After first seeing the TTXGP and then FIM e-Power race series lower their maximum bike weights to 250kg, thus barring the 266kg SWIGZ race bike from competing, Chip Yates and his SWIGZ.COM race team seem to be making the best out of a bad situation, and have announced that they will compete in the WERA Pirelli Sportsman Heavyweight Twins Superbike class race being held at California Speedway on January 9, 2011.
Promoting an advanced KERS system, Yates has been touting his 194hp electric race bike as being comparable to gasoline-powered supersport machines, and now he will have the opportunity to prove that point on the track. With performance parity to internal combustion engine such an important issue with electric motorcycles, SWIGZ is the first team to take on the old guard head-on, with this first race being the first public working exhibition of the SWIGZ KERS design.
“Our bike weighs in at 266kgs right now,” explained Yates. “Clearly, these championships are more concerned with promoting scooter development, and our bike is so much faster than the electric competition that we feel far more inclined to push our bike’s unique technology platform forward in the ultimate competitive environment of gasoline bike racing.”
Fortunately for Yates, who holds an AMA Pro Racing license, WERA has allowed the team to enter its electric race motorcycle in the Pirelli Sportsman race being held right after the new year, where it’ll take on superbikes piloted by amateur racers. “Our electric motorcycle will compete head on with real racing superbikes such as the Ducati 1198 and KTM RC8 as well as other established manufacturers, and we expect to work hard to show the world that electric technology can achieve laptime parity with gasoline superbikes,” said Yates. “We’re not going on track to make up the numbers; we’re going out to compete in order to raise our game and catch up to these gasoline guys.”
While Yates is touting that the SWIGZ race bike has a better power-to-weight ratio than 600cc motorcycles, it will compete against 1200cc v-twins in the WERA Pirelli Sportsman Heavyweight Twins Superbike class. To help compete against the higher-powered twins, the SWIGZ team will increase the power to its 194hp machine by 20% after the first race in January.
“Our scheduled power increase will make our electric superbike more powerful than a MotoGP bike and will bring us extremely close to power to weight parity with the best 1,000cc Japanese superbikes,” continued Yates. “Those two facts are a simply outstanding reflection of the potential in electric power.”
Source: SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing
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