with win

As we predicted, Lightning Motorcycles with Carlin Dunne did win outright in the motorcycle division.  That news is being overshadowed by a shocker of a win by Sebastien Loeb with an 8:13.878 lap time that demolished the previous record of 9:46.164 held by Rhys Millen, but we're here to discuss electric racing not gas powered.  The electric cars and motorcycles both made a great showing.  The fastest electric car almost beat Millen's previous record, for example.

The biggest news for electric racing is the win by Lightning Motorcycles.  Carlin Dunne finished with a 10:00.694 lap time, average speed of 71.917 miles/hr.

The next fastest motorcycle was ridden by Bruno Langlois, in the Pikes Peak 1205 class, for a 10:21.323 lap time and 69.529 miles/hr speed.  The next fastest bike after him was in the Superbike 750 class, ridden by Michael Henao, with a 10:31.499 lap time and 68.409 miles/hr average speed.

While Dunne beat all the gas bikes by a 20 second margin, he didn't beat the overall motorcycle record of 09:52.819 set by Dunne himself in the Pikes Peak 1205 class in 2012.  Dunne's 2013 result was #9 in the overall standings, #1 in the motorcycle standings.

Basically .. this puts the motorsports world on notice.  Electric racing is catching up.  Electric bikes just won in a major international event against the gas bikes.

It's not too dissimilar in the electric cars at Pikes Peak either.  Monster Tajima nearly beat the previous lap record held by Rhys Millen, with a lap time of 9:46.530, average speed of 73.654 miles/hr.  This should catch some attention as well.  However, Tajima earned fifth place overall and the top four finishers all beat Millen's previous record.

Both Mitsubishi and Toyota in their post-race press releases expressed disappointment, and blamed the rain for their showing.  The electric (car) division went out after a heavy rain-storm.

Mitsubishi switched to grooved tires, and even with those the cars were sliding quite a bit.  Greg Tracy said he was aiming for the win and was disappointed.  He wants to come back in dry conditions and try this again.

Toyota went with an "intermediate" tire but it didn't have enough "grip" for Millen to get a good result.  They're additionally pointing to having brought a two-wheeled race car when other "class competitors" were running four-wheel drive vehicles. 

Amarok Racing entered a custom built electric motorcycle featuring twin Agni motors and going by the results I believe it would have finished with a time competitive with the Zero Motorcycles bikes. They posted on Facebook saying their rider ran into a wreck about 2 miles uphill, and had to start over.  With a diminished battery pack he ended up running the pack flat five turns from the top.

The bulk of the electric motorcycles were made by Zero Motorcycles, in a conglomerate organized by Zero and Hollywood Electrics.  Those bikes are roughly equivalent to 250cc gas bikes, and indeed there were 250cc bike results scattered among the results for Zero riders. 

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the top three Zero results beat Chip Yates' record for electric motorcycles at Pikes Peak in 2011.  His laptime in 2011, 12:50.094, gave him some bragging rights at the time.  He was originally planning to enter in 2013 with Lightning Motorcycles to defend that time, but backed out apparently after learning that Carlin Dunne had joined the team.  That aside, his time was beaten by nearly a minute by three riders, with the top rider (Jeff Clark) riding not a Zero S but a Zero FX. 

To put this in perspective - during 2010 and 2011, Chip Yates made a lot of noise claiming he'd built the first legitimate electric superbike.  His bike was big and heavy, and relied on a UQM drive train that would normally be used for electric trucks.  With it he entered and won a gas bike race, in a club race series in Southern California, entered the 2011 Pikes Peak, and went to the Bonneville Salt Flats for land speed racing hitting speeds close to 200 miles/hr. 

That was with a custom built heavy electric motorcycle.  These riders in the Zero Motorcycles group (the Exhibition Powersports-Z class) were all riding factory built bikes that were largely stock.  That's how fast the electric motorcycle industry is advancing.

In short, electric racing is catching up quick with gas powered.  We had one outright win this weekend, and there will be more to come.

