TTX eGrand Prix: Final Round @ VIR

The North American TTX GP has come to a close with Michael Barnes and Team Lightening crowned as champion of first ever North American Electric Motorcycle Series. The last race at Virginia International Raceway was an exciting one for me and another chance to learn a new track and spray some champagne.

We were only allotted one 30 minute practice on Friday and one 30 minute qualifying on Saturday, and then a 20 minute warm up first thing Sunday morning. I had never been to VIR and was surprised by the technical back section full of blind hills and a little overwhelmed after Friday's practice. Sitting in the sweltering south eastern humidity for six hours straight was something I've not spent much time doing and it's not pleasant. Luckily I was pitted right next to Electric Race Bikes, the only pit in the paddock with a pool (hopefully someone's got some photos). After our 5pm practice, where drops of sweat were obscuring my vision, I jumped straight into the pool which had been only ice a few hours before and felt my body start to go numb. A lovely feeling.

I was qiute nervous on Saturday because I still felt like I didn't know the track at all and only had qualifying to learn it so I stressed for most of the day, but finally talked to Chris Ulrich and CA Superbike School instructor James Toohey and came out with some good advice, a couple key RPs and a bit of relaxation.

Qualifying was much better than practice. I dropped 5 seconds and qualified 2nd with only 0.4 seconds between me and Thad Woolf in third. I was excited for a proper race with Thad's and my lap times so close.

We put a smaller sprocket on (from 72 to 63!) to see if more speed on the front straight would help overall lap times. We only had 8am morning practice to figure this out, but it was an easy decision. I had absolutely no drive compared to the 72 which just forced me to get off the brakes sooner and on the gas, I mean throttle, sooner. It made the bike feel quite pathetic, but with an increased top speed of 9 mph, my lap times dropped 3 seconds! So keeping the smaller sprocket was a no-brainer.

We didn't get a warm up lap and gridding up straight from the hot pit is a bit unnerving for me. Not having been on the track in 8 hours makes it hard for me to go full pace at the drop of the flag, but of course, I tried. And I kept close behind Barney for the whole first lap. I was so stoked I couldn't believe it. But of course, as we rolled onto the front straight he took off on his Lightning Motorcycle and was out of turn 2 before I was into 1. And as I saw him exit turn 2, I saw Thad Woolf pass me into 1. I knew it was probable and I was prepared.

Thad threw it hard into 5, but promptly ran off the track and I got back in front of him, but he wasn't far behind. Into turn 1, he passed me again. And this time, as he made 5/5a a bit slower to stay on the pavement, I shot up under him and made the pass. As soon as I came out there was a lapper in the esses though, and I figured he'd go straight like one does in the esses, and I'd just ride up on the curbing and go by him. But he hugged the curb a little closer than I expected and we had the first electric love tap in the history of the sport. He's got some rubber on his fairing to prove it. Luckily no real damage was done and we both continued, with Thad still right behind me.

Thad and I continued trading positions for the whole race and then finally, on the second to last lap, I got into 1 before him and had a clear track and a flying lap, 3 seconds faster than my morning practice lap and 6 seconds faster than my qualifying time. I wish I had pulled that off on the first lap; I might've been able to put a little pressure on Barney.

With that I put some distance between Thad and me which ended up being quite lucky for me. As I passed the waving white flag and headed into turn 1 on the last lap, I felt a studder in the motor. Into turn 3 it cut out and came back on. Between 3 and 4 it cut out again and when it came back on it felt like one of my two motors had died. I put my head down and tried to carry as much momentum as possible for the last lap. I peeled through the downhill section faster than I had all weekend and as I came onto the front straight I thought there was no possible way that Thad wouldn't pass me and feared that Hannas would too. But my solid previous lap put a big enough gap between Thad and me and I hung on and crossed the line in 2nd.

It was a great weekend, tons of fun, and I have Team Agni, Arvind, and my crew chief Jon to thank. And, of course, Super Plush Suspension for the constant phone consultations. The World's are in Spain in October and hopefully I'll be able to be there too.

AFM Round 3: Infineon

It was a windy weekend at Infineon with gusts blowing people off everywhere, especially at the top of the blind rise of 3a and down the carousel in turn 6. Despite the wind, we made some big changes on the 848 that ended in a new best time of 1:48.2.

