Electric motorcycle racing on 3 continents - eFXC, eMotoRacing, M1GP, MotoERacing - but no eRoadRacing

I have some preliminary news on a new electric motorcycle racing season in Europe - MotoERacing.  I learned of this series last week thanks to a posting by the Danish team, Future Electric, who made a blog post seeking sponsorship.  Their reason for seeking sponsors?  Because they've been invited to participate in MotoE.  MotoWhat?  This was the first I'd heard of that, so what's on the MotoE website?  And does it have any relation to eMotoRacing in North America?  And this raises the unanswered question - where is the 2014 eRoadRacing season?

The MotoE website describes a 2014 season of several motorcycle race events, all in Europe, starting in the middle of the summer.

There's some elements shown on the site that recall the TTXGP and eRoadRacing - such as referring to the IET for technical/rules support.  Oh, and there's many pictures on the site derived from the 2013 eRoadRacing season, and the teams mentioned match the TTXGP/eRoadRacing European roster. 

According to Rupal Patel (owner of the MotoERacing.com domain name - and one of the top people of the TTXGP/eRoadRacing), MotoE is extremely preliminary at this moment, and there nothing concrete to report, yet.

Basically, we must simply watch that space to see what develops.


Electric motorcycle racing teams in Australia, Europe and North America are responding to the lack of a 2014 eRoadRacing season.  If all had been right in the world, eRoadRacing would have announced a season lineup last fall, and we'd have already seen a couple races by now.  But they didn't, and and still haven't even though we're in May.  Currently the eRR website is down and has been for a month or more.  I have to do some more digging before I can report on the status of eRoadRacing.

To fill the void left by TTXGP/eRoadRacing, four electric motorcycle racing series are underway.

Australia:  eFXC was the Australian partner to TTXGP.  For the 2013 season the eFXC went its own way when eRoadRacing was unable to work with them.  I haven't been able to follow them in 2014, but I believe they are conducting a 2014 season.

North America:  eMotoRacing was organized by Arthur Kowitz, who'd ridden during 2013 in the eRoadRacing.  The M1GP in Southern California was organized by Hollywood Electrics, a Zero Motorcycles dealer in Hollywood, and is doing electric racing action at tracks near the LA area.  The AFM has allowed, since 2013, electric bikes to race for points in gas bike races.  Additionally, some teams are gearing up for another big showing at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

Europe: as we said, MotoERacing is trying to start a series.  The TT ZERO is of course "on" for June and should be interesting.

A good thing is that the electric motorcycle racing field is showing resilience - the primary promoter, eRoadRacing, is missing from action but the racing teams are organizing replacement racing action.

That's what resilience is - the ability to bounce back in the face of survival threats.  Such as a motorcycle racer, leading the race in the last corner of the last lap, spinning out, then getting back up, finishing the race, and scoring a decent standing.  The loss of eRoadRacing could have been a death blow to the electric motorcycle racing sport, setting the field back by a decade while the FormulaE electric car racing series is getting all the limelight.  Instead the sport is organizing itself.

Here I am at the end of the posting, and I don't have answers to the questions raised at the top.  That's where the electric motorcycle racing sport is - clutching at answers to key questions - What about eRoadRacing?  How will electric motorcycles be established in the overall motorcycle racing field?

eRoadRacing team Future Electric launches fundraising via IndieGoGo

A new electric motorcycle team, Future Electric, has launched via IndieGoGo (link below) and claims to have designed the worlds fastest electric motorcycle.  One of these days we'll get all the groups who make that claim into one race and settle it once and for all.  Maybe.  Anyway, the team has been working towards this goal for a couple years, and their short term intention is to enter the FIM eRoadRacing World Cup in 2014. 

I see a big motor mounted at the swing arm pivot, and a TTXGP logo even though we're not using that brand name any longer. Oh, and what's that front swing arm about?  And, what are the specs?

• Max theoretical speed [High Gear]: 350 Km/h (217 miles/hr)
• Max theoretical speed [Low Gear]: 280 Km/h (173 miles/hr)
• Power Output: 150+ Kw / 200+ hp
• 0-100 Km/h: 2,5 seconds (0-60 miles/hr 2.5 seconds)
• Weight: 180 Kg

So, this means they're not going to beat Lightning Motorcycles land speed record, meaning they won't beat one of the definitions of "fastest electric motorcycle," but the 0-60 time is impressive.  The light weight will certainly do them good in race situations.

Their fund-raising goal of $60,000 will "pay for a high performance liquid cooled AC motor, and a state of the art Hub Centre Steering for one of the race bikes."

Down in the Nerdy Tech section they have an interesting thing to say:

Today’s most advanced electric motors are already better than current Moto GP motorcycle’s engines in terms of torque delivery, physical size, engine-braking control, and reduced gyroscopic handling impact. The small size of electrical components in electric motorcycles also gives room for better overall motorcycle design, which translates directly into better motorcycle handling and feel.

In other words, electric drive trains can be more power dense than MotoGP engines.  The issue we're facing is getting enough energy storage on board for a full length race.  That means 30 kilowatt-hours or more, and the top race bikes today have about 14 kilowatt-hours IIRC. 

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-world-s-fastest-electric-motorcycle

Darville Racing hooks up with Brammo as factory team during 2014 eRoadRacing series

Brammo announced today that Darvill Racing would be contesting the 2014 FIM eRoadRacing World Cup as a factory supported team.   This is both great for Brammo, and the first sign that there will be a 2014 eRoadRacing series.

Darville will be running with two "Factory-supported privateer Brammo machines".  One is described as a "Prototype 2 (P2)" while the other is an eSuperStock bike.  These will be in the eRoadRacing class, while others will be entered in National championships.

Both bikes are said to be based on the Brammo Empulse R street bike, and later in the press release it's said the teams first "TTXP2" is being prepared.  

The problem with this press release is that it refers to information which the FIM eRoadRacing series has not yet released concerning the 2014 season.  There are plans which Azhar Hussain told me over a year ago, for the 2014 season and beyond, which are pretty exciting, but eRR has not yet announced whether those plans are coming to fruition.

In all cases the bikes Brammo is supplying to Darvill are Empulse TTX's, and where they differ is in the amount of upgrades.  For the eSuperStock bikes they're using a definition of "production bike with limited modification" and for the Prototype 2 bikes they're using a definition of "production bike but with nearly unlimited modifications allowed".

