Barnes makes history at Mosport

By John Hopkins

BOWMANVILLE, ON – Michael Barnes put his name in the record books by winning the first electric motorcycle race on Canadian soil at Mosport International Raceway on Sunday.

The Boca Raton, FL veteran rode his Lightning entry to a dominant victory in the first ever TTXGP eGRAND PRIX electric motorcycle race held in Canada. Thad Wolff of Newbury Park, CA was second, 1:13.011 behind on a Norton Electra and San Francisco’s Jennifer Bromme placed third riding a Mavizen.

The event was the third round of the North American TTXGP eGRAND PRIX series, following events at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA and Elkhart Lake, WI's Road America.

Barnes led all eight laps of the race around Mosport's 3.957km circuit and completed the event in 12 minutes, 55.780 seconds for an average speed of 146.899 km/h. His fastest lap was a 1:35.278 (149.512 km/h).

"This is the first race track I've had fun at [with the bike]," said Barnes, who also won at Road America. "This is a fun venture, and a fun project, but from the first practice the bike worked well. This is a very easy bike to ride, it's just a matter of being smooth and carrying speed. You have to trust you can carry the speed with that much weight. It leans over very well and it's stable when it's leaned over."

Barnes' bike is powered by a motor salvaged from an EV1, a former General Motors electric car project. He was targeting the lap times of the Harley-Davidson XR1200 ridden by Darren James in the accompanying K&N Filters' Sport Twins race at Mosport. James' best race lap on Sunday was a 1:34.644. The Lightning reportedly weighs in at close to the class maximum of 300kg (661 lbs.).

Wolff's bike was based on a 1966 Norton, using the old Norton featherbed frame and wheels from a Honda RS125. The bike was powered by a Lithium Polymer battery and weight was quoted as 400 lbs. His best lap in the race was a 1:44.144.

"The centre of gravity and overall weight of the bike are the same as what it's derived from," Wolff said. "They're similar in a lot of ways. Heat is our biggest trouble."

Bromme was somewhat fortunate to make the race, as a new controller, which regulates the power going from the motor to the rear wheel, had to be sourced for her KTM RC8-based bike. With the assistance of Parts Canada Superbike Championship officials the new part, which was coming from Wisconsin, made it in time for her to take the grid.

"We could have cranked up the power," said Bromme, whose best lap was a 1:58.269. "We can make it faster, we just need some more track days to play with the chassis."

The Mavizen is the first production electric motorcycle.

Two other bikes made up the field at Mosport, the Yamaha TZ250-based entry of Michael Hannas and Steven Belknap on the Square Wave Racing machine.

TTXGP was founded by entrepreneur Azhar Hussain and held its first race as part of the Isle of Man TT in 2009. This year there are three separate 'regional' championships -- North America, Great Britain and Italy. The North American season will conclude as part of the AMA Pro Racing event at Virginia International Raceway in August. A 'shootout' involving the top teams from the three regional series will be held at the Albacete circuit in Spain Oct. 23-24.