2013 FIM eRoadRacing North American Series Round 1 Results
The 2013 FIM eRoadRacing North American Series got underway this past weekend during the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix (MotoGP) at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The eRoadRacing Series is a successor series to both the TTXGP (first held at Isle of Man TT in 2009) and e-Power electric motorcycle series. It replaces both series, and is sanctioned by the FIM.
And taking the win at the first round of three was AMA Supersport Champion Eric Bostrom. The Californian piloted his Team Icon Brammo to the top spot following a tight race with teammate Shane Turpin.
But though Turpin set a new electric-motorcycle lap record at Laguna Seca of 1:33.194, beating Steve Rapp’s previous record of 1:32.581 set last year aboard a Mission Motors machine, he was forced to DNF on the last lap due to technical failure.
This gave Bostrom the win. He was joined on the podium by Zero Motorcycles’ Director of Electrical Engineering Kenyon Kluge and Jeremiah Johnson, who also piloted a Zero machine.
Eric Bostrom (Team Icon Brammo) says: “‘My heart sank when I saw Shane had a problem. It’s a strange feeling because you obviously want the team to do well but you still want to win too. It is a real shame to win that way but I am still happy to have won.
“You can see from the lap times that we are going in the right direction and the technology around these bikes is continuing to develop. We were producing speeds of over 140mph on the track, which is just fantastic.”
The TTXGP reports that Johnson took third after Shelina Moreda and Ted Rich crashed out at the Corkscrew during lap one. Brandon Miller also crashed out during the first lap, allowing Arthur Kowitz to finish fourth on his stock Brammo bike following a fine race from the individual.
As for second-place finisher Kluge, he won not only the eSuperStock Production Award, but also recorded the fastest times ever for a production-based Zero Motorcycle (1:48:706).
Kenyon Kluge (Zero Motorcycles) says: “This weekend was incredible and the Zero team really put an incredible bike under me to get the job done. My qualifying time was nearly 12 seconds faster than our best time from 2012 and our factory improvements to the 2013 model line really helped to make up the difference.
“All of the riders on Zeros this weekend showed how impressive our production-based bikes are and big congratulations go out to everyone at Zero, the individual racers and most importantly of all, the support crews.”
In addition to Kluge’s and Johnson’s podium results, both Brandon Miller, well-known as the “Electric Cowboy,” and Ted Rich also competed on minimally customized 2013 Zero S ZF11.4 models. All Zero Motorcycles entered in the event used 2013 production-based technology with racing modifications applied.
Scot Harden (Vice President of Global Marketing for Zero Motorcycles) says: “This is simply amazing. We’re still riding the high from our historic showing at Pikes Peak and now we’ve done it again. Kenyon and the entire Zero team should be very proud of the results they achieved. This only confirms how much of the success we are currently enjoying, both on and off the track, is due to the passion and commitment of our engineering and manufacturing teams who supported the Laguna Seca MotoGP. Congratulations to everyone involved.”
Next up for the FIM eRoadRacing North American Series is Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix Aug. 18.