All the bikes in the 2013 North America eRR series fit the Prototype 2 definition, because every bike had significant upgrades such as to the controller.

Darvill will be doing an extensive winter testing program before their FIM eRoadRacing debut at Circuit Zolder in Belgium in May. Which implies an eRoadRacing event in Belgium in May, right?  Something that eRR hasn't announced yet.  Sigh.

Presumably Darvill's testing will be around the Isle of Man, their home base, but we understand they do not intend to enter the TT ZERO.

“We’ve been considering a switch to ebikes for a while now and feel that the time is right for us to take on this new challenge,” said Team Principal Alex Aitchison.

“The championship rules allow privately run teams like ours to compete on a level playing field and we are confident that we have the experience and resources to step up and contribute to what is one of the world’s most exciting race series.

“As a team, we have learned a great deal racing in a plethora of disciplines and have proved ourselves through a series of race wins, pole positions, fastest laps and world titles over our fifty year history. We’ve worked hard over the last few years to put out a professional team and we are delighted that this has been recognised by Brammo Motorcycles, who have both welcomed our move into the eRR class. Racing in FIM eRR will not only provide us with a fresh sporting challenge but will give considerably more exposure for our team sponsors.”

If eRoadRacing is foundering where does the top electric motorcycle racing series go?

What happened to the 2013 eRoadRacing World Cup?  The team, a fusion of the FIM e-Power and TTXGP, started the year with big promises that 2013 would be a formative year in which they launched the series.  Four or more races were to be held in both North America and Europe, along with a World Final in Asia.  Instead, what we got were two truncated series, no World Final, and a press release from eRoadRacing trying to painted the best face on the situation, desperately steering clear of the reality.

Whatever the reason for that (I understand the team had huge difficulty getting the season organized), the result was such that Asphalt & Rubber just described eRoadRacing as having foundered, as in a ship that's run aground and is sinking.

I can't fault Jensen's reasoning.  The racing promoter, the TTXGP organization, is ultimately responsible for the result.

Racing promoters, as I pointed out yesterday, are supposed to create seasons that fans want to see, and racers want to participate in.  The riders and teams are the linchpin.  They need to know ahead of time their schedule for the year, and that the costs are reasonable.

The most interesting results in the 2013 season were not organized by eRoadRacing.  Instead it was the teams taking the initiative to race where the gassers are racing, in AFM, M1GP, and Pikes Peak.  The most amazing result being Lightning's flat out win at Pikes Peak.

The high level vision of creating a world racing series with high end electric motorcycles - that's cool.  Those of us who want electric racing to succeed are on board with that vision.  And clearly there are several teams that could be part of such a series.  Those names include Brammo, Lightning, Mission, MotoCzysz, Muench, Mugen/Honda, and Zongshen and perhaps some others. 

IF a series could launch with that kind of roster, what would happen?

Will 2014 eRoadRacing World Cup be a repeat of the dismalness of the 2013 season?

What does the "future of AMA road racing" say about the future of electric motorcycle racing

While looking for something else I stumbled across an interesting opinion article on motorcycle-usa.com about how the AMA was failing at promoting motorcycle racing in the US, despite being controlled by NASCAR.  The thrust of the article was that given the success of NASCAR, those people ought to be able to reawaken the US to motorcycle racing, so that fans would flock to the AMA which is the premier motorcycle racing series in the US.  But, what does this have to do with electric motorcycle racing?  It illustrates to us the opinion of one motorcycle racer as to the role and purpose of the racing promotion organization.

SteveO, Brian Wismann, and other Brammo crew
2011 TTXGP at Infineon Raceway

The interesting thing is the author of that piece, and the timing of when it was published.  The name Steve Atlas is familiar to us because he'd ridden with Brammo during the 2011 and 2012 TTXGP seasons.  The date on the article?  May 3, 2011, or just prior to his first outing with Brammo at the 2011 TTXGP at Infineon Raceway.

So, what did SteveO have to say about the AMA on the eve of his career in electric motorcycle racing?

"With the series’ schedule shrinking year by year and fan attendance dwindling at every round, is there a future?"

... And ...

"With a significant piece of its current business model based on making money by charging riders and teams as much as humanly possible for credentials, it will be difficult to continue with the perpetually shrinking grids we are seeing these days."

... And ...

"Secondly, when was the last time you rolled into a city hosting an upcoming AMA race and heard a single radio plug, saw a billboard or watched a TV commercial promoting the event? And they wonder why no one comes out to the races; they don’t even know they exist."

2011 TTXGP at Miller Motorsports
SteveO (Brammo), Thad Wolff (Moto Electra)
The rider for Lightning is either Ted Rich or the other guy they had

In other words, it's the role of the race promoter organization to, um, actually promote the race. The lack of awareness about the series rests solely in the lap of the race promoter, who is responsible for getting media attention on the series.  This is especially demonstrated when SteveO closes with this: "They need to figure out how to get people to come to the track and seriously boost the TV viewing audience. This hinges 100% around their ability to promote the sport."

These guys riding the bikes in the races - they, and the rest of their teams, need to earn a paycheck, just like the rest of us.   In racing that paycheck ultimately derives from fans, who buy tickets, and whose eyeballs the advertisers are trying to reach. 

Everything he wrote was aimed at DMG, the race promoter for AMA at the time.  But, what he wrote could also be said of the electric motorcycle racing promotion organizations, TTXGP, FIM e-Power and eRoadRacing.  It was TTXGP's job to promote the race series, just as it's eRoadRacing's job today to do so.  FIM is the sanctioning and rules organization, eRoadRacing is the promoter.  How much of the typical promotion has TTXGP or eRoadRacing done?  There's a TV deal with SpeedTV, but what else?

Essentially nobody knows about electric motorcycle racing, and the sport is suffering for it.  Well, the first part isn't entirely true.  Sometime in 2012 there were some AT&T line workers in the neighborhood working on the wires, and they spotted my car and we got to talking about restoring cars and electric vehicles.  Turns out they'd seen something on SpeedTV about electric motorcycle racing, so clearly that deal has resulted in SOME awareness.  But whatever that was hasn't been enough to cause a flock of fans to get rabidly excited about the sport.

Maybe it's just that the technology (still) isn't mature enough, despite the huge leaps and bounds of improvements that have been made.  The speeds and race length aren't on par with AMA's racing.  Yes, the speed of the top bikes are close to AMA 600cc superbikes, but the race length is only half AMA's.  At the speed bracket of the top electric bikes, it's close enough to the gassers to be good enough to make exciting racing, but only if there were a large enough grid of top electric bikes.

