TTX-GP Australia, Wakefield Park Oct. 7-9!

[jonescg]

Yeah Jozz, it was a shocker. The track was greasy and even when it's dry, it's not much chop. No different to my Eastern Creek round really. Seems the future is AC, but my DC-powered bike is hardly worth fixing up. At the same time, it would be good to have another bike for my team I doubt I could part it out, but as it is now it's also fairly worthless.

Awesome about the advanced notice of the UK final eh? NOT. Even if I come first and had $2k towards the trip, that hardly covers one's flights! Still, we won't be teaming up with TTX-GP next year if it means the entry fees are the same as the petrol bikes. They pay $450 a weekend, and we pay $1090. We don't mind sharing the race with 125s, 250s, 400s and super monos if it makes it more affordable. Especially until more bikes start appearing.

So there you go Australia and New Zealand - build some fast bikes and help fill our grids! We can't keep this up forever you know!

[jonescg]

Andy has put another great minidoco together!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3IlSLAD ... ideo_title

[Jay64]

That's a great video to watch. I was cracking up at the tech inspection. "What's that? What's this?" I've had fits trying to explain to certain tech officials how the ICE bike is actually setup properly, I can just imagine some of the things you guys had to go through bringing EV bikes through.
That looks like a fun series. How often do you guys race? Was there only 3 races this season, or did I miss some? I would really like to take a trip out there and go race with you guys.

[jonescg]

Hi Jay,
We had three races - all three can be seen on Andy's video collection. Unfortunately there were only three of us, but fingers crossed there will be a few more next year. It was lots of fun, but it cost me about $2000 in flights and fuel alone. Race fees are high because of the TTX-GP connection, but that won't be a problem for next year.

The scrutineers are pretty funny. Daniel tells a story about how one guy tried to blip the throttle while it was powered up Unfortunately we aren't taken seriously by the organisers, so our race is interrupted by the course car, the grid girl competition and the show-and-shines Still, next year we will be competing amongst the super monos and 125s, so that should no longer be an issue.

We'd love to have you over some time!

[Jay64]

Hi Jay,
It was lots of fun, but it cost me about $2000 in flights and fuel alone.

That's less than I pay for one race weekend. Why did you guys only do 3 races? Is that the only times that the ICE bikes race, or is that what TTXGP wanted as a season? If you guys are going away from TTXGP and racing with the super monos etc, are you going to have more race meetings next season? How long is the gap between race weekends? Not trying to be a pest or nothing with all the questions, but if I flew all the way out there (I think I am literally exactly on the other side of the planet from Australia at the moment ) I would want to try and do a few races.

You guys call them scrutineers over there? Learned something new today. I once had them tell me that I had to safety wire a part that would actually increase the chance of the axle coming out compared to if it wasn't safety wired. I explained to them that my bike's design was different than the last 5 bikes he looked at, and doing this would cause my bike to be more unsafe. He wouldn't listen to the technical explanation and insisted that I do it.

[jonescg]

Basically it was TTX-GPs conditions. In order to maintain the TTXGP link, the deal was that we had to run a race with only electrics. This added another race to each day's schedule, so that's why we are encountering course cars bringing out lunch to the marshals, as well as competing with the grid girls competition for attention. By not going with TTXGP next year, we can have four races per weekend, and can be attached to the back of a smaller grid with similar lap times. The fees will be much closer to that of the petrol bikes too. Only thing is we won't get any international publicity. Suits me, since my build thread has attracted more international publicity than what TTXGP has done. It also means we can have more races per year too, however, I don't want to have to be flying over east all the time either.

[Jay64]

You have cars on the course WHILE you are racing????? WTF????

So you are going to be on the track with other racers but you are going to have a separate class correct?

[jonescg]

Yea, but not intentionally. There was a cock-up where the clerk of the course misunderstood what we were doing, thinking we'd gone out for a few demonstration laps and came back in. In reality, it was a race, and he frocked up royally. Still, it goes to show how the event organisers still see us as a novelty. Other racers see it as another legit race, at least.

Yes, we would be running three or four separate classes on the track in the same race. More efficient use of track time this way.