eFXC 2015 - Australian Electric Superbikes

Post by **jonescg** » Wed, 20 May 2015, 06:09

I thought I might start a new thread for the eFX Championship.

You can check out the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/efxc2014 for more up-to-date photos, videos and commentary.

Round one of the eFXC class was held at Mallala Motorsports Park, Mallala, South Australia. It was the first time the electric bikes raced at Mallala, which is a great track with plenty of technical sections and a fast, sweeping turn known as "The Kink".

Three entries made the trip; Danny Pottage (Pottz) on the Voltron Evo machine (O'Hanlon Electric Motorsports), Jason Morris on the Varley Electric Vehicles RP1 and Daniel Ripperton on his Ripperton R1.

Friday practice had the riders mixed in with the 250 and 300 cc ICE bikes, which was interesting. Pottz put Voltron Evo on pole, rounding out a great day of testing and tuning.

Saturday's racing saw Pottage finish first in both races, with a second and third for Varley in races one and two respectively. Sunday's racing was televised on MotorsportsTV, which saw the electric lap record set by Pottz (1:17.419). Full race results can be found here - just look for anything with eFXC in it: http://www.computime.com.au/meetings/in ... 15/SWANN2/

A webcast of Sunday afternoon's race can be found here if you grab the slider of the first screen and find 2 hours and 55 mins, while the morning race can be found in the second video screen at 3 minutes.
http://livestream.com/accounts/1658248/events/4028643

It was great to see Eric and Sally from the Adelaide AEVA on Friday, who kindly left their AEVA banner up so people walking the pits knew where to find the electric bikes. Also great to see Mic Chapman on the Saturday, and some record crowds for a motorcycle racing event on the Sunday. Lots of interest in the bikes, with a couple of guys travelling all the way from Mount Gambier just to watch them!

Post by **evric** » Wed, 20 May 2015, 15:04

Congratulations to Pottz and to Chris winning the xFXC and for the fastest lap.
The Adelaide AEVA meeting will see this race segment tonight.
Eric

Post by **reecho** » Thu, 21 May 2015, 03:03

Fantastic result for the Voltron team.......well done...!!

Post by **dgh853** » Mon, 22 Jun 2015, 15:05

Round 2 of eFXC is on at Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek) this coming weekend - Fri 26th to Sun 28th June.

The mighty Voltron will be there alongside Varley's upgraded 2015 bike and the newly magnetised Ripperton machine. EVtricity racing have also entered their Zero SR to get some race experience against the faster home grown bikes.

Spectator information is at http://www.formula-xtreme.com.au/NewsDe ... wsid=14949

Sunday Racing should be telecast on livestream at http://livestream.com/watch starting sometime between 9-10am. eFXC are first race after the warmups on Sunday and again between 4-5 on Sunday afternoon.

I'll likely have a couple of spare tickets for the weekend so if you drop in on Friday (free entry) I can give you a ticket and you can come back in anytime over the weekend. First in best dressed.

Post by **jonescg** » Wed, 24 Jun 2015, 01:26

Looking forward to it! Friday is always the best day for electric spectators, as there's more on-track time and it's free entry

Post by **jonescg** » Thu, 02 Jul 2015, 16:32

Tony Castley put some new photos up from the weekend's racing in Sydney:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/splinter/ ... 5288262652

Some great shots in there!

Post by **Bluefang** » Wed, 29 Jul 2015, 04:49

Jonescg, do you have a copy of the regulations for custom built bikes? All the websites seem to be down at the moment.

Looking at running a 2wd bike system as I have the parts atm and someone interested in racing it for me.

Derek

Post by **jonescg** » Wed, 29 Jul 2015, 04:59

Hey that would be awesome!!! Get in touch with Malcolm Faed (4x4Kiwi on this forum) and he will shoot the regs to you.

Otherwise we look forward to catching up with a bunch of Brisbane AEVA crew in two weeks time!

Post by **Bluefang** » Wed, 29 Jul 2015, 23:22

Thanks mate, just sent him a quick pm after i found him

Post by **jonescg** » Thu, 13 Aug 2015, 04:06

Bump!

Hey everyone! The electric motorcycle racing circus is coming to town! The FX-Superbikes are heading to Queensland Raceway this weekend, and the only class that matters (to us) is the eFXC. So far three teams are going to be set up in Garage D2 - Voltron Evo from WA, the Varley team from Newcastle, and Ripperton from Sydney.

Entry is free on Friday and you get to see more on-track action than on the Saturday and Sunday races, which are at the start and end of each day, and you have to pay to get in. Although Sunday afternoon you can probably sneak in for nothing.

Come on down and say hi, and watch some cool electric racing!

Post by **dgh853** » Thu, 13 Aug 2015, 12:37

Best of luck to all the teams at Queensland Raceway.

Hope to be racing the Zero SR again at Wakefield in late September.

Post by **jonescg** » Sun, 16 Aug 2015, 04:12

Look forward to seeing you in Goulburn David!

We had a good first race - Pottz put in an eFXC lap record breaking 1:20.007 (which is a full 6 seconds a quicker than last year) and came in first. Varley had another lengthy cut-out which last them second place, with Ripperton taking it in their absence. Jason managed to get the bike going agian and finish in third.

During the lengthy break we decided to head to the skid pan to try a new suspension setting. The surface was so slippery with rubber we couldn't do anything useful, but the skids were sure fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvEmzEkkTyY

Race two saw Pottz and Jason having a tight fight for first, with Pottz in front for the most part. He was putting in a great lap on lap 2, but overcooked it into turn 6, running off the track and into the gravel. He kept it upright until about 2 km/h and laid it over. Not sure that counts as a crash, but it meant Jason rode on for victory with Ripperton taking second. Once out of the gravel, Pottz rode on to take third.

