Lightning wins Le Mans e-Power/TTXGP while Muench wins the TTXGP European championhsip

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Miguel Duhamel, riding for Barracuda Lightning, has won the e-Power/TTXGP joint race at Le Mans this weekend while Matthias Himmelmann (Muench Racing) has won the European championship in both series.  Duhamel took the pole position with strong finishes in both qualifying rounds.  Zongshen’s Tang Yu came in third place.
Himmelmann led for the first couple laps

There was an intense battle between Duhamel and Himmelmann for first place, and Duhamel finished only 1.929 seconds ahead of Himmelmann.  Duhamel, one of the winningest racers in the AMA, came out of retirement for this race and has had less than 40 laps of track time with it.  “It was a fantastic race, said Miguel Duhamel with his delightful Quebec accent. Lightning is very powerful but you have to pace yourself to preserve the batteries for the end of the race. It’s the first time I’ve taken part in this type of race. I did 40 test laps this week, that’s all.”


The battle between Himmelmann and Duhamel included Himmelmann having his bike stop dead on the track after being out in front for a couple laps. “A bit of rubber got stuck in the circuit breaker. I found the problem after a general check and then I was able to chase down Miguel,” said Himmelmann.  Over on Facebook they explained it thusly: “Furios: Während des Rennens ist ein Stein auf den Notausfallschalter von Matthias Himmelmann gefallen, sodass dieser die TTE-2 ausschaltete. Eine außergewöhnliche Leistung, dass Matthias sich vom sechsten Platz wieder auf den zweiten Platz hochkämpfte!” The translate function unhelpfully provides this amusing attempt: “Furious: During the race a stone on the emergency failure switch by Matthias sky who has fallen, so it turned off the TTE-2. An exceptional performance, that Matthias again highly kämpfte is from sixth to second place! (Translated by Bing)”
Despite finishing second in the race, Himmelmann had a huge lead in points and won the European Championship for the third year running.
Tang Yu
This is the second podium finish for Tang Yu despite his teammates having more powerful bikes. “I am really happy to podium here in Le Mans representing Zongshen Racing and China. After the crash I had in the first practice the team had to work really hard to repair the damage and i am so please to be able to give them a podium position and thank them for building me a good bike. It was an exciting end to the European season and i am very happy to be involved. “
Christian Amendt had a motor failure during qualifying and had to rebuild his bike.  While he was able to finish the race he came in last place.  
Somehow Katja Poensgen only finished a couple laps.  On their facebook page this is written:  “Katja Poensgen, wird mit ihrer gestrigen Bestzeit von 2’05.677 von Platz 4 starten. Nach Problemen von Katja im ersten Qualifying am Donnerstag haben die Ingenieure nochmals Änderungen am Batteriesystem der MÜNCH TTE-2 vorgenommen. “Wir haben noch mal alles geprüft und anhand von Computerauswertungen Änderungen vorgenommen. Sie ist heute ohne technische Probleme die Distanz gefahren. Alle taktischen Maßnahmen für das Rennen um die Meisterschaft sind getroffen und abgesprochen,” so Thomas Schuricht nach dem zweiten Qualifying. Das Rennen wird am Freitag den 7. September um 16:00 Uhr stattfinden.”  Or: “Katja Poensgen, uses their yesterday’s best lap of 2’05. 677 of 4th place start. After problems by Katja in the first qualifying session on Thursday the engineers have made again TTE-2 changes to the battery system of Munch. “We have again everything checked and changes made on the basis of computer evaluations.” The distance is driven today without any technical problems. “All tactical measures for the race for the Championship are met and talked,” so Thomas Schuricht after the second qualifying session. The race will be held on Friday 7 September at 16: 00. (Translated by Bing)”
Second qualifying round results from: http://www.egrandprix.com/news.php?id=312

The results:

pos

no

team

rider

ses.1

Ses.2

lap

gap

KM/h
1 17 Barracuda Lightning Miguel Duhamel 1:49.200* 1:50.630 15   137.967
2 49 Muench Racing  Mattias Himmelmann 1:50.834 1:50.144* 15 0:00.944 136.785
3 59 Zongshen Racing Ho Chi Fung 2:05.431* 2:10.827 12 0:16.231 120.144
4 65 Muench Racing Katje Poensgen 2:05.677* 2:07.322 11 0:16.477 119.879
5 26 Zongshen Racing Tang Yu   2:09.971* 9 0:20.771 115.918
6 70 Zongshen Racing David Dumain   2:13.665* 7 0:24.465 112.715
7 36 Epo-bike.de Christian Adment   2:15.900* 17 0:26.700 110.861

* Best time
Qualification time: 2:17.910 (120%)
The results are provisional until the time limit for protests and appeals.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=422851947752300&set=a.422851464419015.83084.270268563010640&type=1&theater
Post-race relaxation?  Miguel Duhamel in foreground, Richard Hatfield in background.  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=422856671085161&set=a.422851464419015.83084.270268563010640&type=1&theater

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.

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