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After already confirming that they wouldn’t be in attendance at Infineon this weekend for the TTXGP season opener, Mission Motors has reaffirmed in a company blog post that they will not be racing in Sonoma this weekend, and have also announced that they will not be competing at the Isle of Man’s TT Zero event later this summer. The news is a bit of a disappointment for the electric motorcycling world, as the hopes of having an event where all the major brandscould be on the same track at the same time seems to be slipping from our grasp.

Carbon fiber products manufacturer 666 Road Racing has announced its plans to enter into the 2010 Isle of Man TT Zero event, making them the first announced team to enter the TT Zero event with a Mavizen electric sport bike. Mavizen, as many may remember, is owned by Azhar Hussain, founder of the TTXGP, which was recently ousted by the Isle of Man, which then created the TT Zero racing class for the Isle of Man TT. This announcement is a turn of events as it was previously believed Azhar would not let a Mavizen bike compete in rival series created by the FIM and Isle of Man.

Officially official now, Team Agni has confirmed their entrance into the Isle of Man’s TT Zero electric racing event. Although we’ve suspected for some time that this announcement would come, Agni through up a dust storm a couple months ago when they said they would not compete at the Isle of Man if generators were being used to power the TT Zero paddock. The use of generators was quickly denied by TT Zero organizers, and apparently Team Agni was content with their response. For 2010, Agni will field two bikes on the TT Zero grid, with the hopes of achieving the first 100+mph speed average over the Mountain Course.

After a lively discussion on fully-faired motorcycles in his original post, including a lengthy post by Craig Vetter, Michael Czysz follows up the discussion by further delving into streamlining, dustbins, and the difference between the two. In his discussion Czysz explains the purpose and benefit of taking aerodynamics into account not only in electric racing but also in ICE applications, and then walks us through its use on the MotoCzysz C1.

The post is a good primer on the exponential force that streamlining tries to overcome, and well worth a read for that purpose. Michael Czysz closes his post with a hint that he’ll have a dustbin at the ready should the field warrant such a fairing, and should his rider Mark Miller feel comfortable using it. Check it all out here.

Team Agni took first place at the 2009 TTXGP at Isle Of Man by a large margin upsetting many favorites. Many eyes have been on Arvind Rabadia to see where his team would go racing for 2010. There are currently three separate electric race organizations, TT Zero (Isle of Man), e-Power (FIM) and TTXGP (eGrandPrix). For those new to the electric race landscape don’t confuse these 3 separate organizations with the 3 separate regional series that make up the 2010 TTXGP. The 8 highest placing teams from each of these regional series meet in Albacete, Spain for a final to decide the champion for 2010.

At this point not many of the major electric race teams have revealed their 2010 plans. Team Agni competing at all three TTXGP regionals could be a big draw for teams who want to beat the 2009 champions. It will be interesting to see if Team Agni signs on for e-Power as well. It seems Team Agni will not be at TT Zero as it falls on the same weekend as the second stop of the North American TTXGP round at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin as they fall on the same date. MCN mentions some feel Team Agni will soon sign on for the TT. It is very possible they will just skip Elkhart Lake or if they have the budget a team at both events. Stay tuned, we should learn more shortly. See the full press release after the break.

MotoCzysz has confirmed today that they will be racing at the Isle of Man’s TT Zero event. The Portland based team has been hard at work on a new bike design that they feel not only has a chance of breaking the 100mph barrier, but possibly winning the event as well. MotoCzysz was a favorite in last year’s event, but failed to finish after suffering a failure to its Agni electric motor drive system. Learning from that hard taught lesson, Czysz & Co. are expected to return to the Isle of Man with their new 2010 E1pc, and tackle the Mountain Course once again.

In the flurry of press releases sent out by TTXGP regarding what teams were signing up for its racing events, TTXGP mentioned that several teams had agreed to exclusive deals to compete only in the TTXGP series of races. At the time, this meant that the teams would be racing in their local TTXGP series events, the Isle of Man, and possibly at the Championship event in Spain. However with the announcement that TT Zero would replace TTXGP at the Isle of Man, teams that were hoping to race at the Isle of Man, may find themselves precluded from the event because of these prior obligations. Talking to a number of American electric motorcycle teams this past week, it is clear the first priority for all these teams is to race at the venues where the best competition will be…wherever that may be.

For many teams the Isle of Man represents the pinnacle of electric motorcycle racing. Having already run the Mountain Course before, there is a tangible baseline in electric racing that is defined by the historic course. On top of this, the Isle of Man offers an opportunity for teams around the world to compete against each other in a race that has gained a great deal of exposure over the past year, and is a known entity to everyday motorcyclists.

Late last month it was announced that the eGrandPrix who ran the 2009 TTXGP clean emission race at Isle Of Man TT would be replaced by TT Zero. TT Zero would be run without the involvement of eGrandPrix and instead the responsibilities would be split among the IOM Department of Tourism And Leisure and the ACU. Speculation followed about the FIM’s role in the TTXGP’s departure and the reasons for TT Zero coming into existence.

The Isle Of Man issued a statement in response to speculation on why TTXGP was replaced by TT Zero at the Isle Of Man TT for 2010. We are waiting for a response from TTXGP which we will add to this post. Please check back for updates. Click the break to see the full statement from the Isle Of Man.

Update: A response from TTXGP is posted at the end of this blog post.

The Isle of Man announced today that they will be adding the TT Zero clean emissions class to the historic Isle of Man TT race program. The Zero TT, like the rest of the IOMTT, will be run by ACU Events, Ltd and will use the FIM rules concerning electric motorcycles. Additionally, promotions for the Zero TT will be handled by the Department of Tourism and Leisure. Of particular note in this announcement is the Isle of Man’s dropping of TTXGP, which will not be involved in the 2010 series, but the DTL’s Martyn Quayle said in the press release that he acknowledges TTXGP’s hard work in the first zero emissions race at Isle of Man in June of 2009.

Early indications surrounding the announcement suggest that the decision by the Isle of Man to setup the TT Zero racing class stems from the Isle’s desire to distance itself and the historic race from the TTXGP brand, which has been in controversy both publicly with its split from the FIM, and privately with members of the motorcycle community. Given the TT’s heated history with the FIM, it is also of particular note that they will be adopting the international organization’s rules and regulations for the running of TT Zero, which could be a further indication from the Isle in distancing itself from the influence of TTXGP.