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

Lightning Motorcycles on verge of making historic win at Pikes Peak

The big hairy audacious goals set by Lightning Motorcycles when the company was started including qualifying at the top of the pack in a major international race against gas powered bikes.  A few years ago that goal seemed ridiculous, even in 2010 at the inaugural TTXGP at Infineon Raceway (now Sonoma Raceway) which Lightning won.  On Friday, though, that particular goal was achieved, and it represents a tipping point in electric motorcycle development.  That a big piece of history is about to be achieved, hopefully, by Lightning Motorcycles.

Carlin Dunne, Lightning Motorcycles
2013 Pikes Peak

As I noted yesterday, Carlin Dunne riding for Lightning Motorcycles qualified in the 2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, in the Exhibition Powersports class.  To do that he beat the time he set in qualifying in 2012, riding his 1200cc superbike.  Last year Dunne went on to win the PPIHC outright.  This year, with a qualifying time almost 7 seconds faster than the next entrant, on a 1200cc superbike, he had the fastest overall time of all motorcycles present.  It appears likely he'll repeat this again on Sunday and take an overall win.

That would be historic.  Winning outright against gas bikes in a major international race, against the top gas bike racers from around the world, has never been done in the history of motorcycle racing. 


I just got off the phone with Richard Hatfield, CEO of Lightning Motorcycles, for a long conversation about where they are, and what this means in the bigger scheme of things. 

Hatfield and a small crew have been on-site at Pikes Peak for most or all of June doing daily test runs with Carlin Dunne.  They'd rise at 3:30 AM, on-site by 4ish AM, hold a riders meeting, and do multiple test runs for a few hours.  They have two bikes on-site allowing Dunne to switch off and just keep riding.  He's been an excellent development rider to work with providing concise feedback.

Hatfield says that Dunne believes the bike, as it exists today, does not need more horsepower.  It has all the horsepower needed right now, even though more is possible with the components they have on the bike right now.  The next phase is traction control, so they can increase the power and keep it on the ground.

To power the bikes they have a large solar array with a 35 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack and a pair of 6 kilowatt SMA inverters.  The inverters allow them to quick-charge the bike at a 40 amp rate, with electricity gathered from sunshine.

But, what does it mean for Lightning to be where they are now?  To have a top racer on his team, beating the best gas bike racers in the world?

Brammo, Lightning, Moto Electra,
at 2011 North America finals at Miller Motorsports

Three years ago in the 2010 TTXGP season, electric motorcycle racing was a crew of scrappy upstarts.  Most of the bikes were home built experiments that ran, most of the time, but were a lot slower than the 600cc superbikes.  Even Lightning, with the top bike that year, was a lot slower than the 600cc superbikes.  The whole scene was laughed off as one that would never amount to anything other than "oh, that's interesting".

Year after year the field of electric motorcycle racing teams have improved, especially the top bikes.  This includes not just Lightning, but Brammo, Mission, MotoCzysz and others.

Trophy for winning at Mosport

Lightning has come a long way.  In 2010 at the Mosport (Canada) TTXGP race, Michael Barnes had a 1:39.289 best lap time compared to 1000cc superbikes with best laptimes in the neighborhood of 1:21-22.  In 2013, at Pikes Peak, they've consistently been beating the gas bikers in practice all week long, the best gas bikers in the world.

What it means in the bigger scheme is, for Lightning Motorcycles, a validation of their years of hard work.  It means they'll be able to present their superbike, the one they're selling to the public, as being a clone of the bike that won on Pikes Peak.  It's the "race on Sunday, sell on Monday" adage, and Richard Hatfield certainly aims to do so when he returns to the office.

But he also said several times during the interview - "One small step for Lightning, one giant leap for electric vehicles."

If they do win, it'll be big for them as a company, but in the grand scheme it represents a major milestone being reached.  One that many thought was impossible.

It's a short step from this to thinking about the success of Tesla Motors.  Just a few years ago they were just selling the Roadster, and seeing all kinds of problems, while promising a top-notch luxury sedan with unheard of specifications.  No matter the problems, they were tenacious and kept at the plan.  And the success of Tesla Motors isn't just that the Model S is winning accolades around the world, but that Tesla's very existence pushed the automobile industry towards electric vehicles.

The existence of Lightning (and Brammo, Mission, MotoCzysz, etc) in electric motorcycles, with the improvements year-after-year, are playing a similar role with the gas bike manufacturers.  The major gas bike makers are certainly looking over their shoulders seeing these electric guys catching up and wondering what to do.

A juxtaposition of TTXGP and Honda
TTXGP 2010 world finals at Albacete Spain

Hatfield related a conversation he had while waiting at the results board.  Two guys wearing Honda R&D shirts came up, saw him with his Lightning shirt, and said "Next time we'll come back with more horsepower."  Richard says he responded saying "Next year you should come with batteries," to which one of them turned to the other and said "yes, we should."

