Tucson Death Race 2011 roll call. Results on page 1

[SoSauty]

Don't know last year's times, yet last Oct I clocked some 85sec laps, probably missed some a little faster. I clocked Alex#00, along with PaulD, about lap 9, just when his ebike strutted into the lead, 81.49sec Luke punched thru Paul's CA and commented top speed of 44mph.


Grand Champ, #19 ours truly Paul D, on a Turnigy130, 18S batt, rumor of 57amp tops, and less than 9Ahr used in main
2nd and defending champ #00Alex, a local that knows the track and how to race it,
3rd Dave31, who put the energy into the event
4th #11, Magrider
5th #33 Bairdo
6th #89 Shane Po
7th #88
Unofficial noted finishing places,
8th #23 Joey
9th #22 Jason
10th #44 Billy
11th #58 Dan (w/ flat tire)
12th #713 Cole, the 1st place Whizzer
13th vague, maybe #3 Blaze on a yellow 4 stroke: Scotto apparently is around 13th also according to his video!
14th #133, Ti--gerr
Anyone who faults this finishing order gets to scorekeep next year

Amber still reigns with most eye catching recumpent.
The military guy collected the most ewws and ahhhs for his classic. Loaded with air speedometer from a bomber, gernades, fire buster fire WWII extingisher that you'd pump, custom patriotic paint job and lots lots more.

Think Luke wins the 'Flaming Chili Pepper' award for the most dramatic pre-race You Tube vid,
Todd should be in charge of next year's e-bike Pysch-ops, a few wheelies and 50mph straight away streaks,
Chris (WineBoyrider) came in ahead of 7 other e-bikers with a 48V Ping and BMC, his feet don't touch the ground no more.

Timely builds with follow thru execution ruled this year's Death Race.

Seems around 40 bikes finished with plenty of show and Murphy's Law bikes on the sidelines. Etard said HK had Turnigy130's on sale

Well Dogmanz got us there and youth crossed the finish 1st, Way To Go Paul 8)

 

[johnrobholmes]

Rule change talk should be reserved for when there is more than one or two races like this in the US :lol: Until it is actually a popular sport there isn't any since in trying to define classes. Right now it is just being a moped gathering with enough guys to race and not fall on a tight track. Love it! Get 30 electric bikes on a track at the same time regularly, and then we can talk about what an electric moped (or enter your preferred name here) race should "be". It would likely boil down to motor size and cooling restrictions for a simple class structure, at least in my opinion. Limit the size, and the heat saturation of the motor will be the great equalizing force. Smoke the motor or finish the race! Liquid cooling would come into play if the sport caught on, in which new definitions could be added.


I have a feeling that electric won't catch on as a TV sport. Who wants to watch a race track where the sound is of freewheels, squealing tires and grown boys huffing and grunting? There would need to be some sort of sound feedback as to the intensity of action. It would sound like a tennis match otherwise :lol:


Although I am quite interested in what 20 electric bikes jockeying for position in a corner would sound like in person. The chorus of motor groans could be quite intense if you were close enough.

 

[Alan B]

We need to add speakers and sound effects to the ebikes. Make them all sound different. Have a switch so the sound can be changed, to fit the moment.

 

[dogman dan]

Gave serious thought to blasting Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze out of my bike, just so they could know I was there sneaking past.

A serious lycra bike race going by sounds like a swarm of really angry bees, just from the sound of spokes in the wind at 30 mph. Takes about 70 riders to be impressive though. I bet a good pack of ebikes going by would be quite a howl too.

Finally got all my stuff up on you tube with the put put sound done away with. http://www.youtube.com/user/Dogman5018?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/dXEJfkc-BnY

http://www.youtube.com/user/Dogman5018?feature=mhum#p/a/u/1/qnMBlcxVCeE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_59vJNBzLFg

There is a paved road to an FAA tower in the middle of nowhere here in Las Cruces. Kinda far for the west coasters of course, but it would be a place that a flash crowd type ebike race could be held. Fairly straight road so no cornering contest, but a nice steep climb to the finish line up a mountain.

 

[StudEbiker]

The music worked well and had good timing for the crash Dogman. Nice job! Amber, glad you are having your ankle looked at. Those really are the kind of injuries that can lead to all kinds of things down the road if not cared for properly.

 

[Ypedal]

Hell.. with 20 electrics going you could yell arcoss the track obsenities and insults and actually hear eachother !! :lol:

 

[MadRhino]

Thanks for the vid Dogman, the best so far. Too bad you couldn't finish the race, a montage of rear and front view of racers passed or passing, would have made the best film of the action on the track.

