MotoCzysz taking a year off from racing

Earlier in the day I saw a Facebook posting saying, unconfirmed, that MotoCzysz was not going to participate in the TT ZERO 2014.  Not wanting to publish something without confirmation, I sent an email to Michael Czysz asking for clarification.  I haven't received an answer from him, but halfway through the press release announcing that Mark Miller will race with Team Vercarmoto, there is confirmation:

I want to wish MotoCzysz and Michael Czysz all the best as they take a year off from racing ...

 Last year we were saddened to learn that Michael Czysz had come down with a serious illness, which prevented him from being at the Isle of Man for the 2013 TT ZERO.  The team pulled off excellence last year, and surely made him proud.

If Michael responds to my e-mail, I'll update this post, but this is enough perhaps.

2013 TT ZERO sector results shows a clue to MotoCzysz' strategy

The Isle of Man folk have posted sector-by-sector results from the 2013 and they give a little bit of insight into why the race ended as it did. 

On almost every sector Michael Rutter took the sector a few seconds slower than did John McGuinness.  After the Bungalow sector that changed, and Rutter took the next two sectors faster.

This matches McGuinness' report that Rutter disappeared off into the distance after the Bungalow.  It also matches Mark Miller's description of the team strategy.

Meaning, that Rutter was holding back on the juice until the end, to make a sprint and go for the win.

Mark Miller's story about not finishing the 2013 TT ZERO

In today's TT ZERO, Mark Miller pulled out of the race at Ballaugh Bridge while team-mate Mike Rutter went on to win the race.  I was going to let it go as one of those details that we'd never hear about, but Mark Miller made a long posting on Facebook describing his day at the TT.

Team MotoCzysz

In case the posting isn't publicly visible - here's my summary of what he said.  By all means click through to Facebook to read the real thing if you prefer.

Their strategy was for Miller to drop back and let McGuinness in front of him, and for Miller to draft McGuinness.  This way Miller would save a lot of energy that he could use in a sprint after the Bungalow, beating McGuinness and maybe even snagging first place. 

That idea was working fairly well, and they were even catching up with Mike Rutter.  If you read the race report, McGuiness was ahead of Rutter by as much as 9 seconds during the race, meaning they did almost catch up with Rutter.

At Ballaugh Bridge John McGuiness hit the juice hard and took lots of air.  Miller took it differently, and when he landed something in the gearbox broke ending the race for him. 

Mark Miller went on to discuss the relative size and such of the two teams.

First, he repeated the claim that apparently was going around that Mugen had spend $4 million on the 2013 bike.  Some proof was Mugen had 12 engineers on staff testing everything to the nth degree, and doing daily tests at a local track.  With all that they couldn't beat MotoCzysz, who had 1 engineer, one "manager type" and Michael Czysz' father "who can do everything well."  Oh, and Michael was on call while back in Oregon undergoing treatments.  A small team going against everything Honda, er, Mugen, could throw into it, and the Oregon boys still won.

Oh, and as for whether Mugen === Honda ... Miller said that Mr. Honda was there in person.  Big hint.

Miller described his instructions as to "create a thermal meltdown" just as the bikes cross the finish line, then lean the bike against the pit wall and let it burn.  He said that Rutter ended the race having consumed 1% more energy than the battery pack is rated for .. meaning that the bike was beyond empty.  That's what it really took to win against Hon..er..Mugen.  Being willing to let the bike burn to the ground on the other side of the finish line.

I'll close this by noting that at the 2012 TTXGP at Portland International Raceway, one of the MotoCzysz riders did exactly that .. ride the bike hard enough to create a thermal meltdown.  What Michael Czysz told me at the time is that the bike had just returned from the 2012 TT ZERO on Friday, and Saturday they took it to PIR for the TTXGP, and they hadn't had time to switch from the Isle of Man pack to the TTXGP pack.  The difference is that for the Isle of Man they need distance, hence more kilowatt-hour capacity, and for a TTXGP they need speed, hence delivery of more raw power.  With the wrong pack on the bike it went into thermal problems and almost caught on fire.  But.. if Miller is correctly reporting the instructions ... maybe their rider in Oregon took it a little too literally.

