The site of the world’s first carbon-free international road
race, the Isle of Man, will toss out the people who made that race happen and
welcome a competing body.
The 2010 Isle of Man "TT Zero" road race will be held June 9
under FIM regulations – that’s the race organization that governs the other,
gas-powered, Isle of Man road races, which will take place around the same
date, so the TT Zero race will be a part of the Isle of Man’s regular annual TT
program. It’ll be a one-lap race, but since a lap at the Isle is about 38
miles, that should be enough to test the bikes.
An "emissions free" road race called the TTXGP was held at
the Isle of Man last June, and that was the first time for such an event
anywhere with only electric-powered motorcycles on a paved race course.
"The 2010 clean emissions race has been renamed ‘TT Zero’
and will become part of the core TT programme," the Isle of Man TT Official
Site declares. "It will feature riders who are also competing in the other TT
classes. The one-lap race will be open to clean emission motorcycles and will
take place on Wednesday, June 9th, at 4.30pm, following the Royal London 360
Superstock and Supersport Races. There will also be qualifying sessions
on June 5th and 7th.
"As with the core TT Races programme TT Zero will be run by
ACU Events Ltd, using the latest FIM regulations" the website notice continues.
"However TTXGP Ltd, who promoted the 2009 event, will not be involved and the
DTL will become the race promoter for the clean emissions race as well as the
core TT Races programme.
"As well as the usual prize money available to teams and
riders, the Isle of Man Government has also created a £10,000 prize fund for
the first TT Zero Race team to record a 100mph lap (160.93kph) around the
37.73-mile course. This landmark was achieved for the first time by a
conventional bike in 1957, when Scotsman Bob McIntyre lapped the TT Course in
22 minutes 24.4 seconds for an overall average of 101.03mph. Rob Barber and
Team Agni recorded a fastest lap time of 25 minutes 53.5 seconds (87.434mph) in
the 2009 clean emissions race."
Meanwhile, the folks who started the electric
ball rolling aren’t reacting publicly – nothing on their website, anyway. The
group has a series of races planned for 2010, starting in about three and a
half months at Infineon Raceway in California. You can help them write their
rulebook by climbing aboard the Wiki Express (it’s zero-emissions).
“… will toss out the people who made that race happen and welcome a competing body.”
TTXGP declined to run the race in 2010, asking to return in 2011. They were not tossed out!
“The 2010 Isle of Man “TT Zero” road race will be held June 9 under FIM regulations – that’s the race organization that governs the other, gas-powered, Isle of Man road races”
The FIM has absolutely no involvement whatsoever with the IOMTT ‘gas-powered’ event, and the only reason the FIM’s electric rules are being used is because there are no others!
This kind of inflammatory and inaccurate reporting helps nobody!
It might seem like a stab in the back to the original sponsers, but I think that bringing Zero emmissions racing into the fold makes an important point. It ups the status to proper racing, and makes it more than just a side show event.