 

[John in CR]

Who wants to watch a race track where the sound is of freewheels, squealing tires and grown boys huffing and grunting? There would need to be some sort of sound feedback as to the intensity of action. It would sound like a tennis match otherwise :lol:

Play music or have a play by play announcer if you need sound, anything other than the noise pollution of those stinkbikes. I had to mute the videos. The experienced motorsports people need to get over sound being some kind of attraction, because those stinkers were putting out nothing more than offensive noise, though the one locally that I paced to check his speed put out an offensive odor too.

 

[Ypedal]

I was actually surprised at the lack of smoke clouds, most of them were burning fairly well and smoke free.. ish..

But.. i have to admit.. i do enjoy the scream of a well tuned 2 stroke.....

 

[Evoforce]

Well, I don't have time to post much now, but I got dethroned as the E-bike Nation Champion, but I had a blast racing! CONGRATULATIONS to PaulD on winning the first in class as well as first overall. Excellent job indeed! My race bike did not make it to Tucson for the race. I had been working on the bike a couple of weeks and the last 5 days with only 3 hours of sleep. At 8:00 a.m. on race day (Sunday morning) I was having techical problems and had to abandon the race bike and go with the commuter battery and motor (48 volt/5303) that had placed first in e-bike class (fourth overall) in the Undead Race of 2010. I cobbled it together and then had to go pick up a borrowed trailer, come back and get my bikes and gear, then drive to Phoenix to pick up Amberwolf and his Crazybike and gear. We arrived at the track at 6:30 p.m. and thing were well underway. More scrambling to get registered, parked, unloaded, dressed for racing etc. Immediately had to go out for the first race heat (without practice). Sure glad that I had raced there in October because it was everything I could do not to crash just getting on the track and racing from the get-go. Before the main race, I did not get the bike on the charger soon enough, and thus not long enough, and consequently died in the race with about one lap to go. I had problems with my chain being off throught the whole event. It just wouldn't stay on. Had a great time dueling, where I was in the pack, till my battery sucked dry. Then I had to pedal in for the finish (probably last). Loaned Luke a seconday bike that I had brought(409/48v SLA) to keep him in on the fun. Thanks Luke for getting the hotel room and more for Amberwolf and I. Thanks to JimmieD for your contribution on some shipping and the couple of extra headway cells as well. Just wish the monster(Evoforce 3) could have race the event. Thank to all thoes who organized, sponsored, and ran the event. Thanks to Sosauty for getting me back to my vehicle in all of the malay in downtown Tucson while we were chasing Luke around. Well I will post more later when I have the time... P.S. As far as I know, The Undead Race is comming up in October on this racetrack. I am slightly considering going to Michigan for the upcomming race at Gilmore car museum. Maybe we can get a group going?

 

[knoxie]

great videos Dog, loved the music as well! best footage I have seen so far, not bad for a 15 dollar camera eh! the opening shots with the sun setting in the back looks sweet! so wish I could have been there and I do appreciate how scary it is turning a pushbike in that fast on the corners, I have fallen off so many times over doing it in the past :lol:

The gasser bikes look slick and they do shift, I would have been busted years ago round here riding one of them and the way petrol is going its gotta be cheaper on Lipo. You got some great shots of Luke there as well, its interesting to see how your power compares with the gassers, you really can leave them for dead from a standing start but some of them catch you up in their powerband.

Would be great to do something like that here we could make it happen however we would need marshals, ambulance, insurance, bikes would need scruitiniring, etc etc...boring! ha ha...should just cut holes in the fence sneak in like foxes, make it a night race where you have to bring your own lights...true death race in the dark! ha ha

Thanks again Dog, your video taking may have been short but you have captured a really nice slice of the action here..top job 8) you may not have won the race but you have won the video award! jeez I am up late again 1 am again nighty night 8)

 

[AussieJester]

But.. i have to admit.. i do enjoy the scream of a well tuned 2 stroke.....

Hell yes!!! unfortunately a dying breed in top
class racing, 125cc MotoGP 2 strokes end this year going to
4 strokes next year... 4 strokes have all but taken over
moto-x too i beleive, stricter emission rulings around the world have been the death of the 2 stroke, damn politics.

The mornins in the Death Race though they are sweet at full chat and the ratta-tatt-tatt when they button off, nice crisp
sound thanks to the tuned pipes Dave and the other dude run on their mornins ahhhh memories.