Which gets back to the question of funding.  It costs big bucks to field a top electric bike team, so where is the money going to come from?  While the teams are responsible for finding their sponsors, it's the responsibility, as SteveO said, to make the whole sport so compelling that sponsors organically show up looking for teams to sponsor.

Source: http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/790/9851/Motorcycle-Article/The-Future-of-AMA-Road-Racing--Is-There-One-.aspx

Ho Chi Fung and Eric Bostrom winners of the 2013 eRoadRacing World Cup

Eric Bostrom at Laguna Seca

It appears the eRoadRacing World Cup crew quietly closed out the 2013 season without holding a World Final race.  A press release has popped up on motorcycle-usa.com and roadracingworld.com saying that Ho Chi Fung (Zongshen) and Eric Bostrom (Brammo) are the winners of the 2013 eRoadRacing season, its first season in existence.  Eric Bostrom took first place in the eRoadRacing North America 2013 series, while Ho Chi Fung took first place in the European series.

The full results for the season (see pictures below, copied from the eRoadRacing website) show

Europe:

1. #59 Hoi Chi Fung (Zongshen) 75 pts
2. #91 Sue Rong Zai (Zongshen) 61 pts
3. #62 Sam West (Agni Racing) 57 pts

North America:

1. #32 Eric Bostrom (Brammo) 45 pts
2. #96 Kenyon Kluge (K Squared Racing) 36 pts
3. #64 Jeremiah Johnson (BE-EV.COM Racing) 29 pts

The discrepancy in points totals reflects the fact that the European series had four events versus only two events in North America. 

The press release included these quotes.  I see two things being referenced by the quotes. 

When Bostrom says "I want a world championship" he may be referring to the plan in which, starting with the 2014 season, the eRoadRacing series won't be split into continent-level racing series.  Instead it will be a proper world championship, with the same set of teams competing at sites around the world in the same series.  As I say below, we haven't seen eRoadRacing's announcement for the 2014 season and what their plans are.

When Wismann says "we wish we would have had a bit more competition," well, lots of us feel the same way.  Several teams that are known to have top flight bikes that are competitive with, or superior to, the Bramo Empulse RR, simply did not compete in the 2013 eRoadRacing North America series.  We all wish Brammo had had proper competition at the top end, and there are teams in North America with bikes that can beat the Empulse RR, and who can turn in lap times competitive with the gas bikes.  Those teams did some amazing things in 2013, achieving big successes, but the top end eRoadRacing competition was left to Brammo for the 2013 season.

Eric Bostrom, FIM eRoad Racing North American Cup winner 2013, said: ‘The development we have seen in these bikes year-on-year is just amazing. It has been a real pleasure racing in the series with Brammo, the team have been fantastic and Shane was very fast as well. Now I can’t wait to see how the bikes will perform in 2014 because I want a world championship!’

Brian Wismann, Brammo Team Manager, added: ‘Team Icon Brammo is proud to take home a third North American winner and continue our reign as World Champions through to the 2014 season. Congratulations to Eric Bostrom as he’s definitely put in the effort to deserve this award. We wish we would have had a bit more competition but it didn’t stop us from continuing to develop the bikes into more formidable race machines and achieving our technical goals. We’re looking forward to seeing who steps up to challenge the Empulse RR in 2014.’

Ho Chi Fung, FIM eRoad Racing European Cup winner 2013, said: ‘This has been a great season for electric motorcycles and it’s an honour to be crowned European Series winner. I want to say thank you to all the team who all put in so much effort to make this happen. Now we’re looking forward to improving the bike ahead of next season. We want to win this championship again.’

Daniel Chung, Zongshen Team Manager, added: ‘We’re obviously very happy with our season, we have seen a lot of developments with the AC-motored machine and it has been a real learning curve. Now we want to take want we have found into next season and keep developing these bikes to become the fastest out there.’

Originally, there was going to be a eRoadRacing World Final race for the 2013 season.  It was going to be open to the top teams from each series.  However, I'd been hearing from the eRoadRacing team about difficulties finding a location for that race, with several possible locations named.  Another symptom of those difficulties was the cancellation of the third North America event (Miller Motorsports) and the inability to schedule an event at the World Superbike event at Laguna Seca.

The next big piece of news we expect from eRoadRacing is an announcement of the 2014 Season schedule, characteristics, and rules.  A year ago they told me the 2014 season was going to be very different from 2013, a season conducted very similarly to how the TTXGP was operated.

eRoadRacing 2013 Europe final standings

eRoadRacing 2013 North America final standings

Zero Motorcycles announces near-race-ready electric motorcycle, the 2014 Zero SR, while ditching dirt bikes

The 2014 Zero SR
Zero's first race-ready electric motorcycle
In the Laguna Seca corkscrew

Zero Motorcycles has ditched their dirt bike roots, and added a race ready version of the Zero S.  While this is exciting for electric motorcycle racing fans, it means electric dirt bike fans might be disappointed.  Or maybe not, depending on how good BRD's electric dirt bikes are.  But let's not get distracted by that, and instead focus on today's announcement by Zero Motorcycles of their 2014 product line.

The new 2014 Zero Motorcycles product line is primarily the core trio: Zero S, Zero DS, Zero FX.  The Zero SR is the race version, and there is also a Zero Police bike.  The press pictures area on Zero's website also includes pictures of a Zero MMX but that bike isn't listed on the front page as one of the 2014 models.  The Zero XU is missing as are the Zero X and Zero MX (their dirt bikes).  The Zero MMX pictures show a bike that's much like their old dirt bike design.

2014 Zero SR on Laguna Seca's front straight

Just in case you're confused if this
is a race bike or not

The Zero Motorcycles website does not describe the Zero SR as a race bike, but that's what it is.  To make that clearer, half the Zero SR the press pictures on Zero's website were taken at Laguna Seca.   They say: The “R” configuration of the Zero S is designed for riders who simply want to go faster and accelerate harder.  The difference between the Zero S, Zero DS and the Zero SR is that the SR has a 660 amp controller versus the 420 amp controller on the Zero S/DS.  In other words, the Zero SR has a SEVCON Gen4 Size 6 controller, while the S/DS has a Size 4 controller.