MotoCzysz makes dramatic win over Mugen in 2013 TT ZERO, both hit 109 miles/hr lap speed

John McGuiness during practice on Friday

The 110 miles/hr lap speed goal did not quite fall at the 2013 TT ZERO, and in its place we had a tense close race between MotoCzysz and Mugen Shinden.  In a surprise finish, MotoCzysz' Mike Rutter came in 1st with an unofficial 109.675 miles/hr lap speed, beating Mugen's John McGuiness by 1.67 seconds, and a 109.527 miles/hr lap speed.  MotoCzysz' other entry, Mark Miller, retired halfway through the race allowing Rob Barber, riding for the Ohio State University Buckeye team, to come in 3rd with a 90.403 miles/hr lap speed.

Before the race Rutter sounded resigned to coming in 2nd to John McGuiness, and he even said so during a Manx Radio interview right after crossing the finish line.  He was surprised and ecstatic at having won against the odds that McGuiness and Mugen's money would win the race.  Apparently a rumor was running around the TT ZERO pits that Mugen had spend $4.3 million on developing the 2013 bike, and aiming to win.  For his part, John McGuiness, in the post race interview with Manx Radio, was "grumpy" and didn't know what to say, that he was "sore" and felt like he deserved to win.  What he did say is that after the Bungalow timing point, Mike Rutter just disappeared into the distance.

The 1.67 second difference could boil down to having missed a corner or two, and the finish was one of the closest ever in the TT.  

Early in the race (the Glen Helen timing point) McGuiness was ahead of Rutter by 9 seconds, and arrived at that timing point neck-and-neck with Miller.  The way this works, it is a time trial race with riders leaving individually.  McGuiness left 3rd meaning that to be neck-and-neck with Miller he had gained about 10 seconds.  Rutter had a 109 miles/hr speed at that point, McGuiness had 112 miles/hr speed, Miller a 108 miles/hr speed, and George Spence a 90.766 miles/hr speed.

At the Sulby Speed Trap, Manx Radio reported Rutter hitting 142 miles/hr, and McGuiness hitting 131 miles/hr.

By the Ramsey Hairpin, McGuiness had a 5 seconds lead over Rutter, and by the Bungalow McGuiness increased the lead to 8.9 seconds.

Mark Miller retired from the race at Ballaugh Bridge.

Finishing data - unofficial, and reported by Manx Radio over the air .. will update this when official results are posted.  Mistakes in transcribing could have been made.

#1 Mike Rutter - MotoCzysz - 20:38.461 .. 109.675 miles/hr.  Fantastic feeling, especially glad to win it for Michael Czysz who is back at home.  He never thought he'd win the race, and the bike went perfectly.

#2 John McGuiness - Mugen Shinden - 20:40.133 .. 109.527 miles/hr - 1.67 seconds behind Rutter.  Supposedly his bike faded a bit at the end.

#3 Rob Barber - Buckeye, The Ohio State University - 25:02.467 seconds .. 90.403 miles/hr - 4:22 behind #2

#4 George Spence - Kingston - 25:41.822 .. 88.096 miles/hr - 39.355 seconds behind #3

#5 Chris Mcgahan -  - 26:59.755 .. 83.857 miles/hr

#6 Ian Lougher - - 27:46.300 .. 81.515 miles/hr

#7 Dave Madsden-Mygdal - -31:26.933 .. 71.983 miles/hr .. this is his 98th finish of a TT race.

#8 Paul Owen - - 31:33.387 ..  71.738 miles/hr

McGuiness set to break 110 miles/hr in 2013 TT ZERO, and beat MotoCzysz

The results in the TT ZERO are just getting better with every practice round.  In Monday's practice round, John McGuiness's bike was being registered by the transponders so we can report that he achieved a 109.038 miles/hr lap speed, beating Michael Rutter's 107.602 miles/hr lap speed, and Mark Miller's 105.806 miles/hr lap speed.

