Electrics on track for outright Pikes Peak wins, following excellent results at 2014 Pikes Peak for both cars and bikes

In last weekend's Pikes Peak Hill Climb race, electric car drivers took 3 of the top 4 results in the overall ranking, and both electric car and electric motorcycle racers claimed hugely positive results.  While this isn't as stunning as Lightning Motorcycle's overall win last year with a 20 second margin over all motorcycle racers, that Mitsubishi's drivers came within 3 seconds of an overall win is astounding.  Jeff Clark set the record for production electric motorcycles on a 2013 Zero, Jeremiah Johnson gave an excellent first outing for the Brutus Motorcycles V2 Rocket, and more.

Comparing results across classes, the electric vehicles gave great results holding out the promise for outright wins within a couple years.  The Mitsubishi team almost took the outright win this year, coming up less than 3 seconds short.  But in the electric motorcycle camp, while at first read you see Jeff Clark taking 72nd overall and be disappointed, he beat everyone in the 250cc class and would have finished middle of the pack in the Lightweight class.  Similarly Jeremiah Johnson would have finished in the middle of the Middleweight class.

Here's the top electric performers for 2014, this class is for custom built electric race cars.  We see that Greg Tracy (Mitsubishi) finished in 2nd with a 9:08.188 lap time, and his team-mate Hiroshi Masuoka, came in 3rd just a few seconds behind him with a 9:12.204 lap time.  Monster Tajima came in 4th a full 30 seconds later at 9:43.900.  The Yokoma Tires sponsored Summit car driven by Ikuo Hanawa came in at 81st place at 12:19.109.  This class is rounded out by Janis Horeliks, the Latvian team that modified a Tesla Roadster, came in at 96th place with a 12:57.536 lap time.

To compare this with the rest of the field - the overall winner this year was Romain Dumas, in the Unlimited class, with a 9:05.801 lap time.

That puts about 2.4 seconds between the overall winner and the Mitsubishi entry.    Oh.. My.. God..  Could we be seeing an electric team as the outright winner in the 2015 Pikes Peak race?

Here's a video during qualification - the siren is not a police car chasing him, but a noise maker required to be carried by all the electric vehicles.


Upon taking 2nd and 3rd in the overall results, Mitsubishi claims "the stage has been set for highly energy-efficient and sustainable electric-powered vehicles like the Mitsubishi MiEV Evolution III to soon become the dominant force in this challenging one-of-a-kind motorsport competition."

Monster Tajima's team put out a press release explaining that warm weather, and heat within the vehicle, caused their result to be less than expected. This is a very Japanese thing to say, isn't it? "The team regrets that their improvements on the machine could not be well versed in terms of time."

And this: "This year I am both disappointed and pleased at the same time. Yes of course, I am disappointed that I did not win. However I am greatly pleased that our work in promoting electric vehicles have raised so much awareness that even a major motor company such as Mitsubishi Motor is inspired to win the race at full force. Now Tesla, Toyota, and Honda are also participating in the electric car division. I am hoping that this movement would catch more speed where the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb race would be known as the forefront of tackling the environmental problems we face today. I give kudos to the Mitsubishi Motor Team that have won this merciless race. Congratulations! Finally, I would like to thank all our sponsors and supporters from the deep bottom of my heart and appreciate all the cheers from all."

There were two production electric cars entered - a Honda Fit EV, and a Gen2 Toyota RAV4 EV.  The Toyota appears not to have finished, but the Honda Fit EV turned in a respectable 12:55.591 lap time, and took 95th place overall.  That beat the modified Tesla Roadster, which sure is an interesting result.

Now let's get to the Motorcycles.  First up is the production electric motorcycle class, with Jeff Clark (supported by Hollywood Electrics) taking 1st place.  He scored an 11:59.814 lap time, taking 72nd place overall.

This is the first sub-12 second time for an electric motorcycle.

The interesting thing about this is Jeff's bike is not a Zero S or Zero DS, but a 2013 Zero FX.  That bike is the "street fighter" in Zero's lineup, and is noted for its light weight.

The time for Jeff's first segment, 2:06.879, was very impressive and even beat the fastest of the Exhibition class riders - Guy Martin's 2:09.930 time.

“We’ve shown that it won’t be long before the top riders in all classes at Pikes Peak will be on electric,” said Harlan Flagg, Founder of Hollywood Electrics. “There is no faster bike off-the-line than an electric motorcycle. We’re really excited to prove our tuning abilities on Zero Motorcycles up the mountain, besting all the prototype bikes and the talented engineers behind those.”

