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From Wired:
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/05/electric-motorcycle-race-becomes-a-dogfight/ (http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/05/electric-motorcycle-race-becomes-a-dogfight/)
(apologize if it's a derby, someone mentioned electric racing and I didn' want to off-topic that thread)

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SONOMA COUNTY, California — Seasoned pro Shawn Higbee won North America’s first-ever electric motorcycle grand prix today in a race that was tighter than the finish would suggest.

Ten riders competed in the 25-mile race around Infineon Raceway, but all the action was at the front of the pack. The 11-lap race was a dogfight most of the way as polesitter Higbee (No. 22) and Michael Barnes (No. 80) repeatedly traded the lead. Higbee would take the lead in the turns, only to have Barnes pull away on the straights. Everyone knew the race would come down to battery management, and in the end Higbee did the better job.

“Michael snapped off the line a little quicker than I thought” to start the race, Higbee said. “It made me nervous. It became a strategy race, like an endurance race. I kept an eye on the volt meter to make sure I’d have the range to finish.”

It paid off when the power management safety override on Barnes’ bike tripped, bringing the bike to a stop on lap 9 until Barnes could reset it.

“I was just sitting there, waiting 45 seconds so I could reset the system,” Barnes said.

That gave Higbee enough time to carve out a big lead, and he finished the race in 25 minutes and 33.626 seconds. Barnes finished a lap behind at 25:51.784 on the Lightning Motorcycles machine. Mike Hannas brought the Electric Race Bikes machine home in 26:44.237.

“It looked from the git-go like Shawn and Mike would be out front and I’d be fighting for third with Thad,” Hannas said, referring to Thad Wolff of Team Electra. Wolff finished third — ahead of Hannas — in Saturday’ qualifying session but his gorgeous Norton Featherbed broke down on lap 3 today. Still, it wasn’t a cakewalk for Hannas, who had some battery management of his own to deal with.

“I had to do a little modulation and conservation to make sure I had the power to finish,” he said.

Jennifer Brome of Werkstatt Racing and Repair rode her Mavizen TTX02 to fourth place while Kenyon Kluge of K Squared Racing took fifth with his custom-built Zero Motorcycles racer.

Eight of the 10 bikes that started the race finished it. Higbee’s best time around the 2.28-mile course was 1:56.948, and his best average speed during Saturday’s qualifying was 77.312 mph. The best of the AMA superbikes running in the West Coast Moto Jam this weekend were peeling off laps in the 1:36s and averaging 87 mph or so.

“I think this could turn into something big,” Higbee said. “It’s going to introduce a whole new industry to motorcycling. The engineers are a whole new breed. I’m surprised at how close we are to gas bikes already.”

Race founder Azhar Hussain was equally enthusiastic, noting, “We’re about 18 seconds off the superbike pace. I hope we’ve changed some hearts and minds here this weekend.”

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Michael Barnes of Lightning Motorcycles leads Shawn Higbee of Zero Motorcycles through a turn at Infineon Raceway. The two riders traded the lead several times through the first nine laps, when Higbee pulled away. Photo: Mike Doran / D & W Images for Infineon Raceway

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Mike Hannas aboard the Electric Racebikes machine, a converted Yamaha TZ 250 (look for a writeup on the bike soon). He placed third, finishing the 25 miles in 26:44.237. His best lap was 2:08.587. Photo: Mike Doran / D & W Images for Infineon Raceway

1 #22 Shawn Higbee (Zero/Agni) 1:56.868
2 #80 Michael Barnes (Lightning Motors) 1:59.411
3 #37 Thad Wolff (Team Electra) 2:09.273
4 #15 Mike Hannas (Electric Race Bike) 2:10.452
5 #14 Kenyon Kluge (KSquared Racing) 2:13.452
6 #19 Spencer Smith (Volt Motors) 2:20.772
7 #20 James Pooler (Electric Motorsport) 2:22.728
8 #23 Jennifer Bromme (Werkstatt Racing) 2:24.469
9 #16 John Wild (Square Wave) 2:46.332
10 #18 Zoe Rem (Pril Motors) 2:49.553

Saw this in person. I was amazed at the difference between the two leading bikes. The "yellow banana" would get passed in the turns, but could easily muscle past the Zero out of the corners. Towards the end, Barnes had to pull up with a problem. I figured he was out of power.

BigIain and I spoke with the owner of Lightning Motors at length yesterday at the Maker Faire, who said that Barnes didn't run his battery dry, but that they had a controller problem.

Good racing, and it's good to see the electrics getting faster.

Video:
http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=40601 (http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=40601)

:)