To make this clear - John McGuiness turned in a 109.038 miles/hr result in practice, making it very likely the 110 miles/hr lap speed goal appears very likely to smashed in the 2013 TT ZERO.  The 2012 lap record was in the 104 miles/hr range, set by Mike Rutter in 2012 with McGuiness coming in second that year.  As we see in the next paragraph, Rutter is turning in 107 miles/hr lap speeds, and Miller is a bit slower than Rutter.  Hence, it looks like McGuiness will beat Rutter and Miller both, and it looks like the MotoCzysz winning streak is over.  But of course this is racing and we cannot be certain of anything until it actually happens.  For example Rutter and Miller could be holding back...?  Maybe?

The IOMTT officials still haven't have posted official results from Saturday's practice round, making it difficult to letting us assess improvements over the week.  Both Rutter and Miller gave similar results today to what they achieved on Saturday (Rutter 107.82 miles/hr Saturday, 107.602 miles/hr today, Miller 104.xx miles/hr on Saturday, 105.82 miles/hr today).  McGuiness is showing a big gain, from 107.20 miles/hr on Saturday, to 109.04 miles/hr on Monday.  We didn't have any results for McGuiness on Saturday, so we're unable to compare that against his performance today.  This performance is much stronger than Friday's practice round, and all three are soundly beating the 104ish miles/hr record set by Rutter in 2012.

Because one of the guys in the infernal combustion engine racing had a spectacular day, the Manx Radio crew spent quite awhile on reliving his win in a race just before the TT ZERO, and not covering for example the Sulby Speed trap times.  They did give some lap time numbers at several points along the lap.

These are unofficial lap speed numbers as written down while listening to Manx Radio.  I'll update this if/when the IOMTT officials post official results.

	Glen Helen	Ramsey Hairpin	Final
John McGuiness - Mugen Shinden	?	?	109.038 miles/hr
Mike Rutter - MotoCzysz	111 miles/hr	126 miles/hr	107.602 miles/hr
Mark Miller - MotoCzysz	105 miles/hr	124 miles/hr	105.806 miles/hr
Rob Barber - Buckeye	94 miles/hr	108 miles/hr	91.768 miles/hr
George Spence - Ion Horse	89 miles/hr	89 miles/hr	85.484 miles/hr
Chris McGahan - Vercamoto	?	?	81.150 miles/hr
Ian Lougher - KOMATTI	?	?	80.259 miles/hr

Mugen, MotoCzysz, smashing 2012's TT ZERO lap time record, 110 miles/hr lap speed in sight

John McGuiness (Mugen) during Friday's practice
Courtesy IOMTT.COM

Both MotoCzysz and Mugen are smashing the TT ZERO record lap speed they'd set during the 2012 session.  During practice/qualifying on Friday and Saturday, both teams gave lap speeds significantly faster than the 2012 record.  And what's even more interesting is that Mugen's John McGuiness seems to be beating MotoCzysz's Mark Rutter.  MotoCzysz is in for some serious competition this year.

I listened live to Saturday's practice - and it's clear all the teams, not just MotoCzysz and Mugen, have improved considerably since last year.

Because the TT race is such a long lap (38ish miles, winding around the Isle of Man and over the top of the mountain), Manx Radio has announcers scattered along the course, and the broadcast cycles through the announcers in order along the track.  The announcer at Ramsey Hairpin, at the base of the mountain, described all the bikes as handling this turn much better than last year.  This is a hairpin turn that begins the ascent up the mountain, the bikers have to slow almost to a stop and then accelerate up the slope.  Previously the electric bikes had problems with this corner, but not this year.

Sulby Speed Trap times were 135.5 miles/hr for Mark Miller (MotoCzysz), 125.9 miles/hr for Michael Rutter (MotoCzysz), 99.9 miles/hr for Chris Mcgahan (Vercamoto), 98.7 miles/hr for Paul Owen (Brunel Univ).

I haven't seen final results published by the IOMTT staff yet.  However, the announcer reported that Rutter had the fastest lap time, 107.82 miles/hr.  Also that George Spence, riding the Ion Horse, finished on Saturday with a 83.32 miles/hr lap time.