“Congratulations to Jeff Clark and Hollywood Electrics on a monumental victory. To break the 12-minute mark on such a challenging course is truly remarkable,” said Richard Walker, CEO of Zero Motorcycles. "It shows what electric motorcycle technology and entrepreneurial spirit can accomplish, and we are proud to be with them at the forefront.”

Asked about how the race went, Jeff Clark said, “I had a couple of close calls, but at the end of the day bested my time from last year. So proud to be the fastest electric bike up America’s Mountain. Thanks to my crew and my sponsors, without whom I couldn’t have done it.”

Photo by Brandon Nozaki-Miller

Last but certainly not least is the Electric Modified class, won by Jeremiah Johnson.

Johnson was riding the Brutus Motorcycles V2 Rocket. The bike had only been "finished" the week before, and Johnson explained the suspension hadn't been tuned or any other bike "setup" work that would have helped him get a better time. As it is he won his division, taking 83rd overall, with a 12:20.448 lap time.

Here is his video from the race.


Again, the noise maker is due to PPIHC regulations, it's not a police car chasing him up the mountain.

There's a close call partway up the mountain when someone on a motorcycle kinda rolled out onto the road.  Good save, Jay.

Yoshihiro Kishimoto was riding a bike that I gather was originally built for the Isle of Man TT ZERO, but this year they chose to enter the PPIHC.  He came in 103rd overall with a 13:36.654 lap time.

According to Brandon Nozaki Miller (shown in this picture) the bike got a couple battle scars when "Kishimoto San had a disagreement with the pavement in the second half of the race".  We imagine that means he took a spill but was able to get back on the bike and finish.

Speaking of Brandon, we want to make a special shout out to him and his participation in the 2014 PPIHC.

Even though he wasn't registered to race this year, as he was last year, he did take a week of work to travel to the event as part of the Hollywood Electrics support crew.  Judging by his Facebook postings during the week, Brandon was helping all the electric motorcycle teams with his technical skills as well as taking pictures.

He put together a "Story" over on Google+ about the week that's well worth clicking on.

All the electric motorcycle teams

The electric motorcycle racing teams have always had a special camaderie - in most cases - between the teams.  Here's an example, with all of them together grinning for the camera looking pleased with their accomplishment of moving the needle forward a couple more notches.

While most of them took results pretty far down the overall ranking, the results of this group show considerable improvement.  That is, improvement for the production electric motorcycles.

One wonders how Jeff Clark would have fared against a 2014 Zero SR (Brandon!!) or against a 2014 Empulse TTX, but he improved his time over last year.  Further, while the Brutus V2 Rocket is a prototype bike, it's nearly ready for production (apparently) and Brutus does have it listed on their site with a $26,000 price tag.

In other words, a few years ago the story for electric motorcycle racing was far out prototype bikes by Brammo/Lightning/MotoCzysz/Muench and others.  The production bikes of that era weren't capable of finishing something like Pikes Peak until the 2012 Zero model line, and now both Brammo and Zero are hitting their stride with excellent production electric motorcycles.

Now it's possible for a rider to just buy a Zero or Brammo bike, do some tweaking, and get performance similar to or better than 250cc gas bikes.  Jeff Clark's 11:59.814 lap time beat the pants off the Pikes Peak 250cc class whose fastest rider was Matt Meinart with a 12:09.513 lap time.  He would have finished in the middle of the Pikes Peak Lightweight class, had he been entered in that class.  Jeremiah Johnson would have finished in the middle of Pikes Peak Middleweight class, had he been in that class.

Within a couple years the Production Electric Motorcycle class could be a significant force at Pikes Peak.  They're already giving results in the middle of their respective gasser classes.  Given the rapid progress being made, it's a certainty that more electric motorcycle racers will do as Lightning did last year, and win outright.  It's just a matter of "when" not "if".

It's within the realm of likelihood, now, that the outright winner could be electric next year, or the year after.

Won't that catch the attention of lots of gear-heads?

Risking life and limb to electrify racing - is it worth it? PLEASE, do it safely!

Bobby Goodin, R.I.P.

A question in my mind since the 2014 TT ZERO (and TT) at the Isle of Man is the carnage happening in this kind of race.  The TT course, the Pikes Peak course, and some other races, are severe challenges between person, machine, and the elements.  The challenge is higher than at regular race tracks, and while track based racing see's a fair amount of injury and even death, courses like the Snaefell Mountain Course (Isle of Man) or Pikes Peak seem to have a higher rate of injury and death.

