Even though the official TTXGP entry list isn’t due to be out until Monday morning, Asphalt & Rubber has been working hard to find out what electric motorcycle manufacturers would be at Infineon for the first round of TTXGP. We already expect Zero to show up on something that doesn’t rhyme with Ravizen, but what about Mission Motors, MotoCzysz, and Brammo? The answer to that question would be: no, no, and maybe…but probably not.
Even though Mission Motors tested their Mission One at Infineon, and signed early in the silly season to ride exclusivily with TTXGP, the San Franciscan company is going to be a no-show at Infineon. Citing their focus on getting the Mission One into production, it looks like we won’t see Mission at many races as the company balances priorities. The good news though is that Mission has tipped us off that they wil be debuting a new race bike later in the season. Mission Motors would neither confirm nor deny that the new race bike would be based off their second-generation street bike, which we’ve dubbed the “Mission Two”. More on this as we get it.
An additional no-show at Infineon will be MotoCzysz, which is blaming Infineon’s race date as being to close to the team’s ship date for TT Zero, the Isle of Man TT’s zero-emission race that sarts June 1st. TTXGP has been purposefully scheduling events on top of other competing racing events, TT Zero being just one of these instances.
Brammo is the only remaining question mark from the big electric four, and the only company that hasn’t made it’s racing intentions clear. The Ashland, Oregon company, the last time we talked to them, was indecisive about racing this season, and with zero time left on pulling the trigger for Infineon, we’re not expecting a Brammo (or Best Buy) tent at the Sonoma track.
While each team has their reasons to obstain from what was expected to be one of only a few gatherings of competitive teams in electric motorcycle racing, we think the final reason comes down to time and money, commodities all startups are in short supply of. This development does bring into question if it’s too soon for a full-blown electric motorcycle racing series, and whether or not the current situation is encouraging growth in the industry, and putting this budding sport in a positive light.
As we like to say here, only time will tell.
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