Going to be another beautiful day tomorrow, so come out to the track and watch some good racing. We're hoping to get into the teens!

If someone wants to repost this link so the video is embedded, go for it.

[ Edit Coulomb: embedded the video, while keeping the link just in case ]

Post by **rhills** » Sun, 16 Aug 2015, 04:29

I could edit your post for you to embed the youtube video

Post by **jonescg** » Sun, 20 Sep 2015, 20:02

Hey Everyone! The electric bikes return to Wakefield Park next Friday! The Varley guys will be very kindly bringing Voltron up to the track for us, as we stored it with them in the interim. Friday is the best day for watching as we'll be out more frequently, but the racing on Saturday and Sunday will be first and last races of the day, so if you come around midday, expect to wait around till dusk.

Critically, I need a lift to the track from Sydney on Friday morning. I am writing this message from Winnipeg, Canada. We fly home soon, and I arrive at the International Airport at 9 am. I would be most grateful if someone who is travelling to the track on Friday could give me a lift.

Cheers, and I hope to see you there!

Chris

Post by **jonescg** » Mon, 14 Dec 2015, 22:37

OK so a couple of rounds have passed since my last post here - Wakefield Park (round 4) was run and won by Jason Morris and the now solid Varley PR1 machine, while round 5 at Winton Raceway was also won by Morris, although Pottz managed a win and three second places. Fantastic also to have David on the EVTricity machine at both of these rounds.

Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek) hosted the final round of the series where Pottz took 5 wins from 5 starts. Some video of the last race of the season can be found here:

Post by **mikedufty** » Tue, 15 Dec 2015, 06:43

Its starting to look like a real motorbike race isn't it. The voltron evo seems handle really well on the straight.

Post by **pottz** » Tue, 15 Dec 2015, 15:54

It's interesting how everyone talks about the straight as if that's the only reason we won. The reasons we won are because Chris built an amazing bike that performed flawlessly all year, it handles well and it was ridden ok. The team worked hard all year on the bike and at events to get the results.

The straight is only one small part of the track. The straight line speed while phenomenal really only gives us a second or two advantage. It looks like a lot because at 250kph one second represents a lot of distance but as soon as we slow for a corner to say 60kph the distance is closed a lot as one second represents a lot smaller gap. If the bike is that slow in the corners that advantage is reduced rather quickly. Each of the bikes have strengths and weaknesses and although voltrons strength is obviously top speed it's useless unless it punted around the corners rather smartly. The bike handles better than a lot of people give it credit for. In that last race see how on edge Jason was coming out of T1 and T3 trying to keep up with us? What you don't see in the rear camera was that Brad Swallow was kicked right out of the seat and was a hairs breadth from highsiding as he passed in t5, he was riding very well and very hard and had that thing squirming everywhere. See how smooth and well behaved Voltron was all race? We took the win with minimal risk to the bike which to me is smart.

It was a fantastic race and a great season for us. It was great to see the other bikes raise their level and make a race of it. Everyone is getting faster and faster. Next year should be interesting but with the improvements being made to Voltron we should have a strong package again.

As Chris said if you think we are slow, build a better one and we will see you on the track next year.

Post by **dgh853** » Tue, 15 Dec 2015, 16:22

Congrats to Pottz and Chris for another year winning the eFXC title. It takes a lot of skill to ride a 200+kg bike around the tracks we race on and to control 200+hp without any electronic aids that all the gas superbikes have. No one wants to drop a $40,000 bike either so you can't race them around the bends like you don't care!

Pottz - Hats off to you on all the wins at SMSP and keeping your cool when under a lot of pressure from Brad and Jason.

In some ways you should see the top speed / straight references as a compliment to yourself and Chris for getting that much power done without sliding and potential high sides. Observers, myself included want to see your lap times drop even further in 2016 so will naturally provide suggestions on how you might be able to achieve that. Hope you see that as support not criticism.

Ironically, at the slow end of eFXC (me) I have people saying that I need more power (or even a bigger rear tyre) to be competitive! That's true to some degree but a talented rider and a nothing to lose attitude will make a bigger difference than horsepower any day!

Post by **mikedufty** » Tue, 15 Dec 2015, 17:57

Sorry if it came across as insulting, the bike obviously goes round corners well too. Very impressive improvements from when you started out with the bike, can't be easy to build a frame from scratch combine it with an experimental drive train and make it go fast. Really good to see some close racing.

I'm guessing the camera is wide angle too which makes the distance gained on the straight look more impressive than it is, but I think the speed is still very impressive.

Do you think we might get a situation soon where they start imposing limits on the e bikes - just about all other classes have some kind of restriction on power, usually engine capacity. I suspect with electric power it is easy to end up with the battery being the limit, having lots of power but not able to use it throughout the race and finish. I guess not too different to what we are starting to seeing in motogp with fuel limits though.

Post by **dgh853** » Tue, 15 Dec 2015, 18:27

As Chris and bikes like the Lightning LS-218 have shown, power is not a limiter for electrics. It's battery weight, range and heat.

I think it will be the electrics racing against gas bikes that will force the introduction of power limits to electrics. We need very short races or low power competition eg. Ninja 300s to get comparable weights to gas bikes. Bring on battery evolution!

Post by **g4qber** » Fri, 29 Jan 2016, 00:48

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b9Yd6kZKW4

translogic lightning LS-218