To the extent that Honda == Mugen, it's very possible for Honda to race at Pikes Peak with an electric bike, perhaps with a Mugen name on the plastic.

The question when the major manufacturers enter the game is whether the scrappy upstarts like Lightning will be able to keep up.  Hatfield says they have all the manufacturing partners and parts suppliers lined up to be able to go into production.

Mitsubishi takes 1st/2nd in Pikes Peak, plus other electric action on the mountain

While Lightning Motorcycles is turning in awesome results at Pikes Peak, there are some other electric teams on the mountain as well.   I want to take a look at some of the other results.

Jeremiah Johnson made a long posting talking about his recent results, and how his buddy Jeff Clark was keeping him honest.  He'd figured out that he didn't want the pole position, because he wanted someone to chase up the mountain.  However, he ended up fastest in one practice today (5:10 time) because Jeff Clark also did not want pole position and got a 5:14 time.  Jeremiah then decided to go full blast and got the bike turned up to full power.  In the next practice round that snagged him a 5:00 time, for a 10 second improvement, and 35th place overall. 

Amarok Racing qualified for the race, after having problems earlier in the week when a couple sub-packs failed.  They have a custom converted electric motorcycle using twin Agni motors, and a battery pack built of Turnigy R/C packs.  Those packs are attractive because they give a high discharge rate and have an ultra-low cost. 

Mitsubishi Motors snagged 1st and 2nd place in qualifying in the Electric Division.  Greg Tracy clocked the quickest time in the Electric Division with a time of 3:56.287, while Hiroshi Masuoka posted a run of 3:57.777.

Here's the results of the electric car class:

• 1st, GREG TRACY, MIEV Evolution II, 3:56.287
• 2nd, HIROSHI MASUOKA, MIEV Evolution II, 3:59.777
• 3rd, NUBOHIRO TAJIMA, Pikes Peak Special, 3:58.189
• 4th, ROD MILLEN, Toyota TMG EV P002, 4:04.331
• 5th, JANIS HORELIKS, PP01, 4:19.488
• 6th, IKUO HANAWA, HER-02, 4:46.789
• 7th, ROY RICHARDS, Fit-EV, 5:29.430

It means that Monster Tajima took 3rd, Toyota took 4th, and the Latvian team took 5th.

Toyota posted this writeup with some discussion by Rod Millen.

Rod Millen: “It was good. We’re gaining more and more speed every time we run it -- the combination of me getting more and more comfortable in it and the team extracting a little more speed out of it. Unfortunately, our competitors are doing the same. We feel comfortable. We’ve got a nice balanced package here. We feel comfortable in terms of our race package.”

Rod Millen: “It’s not so much the starting position -- it’s more knowing what the vehicle is going to be like throughout that whole duration of that qualifying run. It’s a combination of very fast at the bottom and then we start to get into some of the switchbacks. Knowing what the car is going to handle like and what the balance is going to be like is really important in qualifying.”

Rod Millen: “Tomorrow, we’ll be working on the middle section of the mountain and we’re going to apply a couple lessons we learned today to try to make some improvements. Then I think we’ll have a race-ready package.”

Rod Millen: “It will be a lot warmer. We will have to make some decisions on tire compounds and so on of what we will do come race day. It really is a balancing act. Perhaps more so that we’re testing in the early hours of the morning -- the temperatures are much, much cooler. We’re going to have to use experience to help us make some decisions for race day when the temperatures are a lot hotter.”

The Toyota team is using a DC Fast Charger to get more track time, as they wrote up a couple weeks ago.  However, their plans almost hit disaster when the fast charger was destroyed in a car accident while being driven to Pikes Peak.  They had to ship in a replacement fast charger from Germany.

EV West posted on Facebook that they're "bummed" about not racing Pikes Peak this year.  Instead, they'll be at the REFUEL event at Laguna Seca this weekend.  That's a curious choice because while the REFUEL event is excellent, it's nowhere near the prestige of Pikes Peak.

Lightning Motorcycles takes pole at Pikes Peak, on track to win outright

At Pikes Peak they're getting ready for the big race on Sunday, and in today's qualifying round Lightning Motorcycles' rider Carlin Dunne took pole position while beating the next gas bike racer by over 6 seconds. This is a historic moment, because it marks the first time any electric vehicle has beaten a gasoline powered vehicle in a major international competition.

 A week ago Lightning sent out a press release saying that Dunne had beaten the gas bikes in an early practice round.  It appears that in practice rounds since, Dunne has kept up that pattern. 

It's beginning to look like, on Sunday, Lightning will take home the overall win in the Motorcycle category.

