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ELECTRIC SUPERBIKE TO TAKE ON WORLD’S FINEST GASOLINE RACING MOTORCYCLES AMA Pro Chip Yates, turn 5 Laguna Seca. Photo by 4theRiders.com Bike’s debut track appearance on December 15, 2010 at Infineon Raceway, Sonoma California for a private test and media day. Bike will become the world’s most powerful road racing motorcycle exceeding the power of a MotoGP bike. The world’s most powerful and sophisticated electric superbike will make history on January 9, 2011 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 road race. 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 lap time 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.”
Chip Yates lofts the front wheel on his way to turn 4 at Infineon Raceway. Photo by 4theRiders.com. 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.
Chip Yates and SWIGZ.COM Team on the Daytona SportBike grid at Laguna Seca. Photo by Randy Jones - jrracingphotos.com Chip Yates with Josh Hayes (4), Martin Cardenas (36), and Tommy Aquino (6) in Turn 2 at Laguna Seca. Photo by Randy Jones - jrracingphotos.com
About SWIGZ.COM: Designed and built in Orange County, California, SWIGZ® is the world’s first dual hydration sports bottle allowing athletes to carry two drinks of their choice in a single bottle during workouts. About Chip Yates: Before turning pro fairly late in life, Chip Yates was a Boeing executive in charge of transitioning advanced aerospace technology and patents to other industries such as automotive for racing and OEM applications. He personally holds 7 U.S. patents on automotive drivetrain and other technologies and is an engineer with a master’s degree in business from USC. Chip has raced in the AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike series and the FIM World Supersport series and owns SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing, an extreme-performance electric vehicle consultancy in Orange County, California. www.chipyates.com |
