Team Catavolt’s 2012 plans
The inaugural 2011 EFXC (Electric Formula Xtreme Championship) series winners Team Catavolt are busily preparing for the 2012 season. Team Owner Jon Eggenhuizen said “We have been developing our revolutionary hub motor in the off season to try and make it run cooler and therefore make more power, experimenting with both water and oil cooling options. We are also excited to be running with a different manufacturer’s frame that will allow us so much more scope to run different battery and motor configurations, whilst having much more improved handling and suspension”.
With the success of the fledgling eFXC/TTXGP 2011 electric racing season, 2012 is looking really bright with last season’s entrants poised to bring their new technology to the race track and show just how much faster they have become.
A number of interested bystanders watched last year’s start-up electric series with keen interest, contemplating starting their own assault on the 2012 eFXC/TTXGP Championship.
Mark Arnold from the Miark Inovation Team, “This leading edge form of motorcycle racing is extremely exciting and has huge potential, especially as the electric machines costs are starting to decline, interestingly at the same time the petrol based machines costs continue to rise and most racers, clubs and promoters are finding it increasing difficult to contain them.” Mark’s team has designed a machine around a Yamaha R6 frame and running gear with a locally sourced high torque DC motor.
Dates and Locations for 2012 eFXC/TTXGP series:
| AFXSBK Rnd 2 Wakefield Park Raceway (NSW) April 20th – 22nd |
| Rd1 eFXC/TTXGP |
| AFXSBK Rnd 3 Queensland Raceway (QLD) July 20th -22nd |
| Rd2 eFXC/TTXGP |
| AFXSBK Rnd 4 Wakefield Park Raceway (NSW) 31st August – 2nd September |
| Rd3 eFXC/TTXGP |
| AFXSBK Rnd 5 Winton Raceway (VIC) October 5th – 7th |
| Rd4 eFXC/TTXGP (TBC – Depends on TTXGP final being held Mid Nov) |
Phase 4 Superbike
Bathurst: Phase 4's Barry Taylor and JB
JB recounted his time on this awesome superbike many times. He’s thinking here … how do I tell this guy this bike is a pig to ride? Barry’s answer was “need more horses?”. JB cracked up and they got on with getting this Kawasaki rideable.
2011 eFXC | TTXGP Electric Motorcycle Championships
Jon from Newcastle’s Team Catavolt is proud to announce that they are the outright winners of the very first Electric motorcycle championship to be conducted in Australia. Well done Jon!
Want it? You know you do, visit: evmotorcycle.org to get your copy today!
Greg Neal’s Throttle Nation report
Greg Neal, of TLN Motorsport reports about his chase of Production Motorcycle land speed records.
TLN 250
We absolutely gave everything we had in us this past weekend. The results may not show it, but the effort was there. The 195.9 on the ZX-10 in those conditions was huge. It was for the most part like running into a wall of water. The N/A bikes could simply not breathe at all. It didn’t matter how much fuel we pulled from the mixture, you would stay fat. Add the fact that the moisture in the air made id impossible to get any traction. The big bike would spin through 3rd gear and was subject to break loose at any moment. While the speed was not what we wanted, for the conditions it was great.
The ZX-6 was just so sensitive to the air all weekend. The 176.6 on Sunday was the fastest of the day, but not good enough to catch the 177.8 Mclean put up on Saturday. We struggled mightily, making change after change. The data logger quit again, so it was all guesswork on the tune. I pulled fuel out every pass with no big change. I did the unthinkable for the conditions and added fuel. The bike picked up. That told me there was detonation issues, so I pulled timing from the top end. Just wasn’t enough. Looks like the head gasket is cracked and at sustained high rpm it starts to leak by. The bike gets hot way to fast and the oil that gets pushed is milky. The oil in the case is fine, so it doesn’t bypass to the oil at idle. This bike laid down on top end one time back in June at Maxton during a run I had to hurry and make. I left the line hotter that I like to be. I think I cracked the head gasket way back then. We haven’t been as strong since, but only ran in Maine after that time. Compression is down across 3 and 4, so it makes sense. Just hope there isn’t valve damage or that bike is out until next year.
October will bring an end to Land Speed racing in NC. Anyone and everyone will be there to close it out. Members of the SCTA 200 club are coming for the closeout party Saturday night. If both bikes are there I will be lucky to get 2 passes on each. The new home in Wilmington, Ohio will be a straight, much smoother course. It gets more rain there, but the surface is cross grooved and will drain much better. The plan for next year is a radical body on the 1000. The engine just gets new valves and springs and the head touched. Same engine work for the 600. Fingers crossed it works out that way. If the 1000 picks up the speed we thing from the aero, the 600 gets the same late in the year.
I am hurting all over today. The effort of last weekend was unbelievable. Every change that could be made on the ZX-6 was done. That bike is very air sensitive and with 94-99% humidity we never found the tune. We were just down on top end. !.2 behind Mclean who did a great job (again congrats). The win on the ZX-10R was big. The N/A engine struggled in the humidity and we were spinning up the rear through 3rd gear, so the 195.945mph pass was a good one. That’s a 203 bike on a good day. Congrats to all the class winners and Thank You Throttle Nation for the event.
for more information visit: tlnmotorsports.com | or on Facebook
First woman to run over 200 mph
While some dream of getting a land speed record, others stay awake and do it! And it includes women. This is way cool.