What I'm pondering is my role in this process.  By covering these events as news I'm contributing my little bit to the spectacle around the event, and contributing my little bit to encouraging other riders to participate.  Some of whom have wives and children at home who would be devastated if it was their husband whose face appears on TV thanks to a fatal accident.

I've covered the electric racing scene since 2009 - including Zero Motorcycles' "24 Hours of Electricross" event, and at the Vintage Motorcycle event in Ohio that year where the TTXGP made its first appearance in North America.  Following that was several years attending TTXGP, e-Power, eRoadRacing and REFUEL races, as well as remotely covering events like the TT ZERO and PPIHC.

Covering electric racing has been, for me, a matter of recognizing that in order to change the worlds transportation system, we have to go into and transform every field of transportation.  That includes racing.

For this project of electrifying all transportation to work, we have to convince the serious gear heads to begin racing with electric vehicles.  That means building, racing, and winning with electric vehicles that catch attention of the gear heads, breaking the haze of their gasoline addiction.  That also means entering the territory, getting into the same events, as regular racing - and obviously it'll take a "few" years to fulfill that destiny, but it must eventually happen.

Fortunately the electric race vehicles are improving rapidly - as evidenced by events like Mugen's win at the TT ZERO this year (117 miles/hr lap speed) and Lightning's win at Pikes Peak last year (10 minutes).  The 2014 Pikes Peak saw a smaller electric field, but the first sub-12 minute time by a production electric motorcycle ridden by Jeff Clark, and an excellent first showing Brutus Motorcycles with Jeremiah Johnson riding (I'll be getting to the details of this later - if I'm misrepresenting this somehow, bear with me, I haven't looked up the details yet).  All this is proof positive that electric motorcycle capabilities are moving forward rapidly.

At the 2014 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, motorsport.com reports that Bobby Goodin died shortly after finishing the race.  He's an experienced rider, had just finished 4th in his class ("Pikes Peak Middleweight", gas powered, with a 11:07 time), and unfortunately when he raised his arm in victory he lost control of his bikes, hit some boulders, destroying his bike, sending him flying, and he died on the spot.

The same report says deaths among racers and race officials at the Pikes Peak race is fairly infrequent.

The Isle of Man TT event has had enough deaths that there's a very long Wikipedia page to list deaths at that race.  There were two deaths this year, Bob Price and Karl Harris, and I know from having listened to lots of ManxRadio coverage during TT Week that several other "incidents" resulted in serious injury.  In 2009, the first year of electric racing during TT Week (when it was still run by the TTXGP), John Crellin died in the Senior TT race after completing the TTXGP.

To give a sense of conditions at Pikes Peak, consider this video shot as riders were returning down the mountain last week during practice.  All of a sudden a riderless motorcycle comes tumbling down from above, and fortunately the impacted rider was able to avoid a serious crash, performed a perfect roll on the ground, and didn't fall off the cliff himself.  But just look at the narrow margin these guys have, and how far they have to fall if they do go off the edge.


Obviously, racing on this sort of course comes at the risk of injury and death.  Some people enjoy taking that risk.

What is our role, as spectators and journalists, in this scene?  It's not far removed from something like the fights in the Roman Coliseum where people were literally fighting to the death.

Don't we, as the spectators and journalists, have on our hands the blood of every racing death?

Those of us who choose to participate in electrifying the racing scene - PLEASE PLEASE do so safely.

Drive eO returns to Pikes Peak from Latvia, with customized Tesla Roadster

The next major event lined up for the electric racing calender is the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.  The list of electric challengers in 2014 is smaller than in 2013, but a return entrant is Drive eO.  Last year the team ran with a custom built electric car, the PP01, but didn't finish the race.  This year, the team is returning with a Tesla Roadster sporting a custom drive train, the PP02.

Rather than the stock Tesla drive train - which would quickly go into thermal protection mode if they tried to seriously race it up Pikes Peak - Drive eO installed a 360 kW (peak) twin-motor system and a 40 kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

They're hoping to use the 2014 car to test drive train components "ahead of scaling them up for successive electric supercar projects which are already on the drawing board."

If you grok Latvian, this video will tell you a lot about their plans.  It's clear they did more than just replace the drive train - they worked on suspension and other parts.

http://driveeo.com/blog/racing/pp02-pikes-peak-tesla-roadster/

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.

