Last weekend Team Catavolt won the first Australian electric motorcycle championship race series concluded with the eFXC/TTXGP final race at Wakefield Park.
The Australian series had three rounds, at Eastern Creek, Winton, and last weekend at Wakefield Park. There were only three bikes total racing, with two in the TTX75 class and only one in the Open class. This made Ripperton Racing a shoe-in winner in the Open class.
On Saturday (Oct 8) they held a qualifying race which Catavolt won, taking pole position with a best lap time of 1 min 32 secs.
On Saturday they also held race 1 (apparently they planned to hold 2 races over the weekend). Catavolt led the race for 5 laps but Ripperton taking the lead and winning. Voltron came in third place after running the race on half power due to damage suffered in a crash during the qualifying race. (Chris crashed twice in practice landing on the Angi motors and wound up having to race on one motor; elmoto.net)
On Sunday they were to have held race 2, but both Ripperton and Voltron had to withdraw due to damage to their bikes during race 1. As we see in the videos (below) Ripperton’s bike, in the finest of racing tradition, won the race just as the motor blew up immediately after crossing the finish line. (The first race saw Ripperton turn up the current in his motor which got him across the finish line first but the motor smoked and he is done for the weekend as is Chris/Voltron; elmoto.net) The other thing to take from the video is the Aussie bikes are more closely matched (28 seconds difference) than the North America or European teams.
This left Catavolt uncontested for race 2. Rather than run an actual race race it was decided Catavolt would take some exhibition laps, and also attempt to beat the track speed record for electric motorcycles. That record, 1 min 26 secs, had been set during race 1 by Ripperton. Catavolt’s rider did break the record, with a 1 min 19.5 secs time.
CATAVOLT WIN FIRST EVER AUSTRALIAN ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE CHAMPIONSHIP (TTXGP/eFXC)
Final Standings in the eFXC/TTXGP 2011 Australian Championship (copied from TTXGP website)
eFXC/ TTXGP AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2011 TTXGP Class |
|||||||
POS |
Team | Rider | Eastern Creek Raceway | Winton Raceway | Wakefield Park | TOTAL | |
1 |
Ripperton Racing | 25 | DNF | 25 | 50 |
eFXC/ TTXGP AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2011 TTX75 Class |
|||||||
POS |
Team | Rider | Eastern Creek Raceway 3rd July |
Winton Raceway 4th September |
Wakefield Park 9th October |
TOTAL | |
1 |
Voltron | Chris Jones | 20 | 25 | 20 | 65 | |
2 | Catavolt | Jason Morris | 25 | 20 | 25 | 70 |
Jason Morris setting a Lap record on the Catavolt Electric Motorcycle 1:19.5 At Wakefield Park thats 10 seconds faster than our effort 4 months earlier.
Ripperton Electric Superbike crossing finish line with blown motor, lots of smoke, followed by Catavolt and Voltron 28 seconds behind.
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