# TTXGP Race at VIRginia International Raceway



## major (Apr 4, 2008)

VIRginia International Raceway will host the 4th and final North American race in this series this weekend. http://www.egrandprix.com/index_nav.php?cat=races&sub=north_america&page=virginia Please come and support EV racing and have some fun


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## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

See you there Major! I'll be with Gene representing Manzanita Micro.


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## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

Lightning wins TTXGP north America. Team Agni gets second place. Team Electra gets third. ElectricRaceBikes.com gets Fourth. Werk Statt Racing gets 5th. SquareWaveRacing gets 6th. Congrats to all!!!


I just got to the hotel after a long couple days at VIR. I met a ton of people (Major included). It was fun (and hot and humid as hell) and I had a great time seeing all of the bikes again!


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

frodus said:


> Lightning wins TTXGP north America. Team Agni gets second place. Team Electra gets third. ElectricRaceBikes.com gets Fourth. Werk Statt Racing gets 5th. SquareWaveRacing gets 6th. Congrats to all!!!


Thanks frod. I just got back home to Ohio today. Towed that Airstream with Skip. Richard and the #80 should be close to CA by now.

It was a great season for the #80 Lightning bike and Team Lightning. We won 3 of the 4 NA races after taking 2nd place in the opener. That gave us the constructor championship and gave Michael Barnes the rider championship.

The #80 qualified P1 with a 1:42.811 lap. Fast race lap was 1:44.093. Tuned him down a bit to be sure we didn't have a repeat of Laguna where we ran short of electrons on the last lap. But still, he said he saw 134 mph on the straight. Gassers were up to 160. His lap times were just a few seconds off the big Harleys. 

The #80 proved to be a very fast machine and after that first race, a cycle which could handle well with Barnes in control. He is a great pilot. It took a lot of work to get #80 to this point. She held together. But after this race, came into the victory circle smokin'. Had cooked a pulley bearing. A bottle of H²O cooled it down. But it was seized. Had to break the chain to push her back. If your race bike is going to break, nice to have it happen on lap 10 of a nine lap race 

I wish we had had more competitors on the track for these races. I want to thank those that did race with us and those who supported all of us. I think we put on some good shows. Although the #80 had a few seconds and a few mph on the others, they worked hard and improved throughout the season. All 6 bikes taking the grid finished the race. Congratulations to all of you.



> It was fun (and hot and humid as hell) and I had a great time seeing all of the bikes again!


HOT, you say. When I put the tire warmer on for the first practice, it read 126°F before it started to heat up  Yeah, it's black and in the sun. But I'm working right next to it and our team shirts and hats are black. But it was a great weekend of racing and a beautiful track. Thanks for coming frodus and I hope to see more people and eBikes next year 

Oh yeah, take a lap with Barney. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA-l_1rb7tc&feature=youtu.be

major


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## 2cycle (Jul 2, 2009)

great job guys. I loved that video too. The only thing better than a virtual lap is an actual lap and few people get to experience that, even if we did we couldn't catch Barnes. Being an engine guy I do love the symphony of a well tuned ICE but the sound of these high rpm motors is pretty cool too.


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## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

No problem Major, I remember you asked me to post results... so the first chance I got, i did. I posted on endless-sphere, Facebook and twitter too. ELMoto.net was down. I should have pictures tomorrow.

It was great meeting you, wish we had more time to talk, but I know you were busy working on the bike. It was really cool to see all the teams almost working together. I know many team members helped eachother when they could. It was good to see the comradery. Thanks again for the hat and shirt.... I have a feeling that hat is my new favorite hat.... let Richard know.


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## toddshotrods (Feb 10, 2009)

Sounds awesome. I hope to be able to attend at least one of these events next year. TTXGP seems to be really professional.


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## trops357 (Jun 15, 2010)

Sorry I missed this race. I live just minutes from VIR. I mowed my nieghbors yard when I mow mine. Turns out she is the CFO at VIR.
She gave me 2 free passes for any weekend. I dont supose there is another EV envent there this season ? I used to work at VIR , i designed graphics for some of the cars. Lots of nice vintage vehicles come through there.


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## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

No more @VIR for this year unfortunately.


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

Major,
I didn't realize Lightning was using a Balqon motor:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Superbike-Featuring-Balqons-iw-2211259295.html?x=0&.v=1
I thought they only did large truck motors. Can you give any details of the motor specs?


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## frodus (Apr 12, 2008)

I think it just says that the controller is by them, i always read (and was told by the team members) that its an EV1 motor.


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

I think you are correct and I misread the article. I didn't realize that Balqon was doing anything with smaller vehicles. I didn't think they had anything that would even fit on a bike.


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

JRP3 said:


> Major,
> I didn't realize Lightning was using a Balqon motor:
> http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Superbike-Featuring-Balqons-iw-2211259295.html?x=0&.v=1
> I thought they only did large truck motors. Can you give any details of the motor specs?


Hi JR,

It was the drive (controller) from Balqon. The motor is a Delphi EV1 motor.

major


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

Are you able to give us any specifics on the controller? Size, weight, power output, anything?


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

JRP3 said:


> Are you able to give us any specifics on the controller? Size, weight, power output, anything?


Hey JR,

Sorry, you know? The boss doesn't want to give away our secrets. But it is on par with the original EV1 controller. Of course, being racers, we press everything harder. So it is a lot smaller. Liquid cooled. About 330 V input.

Balqon engineer has a personal interest, so helps us. His boss is o.k. with it for sponsorship on the bike. They will make smaller drives like this for OEMs, like Lightningmotorcycle.com.

Come to a race and see it for yourself 

major


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

major said:


> Hey JR,
> 
> Sorry, you know? The boss doesn't want to give away our secrets.


I figured, thought I'd see what I could get out of you.


> Come to a race and see it for yourself
> 
> major


I'd love to, I'm about 45 minutes away from Watkins Glen raceway  Has to be an EV race there eventually.


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

Video of the race at http://www.egrandprix.tv/?play=45


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

Cool. So was something smoking on the bike at the end of the race?


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

JRP3 said:


> Cool. So was something smoking on the bike at the end of the race?


Yeah. The right time to have a failure on lap ten of a nine lap race 

Postmortem showed a bearing failure on the primary cog, most likely from lack of oil lube. Got it fixed and improved oil delivery system before trip to Bonneville.

Still, any failure sucks. Although you find serious racers say if the machine last 20 feet past the finish line it is over built, mostly meaning too heavy. But it still sucks. After we doused it with a bottle of water, it stopped smoking, but had to put it on wheel stand to push it to podium. Cog locked up and rear wheel wouldn't turn. After the champagne and trophies, I borrowed a screwdriver and popped the master link so we could push it back to the paddock.

Hey that's racing.

major


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