The full results for electrics were:

• #5: Nobuhiro Tajima, 9:46.530 lap time, 73.654 miles/hr average speed (Monster Tajima)
• #9: Carlin Dunne, 10:00.694 lap time, 71.917 miles/hr average speed (Lightning Motorcycles)
• #13: Hiroshi Masuoka, 10:21.866 lap time, 69.468 miles/hr average speed (Mitsubishi)
• #14: Greg Tracy, 10:23.649 lap time, 69.270 miles/hr average speed (Mitsubishi)
• #16: Rod Millen, 10:24.301 lap time, 69.197 miles/hr average speed (Toyota EV P002)
• #63: Jeff Clark, 12:00.978 lap time, 59.919 miles/hr average speed (Zero)
• #67: Jeremiah Johnson, 12:05.612 lap time, 59.536 miles/hr average speed (Zero)
• #79: Troy Siahaan, 12:24.083 lap time, 58.058 miles/hr average speed (Zero)
• #95: Ted Rich, 12:53.612 lap time, 55.842 miles/hr average speed (Zero)
• #105: Nathan Barker, 13:14.262 lap time, 54.390 miles/hr average speed (Zero)
• #106: Brandon Nozaki-Miller, 13:16.476 lap time, 54.239 miles/hr average speed (Zero)
• #130: Roy Richards, 17:30.614 lap time, 41.119 miles/hr average speed (Honda Fit EV)
• #133: Ikuo Hanawa, DNF (Yokohama Tires, Summit Racing)
• #134: Janis Horeliks, DNF (Drive EO)
• #137: Michael Leon, DNF (Amarok)

Image sources:

Lightning Motorcycles: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151670622597210&set=a.389507682209.167316.336377937209&type=1&theater

Monster Tajima - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=549218995135101&set=o.336377937209&type=1&theater

Toyota: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=605511069482180&set=a.604652496234704.1073741876.330359950330628&type=1&theater

Mitsubishi: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=613281942030015&set=a.613281815363361.1073741836.178795422145338&type=1&theater

Zero Motorcycles: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151671551137210&set=a.389507682209.167316.336377937209&type=1&theater

Mitsubishi enters Pikes Peak with two electric race cars, and intention to win outright

Mitsubishi has just announced entry into the 2013 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with two all-new MiEV Evolution II electric race cars.  The team is also expressing an intention to win outright.

I've written up details here :- http://www.torquenews.com/1075/pikes-peak-electric-racing-heating-two-entries-mitsubishi

For data on the Toyota entry see :- http://www.electricracenews.com/2013/05/toyota-returning-to-pikes-peak-with.html

For data on the Latvian entry see :- http://www.electricracenews.com/2013/05/a-look-at-driveeos-pikes-peak.html

All three entries are race cars with 400 kilowatt drive trains, and in each case the teams say they're looking to win outright.  

2013 MiEV Evolution II Design Highlights

• Improved lower center of gravity due to redesigned lithium-ion battery placement
• Improved power output/performance from four-motor (two front/two rear) 4WD drivetrain with MMC's Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC) integrated vehicle dynamics control system
• Active Yaw Control (AYC) to optimally control yaw for improved high-speed cornering
• Active Stability Control (ASC) for improved vehicle dynamics and control by automatically managing brake force to one or more wheels as well as motor output
• Redesigned Anti-lock Braking System (ABS)

2013 MiEV Evolution II Specifications

Length x Width x Height (in.)		191.7 x 74.8 x 54.7
Occupants		1
Drivetrain		4WD
Motors (Made by Meidensha)	Configuration	4 (2 front, 2 rear)
	Maximum Output (kW)	400 (100kW x 4 motors)
Battery (Made by LEJ)	Maximum Capacity (kWh)	50
Chassis		Specially-designed tube frame
Cowl		Carbon-fiber
Tires (made by Dunlop)		260/660-18

Driver Profiles

Hiroshi Masuoka
Hiroshi Masuoka began his Dakar Rally campaign in 1987 and became the first Japanese driver to post consecutive overall victories in the event when he won in 2002 and 2003.

Currently, Masuoka works at Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) where his many duties include vehicle development, training MMC test drivers, and running test drive sessions and other events both in Japan and overseas.

"We are able to tackle Pikes Peak a second time thanks to the support of our many partner companies. We were able to come up with a new and improved MiEV Evolution II based on the precious data and know-how we gained from last year's race. We welcome Greg Tracy as our teammate. With his wealth of motorsport experience, we will give it our all for a one-two finish. Thank you for your continued support!," says Masuoka.

Greg Tracy
A six-time PPIHC overall motorcycle champion, Tracy placed second overall in motorcycles in 2012.

Tracy brings a wealth of racing experience not only in motorcycles but four-wheeled vehicles as well, and is also a professional stunt driver. As a Hot Wheels Team Green Driver, he achieved the Guinness World Record for completing the Double Loop Dare at XGames in 2012.

"I'm excited to compete here with the MiEV Evolution II. I will do my best, along with my teammates, to make an electric vehicle the champ for the first time ever," says Tracy