eFXC/TTXGP Austrialia moves on with R2 of a new series
22nd July 2012
eFXC Press Office
Second round of the eFXC/TTXGP concludes in Australia. Still in its infancy, nonetheless providing lots of action.
The eFXC/TTXGP series headed to sunny Queensland Raceway for round two of a highly contested battle between Daniel Sailor (Ripperton Racing) and Jason Morris (Catavolt / Impact AV), the two having won a race a piece at the first round, the weather conditions promised to be good and true to form it delivered a beautiful weekend of racing.
Friday practice saw booth bikes out and refining the improvements they had made since the first round at Wakefield Park in late April.
Catavolt’s team owner Jon Eggenhuizen, had been busy redesigning the rear suspension and increasing the rim width of their machine. Daniel Sailor had spent considerable time beefing up his motor to try and put some extra punch in getting his machine off the mark.
Saturday saw qualifying produce some interesting results, Jason MORRIS (NSW) (Catavolt/Impact AV) took pole with a 1:34.099 on his final qualifying lap, while Daniel produced a 1:37.350. Catavolts extra KW’s making the difference.
While Catavolt’s times looked good they were experiencing some heat issues with the Enertrac hub motor in its new spoked mounting and this would prove to be a challenge for the team over the weekend.
Saturdays race produced some great racing and plenty of drama, Jason Morris got off to a great start but was closely followed by Daniel, the Ripperton machine still seemed to have the edge in the handling department but was being outgunned by Catavolt’s dual powered hub motor. But that was to change on lap 3 as the heat build-up started to trip the thermally protected Enertrac motor, leaving Morris to try and protect his lead with a much reduced power output.
The ever challenging Sailor seized the opportunity grabbing the lead for the next 2 laps and the flag to take the weekend’s first race win. “I had some early problems with my regen clicking the throttle out and it took my concentration, but I keep it on two wheels” Daniel commented.
“The pace was pretty good at the front for us before it overheated, but it caused the bike to cut in and out like running out of petrol, we’ve got some water cooling we haven’t tried and we will rig that up for race 2.” Morris comment in a post race interview.
Sunday produced another beautiful day as Queensland Raceway readied itself for the second of the eFXC/TTXGP races. The race started with the Catavolt machine jumping to a commanding lead as Sailor’s machine seem to bog down at the start, producing a 5 second gap at the end of the first lap. The gap lengthened to 7 then 8 seconds in the 2nd and 3rd laps, but once more the heat gremlins hit and Morris was left to nurse the bike to the finishing line to take the chequered Flag by 4 .07seconds.
“We were glad it was a reduced 4 lap race, we had some overheating issues on the 4th lap and we just limped her home, all good. With the new 5” rear width rim the adhesion has improved remarkably and the new lighter battery pack has saved us 15kg in weight.” Morris said.
“Bit of a disappointment out there, I need even more copper now, I had bigger staters put in and there’s a marginal improvement in acceleration off the mark, but I absolutely got mugged off the line and I just couldn’t catch-up.” Sailor commented.
With a win for each rider once again, the points are level as we head to the final round at Wakefield Park on the 31st August – 2nd September.
