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Officially Official: Brammo Racing at Laguna Seca

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Confirming what we already knew, Brammo has officially announced that it will be racing at Laguna Seca in the e-Power Championship in two weeks’ time. Taking to the track with its new Empulse RR race bike that’s based off the new Brammo Empulse, Brammo will be reunited with racing rivals MotoCzysz and Team Agni (the latter has not been independently confirmed).

With the addition of Brammo to the line-up, the FIM’s e-Power Championship race at Laguna Seca is looking like the electric race of the year, as the “Flying Banana” of Lightning Motors, which is currently leading the TTXGP points standings in the US, will race at the event, along with Betti Motors who have been dominating the European rounds of the e-Power Championship.

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Outed by Partner Press Release – Brammo Racing at Laguna Seca

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Confirming what we already knew, Brammo’s plans to race at Laguna Seca just got outed by a press release issued by their partner ESX Motorsports. Discussing the company’s partnership with Brammo, ESX motorsports let it slip that it will be the promoter behind Brammo’s presence at Laguna Seca…as Brammo races at the e-Power Championship race. As a marketing company, you’d think they’d know better than to pre-empt their client’s own press releases.

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Brammo TTR-based Sportbike Coming

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Asphalt & Rubber took a lot of flak last month when we speculated about Brammo working on an electric sportbike. Armed with more than a hunch at the time, we have been told from multiple sources that Brammo is set to debut a TTR-based electric sportbike. For added measure, we’ve also been told that Brammo intends to race the bike, which we’d expect will have various configurations, at the e-Power Championship round at Laguna Seca later this month.

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e-Power Could Rival MotoGP for Grid Size at Seca

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With the US round of the e-Power Championship closing in upon us in two weeks, news of the grid size has begun to form. We had earlier predicted that the California rounds of the TTXGP and e-Power series would attract the largest field of competitors, when compared to the other races, and we were right. Set to go off on July 25th, with the MotoGP racing weekend at Laguna Seca, the e-Power Championship race at Seca is set to have 15 electric motorcycles or more on its starting line.

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MotoCzysz Confirmed For e-Power Race at Seca

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While attending the Skip Barber Superbike School, A&R Editor Jensen Beeler overheard a conversation between Lead Instructor Michael Czysz and a couple of students. As the students asked Czysz if he’d be at Seca to watch the Red Bull US GP, Czysz lamented that he would not be able to watch MotoGP at Laguna Seca because MotoCzysz would be racing that weekend. As some may remember the FIM’s e-Power Championship series has a round that is occurring at Laguna Seca in coordination with Dorna and the AMA. Czysz went on to pique out ears, confirming that MotoCzysz would be racing that weekend in the FIM e-Power Championship, with the rider yet to be determined.

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FIM Releases e-Power Entry List for Le Mans

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The electric sportbike season is rapidly approaching us, and the first event is the FIM’s e-Power Championship race at Le Mans. With six bikes and five teams on the entry list, the race will be sparse with entrants and could see the field shrink further if rumors are right that suggest one bike might be jumping ship to the Italian TTXGP series. Despite all this, the FIM’s first race has a great venue. Set to take place April 16th, the e-Power Championship launches just ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans World Endurance Championship race in Sarthe, France.

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Vito Ippolito Speaks on The Future of Motorcycling and the FIM’s e-Power Championship

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During at stop in Utrecht, Netherlands, David Emmett over at MotoMatters was able to have a sit down discussion with FIM bossman Vito Ippolito. In their conversation, Emmett gets a rare chance to ask Ippolito a variety of questions regarding the latest MotoGP rule changes, and inner-workings of the FIM, and its involvement in roadracing events.

The interview sheds terrific insight into how manufacturers, sponsorships, national and internationa pressures, and rule making shape the sport we all enjoy, and as the interview winds down, Emmett asks Ippolito about the role the FIM is taking in electric motorcycle racing, and how the FIM sees the future of motorcycling. With permission from MotoMatters we’ve reproduced this section of the interview after the jump, but recommend everyone to read the full interview transcript on MotoMatters.com. It’s well worth the read, and one of the best interviews we’ve seen in a while in the racing space.

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e-Power Coming to Laguna Seca During MotoGP

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UPDATE 2: The Laguna Seca round is now officially added to the e-Power Championship.

UPDATE: It would seem the folks at Laguna Seca are still negotiating with the FIM, and nothing has been signed yet. This statement does confirm however that Seca is the targeted venue for the e-Power Championship.

The FIM isn’t saying it outright, but it looks as if the e-Power Championship is slated to occur during MotoGP’s stop at Laguna Seca on July 25th. Listed as “TBA,” the FIM’s new venue is listed as being organized by the AMA, and of course the race falls on the same date as the US GP, so putting two and two together on this one isn’t too hard. This addition to the schedule comes after the FIM cancelled the e-Power Championship’s stop at the Doha endurance race, and the Dutch GP at Assen. More after the jump.

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FIM Cuts Two Races From e-Power Championship

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MotoCzysz e1pc three motor electric drive

The FIM has cut Doha and Assen from it’s e-Power electric motorcycle racing program’s list of 6 race venues. Keeping with e-Power tradition, FIM gave no reason for the decision. FIM claims interest from teams is high but it appears it’s not high enough to support six races in 2010.

In only about 6 months, the electric motorcycle racing world went from one high profile race in 2009 at the Isle Of Man, to three competing organizations and an abundance of high profile of venues. Three crowns are up for the taking and it appears there is not enough incentive or teams to fight for all of them. In racing, the value of the crown is usually measured by the caliber of teams fighting for it.

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DERBI GPR EV Geared Up To Shock The Competition

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Last month a video of the DERBI GPR EV showed up on YouTube. It was posted by someone who appeared to be working with Sevcon and it was hard to tell if DERBI was behind the bike. I recently found the blog of Derbi Project Manager Carles Carrera. And guess what, he has a detailed picture of the Derbi GPR EV front and center.

Carles describes the ground up development methodology DERBI and their partners used in designing and building the bike over the course of 3 months. He cites flaws in Brammo, Zero, Quantya, Vectrix mentioning thier “poorly developed mechanical platform” and saying they fail to deliver an electric motorcycle that has all drive components communicating in an orderly fashion.

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