A Diverse Podium Tops Off TTXGP At Road America

The natural light streaming into the new Orion Tech Center at Elkhart Lake made the perfect launch pad for the electric bikes at TTXGP North America Round 2. Michael Barnes on the Lightning Motors bike pulled strong up the hills and down the long straights for the duration of the race to lock in a convincing win. Ground clearance issues Barney experienced at Infineon were taken care of with some suspension changes and the EV1 motor stayed cool to the end.

Zoe Rem locked in second place on the Agni bike (with Zero logos) becoming the first woman on the TTXGP podium. Her only complaint about the bike was some inconsistent power delivery but she was visibly stoked with the finish. The long straights prevented the seesaw battle Shawn Higbee had experienced on the Agni bike with Barnes in Round 1 at the tight Infineon Raceway track.

More information, pics and video after the break…

The most compelling finish, though, may belong to Thad Wolff on the Team Norton Electra who took third. At Infineon, I spoke with Thad about what he thought of the bike. His thoughts quickly moved to his strong desire to get Brian Richardson and his team on the podium. Wolff was pulled in by the group’s dedication to building the bike and their passion for electric drive. Brian Richardson even sold his truck to raise money to make it to Elkhart Lake for the race. Many would have hung it up long before a loose set screw on the motor encoder ended the team’s race at Infineon.

Jennifer Bromme Of Werkstatt Talks to Sean of Square Wave

Werkstatt Racing had the Mavizen TTX02 cut out under the Toyota bridge after the hill out of turn 5 which was strangely similar to Jennifer Bromme’s Infineon turn 1 stall and reboot after climbing part way up the first hill. Despite the stall and having a slower best lap than the bike from Native / Electric Motorsport, she was able to lock in fourth place after swapping positions with Pooler a few times.

Native / Electric Motorsport had been struggling with cooling issues and the additional cooling ducts did not solve the issue. According to Raul Aguliar of Native they need to go back to the drawing board. They have plenty of ideas, they just need to find time to implement them while keeping up with their day job of supplying parts and prototypes to the growing electric powersports world. They finished fifth behind Werkstatt after a rough practice session that saw rider James Pooler tossed to the rain soaked track after what looks like a brake induced highside (see video below).

Despite not completing any of the practice sessions, Electric Race Bikes took sixth place and along with Lightning Motors had to use their only provisional start. Under AMA rules if a team does not participate in qualifying they are allowed on the grid 1 time each season.

Square Wave Racing finished seventh place with new rider Scotty Ryan. Team leader John Wild felt he was not doing the bike justice at Infineon and Ryan came on board to help bring the best out of the Ohio based electric bike. The Square Wave bike is still being tweaked so look for improvements going into TTXGP North America Round 3 at Mosport in Canada on July 11, 2010.