TTXGP Europe 2012 opener in Sweden

Sunday (race day) http://www.egrandprix.com/news.php?id=282

Himmelman made light work of the season opener and set a blistering race pace that the other racers could only hope to match.

Himmelman led from the start. His team mate was unable to join the TTXGP season opener due to contractual conflicts however this hasn’t deterred the team to deliver a solid performance on the track. All summer they have been busy developing their production race bike. This will only help more teams join the grid with a highly competitive machine without the pain and expense of developing a new platform from the ground up. It certainly will provide any smart team with a head start in a championship bid. More on this when we get a chance to catch up with 2010 and 2011 world champions.

Matthias Himmelman on winning the race commented “I loved this track, it is very fast and quick paced. My team were amazing with the setup of the bike we ran the same set up from qualifying apart from changing the front tyre. The bike is heavier than last year due to reconfiguring the battery pack, but I am extremely happy with the handling characteristics. It performed amazingly in the straights. I look forward to more bikes at the next round!”

Interestingly all four of the remaining competitors were running DC Agni motors which although much lighter than their AC counterparts do not have the enormous power offered by their brushless counterparts. We were hoping to see the all new Agni motor fielded by its inventor team Agni Racing, on the track for the first time since it was first mentioned in 2010 but sadly the team pulled out last minute citing last minute technical issues and stating they would be back for round two at Snetterton.

Cedric Lynch in an interview on the TTXGP forum has stated “We have more than one new motor. We have the 111R which is like the 95R but we have found a better insulation material for use between the copper strips. This material has a layer of resin-bonded mica flakes and is much more resistant to breakdown under abuse such as happens in racing, so we have been able to increase the number of copper strips without reducing thickness. This allows the use of higher voltage and also raises the efficiency. We are also working on a larger motor which we hope to have in production soon, and we are hoping to get 25 to 30KW continuously to start with.” Something for us all to look forward to seeing in action and up close.

Pos	No.	Name	Laps	Total time	Diff	Best time	In lap	Best speed
1	49	Matthias Himmelman	17	14:38.981		50.274	2	131.973
2	59	HoChi Fung	16	14:40.669	1 Lap	53.648	15	123.673
3	26	Tang Yu	16	14:50.603	9.934	54.486	3	121.771
4	53	Peter Lindén	16	15:18.109	37.440	55.901	4	118.688
5	5	Stefan Bernström	14	15:28.300	3 Laps	1:03.931	6	103.781

(Pictures from TTXGP’s website, which credited Bengt Johannesson and Muench Racing)

Saturday (Practice day) http://www.egrandprix.com/news.php?id=281

The rain had only started to fall, but was still changeable, so teams waited until the final moments before making their tyre choice. All teams with the exception of Zongshen ran with dry slicks, Zongshen being the only ones who opted for wet tyres.

The undisputed TTXGP world champions, Muench Racing, produced the fasted lap times of the session. We had a chance to catch up with the defending champ after the first practice.

“It nice to be here in Sweden, the track isn’t slow and safe one but I like, well I like every track. Our first practice went beautifully. We changed the setting on the suspension and it was perfect first time. From the first turn, I saw the Chinese guy, HoiChi Fung, and he was very quick, he overtook me on my within the first lap. I must say, he is a very good rider, but overall, we produced the fasted lap times. I managed to follow him, which was quite surprising as we do have a heavier bike. I can keep up with him in the corners but I know that I was much faster in the straights. I now feel that I know his riding style. My aim for tomorrow race is to consistently set lap times of under 50seconds, and thanks to my wonderful mechanics, I strongly feel that this is a possibility.”

“I found that the track was very easy to learn. I haven’t had a chance to get any real practice session in before the season so on my free practice session I decided to push the bike to its limit. Unfortunately, I pushed too hard and ended up sliding the bike as I entered a corner. For some time I thought that I was pulling away for the Germans, but it turned out that they were just too quick and managed to close the gap.”

Qualifying Results

Pos	Team	Rider	No.	Best Time	Diff	Laps
1	Muench Racing	Matthias Himmelman	49	49.822		18
2	Zongshen	HoiChi Fung	59	50.917	1.095	7
3	Zongshen	Tang Yu	26	53.837	4.015	22
4	Linden Racing	Peter Linden	53			17
5	Team Fiver	Stefan Bernstrom	5			2

About the Author
Latest Posts

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.