Pikes Peak entry list has 6 (?7?) electric cars and 3 electric motorcycles

The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is coming up again, so it's time to take a peek at the entry list to see who's shooting for the peak.  Okay, that was a bad pun, but who's planning to go, that's what's important.  At the moment the electric division looks smaller than last years, but down at the bottom of the entry list is a dozen or so TBD's for entries that are being considered and have yet to be approved.  Maybe some electric teams are among the TBD's?

In cars we have:

#1: Nobuhiro Tajima (Monster Tajima) returning with his E-Runner Pikes Peak Special
#32: Masuoka Hiroshi - Mitsubishi i-MiEV Evolution III
#34: Greg Tracy - Mitsubishi i-MiEV Evolution III
#8: Ikuo Hanawa - Yokohama Tires - Summit HER-02
#177: Roy Richards - Honda Fit EV
#230: Steve Wickham - Toyota RAV4 EV

The official entry list has a TBD at the front of the Cars list.  According to Electric Auto Sport, Janis Horelicks is planning to enter with a Tesla Roadster 360, whatever that is.  Janis is with the Latvian team that entered the eO last year but were unable to finish.  Their website contains a promise to return in 2014, but nothing further has been posted since September 2013.

In motorcycles we have:

#64: Jeremiah Johnson - Brutus Electric Motorcycle V2
#39: Yoshihiro Kishimoto - Mirai TT ZERO 13 (Pikes Peak Version)
#777: Jeff Clark - 2013 Zero FX

This is a lot smaller a group than the 2013 electric motorcycle field.  The glaring omission is Lightning Motorcycles, whom we hoped would return to the mountain and prove their overall win last year wasn't a fluke.  There are five TBD's at the bottom of the official entry list for motorcycles, maybe there's an electric hiding among them?

I wasn't able to find out much about Yoshihiro Kishimoto.  His facebook page doesn't have postings about electric motorcycles this year, but shows some kind of reunion he attended with alumni of a TT ZERO run.  Back in 2012 some site named ElectricRaceNews.com reported that he entered the 2012 TT ZERO with an awesome looking bike.

Johnson entered last year with a Zero S but this year has hooked up with Brutus.  They're building a monster of a bike that also looks awesome.  They posted a little picture gallery a few days ago:

Post by Brutus Electric Motorcycle.

Monster Tajima at the 2014 Pikes Peak Hill Climb

Here's the press release from the PPIHC team on Monster Tajima's involvement in the 2014 event

Colorado Springs, April 9------After winning the high-profile Unlimited Division nine times, including six straight from 2006-2011 in a variety of high-powered Suzuki sport autos, it remains a great story that he has switched to the Electrics in The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for the third straight year.

 

The renowned Japanese star, who was the first competitor to break the once unthinkable 10-minute mark when he achieved the honor in 2011 when he drove his Suzuki SX4 to the summit of America's Mountain in 9:51.278, will be back on June 29 in his Tajima Motor E-Runner model in the now highly competitive Electric Modified Division.

 

His legion of fans were stunned when his first attempt in an Electric auto failed in 2012 when his model was forced out by a fire.

 

But last year, he showed that he is still a champion and King of the Mountain hopeful once again when he drove his Tajima Monster Sport Special electric auto to a blazing time of 9:46.530, the 7th fastest time in the history of America's second-oldest motor sports race behind the Indy 500.

 

Nicknamed "Monster" by fans and foes alike, the 63-year old driver shows no sign of retiring from the PPIHC any time soon, and that's great news for fans who will be on the course again this year to watch the famed auto-motorcycle classic.

 

He made his racing debut in 1968 in the All-Japan Dirt Trial Championship where he won his first race. In 1983, he established Monster Sports International, a motorsport preparation shop. In 1986 he established Suzuki Sport and returned to the World Rally scene where he competed driving a Suzuki Cultus in the Olympus Rally.

 

In all, he has taken nine All Japan Dirt Trial Championship titles, four WRC Championship class wins, two class wins in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championships, and his ten Pikes Peak crowns.

But, most of all, he's etched his name in motor sports history in The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, where he will once again climb aboard his latest entry and go for broke and another new record over the 12.42-mile, 156-turn course that ends at 14,110 feet, a familiar hangout for The Monster.