The results sheet they posted on Facebook shows Dunne finishing a 5.16 mile run in 4:13.532.  The next finisher, Micky Dymond, riding in the 1205 class, had a time of 4:20.215, or 6.683 seconds behind Dunne.  The next three, all on gas bikes, had 4:25.xx times.  The next bike after those three, in the Pikes Peak Superbike 750 class, had a 4:28.184 time. 

The numbers go on from there, suffice it to say that Dunne beat the field by a good margin.  The next electric bike was a Zero S ridden by Jeremiah Johnson, with a 5:00.720 time.

Lightning is racing in the Exhibition Powersports class meaning that the gas bikers aren't in direct competition with Lightning or the other electric bikes.  Someone will win in the Pikes Peak 1205 class, for example, and take home a 1st place trophy, even if Lightning's Dunne manages to beat the whole field. 

If indeed Lightning does win outright, there's I'm sure some kind of special honor for having done so.  In choosing Carlin Dunne, Lightning brought on board the winner in the motorcycle class for the last two years.  In 2012 he had a 9:52.819 time in the Pikes Peak 1205 class. 

Dunne has been beating the 1205 class all week, so it seems likely he'll do it again on Sunday.

Electric race cars headline entries announced for 2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb

The electric division in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is going to have two former Kings of the Mountain in contention.  It's probably a sign of a shift in racing, that two contestants in the electric division are headlining the press release just sent out by the PPIHC organizers going over the known entrants in the 2013 running of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb.  These two Kings of the Mountain, Monster Tajima and Rod Millen, have won the hill climb race 17 times between them. 

Monster Tajima will be again driving his Tajima Motors E-Runner, which was forced out of the race last year when Tajima developed a small fire aboard the electric vehicle. He has won the Unlimited division eight times, and was the first driver to crack the ten-minute mark when he clocked a 9:51.278 in winning the title in 2011.

Millen is making his debut in the electric division and will be driving the Toyota TMG EV P002.  That car won the electric division last year when driven by Japan’s Fumio Nutahara.  Millen has won 9 titles on Pikes Peak including five wins in the Unlimited division.

Nutahara will be back but obviously not driving for Toyota, but the car has yet to be determined.

Current entrants in the Electric Car division are:

• Elias Anderson, of Austin TX, driving what's described as an HCE XP-13.  He drove the 3rd fastest electric car in the 2012 PPIHC, and finished in the top 10 of the cars.
• Michael Breem, of San Marcos CA, driving an electric BMW conversion.  He drove this car in the 2012 PPIHC, was the 4th fastest electric car, and placed 54th overall.
• Ikuo Hanawa, of Ibaraki Japan, driving what's described as a Summit HER-02.  This is the Yokohama Tires entry, and in 2012 their car placed 55th overall.
• Janis Horeliks, of Ogresgala pagasts Latvia, driving what's described as an "e0 PP01".  S/He is a rookie to the PPIHC. 
• Rod Millen, of Salisbury North Carolina, driving the aforementioned Toyota TMG EV P002.
• Tajima Nobohiru, of Shibuya-ku Japan, driving the aforementioned E-Runner.  He raced in the 2012 PPIHC but was forced out when smoke began billowing from the battery pack.
• Roy Richards, of Boron CA, driving a Honda Fit.  He is a rookie to the PPIHC.

The 2013 running also has an electric motorcycle division all of whom will be riding Zero Motorcycles bikes

• Nathan Barker, of Rocklin CA, riding a 2013 Zero FX.  
• Jeff Clark, of Orange CA, riding a 2013 Zero FX.
• Aaron Frank of Milwaukee WI, riding a 2013 Zero MX.
• Jeremiah Johnson, of St. Petersburg FL, riding a 2013 Zero S.
• Kenyon Kluge, of Santa Cruz CA, riding a 2013 Zero S.  Kluge is a Zero Motorcycles employee.
• Brandon Nozaki Miller, of Thousand Oaks CA, riding a 2012 Zero S.

All are rookies to the PPIHC.

Jeremiah Johnson is a pro motorcycle racer who has participated in the TTXGP, including the World Championship in Daytona last fall.

Brandon Miller is new to racing, and is working through the system to become the first certified motorcycle racer without ever throwing his leg over a gas bike.  In 2012 he took his Zero S to the Bonneville Salt Flats and set a land speed record for lightweight electric motorcycles.

Kenyon Kluge has an AMA racing license and has raced in the TTXGP since the 2010 season.  During the 2012 season he organized the eSuperStock award group which consisted of 4 2012 Zero S's racing in the TTXGP.

There are several other potential electric entrants in the 2013 PPIHC.

Sources:

• ppihc.com,
• Electric cars finish in top tier of rescheduled Pikes Peak Hill Climb
• Global warming & epic fires delays Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
• Toyota Motorsport to race to the clouds at Pikes Peak with new electric race car
•