The ladies race had another great turn out on the grid, though that sadly shrunk with the loss of Christie and Shelina. Christie went down in 3a on the first lap right in front of me and in the split second I had to think I hoped and prayed that she would slide to the left and thus out of my path, which she did. I would've really hated to run her over, so thankfully that wasn't necessary. It was unfortunate though, after her showing last month I wanted to see Christie put the hammer down on Joy! But after the first two laps I, myself, lost sight of Joy and spent the remainder of the race imagining Shelina breathing down my neck. I didn't know that turn 6 had taken Shelina and as each lap passed I couldn't believe she hadn't pulled a move yet.

I had made a last minute ride height adjustment which helped in most areas, but had developed a little sketchy wobble over the hill into 9. On the fourth lap, I came over the hill into 9 not quite far enough to the left of the track and the little wobble turned into a nasty tank slapper. But I practically let go of the bars and it sorted itself out. With my heart in my throat after that incident, I just kept my head down and tried to pass lappers as kindly as possible (though it is quite terrifying with the speed differential-- I wonder if that's how the leaders of Open Production felt passing me on my SV650 in Open Twins).

I heard after the fact that Stacy and Sarah had quite the battle throughout the race. They pushed each other so much Sarah dropped 5 seconds off her best time! That's amazing improvement. Go ladies.

Sunday morning was thankfully less windy and therefore quite a bit warmer. After a short practice I gridded up for 750 Superbike. Apparently there had been a revision of the grids because a bunch of people were wandering around in the wrong spot and poor Jason Butler got sent to the back row. I got an acceptable start, but got battered down in turn 2 and backed off a hair in an attempt not to get someone's front tire plowed up into mine. I need to realize that if I don't back down they will! Once things settled down a bit after the first couple turns Christie Cooley passed me and I resolved to at least stay with her. She's got me in 5 and 6, but I catch right back up on the brakes into 9, and I was instantly up her bum into 1 and 2. I got my opportunity going into 7, though in my haste to leave her behind I almost blew 9 and expected a pass back. I was lucky and it didn't come. I rode well for the rest of the race, getting my best time in the last lap.

I was still struggling a bit with turning the bike, due to the lack of trail, I believe, and I couldn't hit my marks for 8 which inevitably ruined my entry and exit for 8a, and that effected my drive down the hill to 9 where I never felt that I was getting to full throttle (a Motion Pro quick turn throttle might've helped here too).

By the time Open Twins rolled around my arms and legs were still aching from 750 SB. But I had a great grid spot: second row, all the way on the outside. I got an awesome start and was 5th into Turn 2. Jason Butler and Nickers Hay-Man passed me in between 2 and three and I sat in 7th for a couple laps. Arm pump was settling in from muscling the bike through 8/8a and I felt like my left leg was going to fall off in the carousel. Then Scott Miles took my position and I had renewed adrenaline influenced energy. I stuck with him and realized that I could totally keep pace. In fact, I could pass him back! And then the adrenaline wore off and I remembered that I couldn't move my arms. My pace slowed again and Steve #711 (with whom I had battled at the last round) got by me too. He passed Miles too, and I watched them sit just out of reach as I listened to the groan of my body parts and groaned myself at the half way flags wondering how on earth there were still four laps left. On the last lap in turn 9 I saw a flurry of dirt and bike parts on the ground. I didn't see what happened, but I heard later that an Open Production rider had come into contact with Steve and/or Scott. Unclear on the details myself, but Steve made it through and unfortunately, Miles didn't. That left me in 8th place crossing the line, my best finish yet in Open Twins.

A hard weekend, but a good one overall, with a new best time and a new comfort on the bike that I hadn't felt before. Thanks so much to Mountain Militia Racing without which I wouldn't be ripping 48's on the 848, and Super Plush Suspension, giving me that super plush feel that I didn't even know I was craving.

I almost forgot: the absolute highlight of the weekend was Saturday afternoon when I was pedaling along on my bicycle and spotted Chris Van Andel. I stuck out my right hand to give him a high five and realized that I was moving to quickly. With my left hand on the brake, I pressed.... a little too firmly. "Press" is probably too light of a word. "Grab" would probably be more appropriate. Before my hand met Chris' I was head over handlebars on the ground with the bike upside down on top of me! It took me until Sunday afternoon to realize that the left hand brake is the front one. Whoever invented bicycle brakes did it expressly to confuse motorcycle riders.

Don't forget to keep yourself updated at zoegoesracing.com

TTX eGrand Prix-- Race Day

Saturday morning we got a new controller for the bike which solved the problem of the throttle cutting out at full open. Unfortunately, it wasn't installed into the afternoon qualifying at 4pm. I had much improved lap times from Friday, but not enough to make much of a difference: I was still gridded last.

