posted on May 19, 2010 12:24
I took 4th place in TTXGP!
Where to start? It was a very exiting weekend! Let me start off with Friday: first time on the track, scrubbing in tires, bike feels awesome, but when I opened the throttle hard after a couple of laps, the 500A fuse blow. Drawing too much amps! Patrick, the BMS guy, builds another fuse, this time 900A, but it was still not enough, and it blew again. Practice ended at 6.10, so we packed up the Mav, went back to the city, and put it on my dyno to see if it would blow an even bigger fuse, and it seemed to be fine.
Of course, we had the TTXGP fundraiser party to go to that night as well, and when I rode the bike into the SFMC at 9pm, the party was already in full swing! A lot of people came by to get a close up look at the Mavizen and to support our racing effort. Special thanks to Laura and Jimbo for doing the catering and special cocktails, and Johnny, Paige and Mary for selling loads of raffle tickets to raise funds for our electric endeavor. The party was a blast, and we made it to bed at a reasonable time. :)
Up at 6am the next morning, for the mandatory meeting at 9 and first qualifying seesion at 11, but we missed the first one due to a cracked brush holder! But were able to get out for the second qualifier, and the bike ran great for a while, but the temperature switch was set conservatively, so the motor was limited in power output when it got warmer, so I couldn't go more than maybe 50mph! But Alex, the Mavizen tech, and Ardvin, CEO of Agni Motors figured out what was going on and loaded up a new map, changed some brushes etc, while I was picking up my Mom from the airport. She flew in from LA to watch the race. It was great to have her be here for this historic event!
And then race day! Butterflies. We had one chance in a 20 minute warm up to test the bike. This was my first full session with the bike, and it ran awesome! Full power, great throttle response, great handling. Patrick had built a second charger at home overnight so we could recharge the battery since the time between practice and race was only 90 min. By the time the race came around, it was almost all the way charged.
We line up on the grid, and, number one board, sidewaaaays, green flag, off we go! I decide to pick the outside line, get around the corner, and then the bike dies. No power. OMG, I can't believe it. I sit there for a few seconds, clicking the bike on and off, hoping it's not the fuse again, and after 30 seconds the controller resets and the Mavizen comes back to life! Wow! Ok, now I got some catching up to do. After a lap or so I start seeing the tail end of the pack. Faster! Don't brake too soon! Go deeper! I'm screaming to myself in my helmet. One by one I start picking people off. I'm in the hunt now, single minded on catching people, it's a rush! By the half way mark I got past 5 people. I look down at my Amp hour meter to check what I have left. 38Ah. Uhoh, that's too much! I was supposed to use no more than 33Ah. I need to scale it back a little, conserve energy, back off a tiny bit to make it to the end of the race which is 6 more laps!
I stayed in fourth in the end, it was great. It was the best I could do with my 30 second handicap. The cool thing was that I could hear people screaming in the grandstand when I passed other bikes because the Mavizen is so quiet, and I could hear bits and pieces of the announcement when I passed a loud speaker. I have to say, I am really getting used to the quietness of the Mavizen. I do miss the revving of the engines at the start a little bit, it always gives me the goosebumps, but I'm starting to get used to the whirring of the electric motor too. It does sound cool in a different way.
So now it's Monday, the excitement is over for a little bit, and we'll be racing at Road America in three weeks. Hopefully I can squeeze in a track day before Wisconsin, get a little more track time on the Mav. I can't wait, it's a really fun bike!
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