Jeremiah Johnson
TTXGP 2012 World Championship
Daytona International Raceway
Jeremiah Johnson (Be-EV.com) announced on Wednesday that he would be racing a 2013 Zero S in the as-yet-unnamed electric motorcycle racing series that's due to supplant the TTXGP and e-Power series for 2013. I'm sorry that the situation of the TTXGP/e-Power is overshadowing Johnson's plan to race in that series, but that's how it is, and I'll focus on him for the rest of this. Johnson ran with loaned 2012 Zero S's in two TTXGP events during 2012, including the World Championship race at Daytona where he took 4th place. For the 2013 season he has purchased a 2013 Zero S, and teamed up with Hollywood Electrics for race customization.
Jeremiah stated, “I was a guest of Zero at their 2013 product launch party in Long Beach, and I am really looking forward to racing the ’13 Zero S this year. It has more than double the HP over the ’12 model that I raced last year, and that was a fun bike, so I’m eager to see what the ’13 is like on the track. Also, both Zeros I raced last year were bikes that I borrowed at the last minute to enter the races with. I’m really stoked to have a Team Be-Ev.Com Racing owned Zero Motorcycle that I can modify with Hollywood Electrics to fit my personal riding style. I got a chance to test a couple of the Hollywood Electrics modified streetbikes last year, and I can’t wait to start testing with them at the race track and see what we come up with for a serious race bike. I am very thankful to Harlan Flagg of Hollywood Electrics for making this deal come through.”
In addition to racing in the series-which-replaces-TTXGP-e-Power, Johnson will also run in the 2013 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb as part of the first all-electric motorcycle class in the history of that event. “I’ve been a big fan of the Pike’s Peak Hill Climb race for a long time
now, and I’m really stoked to get the opportunity to actually compete in
the event myself,” said Jeremiah. “Being able to do it on an Electric
motorcycle during the first year of the new class is even more exciting.
I’m really happy to be able to help promote Electric Vehicles to a
wider audience.”
I shot this video at Daytona with Terry Hershner and Jeremiah Johnson going over the modifications they made to prepare Hershner's Zero S for the 2012 TTXGP World Final.
Last week I was able to disclose news of a merger between the TTXGP and FIM e-Power electric motorcycle racing series. While the news itself was exciting and promising to heal the schism between those two series, it left out some important details. These details are important ones that race teams must know to plan their year, line up sponsorships, and more.
For example -
Rules & classes (we only know rules will be very similar to 2012's rules)
Name of the series (we only know it will neither be called TTXGP nor e-Power)
Fees to participate
Event schedule (we only know it'll be alongside MotoGP races)
In previous years the schedule for both TTXGP and e-Power was published in January or earlier, giving the teams time to prepare and schedule themselves. Likewise the rules and series name were already known quantities.
The press releases were sent over a week ago. Time is ticking and the teams need to know the plan.
The TTXGP and FIM announced today a historic change in the face of electric motorcycle racing. The two organizations have announced an agreement under which both the TTXGP and e-Power racing series will be replaced by a new series. The announcement resolves several years of schism which split electric motorcycle racing into these two camps, and may help to accelerate the "growth and higher profile" for this sport.
Matthias Himmelman, Muench Racing
This is a ten year deal under which the TTXGP will transition to the role of "Race Promoter" and the FIM will be positioned as the sanctioning body for electric motorcycle racing. Prior to this the TTXGP tried to fill multiple sets of shoes, racing promoter, technical standards, and race sanctioning. This announcement puts electric motorcycle racing in the same pattern as other motorcycle racing series, where the FIM handles technical and sanctioning work, and a race promoter organization handling the marketing. For example the MotoGP's race promoter is Dorna.
The new series (whose name was not been revealed) will (in 2013-14) be run as a "World Cup" and as a support class to other FIM events, such as the MotoGP. For 2013 there will be two championship series, one in Europe, the other in North America, with the World Final in Asia. The dates and locations of these events were not yet disclosed.
The rules for 2013 have not been announced, but the TTXGP says to expect those shortly, and that for 2013 they'll be as close as possible to the 2012 rules.
For 2014 the configuration will change again with the electric motorcycle racing series operating under a global championship calendar, with at least six events spread over three continents. Teams will accumulate points over the season, and there will not be a World Final race. In that year it will still operate as a support class to other events.
Starting in 2015 the organizations expect the electric motorcycle racing series to be "a headline event in its own right with a global calendar." What this means is that the series will stop being a support class for other racing events, but instead stage its own events. It will also be the "world’s first all-electric World Championship" and consist of racing weekends across three continents. The details of, for example, the racing classes have not been nailed down and the TTXGP says "will be announcing deals with new partners over the course of the next 18 months."
Lightning Motorcycles,
almost certainly Michael Barnes
FIM President Vito Ippolito said of the groundbreaking new series: “Through this agreement, we are taking another important step towards the growth and promotion of clean electric road racing. The FIM is committed to furthering sports events for electric motorcycles which will certainly be a major component of the motor sport of the future”.
TTXGP founder Azhar Hussain considers the agreement a milestone in the development of electric motor sport: “This partnership with the FIM clears the way for a single destination for all the world’s innovators to drive the next generation of technologies for competitive motor sport beyond the grid. We look forward to working with the FIM on this exciting project”.
There are many more details remaining to be announced:
As we gear up for the 2012 TTXGP North America season opening race at Infineon Raceway, we learn that Moto-Electra Racing will not be at the race. In a note on the teams Facebook page, Moto-Electric Racing team owner Brian Richardson posted a note (see text below) about their plans for the 2012 TTXGP racing season explaining their absence and that the team still intends to qualify for the 2012 TTXGP Championship race in Daytona.
