UPDATED: Pictures and results after the jump.
Team Agni and rider Robert “Bullet” Barber turned the fastest lap beating out favorites MotoCzysz, Mission Motors and Brammo. Barber propelled Agni’s modified Suzuki GSXr 600 to an average speed of 84.8MPH, with a speed of 102.6 recorded at the Sulby Trap. Agni Motors builds electric motors for many applications including electric vehicles, so it is not too much of a surprise they did well.
Here is a breakdown from Agni Motors on the specs of the bike:
The bike we are converting for the TTXGP is a 2007 Suzuki GSXR 600 fitted with two Agni 95 Reinforced motors and Kokam lithium-polymer battery of 63 cells of 70AH each, total about 16 kilowatt-hours of energy. This will give 40 to 50 horsepower averaged over the length of the race, which should be good for about 200 km/h (120 mph) top speed. Riders for this race are required by the rules to be fully-qualified racing motorcyclists. Our rider is Robert “Bullet” Barber.
A flurry of as the TTXGP electric race bikes hit the 38 mile circuit. Most bikes gave off a quiet hum as the crowd laughed in anticipation of a boring practice session. We would have loved to hear the reaction as the first bike crossed the line in 26 minutes, just a few minutes slower than the average gas powered entry.
Today is one of two practice sessions for the electrics. The first electric race at Isle of Man will be held June 12. There has been much anticipation by the motorcycle media, and mixed feelings from the hard core IOM TT fans. Most were expecting a race whose only merits are promoting the green agenda. The readers here who have seen MotoCzysz, Brammo and other TTXGP entries knew we were in for a great show. Stay tuned.
In the Open class, teams who built their TTXGP racer under £30,000, Team ManTTx and rider Dan Kneen are leading the way with an average speed of 70.677mph on their modified 748R Ducati-based machine. As you can see from the results from the first practice, there seems to be little difference in times between the PRO and OPEN class. We can expect further stratification in the results likely in the next practice session, which was originally scheduled to happen tomorrow. Hearing from a few teams, some had extra power leftover after today’s lap, and we can expect them to adjust their measurements, and beef up their bikes for the next round.
Results from Practice 1 at the TTXGP
| Pos. | Team | Rider | Class | Time | Diff. |
| 1 | Team Agni | Rob Barber | PRO | 26:41 | – |
| 2 | ManTTx Racing | Dan Kneen | OPEN | 32:01 | -5:20 |
| 3 | Barefoot Motors Racing | Chris Petty | OPEN | 33:35 | -6:54 |
| 4 | Mission Motors | Thomas Montano | PRO | 33:45 | -7:04 |
| 5 | XXL | Thomas Schoenfelder | PRO | 34:07 | -7:26 |
| 6 | Brammo | Roy Richardson | PRO | 35:47 | -9:06 |
| 7 | Brammo | Mark Buckley | PRO | 35:52 | -9:11 |
| 8 | Electric Motorsport | Chris Heath | OPEN | 36:26 | -9:45 |
| 9 | NSR – Kingston University | George Spence | OPEN | 40:44 | -14:03 |
| 10 | HTBLAUVA – TGM | Paul Dobbs | PRO | 41:53 | -15:12 |
TTXGP Practice 1 Pit Lane
TTXGP Practice 1 Starting Line
Photos: Amadeus Photography
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