That controller difference is exactly the primary modification made during the 2013 eRoadRacing season by the guys riding 2013 Zero S's.

That means Zero is now offering, from the factory, a ready for racing motorcycle configuration.

Technically it's not completely race-ready in the same way Brammo's Empulse TTX is.  The Zero SR has mirrors and other doo-dads required for riding on the road, and doesn't have the tail switch and lights required by the rules.  Those are simple modifications however.  The big hurdle, upgrading to the Size 6 controller, is being taken care of by the factory.

The 2014 Zero S MSRP is $14,995, while the SR's MSRP is $16,995.  That makes the race-ready Zero SR to be a $2,000 price premium. 

For that price bump, torque goes from 68 ft-lb to 106 ft-lb, power from 54 hp to 67 hp, and top speed from 95 miles/hr to 102 miles/hr.  The 0-60 miles/hr time goes from 5.2 seconds to 3.3 seconds.  It's the same motor, so you're going to have to develop a cooling system.  At the 2013 eRoadRacing events, all the Zero based racers (except for Ted Rich) had installed ducts to direct air at the controller and motor.   Curiously they didn't upgrade the suspension components for the Zero SR.

Another new feature is an optional add-on battery pack that bumps total battery capacity from 11.4 kilowatt-hours to 14.2 kilowatt-hours.  That increases highway riding range from 70 miles to 88 miles.  This won't be of much help to racers because the 2013 bikes had plenty of range for the 22 mile distance of the TTXGP/eRoadRacing events. 

I have a niggling thought in my head, does the 14.2 kilowatt-hour pack give the bike enough range to complete the Isle of Man TT ZERO?  While it's not fast enough to be competitive for a shot at winning the TT ZERO, wouldn't it be wild for a factory built bike to go to that race and finish?  So far the TT ZERO has been all about prototype one-off bikes, and not about factory bikes.  Just like the 2013 eRoadRacing season was all about factory and manufacturer prototype bikes, bringing a factory bike to the TT ZERO would represent a big step forward.

Profile shot

Zero SR on the highway - it's not just for racing

The Z-FORCE 75-7 passively air-cooled, high efficiency,
radial flux permanent magnet, brushless motor.

Zero introduced this concept for the 2013 model year.
It is designed with the heat-producing components on the outside,
so that simple cooling fins can take care of cooling the motor.

The model number, 75-7, is the same for 2014
as it was for the 2013 Zero S.

eRoadRacing at Laguna Seca shifting to World Superbike Weekend?

MotoCzysz

For the 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 racing seasons the Laguna Seca Raceway has hosted one of the most important historical sequence of racing events.  I'm talking about the FIM e-Power, TTXGP and now eRoadRacing electric motorcycle races.  Historical?  The whole project of establishing electric motorcycle racing as a recognized sport - that is history in the making.  Unfortunately the Laguna Seca chapter of the saga appears to be over, because the other race occurring that weekend (MotoGP) is pulling out of Laguna Seca.

The MotoGP crowd doesn't understand something ... their days are numbered.  They are dinosaurs that are about to be destroyed by a new breed of electrified racing.  But let's not get too distracted and focus on the news right now.

Jeremiah Johnson at 2013 eRoadRacing

The Monterey County Weekly is reporting that the MotoGP event will not be returning to Laguna Seca starting in the 2014 season.  The stated reason is rising fees are making it uneconomical for the Laguna Seca Raceway to host the MotoGP weekend despite their standing agreement that lasts beyond 2014 to do so.  Dorna, the promoters of the MotoGP, have apparently increased the fees by quite a bit.

Laguna Seca Raceway is a non-profit organization that also serves as a county park.  The races hosted at the track bring in money to the local economy both from the event itself, and the spillover $$'s that fans spend while at the track.  Obviously fans could easily include a trip to Monterey (the city) to see Cannery Row or the Aquarium along with their MotoGP trip.  And I know from having tried to book hotel rooms during the MotoGP weekend that room prices get jacked up through the roof that weekend.

But .. the important thing for us on Electric Race News is what will be the effect on our favorite race event?  The Laguna Seca round of electric motorcycle racing?  It clearly won't happen during the MotoGP weekend because MotoGP won't be there.

What Azhar Hussain explained to me last Winter is that eRoadRacing, as an FIM series, has to run at FIM homologated race tracks.  In the US that means Indianapolis, Austin and Laguna Seca.  Apparently Miller Motorsports Park lost their homologation status.

This puts limitations on where and when eRoadRacing can hold their North America events.  We don't care a whit what MotoGP does to fill out their North America schedule, they're the dinosaur in the room remember? What will eRoadRacing do?

The same article does say that World Superbike (another FIM series) will be returning to Laguna Seca during 2014.  Hence, eRoadRacing could conceivably piggy-back on that event next year.  There was even a chance they'd do so in 2013 to give three North America events this year.

The general problem here seems to be declining audiences for motorcycle racing overall.  Almost a year ago we covered similar news, that the AMA Superbike weekend at Sonoma Raceway (formerly Infineon Raceway) was being canceled, forcing an end to the TTXGP event that had been there in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

In both cases the cancellation of a big name gas bike race is forcing problems on our favorite fledgeling electric motorcycle racing series.  It doesn't matter that the gas bike racing is a dinosaur, at this stage they're still in charge and the electric series has to go where the gassers go.

The effect on us is that we've lost another benchmark race.  I've been using results from both the Sonoma and Laguna Seca races to gauge progress from year to year.  Each year has shown significant improvements in electric superbike racing results.  But it'll now be harder to directly compare year-year improvements, unless eRoadRacing does hook up with World Superbike.

Camaraderie in the Pits at eRoadRacing Indianapolis - Kenyon Kluge's race report

Kenyon Kluge at Laguna Seca

Yesterday I referenced & summarized a race report from Brian Wismann - today it's Kenyon Kluge's turn.  Kenyon took 3rd place behind the Empulse RR's in Sunday's eRoadRacing race event in Indianapolis.  This makes him top dawg in the unofficial eSuperSport division for two races in a row.

Yesterday he wrote a Facebook posting summarizing the weekend, from his perspective. As for race strategy he described it as "my experience on the Playstation MotoGP game" and "my plan was to twist the throttle as hard as I could from the start and see if I could go faster than everyone else." As he said it - "I know, brilliant right!" (grin)

What can we say, the strategy worked didn't it? 

