Hi Harold,
You know how it goes? The Lightning team was not well prepared for the first race last season at Infineon. We had two serious problems. First, the #80 bike could not corner due to lack of ground clearance when leaning. Second was nuisance faults with the motor controller.
The team worked very hard in the paddock that weekend and with a great effort from our new guy, Michael Barnes, managed to put on a great show for at least the first 4 laps of the race. I can't say enough good things about Michael Barnes. He is a great pilot with a lot of experience on a lot of different bikes. This was his first time on an electric MC and the first time he met the team and saw the #80. I admire his maturity in helping the team address the problems. I think there would be plenty of riders who would have just walked away. First practice, Barney had it shut down in turn 2 and pushed the bike back to the pit. And it is a heavy bike and he is a small man (physically speaking).
On the cornering problem, we did all we could at the track. The front struts were rebuilt (thank you very much Race Tech) and rear shock changed to raise the bike. This improved cornering a lot, but still limited the lean so much Barney had to slow way down on the curves. We still scraped the lower fiberglass covering the bottom battery box.
We could not identify the nuisance fault source. When this occurred, the controller would have to be shut down and allowed time for the caps to bleed and then restarted. Takes about 30 or 40 seconds. Before the race, we were able to program an auto-reset into the controller. It would automatically reset the controller if the fault had cleared. But there was a hard code of 10 resets. This worked for a while.
We qualified P2 only a few seconds behind Higbee on the Zero Agni bike, which had won the IOM. IIRC, Barney on the #80 had only about 3 or 4 laps before the race. The green flag fell and Barney shot out to an impressive lead well before turn one. But by turn 3 or 4 had been caught-up and passed by Higbee. But the next decent straight, Barney overtook Higbee. Then the next set of curves, Higbee regained the lead. Then Barney overtook him on the next straight. Repeat and repeat for about 4 or 5 laps. It was really exciting racing from two pro riders (who were teammates the previous season).
As I was watching the race I could tell #80 was resetting back on turn 9, I think it was. This started to slow Barney down a bit and Higbee pulled out a bit of a lead, Barney unable to catch him up. Then maybe on lap 6, that fateful number ten was reached. Barney had to pull over on the front straight and reboot. I know it is hard for a rider to wait and count to 35 before starting back up, but he is a pro. Got back into it and ran like before, but by this time Higbee had lapped #80. Barney took it easy, but still fast and brought home the #80 for a second place finish, well ahead of third.
The next race was at Road America. We had about 3 weeks. The #80 bike was essentially rebuilt to get rid of the clearance and cornering problems. Once this was done, nobody could catch Barney, except for Czysz at Laguna Seca because we ran out of electrons. We also switched the encoder to a different type in an effort to eliminate the nuisance faults.
I might as well get into that race. Road America is in Wisconsin. Lightning is based in the Bay area. Several other electric bikes in the series were based in CA. So a motorhome and trailer were used to haul 4 bikes and equipment to WI. As per usual, equipment problems with the transporter delayed departure. They arrived one hour before Friday practice. We had some new controller parts to install from Ohio, where I live. Barney was suited up and we fired it up, but lady luck was dumping on us. No go. We work as long as we can that night. Next morning, send him out for practice #2. He pulls off in turn one and limps it back to the paddock. New encoder acting up. Work on it a bunch but finally go back to the old encoder. Looks like it might work. Qualifying near the end of the day, Saturday. It rains! All we have are slicks. No time to change tires. We have to sit out. Others do qualify in the wet. Rider James Pooler takes a high sider on the slick track, but is o.k. to race the next day.
It rains all night. But by race time on Sunday, sunny and dry. The #80 had not turned a lap. But we took a provisional qualifier at the back of the grid. The bikes are outfitted with transponders for timing and scoring. The starting grid is up track maybe 10 to 20 yards from the start/finish line where the transponder beam crosses the track. So Barney is at the back of the grid, 7 bikes, and the green flag falls. The timing sheet shows the #80 crossing the beam 4 seconds ahead of the next bike. How's that for a hole shot? Barney leads every lap and finishes an easy first place. GPS data from the bike showed top speed in excess of 130mph.
Yeah, 14 laps and a completed race is good, almost as the same as the lap count #80 had before the Road America race.
I am glad Chip did well on the electric bike. I have two problems with him. 1.) He said he'd race last season and did not. 2.) He apparently will not race against electric motorcycles.
I would venture to say that the Lightning #80 with Barnes and/or MotoCzysz would have beaten him at that race on Sunday.
Not a problem, but it does appear to me that Yates will never run that KERS system which he has talked up so much over the past year. He has had to devote the tank area to battery.
Yes, but I'd rather see electric vs electric. Electric vs gas; it is always going to be odd-man-out. How do you classify? I know there will always be "the comparison". Fine. Maybe it takes a loudmouth like Yates to do something like this. Fine. That's why I am glad he did well. I just wish we would get a chance to beat him.
Regards,
major
