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[JaimeC]

Energica is no longer competing (and I sure hope they're back soon) but there will be a new electric contender next year:
https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/motoamerica-orangecat-racing-will-compete-in-2026-rsd-super-hooligans/

[roma258]

Awesome! I bet they'll be competitive too.

[CagivaRider]

I'm all in on the Lightfighter project ... I even have their hat! I wonder how they will squeeze it into the Super Hooligan rules - (From MotoAmerica rules)

c. Electric Motorcycles:
   i. Electric street-legal production motorcycle with single motor. No MX or dual-sport type electric bikes are allowed. All electric motorcycles must be pre-approved for competition before the event or season. 

d. Only production-based motorcycles with top-mounted handlebars “high bar bike”. No clip-ons permitted.
e. Maximum claimed OEM production horsepower of 128 HP or less.
f. Manufacturers seeking approval for bikes which do not meet specified requirements are required to obtain a pre-approval form from the MotoAmerica/AMA Permanent Bureau.

BTW - Lightfighter has bling we can buy to support their effort.

[Specter]

If I remember correctly, stefano mesa was in the super hooligan with the energica right?  those were 170 hp out of the box, i wonder how they got around the 128 hp on that.

aaron

[MVetter]

This is really cool news! There are, however, some major hurdles to overcome unless Brian and his team make some rather radical changes.

One of the main focuses of LightFighter development is that the bike is lightweight. To that end the LF race bikes I've seen had battery packs that were less than half the capacity of the Energica Corsa Cliente. Anyone who watched the Hooligan races with Stefano on the Energica know that, in an ideal world, the track is 8 laps with a warmup lap. The Energica bikes were able to do that. However, many times there things like crashes or things that prompted a mid-race pause, reset, and another warmup lap. This eats into critical prime battery power and makes the bike prone to be sluggish and run out of power at the end. Especially at places like Daytona that are long tracks with huge, high speed straights.

Whereas the rest of the gas bikes can just refuel if needed and be as good as new, even if there's enough time to dump some juice into the packs most tracks don't have the infrastructure to support that kind of high amperage need. If the LF team can engineer a quick swap pack that will level the field a lot. But in all likelihood they'll need to also increase the pack size.

I know Brian is keenly aware of this because he has an *extensive* history in the EV motorcycle world, being one of the driving forces behind Brammo and now Zero. I love reading updates on the Lightfighter blog and I wish Brian and his team the best of luck. Hope to see you at Seca next year!

[Specter]

if the bike is 150 lb lighter, that battery will take it longer.  So it's probably about an even tradeoff.  Where he might struggle a bit is when you need the absolute raw hp, so pumping a smaller battery that hard will have it's toll.

Another issue will be heat.  Daytona can get warm,  F that, it's friggin HOT.  it can be 120 degrees on that pavement, with the sun just baking down on you, and you are slamming your battery at 4C - 5C or more energy bursts, back and forth.  Things are going to heat up.  Without some kind of active cooling, that battery is going to take some time to dissipate that heat out of it's core.  sooner or later it's going to start heat limiting too.  That is a killer in a race, unfortunately.

I really hope he does well there, id love to see in a year or two, he's got his bugs worked out, Energica is back on it's game and both of them are romping side by side.  Now THAT would be a race for the ages.

Aaron

[MVetter]

The LF team's regular testing grounds is Buttonwillow Raceway. It's a track in slightly inland SoCal, just outside Bakersfield, and it gets quite warm. Great testing grounds for this machine.

https://buttonwillowraceway.com/

See how it's all dead brown and flat? It's hot.

[JaimeC]

Looks like they've signed Josh Herrin to race one of their bikes!
https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/motoamerica-superbike-orangecat-racing-to-field-uribe-sdk/

[JaimeC]

Is Lightfighter about to release a street legal bike?  Because I can't see how they're going to get around the requirement of being based on a production model otherwise. Those things are purpose-built race bikes, not street bikes!

[Specter]

thats just a word smithing game there.
the difference between a street bike and a race bike is mirrors, working lights and a license plate holder with a light on it. oh and a horn of sorts.
i think they could make it qualify with little effort if need be

aaron

edit turn signal is optional in many states.

[TheRan]

It could be a street legal bike with those bits removed to make it more suitable for the track, but you can't just take a track bike and be like "oh but it could be made street legal". For example while the Aston Martin AMB 001 is a production motorcycle, disregarding that it has too much power for the class, I doubt it would be allowed to compete even if someone was crazy enough to race a bike that expensive. You could maybe, with a lot of work, get one made street legal but that's not what it is.

[JaimeC]

I remember back in the day Harley Davidson was able to homolgate the VR1000 for Superbike racing by selling 50 of them in some country that didn't have any real safety requirements for street use. That loophole has been closed since then.

[Specter]

you bring up very valid points TheRan but was just saying, where there's a will there's a way, at the end of the day, it's all word games and im sure they could figure out a way or maybe get a waiver for the bike.  since they let stefano race the energica that did set precedence, so there's that help too.

aaron

[JaimeC]

you bring up very valid points TheRan but was just saying, where there's a will there's a way, at the end of the day, it's all word games and im sure they could figure out a way or maybe get a waiver for the bike.  since they let stefano race the energica that did set precedence, so there's that help too.

aaron

The Energica was a modified Ribelle... a production street bike. There was no precedence set in that regard.  It's not like they ran the prototype MotoE bikes that they used in Europe.

[Specter]

but if there was a horse power limitation, they'd have to do it for that bike right?
you said modified,  that's no longer a 'production' bike then, it's custom.    you could just call it a modified ego, we just changed the handle bars a bit and added fairings, if you want to go that route.

if you listen to lightning's 'story'  his bike's been in profucktion for several years, but thankfully, it's too powerful, it scares all the racers so you'll never see it in that event.  so the whole 'production' thing is a bit wiggly if they need it to be.

aaron