As for the race, he said that Ted Rich took the lead from the start but on the front straight during the first lap Kenyon "lined Ted up and drafted past."  After that Kenyon simply put in consistent lap times, kept lengthening his lead, avoided getting lapped by the Empulse RR riders, and made it into 3rd place.

What Kenyon closed with by telling of discussion reminding me much of something I've been missing from the 2010 TTXGP season. 

All the riders there at Indy spent a good portion of the weekend talking amongst ourselves about how we can better define, promote, and nurture our sport and grow it into something that can support the riders, thrill the fans, and make the manufacturers want to be a part of it.

I want to congratulate the Brammo team on their first place, Shane Turpin, second place Eric Bostrom, and Shelina who dropped a lot of time from her qualifying session to take 5th place. I was thrilled to have so many honest and productive conversations with the Brammo team and felt like there was more camaraderie at this race amongst all the teams than I have seen at any other race. I hope and look forward to this being the norm and to continue to grow our relationships in the future because I love the people in racing as much as I love the racing itself. So to everyone that was a part of this weekend, THANKS! And till I see you next time, keep the rubber side down.

This sort of attitude was prevalent during the 2010 season, because that year each race felt like huge cooperation between all the members of all the teams.  During the 2010 season, everyone was helping everyone else and there was a palpable feeling of camaraderie.  At least that's how it felt to me, the non-racer who was at every event trying to be a journalist telling the story.

Starting with the 2011 season it was harder to feel that camaraderie.  But, post-race at Laguna Seca it was there, and I'm glad it was there in Indianapolis.  Makes me wish to have been there.

As I wrote yesterday, the real competition eRoadRacing faces is the gas bike racing scene.  

The common goal among all eRoadRacing teams (or, for that matter, any form of electric racing) has to be, at this stage of the game, the mutual effort to publicize what's going on and gain the interest of the fans.

We who have been to these races know that it doesn't matter whether the bike is gas or electrically powered, it's still exciting racing to see riders skillfully duking it out with other riders.  We know that, therefore, there is no longer a need to burn irreplacable gasoline to have an exciting race.  But there's a whole slew of gas bike racers and gas bike racing fans who have to be convinced of these plain obvious facts.

May the day come soon when Indianapolis Speedway has to change its moniker away from Gasoline Alley to something else.

from Facebook

To get there means rearranging the preferences of millions of people through demonstrating the possibilities of different propulsion systems.

Brammo's Wismann explained some factors at Indianapolis prior to the race

From Facebook

Just before Sunday's eRoadRacing race in Indianapolis, Brian Wismann posted a long "here's the latest from Team Brammo" on Facebook that gave some interesting details.

First and most heartening is that the Brammo paddock had a constant stream of visitors "since Friday" which is typically a slow day.  As Brian said, the real competition is the gas powered bikes, the MotoGP, Moto2 and Vance & Hines XR1200 series all of which were also racing that weekend.  I hope Brian agrees with me in saying that while this season has been a competition between Brammo and Zero (thanks to other teams who didn't show up) the real competition is to win the hearts and minds of the gas bike riders.

Second is the gearing required for Indianapolis. Their first thought was to gear the bikes for the long straight in the front, but then the bikes weren't good for the "VERY tight and technical infield section of the course".  A gearing change on Saturday worked really well for Eric, but made a negative impact on Shane.  For the race they reverted the setup on Shane's bike to what they'd used on Friday.  Given the margin by which Shane beat Eric on Sunday, that was a good choice for him. 

During last weekend they'd also switched cell suppliers. This is something Brian had told me about at Laguna Seca, but he didn't want to name the supplier. Shane's bike crapped out during the Laguna Seca race, and Brian is using that as proof the old "RR packs were getting tired and were in dire need of replacement cells". The new battery cell sponsor and supplier is Farasis Energy, of Hayward California. Brian described them as "fantastic cells that are proving to be just the ticket for dealing with these long straights at Indy" and that the "capacity at high C-rates is awesome!"

Let's explain the jargon a bit.


In batteries "C" is a charge or discharge rate where it is fully charged or fully discharged in one hour.  When we say a battery is "10 amp-hours" that means either a discharge rate of 1 amp for 10 hours, or a discharge rate of 10 amps for one hour, or maybe a discharge rate of 2 amps for 5 hours.  The problem with that is that batteries behave differently at high discharge rates than they do at low discharge rates.  Usually you can get more amp-hours out of a battery at low discharge rates, than you get out at a high discharge rate.

The sort of behavior that would make me say "capacity at high C-rates is awesome" would be for the battery pack to maintain its voltage at high discharge rate, and to provide all the amp-hours you need at a high discharge rate.

For example - to pull some numbers out of thin air that I have no proof that any of these numbers are accurate ...

I believe the Empulse RR battery pack voltage is 360 volts nominal.  To run at 150 kilowatts at that voltage means a 416 amp discharge rate.  If their pack is 15 kilowatt-hours, at 360 volts means it's a  40 amp-hour pack.  For a 40 amp-hour pack, a 400+ amp discharge is at a 10C rate.  That's a very high discharge rate.

Again, these aren't the actual numbers for the Empulse RR's but they're close.

Jeremiah Johnson (64)
Ted Rich (28)
Shelina Moreda (38?)
Clearly closely battling for 4th/5th/6th places
from Facebook

As for Shelina Moreda and her results with the Empulse TTX. He said they made some big changes for the qualifying round on Saturday, including giving it a new fairing. Brian said that while she did run faster, it "still wasn't enough to improve her position against the competition." In this case "competition" means the Zero S's at the race. Brian went on to say "At this point, we're hoping their performance is not be sustainable over the race distance." But, of course that didn't turn out to be the case.

As I discussed in Monday's posting, there is more to this equation than who has the best bike. There's also a question of rider skill. But weighing between Kenyon Kluge, Jeremiah Johnson, Shelina Moreda, and Ted Rich, I'm not sure that set of results are due to rider skill as the primary determining factor. Yes, Moreda had just raced in the Vance & Hines XR1200 Harley race just before the eRoadRacing event, and there's a case to be made for rider fatigue. But at Laguna Seca, I think if Moreda and Rich hadn't crashed out in the first lap the results might have been similar to what they were in Indianapolis.

The practice rounds at Laguna Seca, the practice rounds at Indianapolis, and the race results in Indianapolis, all had Moreda on her Empulse TTX finishing behind the Zero's.   There is a trend here, and it doesn't say good things about the Empulse TTX.

