The world’s most powerful and
sophisticated electric superbike will make history on January 9,
2010 at the Auto Club Speedway in California, as the first
electric bike to go head to head against conventional gasoline
powered race bikes in a professionally organized roadrace.
The extraordinary machine,
developed by SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing in the USA, is the world’s
most powerful and technically advanced electric superbike and
which by February, 2011, will become the most powerful road
racing motorcycle of any kind being actively campaigned.
Chip Yates, the bike’s rider
and owner of SWIGZ Racing says: “We have to thank WERA
Motorcycle Roadracing for inviting us into their series to make
history with this news. Our electric motorcycle will compete
head on with real racing superbikes such as the Ducati 1198 and
KTM RC8 as well as other established manufacturers, and we
expect to work hard to show the world that electric technology
can achieve laptime parity with gasoline superbikes. We’re not
going on track to make up the numbers; we’re going out to
compete in order to raise our game and catch up to these
gasoline guys.”
The news comes in the light of
the bike’s recent exclusion from the FIM and TTXGP Championships
for electric motorcycles, which has imposed a significantly
lower maximum weight limit of 250kgs for the 2011 season. “Our
bike weighs in at 266kgs right now”, says Yates. “Clearly, these
championships are more concerned with promoting scooter
development, and our bike is so much faster than the electric
competition that we feel far more inclined to push our bike’s
unique technology platform forward in the ultimate competitive
environment of gasoline bike racing.”
The SWIGZ Racing machine has a
power to weight ratio that is slightly better than 600cc
gasoline bikes, and will begin the 2011 season by competing in
the WERA Pirelli Sportsman Heavyweight Twins Superbike class
where its power to weight ratio puts it in the middle of the
field. To be competitive against these heavyweight twin cylinder
superbikes going forward, the bike will benefit from a more than
20% increase to its current 194 horsepower after this first race
weekend in January.
Yates continues: “Our scheduled
power increase will make our electric superbike more powerful
than a MotoGP bike and will bring us extremely close to power to
weight parity with the best 1,000cc Japanese superbikes. Those
two facts are a simply outstanding reflection of the potential
in electric power.”
Ahead of the WERA Pirelli
Sportsman Series race weekend on January 9th, the bike has been
invited by Infineon Raceway, a motorsports leader in green
performance and sustainability, to be put through its paces at
race speeds for the first time ever on December 15th. Chip and
the SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing USA team will enjoy the private use of
the world-class Infineon road course from 8:30am to 4:30pm and
media and the public are welcomed to attend.
SWIGZ Racing will soon announce
additional race dates where the electric superbike can be seen
competing directly against gasoline bikes in the WERA
championship series, that will include Miller Motorsports Park,
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and other major venues across the USA.