This story is worth retelling some history, most of which is told in the video below, and which I was present to witness.
I first met the team (then called Team Electra, IIRC) in July 2009 at the Mid-Ohio race track. I've never spent any time at race tracks, but because of the TTXGP race held in June 2009 that year I'd gotten the bug to see electric motorcycle racing. The TTXGP team came to the Vintage Motorcycle Days event that's held every year at Mid-Ohio, and therefore I went to the event, to see what I could see, and write up some news articles. Brian Richardson, Thad Wolff, Rob Prins, and others of that team were among the couple dozen people from various teams who showed up.
They were one of two teams whose bikes had a significant fairing of this sort. At the time I'd been reading carefully Craig Vetter website and his discussion of fairings and aerodynamics, and was excited to see two bikes using fairings of this sort. Unfortunately this sort of fairing is no longer legal in motorcycle racing and is no longer fashionable for motorcycles at all.
Notice that the front wheel is uncovered. That's what it takes nowadays to be a legal fairing, but it has worse aerodynamics than the previous fairing. Fairings and aerodynamics aren't the point of this however.
Underneath the fairing was a vintage Norton Featherbed motorcycle frame, which is part of the story about this team. That they've married old technology (Norton Featherbed motorcycle) with the newest of electric drive train and battery technology. And done it on a shoestring budget, out of a former sheep barn turned motorcycle shop in a very rural part of Virginia.
There was an important thing which occurred that weekend that shows Brian Richardson's character. During the actual race Thad Wolff was riding the bike very well and was on a time to make a strong 3rd place or maybe 2nd place, but in lap 3 (?) the bike failed and pulled to the side of the track. It turned out what happened is a set screw failed, and because this set screw held in place a gizmo that helped the controller drive the motor, the bike stopped completely. Set screws are the tiniest of parts, but sometimes it is the small things that topple a machine. This meant that Brian Richardson had driven all the way from Virginia to California, to not even finish the race.
He was understandably sad, frustrated, maybe even depressed, and when I talked with him he looked unlikely to come to another race. But, by the next race at the Race America track in Wisconsin, he was back in the game. Throughout the TTXGP history I've seen Brian Richardson take setback after setback, and come back to race again and again. His commitment to racing with his electric motorcycle is demonstrated by the lengths he had to drive to get to the races. To participate, to keep his skin in the game, meant several cross country drives because while Brian is based in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia most of the TTXGP races were held far far away.
In the fall of 2010 the team made a bit of history by being the first electric race bike to enter a gas bike race. Not only did they enter, but they won convincingly, starting from the very end of the grid and by the end of the race were so far in front that the gas bikes were nowhere to be seen.
By the 2011 season the bike had changed again.
Notice the lack of a fairing. That was because of a little accident the weekend of that first race, that messed up the new fairing Brian had built. The 2011 season rather than use a vintage Norton Featherbed frame, he went with a newly manufactured frame on the same dimensions as the vintage frame. He also had built a very nice new fairing to go with it, but unfortunately destroyed the fairing, and had to race with a naked bike but they still took 2nd place.
Here they are at the TTXGP/e-Power race, Laguna Seca, in the corkscrew, July 2011.
While the team did well, taking 2nd or 3rd place in almost every race, though they were never the headliner winning the race. The reason why has to do with the technological capability of other bikes fielded by other teams.
While the Moto-Electra bike can easily hit 120 miles/hr or more, other teams (Lightning Motors) were able to build bikes with much more power. By the last race they weren't even in the top three, because the presence of MotoCzysz, Lightning Motors and Brammo simply outclassed their bike.
It was clear that for the team to remain relevant in the TTXGP racing, that they need to up their game. The leading teams are gunning to develop bikes which can compete directly against the 600cc superbikes. While Moto-Electra has built an awesome and beautiful bike, one that I'm sure is a joy to drive around town, it was beginning to be outclassed in 2011, and I'm certain that the 2012 bikes are going to leave them in the dust. Unless, as Brian says in the note below, they get a new more powerful motor.
Moto-Electra has an amazing story behind them. The choice to use a vintage Norton Featherbed frame was, as Brian Richardson explained in the video, a bit of serendipity. For his 50th birthday he developed the idea to build himself a Cafe Racer, and as he says Cafe Racers start with the Norton Featherbed frame. Halfway through the build he decided to make it an electric bike. Then some time after that he heard of the TTXGP race, decided to go, and somehow connected up with Thad Wolff, who is a famous motorcycle racer with plenty of years of experience behind him.
We wish Brian and his team the best and have confidence that their intention to race in the 2012 TTXGP world championship race this year will be fulfilled.
Thanks for visiting Moto-Electra Racing As you may now by now, Moto-Electra is looking for a new primary sponsor so that we can upgrade the motor and increase the voltage. We are working with a design change that would provide us with 50% more hp and 30% more torque, using an oil cooled motor.
Although we are sitting out the first part of the 2012 TTXGP series, it has always been our desire to compete in the World Championships. This year they are in the USA (Daytona).
Hopefully we will find a new primary sponsor to take us to the next level, and get our old bike ready for the last race of the season so that we can qualify for the grid at Daytona. We need your help to keep our old Norton in the hunt.
With the changes, we feel like the Moto-Electra could be ready for an Isle of Man appearance in 2013. Could a frame designed in 1949 (Norton Featherbed) beat the best in the world? The underdog -- Yes; but the Moto-Electra Team has always expected to win -- that's never changed.
In the meantime Brammo posted the following video teasing the unveiling. We should assume the bike being teased is a consumer model, and that the TTX model will have an even higher top speed.