Zero S outperforming Empulse TTX for less money, and a deep dive into motor cooling issues

It's way cool that the 2013 electric motorcycle racing season (eRoadRacing World Cup) is featuring manufactured bikes, where in previous years the majority of bikes were prototype bikes.  There are two manufactured bikes, Brammo's Empulse TTX and Zero S, in existence with race-ready performance.  Well, "race ready" so long as you're happy with 250-400cc levels of performance.  It's been pleasing to see these two bikes so well matched, and interesting to see the Zero's edging out the TTX's.

Some data has been posted since the race implying that, if Zero and Brammo were to solve an overheating issue present in both bikes, that the power level could be turned up in the controller and these stock production bikes could be so much faster.  See an earlier post for some thoughts on the potential business model for manufacturing high end, race ready, electric motorcycles.  Could Zero and/or Brammo develop a better cooling system for the controller/motor in the 2014 Zero S or 2014 Empulse TTX and jump the power level way up?

UPDATE: This post stirred up a bit of controversy over on Facebook in the Electric Racing group.   Basically, the results I discuss below should be taken with a grain of salt because the results have a lot to do with rider skill and bike setup as well as how efficient or powerful the bike is.  It's not all up to whether the motor can run at so many kilowatts for so long without overheating.  Put a good rider on a not-so-powerful bike and they can run rings around an inexperienced rider on a powerful bike.  But my contention is that rider skill and bike setup is not the entire story either ...

UPDATE: Travis Gintz posted an insightful comment on Facebook.  The Zero S is lighter than the Empulse TTX which the riders can use to their advantage.  The race reports I read talked about the Zero's beating Moreda in the technical section on the back of the track, while Moreda's more powerful bike would get ahead of them on the long front straight.  Gintz went on to say that, yes, the Empulse R/TTX is more expensive, but that it comes with Brembo brakes, etc, and that the TTX includes a year worth of racing fees with eRoadRacing and track-side support from Brammo.

What's the business model for manufacturing high end electric superbikes competitive with the gas bikes? - See more at: http://www.electricracenews.com/2013/07/whats-business-model-for-manufacturing.html#sthash.rRG4iMUS.dpuf

What's the business model for manufacturing high end electric superbikes competitive with the gas bikes? - See more at: http://www.electricracenews.com/2013/07/whats-business-model-for-manufacturing.html#sthash.rRG4iMUS.dpuf

What's the business model for manufacturing high end electric superbikes competitive with the gas bikes? - See more at: http://www.electricracenews.com/2013/07/whats-business-model-for-manufacturing.html#sthash.rRG4iMUS.dpuf

Elaine Carpenter - wife of Ted Rich who is riding with Zero this year in both eRoadRacing and Pikes Peak - rode Brandon Nozaki-Miller's bike at Indianapolis while Brandon was recovering from injuries.  She posted this picture annotating the starting grid with an interesting interpretation

Elaine Carpenter SBKTraining.com - from Facebook

The $200k prototype bikes are the Brammo Empulse RR's which can't be beat by the rest of the field who showed up.  For the Empulse RR's to face actual competition would require certain other teams (cough cough) to show up and give them a run for their money.

But in the real race, the race between the eSuperStock bikes, the $15,000 Zero S's qualified ahead of the two $30,000 Empulse TTX's.  Okay, these are $15k S's with a $2000 controller mod, right?  Still a lot cheaper than the TTX, and that was Elaine Carpenter's point.

Where it counted, the race results, came out slightly different than the starting grid, but still along those lines.

Largely speaking the Zero S's beat the Empulse TTX's in the race.  Shelina Moreda did find some extra oomph to place a little higher than during qualifying.

Arthur Kowitz had this to say on a facebook posting:  Arthur Kowitz upon reading my data from the race, it was revealed that my bikes electronics turned motor power down about 40% to protect the motor from a perceived overheat situation

Somehow the liquid cooling on the TTX is not enough for race conditions, where the duct-augmented air cooling on the Zero S's is enough.  For the record, I was told at Laguna Seca that while the Zero S's all had Gen4 Size6 controllers the power levels were turned way down to prevent overheating as well.  

This implies that if Brammo and Zero can solve cooling on their respective bikes, that these production bikes could be much more powerful than the 250-450cc range ...?

Turpin wins eRoadRacing Indianapolis - Kluge wins in eSuperStock category

Shane Turpin - from Facebook

Shane Turpin (Brammo Empulse RR) won overall in today's eRoadRacing World Cup race at Indianapolis Speedway, with Kenyon Kluge (Zero S) winning the eSuperStock category.  This was the first electric vehicle race held at the Indianapolis Speedway, a track that has the nickname "Gasoline Alley", making it a historic occasion.  May there be so many electric vehicles racing there in the future that they have to think up a new nickname, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Eric Bostron - from Facebook

It's of course not a surprise that Shane Turpin and Eric Bostrom took 1st and 2nd, they have no real competition other than between themselves.  Turpin had a total time of 15:18.967, and Bostrom came in 14 seconds behind him at 15:32.700.  Both improved their best lap times by about a second.  In both cases their lap times slowed during the course of the race - Turpin started with 1:53.412 lap time and ended with 1:56.584 lap time, for example, and Bostrom did about the same.

The real racing action was between Kenyon Kluge, Jeremiah Johnson, Shelina Moreda and Ted Rich.  All four had very similar lap times throughout the race.  Because Kluge was not lapped by Turpin and Bostrom, while the other three were, he ran for an extra lap and had a total race time of 17:30.962, while taking 3rd place overall and 2:08.228 best lap time.

In 4th place overall was Jeremiah Johnson, 15:21.611 total time and 2:09.698 best lap time.  In 5th place overall was Shelina Moreda, 15:24.708 total time and 2:10.326 best lap time.  In 6th place overall was Ted Rich, 15:25.143 total time and 2:09.275 best lap time.

Of those four, Kluge, Johnson and Rich were riding 2013 Zero S's while Shelina Moreda was riding a Brammo Empulse TTX.  If the Zero S's are still configured as they were at Laguna Seca, all but Ted Rich's have been upgraded to a SEVCON Gen 4 Size 6 controller giving a higher overall power.  Another modification is added ducting for cooling.  At Laguna Seca, Ted Rich had a box surrounding the controller into which he put ice to cool it before the race.

