If any other teams have race reports and/or pics please post or send to me and I will post.
jonescg wrote: Thought I might do a little race report of round 2 of the eFXC at Winton Raceway last weekend, thanks to team O'Hanlon Electric Motorsport
Pottz and I landed in Melbourne on Thursday morning after catching the Redeye. We drove up to Benalla and when crossing the range I recognised a familiar cloud formation, last seen in winter in Canada... Yep, it was going to be a cold weekend.
<img src="https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... e=54506C4E" />
Mike arrived that afternoon so we could prep the bike for Friday practice. Varley had arrived with their bike in JP Special livery, back in black and gold. Through scrutineering (electrical and mechanical) in no time, we were ready for some laps. We had some new 1.2 mm springs in the forks, but the re-vale didn't seem to be behaving like we'd wanted it to. We are still trying to suspend a 238 kg bike on them when hard on the brakes, so it's not going to be easy, but still, the handling is a vast improvement over Round 1 at QR.
It began to rain, then hail, and possibly snow (any ice falling from the sky counts as snow if you ask me) but there were the odd dry spells where we could go out and slowly learn the circuit with the 250s and 300s. It must have been frustrating for them, as we could nearly double their top speeds in the straights but they'd embarrass us in the corners. Pottz was the only one to qualify, but at 2:38 it wasn't exactly amazingIt was so good to know that our 700 volt battery powered electric bike could be ridden in the rain with no fear of electrocution or faults. We cranked the regen torque up to 80 Nm and it seemed to feel pretty good, but it was really too wet to make much use of it and test it properly. We also took the ramp rate down to 30 Nm/s for a slower throttle rate, but as it turned out 35 would have been about right.
Saturday race one was a cracker, with Danny Ripperton and Danny Pottage duking it out for first. My old lap record from Voltron 1 was smashed by ~16 seconds, first by Pottz with a 1:42.529 on lap 2, only to be bettered by Ripperton on lap 3 with a 1:42.396. Which was great to seeVoltron Evo held a convincing gap until Pottz went into turn 1 a bit hot and ran off track, through the grass and rejoined behind Ripperton. He took second nonetheless. Unfortunately the Varley machine steered by Jason Morris was playing up after three laps, and had to retire early.
The track stayed cold all day, and by the time we were up for race two it was simply bitter. We turned the regen down to 40 Nm as the rear was chattering like crazy in race one, but it felt like ice out there. After a tight start Pottz had an inverter fault which called for a re-boot. This takes about 3 seconds, which is about 4 hours in racetrack time
Sunday morning was a tiny bit warmer - the ice was limited to shadowed puddles. After a good sleep and some more track knowledge, Pottz was feeling confident. Ripperton had a controller failure at the start line, causing him to limp around on reduced power. Pickett was riding on a dislocated shoulder but still managed to put in a 1:45.672, which is pretty amazing. Danny P took the win, putting in another 1:42.884 on the last lap. Alex came second and Ripperton third, lapped after the race end.
Race four was an interesting situation - Alex had to catch a plan from Melbourne, and if he raced in eFXC he's miss the flight. So Simon Galloway who was pitting with us agreed to a joyride. I recall some pre-race agreement about what to do with points allocation, but it clearly caused some tension afterwards - most notably cause Simon bloody near won the race! It was a great race to watch, with Pottz taking the win, Simon second and Ripperton coming third despite his controller issues. Much has been said about Galloway's performance, but Pickett was putting in some seriously fast laps all weekend, all with a busted shoulder. Sadly Varley were a non-start, with some serious electronics bugs to sort out again.
It was on the Motorsports TV web stream, but the last race seems to have been trimmedYou can find most of race three here: <a href="http://new.livestream.com/itvl/events/3 ... s/58176703" rel="nofollow">http://new.livestream.com/itvl/events/3 ... 8176703</a> and a ripped copy of race 4 here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpzvVMzP4y0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpzvVMzP4y0</a>
Another great weekend of electric racing, despite the very testing conditions. No-one likes mechanical issues spoiling an otherwise close race, but hey, that's racing. Voltron Evo is handling the corners pretty good for a big fatty, but with some more suspension tuning it can go faster. I have some great front and rear footage which I will put up soon. The rear is planted, and appears to have no trouble keeping traction out of turns. The front on the other hand...
Massive, massive thanks to Mike O'Hanlon for getting us on track and for funding most of this years' campaign. Also have to thank Kaneg for providing Danny with accessories like warmers, stands and break-off bits like footpegs. Danny is riding the wheels off this thing and it just keeps getting faster.
O'Hanlon Electric Motorsport were nominated for the AMCN "Best Presented" team - but the Yamaha at the end was the prettiest. The paint job was pretty nice.
on the riders that would be great. If you can't make it, there should be live coverage on Motorsport TV via the Formula Extreme web site. 
Right at the tail end of the superbikes times! I'd write more, but I'm a bit hammered right now... YAY wooooo!