Sunday morning was a cold and windy one. In time for the 9am practice Pril Motors Team Owner, Alex Prilutsky, had added two more batteries and played with the settings on the new controller. It ripped in practice (relative to the day before, mind you). After the petrol bikes got in their morning practice we were ready for the race.

Even though there was one bike doing similarly slow times to mine, I feared that with his bike being faster he'd gap me on the start and it wouldn't matter even if I did go faster than he. However, when the green flag dropped I shot like a rocket... well, like a remote control car perhaps, and passed the Team Wild Square bike to my left, and Jenn on her Werkstatt Marizen. It looked like Jenn had an immediate issue with her bike and I didn't see her for a while, but after a lap or two she came back and passed me into 11. Dito Milan with gotbluemilk.com got a great photo of the exit of 11, where I completely had Jenn on drive, but unfortunately the Ninjette tapped out on power before we were straight up and down and of course the Marizen continued to zoom ahead.

A similar pass was made by Spencer in turn 9, I had him on drive out of 9, but the little Ninja just stopped producing power far too quickly. Moral of this story: great torque! Which means, with a million more batteries and another motor or two, we could have a real race bike on our hands.

We ended up sixth overall, in a tortoise and hare situation, and it was a well deserved effort on team owner, Alex's part. Alex put in a tremendous amount of effort and always came to the table with a smile and a great attitude. I can't thank him enough for giving me the opportunity to be a part of history and find out what electric bikes are all about. I'm tremendously excited for their future, and am eager to continue to be a part of the TTX GP series.

TTX eGrand Prix-- Day 1

So here we are, Friday of the AMA-TTX eGP weekend. Alex, team owner and chief mechanic of Team Pril has been working doggedly on the eNinja XR1 (that stands for eXperimental Racebike #1) to make some improvements after Wednesday's trial. With an awesome quick turn throttle that plugs in instead of using a cable we solved three problems! No more lag in the throttle, full turn was cut down to 1/5 turn, and a huge issue we had on Wednesday was a problem with the cable catching and not allowing full throttle to be reached, and without the cable, that's no longer a problem either.

There are some super fast guys here and a couple super fast bikes, but I'm pumped for this historic event. I just saw a '69 Norton with RS125 wheels and Kawi forks, and one of the new Mavizen bikes that looks pretty pimpin'.

I heard a rumor that you have to beep your horn (yes, a horn is required) when passing someone because there's no noise to be heard, but rest assured, that has been proved false. I'll see what other crazy rules they bust out in the riders meeting.

Regardless of anything that does or doesn't happen, it's great to be here and be a part of this race, and I get a prime spot to watch Nick Hayman race my Mountain Militia Racing Ducati 848 in the AMA races. Read all about his debauchery at www.munroemotors.com.

For more TTX info check out www.egrandprix.com.

And get out here this weekend to watch the racing!

TTX eGrand Prix at the AMA Nationals

The first electric bike race is about to take place in a few short days at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. I was approached to be a rider for a bike running in the TTX eGP and I was excited at the opportunity of being a part of this historic event. Though excitement was mixed with nerves as well; the idea of riding an electric bike made by "some guy" as opposed to an Italian factory was a bit daunting.

The bike, a former 1995 Ninja 600, had just been replaced with new batteries that dropped one hundred pounds from the total weight. One hundred pounds! This brought it down to a measly 400 pounds, lighter than the original motorcycle. This was promising. There were some throttle issues, but they seemed fixable.

My other big concern was the tires. I'd never really ridden on a track with tires that had such large grooves in them. Even my supermotard tires were smoother. But I was assured by many accomplished racers that at the speeds I would be going, I'd have nothing to worry about. This in itself was worrying.

We showed up to test the bike at the track, the only way to determine whether it can be raced, and I had a few expectations, but not many. Unfortunately, my expectations were slashed beyond what I thought possible. I knew it would be different, but I was excited for the prospect of this new idea. However, the throttle problems were more than we thought and the poor little motor didn't seem able to haul the 400 pounds around at all. On my out lap I actually feared that I would start rolling backwards down the hill up to Turn 2.

It turns out that the throttle wasn't actually opening all the way, despite the full double grabs I was turning. There is also the possibility that the older (heavier) batteries were producing more power (current? watts?).

So we're making some changes and testing again in practice this weekend.

I'll update further with how things go, but come check out for yourself at the AMA Moto Jam this weekend, featuring not only the TTX eGrand Prix, but AMA National Road Racing, Supermoto, Motocross and Flat Track.

P.S. One unrelated perk that came from testing was that Moto Marin was demoing some bikes at the track and I got to ride the Aprilia RSV4 around Infineon. It was amazing! Go buy one. Better yet, buy me one.