But this is unclear because John McGuiness's bike (Mugen) wasn't being registered by the timing computers.  He may well have had a faster speed trap time, and faster lap time, and we won't know until the final results are published.  Now that the results have been published (see below) we see he came in 2nd that day, with a 102.20 miles/hr lap time.  From Friday's results, Rutter had a 104.63 miles/hr lap time, and McGuiness had a 105.65 miles/hr lap time.

Mark Miller finished with a 104.40 miles/hr lap speed in 3rd place 21ish minutes lap time, I don't know the speed.  However, in the final speed point he was recorded going 29ish miles/hr indicating his bike probably (educated guess) had run real low on electricity.  At 21ish minutes, he did finish a little faster than on Friday when he put in a 22:07 minutes lap time, for a 102.33 miles/hr average lap speed.

Rob Barber, riding the Buckeye entry from The Ohio State University, came in last with a 70.07 miles/hr lap time.

I'll update this post when they unveil final results for Saturday's round.

The bottom line is that the top three bikes are significantly beating last years results, and are showing significant improvements between Friday and Saturday.

MotoCzysz's goal for 2013 is to not only continue their winning streak, but to beat a 110 miles/hr lap time.  They're in for a tough competition with Mugen for the #1 spot on the podium, but the 110 miles/hr lap time is within sight.

They have one more practice round on Monday afternoon, and the race is scheduled for Wednesday.

For friday's results see http://www.electricracenews.com/2013/06/mugen-beats-motoczysz-in-2013-tt-zero.html

Mugen beats MotoCzysz in 2013 TT ZERO qualifying practice round

Isle of Man TT Week is underway, and the TT Zero crew has had their first practice round on Friday.

Despite the MotoCzysz goal of hitting a 110 miles/hr lap, practice results fell a little short, and Mugen even came in a little ahead.  Of course the team can use this to adjust something letting them come out ahead on Wednesday.  What counts is what happens that day.

MotoCzysz reveals 2013 E1pc electric superbike at TT Week opener on Isle of Man

MotoCzysz, unfortunately without Michael Czysz who stayed in Portland to deal with an illness, is at the Isle of Man this week to seek their fourth TT ZERO win.  As is traditional to them, they unveiled the new 2013 E1pc electric superbikes during the TT Week opening ceremony.

New 2013 MotoCzysz E1pc - courtesy iomtt.com

 “Since last year’s win,” said Ray Crepeau, General Manager for MotoCzysz “a new strategy has been in the works. Our team has been quietly preparing bikes, targeting an average lap speed of 110 mph.”

The picture provided by iomtt.com (above) doesn't give us much to go on for what it looks like, though it's nice to see the familiar faces of the team members.  Going by the press release, the team managed to cram more energy into the bike without increasing the weight.

They use different packs for different scenarios.  For the Isle of Man, MotoCzysz uses "energy" batteries that pack more kilowatt-hours per kilogram, while for regular races they use "power" batteries that deliver more kilowatts (not kilowatt-hours) at a time.  By putting more energy in without increasing weight, it means that Kokam (their battery supplier) has developed cells with dramatically higher energy density.  Enough for a 20% energy capacity increase without increasing weight.

 “We are missing Michael Czysz this year for sure,” said Rutter. “But the new bikes look very, very fast and I can’t wait to see what they’ll do!” Miller was equally impressed with the new equipment. “Once again, I am truly in awe,” said Miller. “For the past four years the MotoCzysz crew has consistently raised the bar, and this year is no exception. I can’t wait to climb on and tackle the mountain course! It’s going to be a bit different without Michael Czysz here but from the looks of things the Team have sorted the bikes and its now my turn to go to work.”

 MotoCzysz founder and CEO, Michael Czysz, recently revealed a bit of team strategy:
“2013 is as much about bike handling as it is about energy onboard. Adding range is simple, you add more batteries; but to achieve that without adding weight was an engineering feat.” More important still is bike handling and dynamics, where Team MotoCzysz has made huge strides. “The 2013 E1pc handling rivals any bike on the mountain, allowing Michael and Mark to easily carve the twisty mountain course faster than ever.”