During the 8th edition of the BUB Speed Speed Trials in Bonneville with no prior experience of the Utah Salt Flats, Jody Perewitz with the support of the Team J’Witz, became the first woman to run over 200 mph on an American V-Twin motorcycle.
In this class of bikes, the course in Bonneville is 5.5 miles long with riders having 2.5 miles to get up to speed, then a mile clocked by the American Motorcycle Association (AMA), then 1.5 miles to slow down. On Jody’s 200+ run she entered the mile going 199 mph and exited the mile at 205 mph. 203.111 mph was the average speed in the mile. Jody and her machine were going 200+ mph for over a mile!
source: Cryil Huze Read the full story: http://www.cyrilhuzeblog.com
Video: 1978 Castrol 6 Hour
Part 1
Part 2 – interviews with Jim
Behind the Scenes – Kenny Roberts quote
Interesting note in the 1978 Oct/Nov issue of REVs issue. I wonder if anyone kept a straight face when they heard this one, and I quote:
I suppose you’ve heard about the Sydney circuit promoter who, on hearing that Kenny Roberts may be coming to Australia for a holiday with Gregg Hansford said: ”When he hears about the money at our next meeting, he’ll want to ride!”
A long, long way off the mark.
Chivas – “He’s a non-crasher”
Leading up to the 1977 6 Hour Team Avon was late in naming a co-rider for Jim Budd, after one Barry Sheene turned down the ride. According to Avon chief Lindsay Walker, Budd finally said he was going to ride with fellow Central Coast man, Neil Chivas.
“What’s he like?” said Walker.
“He’s a non-crasher,” replied Budd.
Neil Chivas, 23 at the time, working as a machinist, very fit and playing several hard squash matches a week. It was a pressure ride. He didn’t want to put a foot wrong. He and Budd chased the winning BMW to a race-record lap score that stood until Chivas had a role in breaking it on Sunday.
Racing is a family sport for Chivas. Father Doug had a 20-year run in car racing, with success in sprints and long distance, sports cars, clubmans and tin-tops. Neil and elder brother Doug Jnr had their first 6 Hour in 1974. They finished sixth in class on an RD350 Yamaha. In 1975 they were seventh outright on a Kawasaki H2 750 and backed that with sixth outright on a Z900 the folllowing year. Neil was scoring good finishes in intersetate production races when he was chosen to co-ride with Budd. Not that – he finishes.
Las year Chivas and Hales were face favourites with many, and two and a half laps in the lead when Hales fell. As son consolation, last year neil was signed to partner Kiwi production hotshot Dave Hiscock and the pair broke Kawasaki’s seeming monopoly on the New Zealand Castrol 6 Hour on a Suzuki GS1000.
“We were fortunate this year – it was a pit we didn’t do it last year,” Chivas told REVS after the race.
“People say we’ve ‘lived’ here for the last two months. In fact two months ago we started comign out here to practice. We came out five times during the next month, then we didn’t come back until the Sunday before the race.
“The reason for the spell before las Sunday was I ‘destroyed’ a shoulder and a knee in a dirtclimb at Jilliby Park. Being best known rider there they made me number one. At the top of the hill I was posing and fell off!
“Apart from this win, it’s been a lean year. I was dicing for third at Bathurst and put down by a clash with another rider. In the Adelaide 3-Hour and Perth 4-Hour I was third, and placed fourth in the Surfers 3-Hour. At Surfers I was fastest in practice, but I pulled a nail out of the tyre just before the start of the race. I was conscious of that from the start and pulled in to have the tyre checked early on.”
If that was unsettling, Neil also had an anxiety no racer wants, during this year. He was right behind Jim Budd at Amaroo when Budd grounded an engine case and went down instantly. Neil had no time to blink before he struck Budd. Being a friend from childhood and the same area wouldn’t have made that easier on the mind. But Budd is back.
Chivas is already negotiating to defend his New Zealand 6-Hour win. At 25 he’s now a full time professional racer living in Warnervale on the NSW Central Coast.
Buddy in the 1977 Six Hour
The latest Repsol ad campaign
The stars of the 2011 team, and advertising campaign, local hero Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso, with Moto2 competitor Marc Marquez demonstrate the importance of the work of an entire team to achieve that one-hundredth of a second that results in a win or loss in on-track performance.
The campaign shows the company’s personality through values such as talent, effort, teamwork and spirit of self-improvement. Racing is not an individual effort, it depends completely on the work of a lot of people devoted to the technical performance of the bike adapted to suit the riding style of each rider. Shot in a recreated competition garage with race bike replicas to replicate the atmosphere of a real garage.
Repsol chose the days before the Spanish Moto GP at Jerez this weekend to launch their advertising campaign. The ad was broadcasted yesterday for the first time by the main television channels in prime-time, coinciding with the Repsol launch at the Puertollano Industrial Complex (Ciudad Real). Several showings have been scheduled at the same time as the as the different Grand Prix in Spain, and on all media including television (20 and 30 seconds spots), press, radio and internet.