AFM Round 2: Infineon

Since it's been so long since an update, I'll recap on the off-season and AFM Round 1 at Buttonwillow.

2010 brought Zoe together with the infamous and mysterious, grizzly mountain ducati fast guy, Pat Blackburn and the Mountain Militia Racing Team. With an 848 and a ton of moral support the 2010 season was shaping up to be a whole different ball game. Buttonwillow brought a few struggles, including a lack of track time and confidence on the bike. In case I wasn't nervous enough riding such an amazing bike, the first practice Saturday morning, coming through Riverside, I felt an explosion hit my foot and I thought I had blown a rod through the cases. I immediately stood the bike up, pulled in the clutch and shut it off, just in case. I coasted off the track to an access road on the right and got off to check out the damage. No holes in the cases, no oil pouring out... in fact, everything seemed fine. And then I noticed the back wheel didn't look right. Something was funny looking back there. Oh, there was no chain, that's why it looked weird. The chain decided to mysteriously snap (it wasn't too tight, it wasn't too old, and it didn't break at the master!) on me.

Everything seemed to be fine until I wound up in the same access road, pushing my bike back into the pits again, because, it turns out, the chain had caused a hairline crack in the case and it was slowly dripping oil onto my pipe and blowing off lots of smoke.

Life continued, racing happened and I struggled to figure out how to ride the 848.

But Round 2 at Infineon held more hope for me. Until my radiator started spewing fluid from a manufacturer's defect in the bracket, which caused it to spring a leak all over my rear wheel. With that under my belt I was a bit more cautious than necessary. Even my competition remarked that I looked less aggressive on the track. What had gotten into me?

I continued to mosey along through Saturday practice without riding the bike anywhere near its capabilities. As we gridded up for Formula Afemme I still hadn't gotten my head on straight. When the green flagged dropped I finally accomplished what I had been envisioning for the past three weeks and I got the hole shot and led the pack up the hill into turn 2. My lead didn't last long as Christie and Joy passed me into the carousel and quickly stepped away. I rode around in third while unbeknownst to me, Deb Barton was coming back from a mishap on the first lap. That sly little lady finally caught me and came around my outside in turn 7. With a carrot out in front I held on for the next couple laps, but as I drove to pass a bunch of lappers on the straight before 7 I held it open a little too long and blew the corner. With that mistake Deb picked up a lead and my podium chances faded away.

A little bit of me wishes I hadn't been racing so I could've watched Christie ride because I hear she was a bat out of hell. Hopefully next month I'll have a front row seat for that show.... or, even better, I'll just hear her behind me.

On Sunday morning I realized I had been afraid of chucking the bike down the track and wadding it into a little ball and I gave up that fear. I rode a little bit harder and ended up dropping 4 seconds from Saturday's best time. Though 750 Superbike and Formula 1 caught me off guard with millions of swarming bees diving into turn 2 on the start, Open Twins brought the civilized manner of racing back. I had a nice battle with a 1098, swapping positions a few times, and eventually taking advantage of a mistake he made.

Overall, I learned a lot and prepared myself for next month. With some more track time before the next race I should hopefully be ready to lift up my skirt and ride.

photo courtesy of christie cooley

Final Round of AFM 2009

The last weekend of the 2009 AFM season brought up a lot of different emotions for me. I was disappointed that the racing was over for the year, but also relieved that I'd made it through. And as the weekend progressed, my juxtaposing feelings became more and more apparent.

Friday practice with Red Shaft was helpful for me, with some quality guidance from their elite league of AMA champion instructors. Combined with the skills I had learned from my recent California Superbike School experience, I made quite a few improvements in my riding. Chuck Sorensen elaborated on his recommedation that I make my moves more "violent", saying that I needed to shorten the time in which I input directions to my motorcycle. The time it takes for me to brake, start and complete a turn needed to take less time. In April Chuck had just called this "being more violent", but my Superbike School instuctor Lonnie, and Keith Code's classroom instruction, made this idea much clearer to me. And I think I was successful at shortening my input time in at least a couple of places (namely 2 and 11).

I went into Saturday practice feeling comfortable and confident. Though practice went relatively well, I wasn't getting my times down to where I wanted them to be (the story of a racer's life). Saturday ending up dragging on due to some unfortunate incidents in the clubman races in the afternoon and all of the races were pushed to Sunday. This was a bit frustrating after all the waiting, but I usually ride better on Sundays anyway, so we still took our Formula AFemme year end photo with a phenomenal 14 entrants (probably the largest female road race in the history of US Road Racing). It was great to see all the girls out there and made thoughts of next year even more enticing.