Mission Motors re-entering electric motorcycle field, how will they stack up?

Mission Motors appears to be coming back into the business of building high performance electric motorcycles.  They of course started out in that business, but backed away from it when the company nearly died a few years ago.  There was a change of CEO at the time, and a change of strategy. 

The new strategy was to focus on making EV drive train components to sell to OEM's.  Along the way they developed software to help with designing electric vehicles, and EV dynamics, that tracked performance plotting it on a 3D map. 

The other day the company tweeted a link to a website containing solely the above image.  This is clearly teasing us with a new electric motorcycle that will be launched on June 3.

All the while they we working on drive train components to sell to others, the engineers were using an electric motorcycle (the Mission R) as a test bed.  The purpose they explained to me several times is that electric motorcycles have strong constraints on power and weight and size.  Therefore, to successfully build a motorcycle with near-MotoGP performance (which they did) the components had to have a very high power to weight ratio.

Their claims are interesting - however.  To build the highest performing street legal electric vehicle ever made means beating out some strong contenders.  Some of whom are in production already, and could plausibly have higher performance than whatever it is Mission will be launching in June.

In my writeup elsewhere I focused on Lightning Motorcycles as the primary contender, but let's run down the list of possibilities, and why I settled on Lightning.

Tesla Model S: Let's dispense with this one right away.  Carefully reading the statement they make, "street legal electric vehicle" includes 4-wheelers, right?  The Model S has a top speed of 130 miles/hr and 0-60 mph in 4.2 seconds.  That's very impressive, but it'll be easy for Mission to beat that.  The Mission R beat that in 2011, I believe.

Rimac Concept One: This is probably not a production car so shouldn't be considered?  The specifications page doesn't list a top speed, but says 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds.

Lightning Motorcycles: Lightning is in production right now, I haven't checked lately but the sales volume so far is probably still under 5 bikes.  For some people that's enough to say it's a production electric motorcycle.  The bike that's in production is the race bike.  We saw it in race conditions last year, and for example at the Laguna Seca TTXGP/e-Power event last July they nearly beat the laptime record held by Mission Motors.  At the 2011 Laguna Seca event Steve Rapp rode the Mission R, setting a fantastic lap speed record, while beating both Lightning and MotoCzysz pretty badly.  For the 2012 event Lightning showed a strong improvement, but did not beat Rapps lap speed from 2011.

Brammo Empulse RR: This bike is definitely not in production so shouldn't be considered in relation to the claims Mission is making about their upcoming bike.  The RR instead is Brammo's prototype bike.  With that bike Steve Atlas and Eric Bostrom were hitting 170 miles/hr at Daytona last fall, and they showed massive improvements over the 2012 season.  I didn't get to see them at the Sonoma Raceway event last weekend but I hear they made a respectable showing within the pack of 600cc gas powered superbikes.

2013 MotoCzysz e1pc: Ditto what I just said about the Empulse RR.  Not in production, and showing lots of improvements, including hitting the 100 miles/hr lap speed on the Isle of Man in 2012.

As I see it - the way to validate Mission's claim is to get their bike into a race against these other bikes.  Yes, in 2011 the Mission R with Steve Rapp riding beat Lightning and MotoCzysz.  But both them and Brammo have moved a long long ways forward since then.  Has Mission also moved forward?  We won't know until the bikes can be put into a race against each other, eh?

MotoCzysz uses Dow Kokam cells for 2013 battery packs

MotoCzysz released today a little bit more information about their 2013 bikes.  On Monday the team announced the lineup of their 2013 team, and committed to both the TTZERO and eRoadRacing events in North America.

For 2013 they are continuing their battery partnership with Dow Kokam. After a first test session, the team says "amazing results confirmed that the Czysz crew has built the best handling and most energy dense MotoCzysz e1pc to date." 

The new battery pack gives 20% more energy on-board, with no more weight.  That will give them a performance advantage for sure.  They also cite new performance technology in the form of "2D (2 dimensional) triple clamps, offering its pilots amazing front end grip and control."

