Add Italy to the list of places getting in on the electric motorcycle racing action. Azhar Hussain, the founder of the TTXGP motorcycle grand prix, announced today that he's lined up four races there in 2010, and one Italian team already has signed up.
Hussain is almost single-handedly creating a global electric motorcycle racing series. He's already got races scheduled throughout the United Kingdom, and there are races slated for San Francisco and Toronto as well. Oh, and let's not forget the electric car race he's launching in Paris. Keep in mind it's been just seven months since he hosted the inaugural TTXGP on the Isle of Man. We're starting to wonder if this guy ever sleeps.
The races in Italy are slated for Magione on June 27, Franciacorta on July 25 and September 5 and Mugello on September 26. The race series is sanctioned by the Federazione Motociclistica Italiana.
“Until now we have been involved in some electric racing experiments but the rapidly developing technology in electric motorcycles, in terms of battery efficiency and weight and dimension, opens a whole new world," Paolo Sesti, president of the FMI, said in a statement. "We also hope that our decision can contribute to the development of zero carbon, clean emission vehicles and that the advanced technology developed in this form of motorsports will accelerate the presence of green vehicles in our everyday lives.”
There's a chance there could be an Italian bike on the grid.
CRP Racing is building a bike for the TTXGP. It isn't saying much about the eCRP 1.0, which will make its debut Jan 13 in Birmingham, England at the Cleaner Racing Conference. But it promises "a pure racing bike."
"Joining the project of TTXGP means for us stretching the boundary of innovation in a race for the future," Livia Cevolini of CRP Racing said in a statement. "I find this project an extraordinary idea. Moreover, I think that these bikes are also a skillful demonstration of how motorsport can adjust to the environment without giving up its identity."
As if creating an electric motorcycle racing series isn't enough, Hussain is broadening his horizons from two wheels to four. His latest venture, EMXGP, will see electric cars racing through the Parisian borough of Levallois-Perret along the Seine from June 4-6. They'll make a dozen laps of a 2.2-mile course mapped out on city streets. Think of it as EV version of Rendezvous, but without the flagrant law-breaking.
"The point is to expand the idea of electric motorsports," Hussain told us.
Hussain says the race regs will be issued soon and he's got three teams lined up already. He wouldn't say who they are, though.
As for us, we're gonna call Tesla Motors to see if it will lend us a Roadster.
Photo of electric motorcycles at the TTXGP in June: Flickr / Pew! Pew! Pew! Lasers!
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