Sunday morning came and my morning practice session was faster than all of Saturday had been. Very exciting. I was ready to kick some lady butt in Formula AFemme. Sadly, amazing fast lady Deb Barton high sided her 125 in turn 2 on Saturday, so she was holding out to win her Formula III championship, which she did! However, the grid was still huge. Shelina lined up after her 3rd place finish in Clubman Middleweight and at the drop of the flag she was up the hill into Turn 2 taking the hole shot. But Joy was on her ass and got around her into the carousel, never to be seen again. As I started gaining on Shelina, Christie Cooley came around me out of turn 6, just to put the pressure on. We went back and forth over the next lap and I resigned myself to strategizing my moves: I'd wait until the last lap and then get her Turn 9. I knew I had her there, and I should be able to hold her off til the finish line, but she was flying through the carousel, so if I passed her before the last lap, she'd probably just pass me back (how is she going through there so fast?!). So I was biding my time, but I knew she felt me back there, and poor Shelina heard those two twins scratching at her heels. Before I knew what to make of it Christie blew turn 11 and I was back in front of her. I knew she'd make up her mistake quickly, but I was coming up on some lappers and I took everyone to my advantage. Back on Shelina's tail, she headed into 7 and went under a Clubman lightweight rider. I knew if I had to weight him out through the esses she'd gain a major gap on me and Christie would catch back up, as 8/8a is one of my fastest bits, so in that split second I too went under him into the second apex of 7, but he knew I was coming and had opened up for me which was very kind of him. Though I was right on Shelina, she wasn't letting up one bit! Back to back races seems to do her good. Though I saw her start to tire, it was to no avail as the last lap was approaching and my little SV can't compete down the line to the finish, so I held third place which thankfully kept me in second overall for the season. Vice-Champion Formula AFemme.

This race was a great way to end the inaugural year of Formula AFemme and really made me excited for next year. But the day was not over yet, in fact, it had just started. Open Twins was next on my list and I was ready to take on the big bikes. Shelina and I had pushed ourselves in AFemme and we were both at consistent 1:51-1:50s for the whole race, so 1098s beware! I recently switched to GP shift and made a very stupid mistake on the start, trying to shift up from first into... first. So that got be into turn 2 about dead last. But by turn 4 I was up somewhere around 15th and turn 7 got me up to 10th or 11th. Unfortunately a couple of 1098s felt it necessary to pass me on the straight away but I was confident I could get them back (we were only doing 1:53s at this point). Staying in front of those guys would have gotten me a top ten finish and that would've been nice; however, there was a red flag and the race was not restarted due to the long day we were already going to have. So I ended up in 12th.

Next up was 650 Twins, finally some bikes who couldn't completely out-motor me. But whilst we were battling out the first lap, going five-wide into Turn 9, someone hit Dave Sapsis (to my left), causing Mickey (right in front of me) to swerve towards me to avoid hitting Dave. Though I was somehow uninvolved in that carnage, my master cylinder reservoir decided it wasn't happy with its current position and wanted to move a little to the right to pinch of the hose going to the master. So when I let up on the lever to turn into 9 the pressure wasn't letting up in the brake lines and the pistons continued to extend, clamping my brake pads onto the rotors. The last decision I made was to turn in kind of tight to avoid Mickey, and before I even got the chance to turn I was across the track narrowly avoiding Frost's Twin Works SV. One can imagine how the day went from there. Though Deb managed to sufficiently cheer me up with one too many glasses of Perrier Jouet, I was quite annoyed at my brake failure. Apparently I am not supposed to use "zip tie" and "brakes" in the same sentence, so I won't elaborate on the issue.

As aforementioned, my weekend was full of completely opposing emotions resulting from all the highs and lows that occured, including but not limited to my managing to lock up second place in the AFemme championship, as well as my front brakes.

I do want to say thanks to everyone who made this year possible for me:

Motion Pro
JST Racing
Big B Racing
Bridgestone Tires/Forward Motion
Suomy Helmets
Catalyst Reaction Suspension Tuning
Proactive Chiropractice

And the Lenz's for taking care of me in P-town.

And thanks to all of the Formula AFemme Sponsors:
Bridgestone
Michelin
Viets
Hands on Track
Pacific Track Time
Keigwins at the Track
Race Ready Motorsports
Military, police, fire personel who help protect us
All the ladies who came out to race with us!

Thanks to anyone and everyone else that I may have forgotten to mention. Can't wait for next year.