Brutus Motorcycles unveils race graphics for Jeremiah Johnson's Pikes Peak bike

Brutus Motorcycles is sponsoring Jeremiah Johnson to race their electric motorcycle on Pikes Peak this year.  I covered the information a month or so ago.   They just posted some pictures of the race bike with the graphics, as well as the race trailer and some other things.

From the looks of this, Jeremiah should take a finishing position a fair bit higher than he did last year, riding a Zero S.

This looks like a real serious race bike.  Hmm.. I wonder if it has enough power on board for a 38.4 mile race around a certain island?

One quibble I have is that in the background of one picture you see a large 18 kilowatt portable generator.  They'll have that on hand for fast charging the bike.  Notice the Manzanita Micro logo on the side - Gene Seymour's former employer - that gives you a clue which charger they'll use.   In any case, charging the bike off a generator somewhat negates all the goodwill that comes from this being an electric race bike.  Okay, not everyone see's the need to take the extra step to build a solar panel array onto the race trailer, and incorporate a large energy storage unit into the trailer.  Pragmatism can say it's easier to just go with the genset and...

Oh, I'm just digging myself a deep hole aren't I?  Guys.. we're all friends here, and I am just saying it would be that much better to take the next step and carry solar panels.  Please?

A cool looking bike like this deserves to be a great testament to sustainability and clean energy.

Post by Brutus Electric Motorcycle.

Jeremiah Johnson returning to Pikes Peak, riding for Brutus Electric Motorcycles

Jeremiah Johnson on the Brutus V2 Rocket

Brutus Electric Motorcycles and Bell Custom Cycles announced today they're entering the 92nd Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and that they've signed Jeremiah Johnson as the rider.  Brutus manufactures a small line of motorcycles that includes cruiser and cafe racer style bikes.  For Pikes Peak, Johnson will be riding Brutus's V2 Rocket electric motorcycle, which has yet to be properly unveiled.

Jeremiah Johnson is a well known figure in electric motorcycle racing, of course.  He's an AMA Pro racer with many years experience.  I first met him in 2009 when the TTXGP came to the AMA Vintage Motorcycle event in Ohio.  At that time he rode a bike built by EnerTrac, but was talking about building his own bike, including one for long distance riding.  In 2012 he rode Zero S's in a couple TTXGP races, and for the 2013 season he rode his own 2013 Zero S in both eRoadRacing and the Pikes Peak Hill Climb.  In addition he's helped Terry Hershner with his own cross country electric motorcycle adventures.

Jeremiah has demonstrated a passion for electric motorcycles and electric motorcycle racing.

The press release has him saying:

I am really stoked to get the opportunity to race the Brutus Electrics V2 Rocket for the 2014 race season. I have talked to the team behind the bike many times and their goals are really in tune with their creations. I recently got the opportunity to spend time at their shop in Las Vegas and saw the progress of the V2 Rocket firsthand. The Brutus team really listens to my feedback on the bike’s design, making them a great company to work with. I can see the potential of this bike and I can’t wait to get it on the track. We have a lot of different racing planned for this year and the V2 Rocket is going to be an exciting bike to race. Team Be-Ev.Com has done a lot of work through the years to bring the modern idea of electric vehicles to as many people as possible. I know that working the V2 Rocket into our race program will allow us to showcase the potential of electric vehicles being designed by private innovators. This is going to be a fun year.

Chris Bell, the CEO of Brutus Electric Motorcycles is quoted saying:

Jeremiah’s input on the V2 Rocket project has not only made it a better machine, it has allowed Bell Custom Cycles to expand its line to include racing electric motorcycles. From our initial conversation I knew I had to have Jeremiah pilot the V2 for its first appearance and the many more to come. With Jeremiah’s breadth of racing experience and Team Be-Ev.Com behind him, I am confident together we will have quite a good showing for 2014.

Sophon Johnson, VP of Brutus Electric Motorcycles, is quoted saying:

The first time I met Jeremiah and it felt like a reunion with a long-lost brother! At Bell Custom Cycles we are one big family. Jeremiah is a great fit to our family and for the message we are all try to bring to the public with our one-of-a-kind motorcycles. His knowledge and experience are a great asset to Bell Custom Cycles, Brutus Electric Motorcycles, and the V2 Rocket. I am very pleased he will be racing our V2 over the next year and that we will be working together with him and Team Be-Ev.Com.