MotoCzysz commits to not only TT ZERO but eRoadRacing at Laguna Seca

MotoCzysz announced today their team lineup and plans for racing in the 2013 season.  It included the expected visit to the Isle of Man for the TT ZERO at the end of May, but a very welcome move to participate in the eRoadRacing series.  The team lineup is full of top racers, namely:  Michael Rutter and Mark Miller for the TT ZERO, and Shane Turpin and Steve Rapp for the eRoadRacing series.

The team goals for 2013 are quite ambitious, but I think achievable.  At the TT ZERO they hope to break through the 110 miles/hr lap speed.  At Laguna Seca they plan to not only win the race, but to hit lap times really close to MotoGP times.

They have some big goals for themselves, and doubtlessly they'll have seriously improved their bikes for this year.  Their competitors haven't been sitting still, however.

Michael Rutter rode with MotoCzysz at the TT ZERO in 2011 and 2012, winning the race both times.  In 2012 he and team-mate Mark Miller both broke the 100 miles/hr lap speed.  “With two wins under my belt, I’d like to go for the hat-trick this year and with Team MotoCzysz providing the equipment, I think we can get it done,” said an enthusiastic Rutter.  Mark Miller has ridden with the team since 2010, winning the race that year.  “The team and I have shared many memorable moments over the years and I look forward to being surrounded by my extended family again at the Isle of Man TT and to ride the latest permutation of their mind-blowing e1pc," said Miller.

MotoCzysz has also raced in TTXGP and FIM e-Power events at Laguna Seca, on the MotoGP weekend.  In 2010 Michael Czysz rode, beating Lightning Motorcycles by a nose.  In 2011 Czysz rode again, beating Lightning again by a nose.  In 2011 they also came to the TTXGP North American final at Miller Motorsports Park, and with Shane Turpin riding they beat Lightning by a much wider margin. "I've raced everything from Singles to Superbikes, but nothing as special as the MotoCzysz e1pc,” stated Turpin. “The Czysz group is truly leading the world in electric-bike technology and that has been proven in race results and in lap times that are rivaling conventional bikes. Anyone skeptical of electric-bike technology needs to see this thing run!"

At that 2011 Laguna Seca TTXGP/e-Power, Steve Rapp rode for a different team, Mission Motors.  While the Lightning/MotoCzysz contest ended up with MotoCzysz beating Lightning by a nose, Rapp on the Mission bike beat both of them by a long margin.  A margin so big that in 2012, even though the rest of the field made huge strides forward, they didn't beat the 2011 lap record set by Rapp.  “I'm very excited to get the chance to ride for Michael and the entire MotoCzysz team, and also to ride their latest creation," said an eager Rapp. “Ever since I first met Michael, he has always pushed limits and set new boundaries in the motorcycle industry. I think we will make a great team!”

A few paragraphs back I suggested their competitors haven't been sitting still.  That's a part of racing, that the teams are always striving to best each other.  At the TTXGP 2012 World Championship, Brammo's bikes were hitting 170 miles/hr in race conditions, a huge improvement over just a couple months earlier.  We won't see until some of these teams get into a race against each other, but I'm expecting that Brammo, Lightning, and MotoCzysz will have each upgraded their performance in a big way for 2013, and that the Laguna Seca race is going to be even more awesome than any previous instance of that event.

The MotoCzysz press release does not commit to anything in the eRoadRacing series other than the Laguna Seca event.

Videos of MotoCzysz battery pack thermal event at TTXGP 2012 Portland International Raceway

As I reported earlier, last weekend during the TTXGP race at Portland International Raceway, one of the MotoCzysz bikes nearly had a battery pack thermal runaway in the pit area.  A couple videos have since been posted that show what happened.

The videos below agree with the story Michael Czysz gave me on Sunday morning.  Shortly after when Chris Ancien brought in the bike he was riding, the battery pack became hot and started letting out the magic smoke.  You can see in these videos a white cloud which may be steam, or may be from the battery cells.  The pack nearly went into thermal runaway (Czysz agreed with that description when asked) and if that had happened it would have meant a fire, one that would have been difficult to put out.  Instead, as you can see in these videos, the MotoCzysz crew first pushed the bike out from under their awning, then poured a bucked of water into the battery pack.