E-bike racing on its own without the noise would be a snore fest good there is gassers in there to give it some racing 'atmosphere' IMO

KiM

 

[dogman dan]

Thanks for the compliments on the vids. Actually the front vids were taken with a fairly nice casio digital cam, which got mashed into the pavement in the crash. I tried for more in the main, but never got the rear cam turned on in time before the flag dropped. I had another cheapie pinned to my jacket lapel that I got turned on in the main, but it looked at sky for half the race, then looked at asphalt for the rest.

Really nice that Dave got his usual hemet cam vids. As you may have noticed, the guy I crashed was also packing a cam, so he only got 2 laps too, and didn't race in the main.

I kinda like the sound of the gassers too, and would miss it at an all electric race. I was talking to HTB Terry the day before the race, and it is a shame we haven't gotten an ebike racing movement going. Every time there is a race, it's based on the electrathon model. That's cool and it does have it's place. But efficiency contests are less interesting to most than sailboat racing. I think a racing scene with 40+ mph ebikes and even faster motorcycles would be cool. It will take a long time, but it would be neat if more guys got into e racing. E bmx might be a good starting place.

 

[neptronix]

E-bike racing on its own without the noise would be a snore fest good there is gassers in there to give it some racing 'atmosphere' IMO

KiM

Eh, i'd rather hear the dopplered whine of a bunch of RC motors giving all they got over a bunch of bee-fart 2 strokes.

All in personal taste i guess.

 

[John in CR]

E-bike racing on its own without the noise would be a snore fest good there is gassers in there to give it some racing 'atmosphere' IMO

KiM

Eh, i'd rather hear the dopplered whine of a bunch of RC motors giving all they got over a bunch of bee-fart 2 strokes.

All in personal taste i guess.

+1 , but I'd rather hear just the tire and freewheel noise of a hub motor than the cross between a vacuum cleaner and hair dryer of RC. 8)

 

[johnrobholmes]

I love the two stroke tuned pop of a good pipe. I love headers on a 4 stroke even more though. Both acquired tastes from working with them. I'm not too fond of running next to a two stroke without a silencer though. The scream can be head rattling.

 

[neptronix]

E-bike racing on its own without the noise would be a snore fest good there is gassers in there to give it some racing 'atmosphere' IMO

KiM

Eh, i'd rather hear the dopplered whine of a bunch of RC motors giving all they got over a bunch of bee-fart 2 strokes.

All in personal taste i guess.

+1 , but I'd rather hear just the tire and freewheel noise of a hub motor than the cross between a vacuum cleaner and hair dryer of RC. 8)

Too bad hub motors don't make much in the way of noise tho.. my geared hub generates some motor whine, but not a lot.
I think most people are hooked on the auditory feedback of a motor to let you know how fast someone is going.. a set of gears will do the job !

 

[fizzit]

Random interjection into an otherwise serious topic:

Is everyone here a mature adult, or do you find it interesting that the winner was the one that was running 66.6 volts?

 

[PaulD]

do you find it interesting that the winner was the one that was running 66.6 volts?

Well, in the week leading up to the race, it seemed like the bike might be possessed... or at minimum quasi evil...

Anyway back to the rules (or non-rules), I'm pretty easy at this point, I think giving ourselves room to innovate and increase power is cool, and maybe we should continue with that since we don't really have enough builders/riders to have any kind of organization. There are some ideas that I want to try for next year that would be hindered by a weight limit

 

[Hyena]

So Paul, you mentioned earlier that your secret weapon didn't work out so this (winning) bike was plan B.
Can to enlighten us what plan A was ? Or is that a secret for next year ? :wink:

Oh and yeah, I have an 18S2P pack powering my bike too, I've mentioned before that it's no coincidence that it goes like hell with the 666 watt hour pack

 

[full-throttle]

Congrats to Paul and well done everyone!

Wish we had something like that here in Aus.. Road or dirt, whatever.

 

[Tiberius]

Hi Guys,

Its Tuesday morning here and I'm finally back home after a lot of travelling. Just been working my way through the thread.

Big congratulations to Paul. Well done, that man. Not only the top e-bike, but beating all the gassers too. Sounds like it was a good race you had with the runner up.

Let's do more of it. Let's start a movement. We need to run some more races over here.

Nick

 

[Xanda2260]

Uk death race 2012? Hell yeah!
I might actually have my trike done by then!!
If so, count me in!

 

[liveforphysics]

Finally got done driving home.

Seemed like over half the guys I talked to were from Cali.

We should make a race in Cali. Many good kart tracks here.

 

[theRealFury]

Uk death race 2012? Hell yeah!
I might actually have my trike done by then!!
If so, count me in!

+1 to that. Would love to take the next build im working on out for a spin on a propper track... wonder how much it costs to hire Donnington Park for the day haha