The Zero S's and Empulse TTX's are racing in an unofficial division called eSuperStock.  There is some discussion around whether the modifications render the bike unfit for what can rightfully be called eSuperStock, or not.  I'm just documenting what I know and am trying to not pass judgement.  However as we see in the quotes below, Kenyon Kluge makes an excellent point.

Namely, with the 2013 model year it's now possible to buy a bike from the factory, make a few modifications that add up to about $1000 expenditure, and have a race-worthy bike.   The results show it's possible not just with Zero but Brammo's Empulse TTX as well.  This is a big step forward for electric motorcycles.

SHANE TURPIN (No. 14 Icon Brammo Brammo Empulse RR, winner): “I got a little bit of a lead, and all I could think about was, ”Man, just keep it, maintain and keep it steady,’ and I kept looking over my shoulder to see where (runner-up Eric Bostrom) was. I just wanted to finish this time. Laguna Seca kind of bit me, and the bike shut off. We maintained a good lead and brought it home. It was very exciting. I was hammer down. All of us are like that. We just want to win. The bottom line with the Brammo team is incredible. Anything I ask them to do – bike, setup. anything – they fix it. We have just been jelling very well, and obviously it shows.”

ERIC BOSTROM (No. 32 Icon Brammo Brammo Empulse RR, second): “Shane (Turpin) showed up fast, and neither of us had a real lot of laps around this track. The bike was really fast, 160-plus (mph) on the front straight. I got through the turns well, but I wasn’t able to get comfortable here. We took a little gamble in our setup for the race. Shane had us beat from the time we hit the asphalt. The team did a fantastic job; we didn’t have a hiccup all week long.” (About historical impact of race): “This is the place that bears the name Gasoline Alley, so it’s kind of ironic that we’re running around on batteries. It’s an incredible place for this team to be here at such a famous circuit and perform in front of the same crowd that they have for MotoGP and race cars here. It was incredible. My first lap down the front straight, I was just filled with emotion: Wow! I’m racing in the king’s quarters.”

KENYON KLUGE (No. 96 K Squared Racing Zero S, third): “I was third place overall but first place in the eSuperStock division. All the other bikes (except first and second place) out here were stock bikes with minimal changes, just bodywork, throw $1,000 into it after taking it off the showroom floor. We think it is really historic to be able to race a bike that the average buyer could go out and buy and do the same times we’re doing. This was my first time here at the course, so I had to learn it. It was a little tricky, some of the tight switchbacks combined with the long straightaway. I think I got into the flow of it in the race.”

Shane Turpin taking the win - Facebook eRoadRacing

The line-up before the race
from Facebook

Elaine Carpenter - from Facebook

Ho Chi Fung (Zongshen) takes the pole at eRoadRacing Oschersleben

Can you spell Oschersleben?  If so, you're a better man than me.  In any case, Ho Chi Fung has taken pole position at the eRoadRacing Europe race #2 at that track.  It's a double header for the eRoadRacing this weekend with events in both Indianapolis (where Shane Turpin has taken pole position) and Oschersleben (Germany). 

The roster is three bikes from Zongshen, two from Agni Motors, two from Renegade Z, and one team named SBK City Racing.  One of the Zongshen riders is Thomas Schuricht, who had been involved with Meunch Racing since 2010, and in 2009 had raced the Isle of Man TTXGP under a team name I'm forgetting at the moment.  Another familiar name is Peter Linden, a Swedish racer (if I recall right) who has raced in TTXGP with various teams since 2010.  And, it's nice to see Agni Motors returning after an absence from the electric motorcycle racing scene, and I've seen a picture of Cedric Lynch at the track.

Here's the results:

One thing that stands out is the lap speeds for Zongshen's top bike is not anywhere near the Brammo Empulse RR top speeds.  The lap length is about the same (3.6 kilometers) and the 1:44 lap time Ho Chi Fung qualified with would have been mid-pack at the Laguna Seca race.  Kenyon Kluge who took 3rd place in the grid and 2nd place in the race had 1:48 lap times at Laguna, with Shane Turpin and Eric Bostrom with 1:32ish lap times.  That means the European series doesn't have the same caliber of top end bikes that we have in North America.

We see that everyone's speed improved a bit between Friday and Saturday, and that the 120% threshold moved from 2:13 to 2:10 as a result. 

The Renegade Z guys should probably think about calling Zero's headquarters to get some guidance on upgrades to the bikes.

The Agni bikes are giving good results and it makes me wonder what motors they're packing?  The Agni design is to mount two of their motors face-to-face on a common shaft.  Agni's top motor is still (I think) the Agni 95-R (I think) but at the 2010 TTXGP world final they'd rolled out a special motor that had never been seen or tried before.  That motor gave their top rider for that year (whose name I've forgotten) a big boost but never was put in the product line that I've been able to determine. 

Reading from their race report ...

Sam West (Agni) needed at least one lap in to qualify since he didn't get any laps on Friday. Once he had a qualifying lap, he wanted to see what the bike would do so opened it up to see how fast it would go. He said "The engineers had fitted some new components and the power was significantly better giving improved acceleration right through the rev range."  Nothing about just what the secret sauce was.

Rhalf Lo Turko, SBK City Racing, said there had been controller issues on Friday, but the bike still "isn't consistent" and there's still a lot to do.  He's riding a Mavizen TTX02 which may be a left-over bike from 2010 - I don't know if Mavizen has tried to upgrade the TTX02's beyond what they'd fielded in 2010.  In any case, the 2010 TTX02's had been very unreliable.

Thomas Schuricht #6 is described as "formally of Muench Racing team," and that " his new motorcycle is simply not ready but he was fortunate enough to be offered a ride from factory team, Zongshen Racing." We assume then that his billet with Zongshen is temporary until his new bike is ready. He is quoted saying “Today was not my first trip on a Zongshen. Two weeks ago I was driving a dirt bike off road! That was a lot of fun. Today, on the track in Oschersleben, I was very surprised how good the handling can be on the Zongshen E-bike and how easily it moved about the course. I’m glad to have the opportunity this weekend to be able to race for a professional team. The bike was perfect for Q2 and i am very happy with my time of 1:54.239 given I didn’t have any practice time at all. … I felt very comfortable from the beginning … I had planned to complete the race distance of 9 laps to go and had then in the penultimate round of the fourth Takeoff retracted. With this result, I am very pleased, considering that the other teams are training for two days on this track. I would now like to talk to thank my team who have worked hard to prep the bike. I hope tomorrow’s race to deliver a good performance for them.”

