Latest News

Mission accomplished!!

24th July 2011

TTXGP and FIM press office

Mission Rapp pole to take a resounding win at the joint FIM/TTXGP round @ Laguna Seca. Within 10 seconds of MotoGP times!

"Today marks an important milestone for Mission Motors," said Mission CEO Jit Bhattacharya. "The engineering and cutting edge powertrain that earned us this win are testaments to the quality of our electric vehicle technology. Every time we go to the race track, we improve the technology and capabilities that we offer our clients."

Steve Rapp (Mission R) unstoppable! The writing was on the wall as soon as Steve lead the 11 riders from the starting grid and into turn one, closely followed by Michael Barnes (Lightning) and winner of the 2010 race, Michael Czysz (MotoCzysz E1PC) in hot pursuit. With a less powerful machine the surprise was Alessandro Brannetti (ECRP 1.4) closely followed by Matthias Himmelmann (Münch TTE 2) and Steve Atlas (Brammo Empulse RR).

A third group led by Thad Wolff, Marcellino Manzano (E-Jarama) and lady racer Shelina Moreda (ECRP 1.4) with Ely Schless (Proto Moto) closing the field. Mid race, Steve Rapp started to lap the first rider whilst followed by Michael Barnes and Michael Czysz. On lap 6, Steve Atlas passed Alessandro Brannetti still duelling with Matthias Himmelmann. By this time the third group started to be lapped as these machines with less power could not compete with the speed displayed by the Mission R.

On the last lap Michael Czysz repeated last year’s scenario by passing Michael Barnes right before the chequered flag, only 0.719 ahead of the Lightning which had started to loose battery power in the last stages of the race.

Lady racer Shelina Moreda passed her first electric exam with success in 8^th position behind Thad Wolff on his Moto Electra.

TTXGP /FIM Combined Round 2011
Round 2: TTXGP North American Championship 2011
MotoGP US Grand Prix: Laguna Seca
Lap: 3610m (8 lap race + 1 lap warm up)

Pos	Rider	Nation	Team	Class	Total Time	Km/h	Gap
1-	Steve Rapp	USA	Mission	TTXGP	12'40.597	136.692
2-	Micheal Czysz	USA	Segway	FIM	13'20.592	129.863	0'39.995
3-	Michael Barnes	USA	Lightning	TTXGP	13'20.825	129.826	0'40.228
4-	Steve Atlas	USA	Brammo	TTXGP	13'40.456	126.719	0'59.859
5-	Alessandro Brannetti	ITA	CRP	FIM	13'40.814	126.664	1'00.217
6-	Matthias Himmelmann	GER	Muench	FIM	13'41.076	126.624	1'00.479
7-	Thad Wolff	USA	Moto Electra	TTXGP	12'51.894	117.855	1 lap
8-	Shelina Moreda	USA	CRP	FIM	13'16.681	114.118	1 lap
9-	Ely Scheless	USA	Proto Moto	TTX75	14'17.093	106.140	1 lap
10-	Marcelino Manzano	ESP	LGN	FIM	14'25.614	105.095	1 lap
11-	Kenyon Kluge	USA	Zero	TTX75	DNF
12-	Mike Hannes	USA	Lightning	TTX75	DNS

	Pole Position:	Steve Rapp	1'31.376	142.225km/h Q1
	Fastest Lap:	Steve Rapp	1'33.194	139.451km/h	NEW RECORD
	Previous Best:	Michael Czysz	1'44.496	124.368km/h	FIM EPOWER 2010

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:-

The TTXGP Euro Round 3 in Assen on 7th August.
The next TTXGP Australia Round is Winton Raceway on 4th September.
The replace venue for TTXGP North American Final will be annouced in the next few days.
The next round of the FIM e-Power & TTX Championships, a combined event will be on 23 September, a support race in the programme of the Classic 24 Hours of Le Mans, 4^th round of 2011 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship.

Steve Rapp: Mission Motors: 17
"A great weekend in general; my team name is Mission and that is perfect as they have been on a mission since they started. A lot of hard work has gone into getting me a great bike to start with. Its amazing that we are 14 seconds faster than the year before; In just one year! We don’t know what the future holds but so far it looks good.

It’s an easy bike to ride and a lot of fun. These are serious bikes and they are very fast at the same time it gives you the time to concentrate on your riding style because you don’t have to think about anything else.

I think people didn’t take it seriously in the beginning, but when they saw the laptimes we had, we started to change some minds. The main thing is to get more people trying out these bikes because when they do they will see how much fun they are and the word will spread."

Michael Czysz: MotoCzysz: 11
"I mean having Kevin do the presentation is a big step in gaining acceptance. We only had 45 minutes of track testing prior to this weekend, and we made such a great deal of progress. This is all so new; someone has to take the early bullets and we are willing to take them.

We have a strong bike but as the engineer and owner I had the desire to bring back a clean bike; next time we will probably put a pro rider on it.
Its surprising how many of the Moto GP guys stop by and look at the bike. Everyone is interested in the future."

Michael Barnes: Lightning Motorcycles: 80
"We had such a steep curve with the technology and we are this series and the sky’s the limit. It really is exciting race to be part of and I am looking forward to more and more development and looking to many more entertaining events in the future."

Steve Atlas: Brammo : 58
"It was really fun to watch Mission race and it sets a new bar for us to raise our game and a new benchmark to shoot for and hopefully later in the year come back and be faster."

Thad Wolff: Moto Electra: 37
"The vintage Norton Electra ran well for us at the MotoGP weekend. I would like to thank Brian Richardson owner and bike builder as well as our sponsors Icewarp, Merkel and CPL systems. I hope the wonderful crowd enjoed the show. It made me feel so wonderful on the cool down lap to see and hear everyone cheering. It made me feel really special. Priceless!

With a modest budget to come in the middle of the pack in an International event is a great achievement for me and my team."

Munch: Mathias Himmelman: 49
"It was a great event and a lot of fun racing here today. After a slow start we were ended up at the back of the field we moved up the pack and had a fantastic race against Branna and Atlas. Till the last corner I was in front, I brake going into the corner and my “powerful bike” lost the momentum because we were heavier than the others. We miss the performance from the old bike but we have gathered a lot of data, which we will use to help us develop the bike further and improve our performance."

Alessandro Branneti: CRP: 44
"We had a great race battling with Atlas and Himmelman. We know we had much less power, but we achieved the forth best lap time of the race against the huge American bikes so the weekend has gone well. The bike performed as it is should and it was great fun o ride. I really enjoyed the corkscrew.

Coming intot he finish we tried to stay in front of Brammo and Munch as I came out of the last corner; we had the lead only over Himmelman so managed to achieve fifth position overall which was a good result for us. 140 was our best lap time which is four seconds better than last year so we are very happy with the outcome."

Kenyon Kluge: Zero S: 96
"Friday we realised that we had to drop 10s..and we didn’t think we could do it, but we made some changes and found the time and qualified at the top of the TTX75 class. I love the TTX75 class because it allows us to balance the weight, the power and efficiency to produce a competitive package and one that competes on track with the 400’s. I would equate the TTX75 class to a production based class. The delta between the TTX75 and the market that Zero is aiming for is small. We believe that this market is entry for electric vehicles.”

Race Classification after 8 Laps (28,88 Km)

Photo credit: FIM/Goodshoot 2011, and Alex Tang