eFXC/TTXGP season opens with closely matched race in Australia

,
The opening round of the eFXC/TTXGP 2012 Australian series was held south of Sydney at Wakefield Park raceway last weekend, with a single race being held on both Saturday and Sunday.  The race had two teams participating, Ripperton and Solar Power Australia (Catavolt).  Both teams made many improvements to their bikes since last season.  For example the Solar Power Australia (Catavolt) shed 30 kilograms of “unnecessary” batteries.
Qualifying round results were very well matched, with lap times within three seconds.

Pos No Gr Name Class Machine Fastest On Lap Gap Behind
1 100 Jason MORRIS (NSW) / Solar Power Australia /Catavolt 1:17.210 3 of 3
2 46 Daniel SAILER (NSW) / Ripperton Racing /Yamaha R1 1:19.502 3 of 3 2.292 2.292

The race started with Morris’s Catavolt machine pulling away with the extra power available to it, but it wasn’t long before Sailor was on his heels, pressing here and there, showing a wheel, pulling back , then making a successful passing move to take the lead. But Morris had the power to take back the lead, it took a couple of laps for Morris to figure out the new handling features of the new rubber, but his experience with Supermoto allowed for some quick learning.

Racing was very close with a number of lead changes but you could see a hunger in Morris’s riding style, he was pushing harder than he had previously. He took the win with a slim 1.2 second margin.

Jason Morris Round Winner “We have come so far in the 12 months we’ve been running as its been mentioned before we’ve drop now officially 15 seconds from where we started out and anyone within motorsport knows that’s a longways to come in 12 months”

Daniel Sailor “Technically Jason’s motor is twice as big as mine but I think mine handles better, on track its crush kill destroy but off the track were good friends, we help each other out with tools and battery chargers.”

Catavolt is still using the Enertrac hub motor in the rear, with lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Ripperton is using a highly customized liquid cooled Motenergy AC motor, with lithium polymer cells.

The Catavolt setup is significantly heavier than the Ripperton R1 yet it performs almost on a par with the R1. With a lighter battery setup Catavolt might prove difficult to catch.  

Reliability was much higher this year, as was speeds.  Lap times were in the 1:15 range, still 15 seconds shy of the gas bikes.

Race 1 results (saturday afternoon)

Pos No Gr Name Machine Laps Time Behind Fastest On Lap
1 46 Daniel SAILER (NSW) / Ripperton Racing Yamaha R1 4 5:11.417 1:15.607 2
2 100 Jason MORRIS (NSW) / Solar Power Australia Catavolt 4 5:11.913 .496 1:16.169 3

Fastest Lap was 1:15.607 by Daniel SAILER (NSW)

Race 2 results (sunday afternoon)

Pos No Name Machine Laps Time Behind Fastest On Lap
1 100 Jason MORRIS (NSW) / Solar Power Australia Catavolt 4 5:12.388 1:15.852 3
2 46 Daniel SAILER (NSW) / Ripperton Racing Yamaha R1 4 5:13.592 1.204 1:15.633 3

Fastest Lap was 1:15.633 by Daniel SAILER (NSW)

Current race record for eFXC class – 1:20.608 by Daniel SAILER (NSW) on a Yamaha R1 set on 08/10/11

About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.

About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.

One Comment

Leave a Reply