Harald Gasse is riding the Agni bike which had won the 2009 Isle of Man TTXGP, which had been raced in the U.S. during the 2010 season, and then later in the 2010 season by Zongshen racing.  It's still racing with the same pack as in 2009, and Gasse says: “this is so much fun and even more exciting for me because I am racing an iconic machine. The Agni motorcycle that won the very race in the Isle of Man 2009 is an incredibly special machine. That it runs so well still with the same batteries and other parts proves these ebikes are not only fun to ride and practical but also have longevity.”

So, um, yeah, it's cool that some bikes from early TTXGP history are still being raced in the European series.  However, in the North America series we left all the 2010 bikes behind and are racing with 2013 bikes.  Even Lightning's 2010 bike is not being raced, but instead is sitting in their workshop.

Pictures from facebook albums:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.719234321426907.1073741844.148160931867585&type=1

Cedric Lynch and Arvind Rabadia - Agni Motors

Cedric Lynch with Sam West

Shane Turpin has pole at eRoadRacing Indianapolis

The eRoadRacing guys are racing in Indianapolis for what may be the final race of the 2013 North America season, and I'm not there, missing a North America TTXGP/e-Power/eRoadRacing for the first time.  Whether there's something wrong with this picture remains to be seen, but in the meantime I'm combing through stuff I can find to deliver some news.  The top level items are that the roster is much like it was at Laguna Seca - Brammo and Zero bikes, and no sign of Lightning or others.  That leaves the Brammo top bikes uncontested in the series.  There is a new team, a college team named Electric Vehicle Team or E.V.T. organization of Southern Polytechnic State University, who apparently built a bike just before the race, showed up, had some problem that blew something, and won't be able to race.  While that's sure to be disappointing it's quite an accomplishment just to show up, so don't feel too bad, and make sure to come again when you can.

Shane Turpin has pole position, and Eric Bostrom is lining up at the #2 spot.  But this is what we expect from the roster, right?  Kenyon Kluge is filling out the front row.

In these results realize that the lap length is 4.216 kilometers, or 2.61 miles, versus 3.61 kilometers or 2.23 miles at Laguna Seca.  It makes it trickier to compare lap speeds between tracks.

In any case the qualifying/practice round 1 showed a fairly well packed field among the bikes other than the Brammo Empulse RR's.  There was as previously two races, the Empulse RR's and everyone else, of course.  The RR's look evenly matched with Shane Turpin doing a bit better than Eric Bostrom.  The other similar thing to Laguna Seca is that Kenyon Kluge and Ted Rich are outperforming Shelina Moreda.

Another thing to note is that Brandon Nozaki Miller is not riding the Electric Cowboy bike.  Instead Elaine Carpenter is.  She is the wife of Ted Rich and together they run SBKTraining.com.  I haven't checked with Brandon to see what's up with him.

The race report from that round quoted people just getting used to the track and deciding on gear ratios. 

From looking at the detailed results it appears Ceasar Gonzales did make it out for at least one lap.  Going by the pictures in the album linked below, he crashed out and while the team tried to fix the bike they couldn't

The results from qualifying/practice 2 showed across the board improvement, and Elaine Carpenter moving up the ranks.

The only one who dropped in the ranking is Shelina Moreda.  She did find a couple seconds to shave off the time.  We remember that at Laguna Seca it seemed that during qualifying she may have been "taking it easy" and planning to race hard when it actually counted, but of course we weren't able to verify that assumption because of the crash in the first lap.

In the Friday writeup Jeremiah Johnson said that the Zero's had all been geared differently to see which gear ratio would work best at Indy.  He said his bike had been geared the slowest, and that for todays practice round it would be geared faster.  That's what we see here.

With a top speed of 250.3 km/hr, the Brammo boys are hitting 155 miles/hr. 

SHANE TURPIN: “It was amazing. I’ve never been to the Brickyard. The track is crazy, nothing like anything I’ve ever been on. Being on the electric bike here for the first time was unbelievable, and I’m so happy to have been a part of this whole new revolution. Everything really is the same as a regular motorcycle. The only thing different is I’m not shifting the bike. It’s quiet, but I’m making motorcycle noises in my helmet because the noise is gone. We raced at Laguna Seca, and I broke the track record for electric bikes. This system is just taking off, getting better and better.”

Most of these pictures come from a Facebook album posted by eRoadRacing.

Jeremiah Johnson

Shane Turpin - photo by Phil Hawkins

Elaine Carpenter

Ted Rich

Close up of Jeremiah Johnson's bike
He's sure made it look a lot better than at Laguna Seca

Jeremiah Johnson

The 2013 Zero motor

SPSU EVT team picture
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=232444386903239&set=a.121794521301560.25386.109537442527268&type=1&theater

eRoadRacing North America cancels event at Miller Motorsports

The eRoadRacing folks have posted a notice that the 3rd event in the 2013 North America series, at Miller Motorsports, has been canceled.

This means the North America series will be truncated to just two races.  UNLESS .. there is a slight chance of a race at Laguna Seca during the FIM World Superbike event.

The issue is that eRoadRacing, as a FIM series, can only run at FIM homologated race tracks.  This hugely limits the places in North America where eRoadRacing will be able to race.  The only remaining event in North America at such a track is the World Superbike event at Laguna Seca.

I have no idea whether eRoadRacing at World Superbike can be pulled off.  If it can, we may be able to have the race we weren't able to have during the MotoGP weekend at Laguna Seca.  Namely, because Lightning (and other teams) did not participate that weekend, the top tier results were left solely to Brammo.  Maybe, just maybe, the stars will align, and eRoadRacing will be given space during World Superbike, and maybe Lightning (and other teams) will decide to race.

The 2013 eRoadRacing calendar has been updated as follows:

European Series

Dates	FMNR	Venue	Support Race of	Country
14 July	RFME	Valenica		Spain
18 August	DMSB	Oschersleben	Oschersleben 8 Hours	Germany
21 September	FFM	Le Mans	Le Mans 24Hours	France

North American Series

Dates	FMNR	Venue	Support Race of	Country
21 July	AMA	Laguna Seca	FIM Road Racing WC GP	United States
18 August	AMA	Indianapolis	FIM Road Racing WC GP	United States