That, I think, is a similar sort of desperation move as pouring ocean water into an overheating nuclear reactor.  In both cases you're not expecting to reuse the gizmo, but are trying to avoid a worse problem, such as a fire.

As shown in the videos the gambit worked, the white cloud diminished, and there was no fire.

The first video doesn't appear to allow me to embed the video on this blog post, so you'll have to go to Google+ to view it:  https://plus.google.com/108161928669055573248/posts/aXKe4tLA3iB 

The second was shot by Travis Gintz, whom you can see standing in the previous video.  In other words, the two videos were shot at the same time, and you can see two different views of the same event.  There's apparently a third video, shot by a person who appears to be liveforphysics532 on Youtube, but he appears to not have posted the video.  (Luke, if that's you, wink wink, nudge nudge)

Documentary-like video on the TT ZERO race, and MotoCzysz's involvement in the series

A little documentary about the TTXGP / TT ZERO on the Isle of Man, and especially focusing on MotoCzysz's involvement in the series.

MotoCzysz races with OMRRA at Portland International Raceway

In a race pitting the MotoCzysz E1PC electric superbike against gas powered race motorcycles, MotoCzysz ran great until having to bow out possibly due to a shredded rain tire.  The race was held the weekend of Sept 17-18 at Portland International Raceway during round 6 of the OMRRA Championship race series.

The race occurred in the "Middleweight Superbike" class.  They pitted the E1PC against Suzuki SV650's and Kawasaki EX650's.  These bikes are frequently used in AMA Superbike racing by pro racers.

The event was held in rainy conditions (hey, it's Portland).  The E1PC proved itself safe in the rain, and proved itself a worthy adversary of gas-powered superbikes.  Michael Czysz was riding and "started from the pit lane behind the entire grid".  He passed half of the pack before hitting turn one, and passed the remainder of the pack on the long straight at the end of the first lap.  He then just kept on going.  He "went faster than every 600cc and 750cc machine supersport or superbike that entire weekend" and "turned a faster lap than all but three 1,000 cc machines".  Over the next seven laps he made a 30 second gap over the gas-powered bikes.

Unfortunately in lap 8 the bike pulled out for a variety of reasons including shredded rain tires.  The quotes above are from e-mail correspondence with Michael Czysz.

He shared these thoughts

It was good fun, I do like riding in the rain but to be honest, riding an elec. in the rain is pretty stressful, especially at this stage in their development.

I can tell you racing the ICE bikes, even at club level was way more exciting for the observers than a full electric race ever could be.  I think this is the natural transition.  People were interested, excited and impressed.

OMRRA is the Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association.

A message from Motoczysz (OMRRA Forums)

JQ,

I wanted to pass on a heartfelt thanks to the entire OMRRA organization and family, including the corner workers, the commentators and especially the Middleweight Superbike racers.

Last weekend was a return to our roots- OMRRA was where I started racing and were I started cultivating the thoughts and ideas that are MotoCzysz.

Sunday was all too familiar, constant changing weather and (7) tire changes later we still did not have it right but what was right, was the venue. This year OMRRA lead the Nation by adding an electric motorcycle class to their road racing program. Either a product of forward thinking or green sensibilities or just to keep Portland weird, OMRRA was first, then waited. I don’t think anyone expected anything too exciting to come from this class for years, if ever.

Last weekend, MotoCzysz brought to OMRRA for the first time, an electric grand prix machine. The goal was to not embarrass ourselves amongst all the internal combustion race bikes and let down those who pioneered the class, the dream was to push hard, race and go fast.

I and the entire MotoCzysz team want to thank the Middleweight Superbike grid and the club overall for their support and hospitality. Let’s see who next follows OMRRA.

It is great to be a licensed OMRRA racer again.

Best,Michael CzyszOMRRA #11X

 

Source:

Rain complicates round six of OMRRA Championship at Portland International Raceway