The weekend of May 14 through 16, 2010 was a weekend of history in the making with the first all electric motorcycle grand prix race in North America. The race was at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California and 10 battery powered bikes competed in the zero emissions race. Manzanita Micro was there to provide 75 amp charging to many of the race teams. Fast motorcycles and fast charging seemed to go hand in hand as many of the most powerful bikes were already using Manzanita Micro chargers. The Lightning Motorsports team placed second with the most powerful bike of the entire lot. The bright yellow bike sported a >100kW high revving AC induction motor out of a GM EV1 car! The bike was packed full of over 360 volts of high power A123 batteries and everytime the bike was in the pits it was gulping down amps from the team’s powerful Manzanita Micro PFC-50 charger. Gene Seymour and Stephen Johnsen drove all the way down from Tacoma Washington with extra chargers, battery management systems, high power plug adapters and other support equipment. Upon arriving at the track Johnsen and Seymour encountered legendary motorcycle racer Chip Yates who is also a happy recent Manzanita Micro charger customer. An enthusiastic Yates wasted no time in showing the two his bike and rolling support toolbox which held the compact yet powerful PFC-40 charger. The Swigz bike was a sight to see with fancy carbon fiber bodywork, Headway batteries and a UQM drive capable of nearly 300 foot pounds of torque! Yates displayed the bike and charger toolbox at the TTXGP tent but wasn’t quite ready to enter the race at this event.

Of the 10 teams who did race the track, at least half of them received charging assistance from Manzanita Micro. When Team Native’s non-Manzanita charger had problems Johnsen and Seymour were quick to assist with an extra PFC-75. The venerable 75 also pumped watts into many of the other bikes including the Square Wave Racing team from Ohio, the Volt Team and the Pril Motors team. “This is what I love about the Manzanita Micro chargers” said Stephen Johnsen, “You can quickly change the voltage limits for just about any battery pack and they charge so quickly that you hardly wait at all.” With grins on their faces Stephen and Gene moved from team to team monitoring power levels and tuning the chargers for the best performance for each battery pack. “It was a great experience” said Gene, “I just love being able to help out and I will definitely be at the other TTXGP races!”

The ElectricRaceBikes.com Team had arguably one of the coolest looking bikes and with driver Mike Hannas they placed 3rd overall. Dissappointed with the lackluster performance of his original BMS and charger ElectricRaceBikes.com president and avid motorcycle rider Matt Dieckmann turned to Manzanita Micro for a better solution. Seymour and Johnsen delivered the new charger in person and became members of the ElectricRaceBikes team. The three stayed up until the wee hours of the morning completely removing the old battery management system and installing the new Manzanita Mk3x8 lithium BMS. While Matt and Gene re-moved the mess of wires and the many circuit boards from the old BMS, Stephen fabricated a compact new aluminum mount which would hold just 3 of the Mk3x8 boards to do the same job.

The next day at the racetrack Gene neatly mounted the Manzanita Micro RROB II Box and he and Matt set it up to illuminate a warning light to alert the rider Mike Hannas if any one cell was being pulled especially low. After some fine tuning, driver feedback and strategy talks the team was ready for the big race. After runing in the the warm-up laps and before the big race Stephen set up the custom PFC-75 to charge the ElectricRaceBikes.com cycle at just over 75 amps! Meanwhile Gene got out his laptop with the latest Manzanita scanning software and watched a live bar graph display of the cells as they charged and became equalized by the Mk3x8 BMS.

With twin Agni motors a warm pack of Headway lithium cells and the informative Manzanita RROB II unit, Mike Hannas’ skilled driving was the final ingredient that got the team the third place trophy! Azhar Hussain the founder of the TTXGP racing series said, “We’ll be talking about this weekend for years to come.” and he hopes “as many as possible can be a part of it as we launch into the next generation of motorsport.” Manzanita Micro couldn’t agree more and long-time EV racer and CEO Rich “Madman” Rudman vowed that he would be at the Road America Track in Wisconsin June 3rd to once again offer help and fast charging for the next TTXGP race.