Gene Seymour, CTO of Brutus Electric Motorcycles, is quoted saying:

When we started designing our V2 Rocket, I knew instantly who had to race it: Jeremiah. I knew Bell Custom Cycles, Brutus Electric Motorcycles wanted someone with Jeremiah’s passion, skill, and knowledge to ride our introduction into the world motorcycle racing scene. As a technical racing advisor, Jeremiah has helped guide our design and develop the V2 Rocket into what it is today: a flexible platform for racing or street riding that will deliver reliable and exciting performance. I'm looking forward to seeing where 2014 brings the partnership of Brutus Electric Motorcycles and Jeremiah Johnson with Team Be-Ev.com.

I first met Gene during the 2010 TTXGP season, when he still worked for Manzanita Micro.  Manzanita was supporting some of the TTXGP teams, and at each race sent someone (usually Gene) to the race as a support crew.  Gene knows his, er, stuff, about building electric vehicles.  While I've not seen a Brutus bike in person, to know that Gene is involved with the company tells me it'll be a good bike.

The only qualm I have about the Brutus bikes is they all use DC motors.  Okay, so I have a DC motor in my electric car, and I shouldn't be saying this, but really aren't DC drive trains so 1990's?

Anyway, what Brutus has unveiled concerning the V2 Rocket are these specs:

Motor	9” DC
Battery Pack	20 kilowatt-hour
Weight	545 lbs
Length	84”
Width	31”
Overall Height	46”
Wheel Base	58.5”
Seat Height	32.5”

I wonder if for racing they'll keep it with a 20 kWh pack.  The lighter weight of a smaller pack is desirable, right?  With a 9" DC motor there should be plenty of power to keep Jeremiah happy.

On Facebook, Johnson has been discussing organizing a whole racing team with multiple riders.  We still don't know if eRoadRacing will run in North America in 2014, but Johnson is working with Arthur Kowitz on launching the eMotoRacing series.

Whether Johnson will race the Brutus V2 Rocket at anything other than Pikes Peak remains to be seen.  The press release only says Pikes Peak, but in the quote from Johnson he talks about having planned a lot of different racing for 2014.  What the folks at Brutus said in response to my query is: "we are planning on doing other races as the year progresses and will post more info as we are able to set things in stone."

Brutus Electric Motorcycles:  http://brutusmotorcycle.com/index.html

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.

Lightning's Carlin Dunne beats gas bike racers in Pikes Peak testing round

The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is coming up, and Lightning Motorcycles is already on site, testing their race bike with rider Carlin Dunne, and setting history by turning in practice times that beat the gas bike racers.  Specifically, in the very first practice round for the 2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, Dunne posted the fastest times over all other competitors, not just electric, including the long dominant gas bike racers as well.

He was riding the Lightning Motorcycles electric race bike, earlier versions of which won many races and titles in the TTXGP, FIM e-Power, and land speed racing venues.   "This is the first time in history that an electric bike has beaten top gas bike competitors on the same level playing field," said Richard Hatfield, CEO and Founder of Lightning Motorcycles.

Of course the important result is what occurs on race day, a bit over a week from now.  The result came during a practice round and it's common for results to vary during practice rounds until the race event.  Still, this is a most interesting result and marks a threshold that electric motorcycles are beginning to cross - speed parity or exceeding the speed of the top gas bikes.

I don't have time to track down the results to see what actually happened.  I want to know the actual results, I want to report the results here, but ... sorry ... - the Pikes Peak event is a time trial, meaning that Dunne will have made it to the top of Pikes Peak in less time than the gas bike racers.

The primary takeaway in understanding this information is that the Pikes Peak event draws top competitors from around the world.  When Hatfield says "this is the first time" we have to understand the context is "beaten top gas bike competitors."  There are earlier instances where electric motorcycle racers have entered races against gas bike racers, in a sanctioned race, where the electric racers were racing for points and standing, and beat the gas bike racers.  However, all the instances I know of occurred in club racing.  The first of those is when Team Moto Electra (Brian Richardson team owner, Thad Wolff rider) raced in an AHRMA race and won.  The second is when Chip Yates raced in a WERA race event in Jan. 2011, and won.  This year Brammo has raced in a couple AFM events in Northern California, which I haven't had time to report on, and I don't know the results but I think they placed well or even won.

In other words, there are instances of electric bike racers wining against gas bike racers.  But because those were in club racing events it's not the same as a win in the competitive field at Pikes Peak. 

The result came during the "Tire Testing Weekend."  This is a critical test for the teams, but practice time is limited because the event does take place on public roads which are closed for only short periods.