Clean-Emissions, Carbon-Free International Racing Competition - Rebooting Racing

Circuit City
Does the FIM's eGrandPrix represent the future of motorcycle racing?
By Aaron Frank
Photo by Roland Brown
Is MotoGP irrelevant? Certainly motorcycle racing's premier class still matters to enthusiasts, but what about to those outside our insular atmosphere? In the brave new world of cost-conscious, clean energy, how relevant is a gas-sucking, 250-horsepower internal-combustion engine? Not at all, say some industry insiders. As manufacturers pull more and more money out of MotoGP and Formula 1 and divert it to electric and hybrid vehicle technology-sectors that the finance, technology and energy industries are keen on right now-petroleum-powered racing begins to look as extinct as dinosaurs.

Against this backdrop, it's no surprise that Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme officials were lurking around the TTXGP paddock. And only slightly more surprising that two weeks later, they announced the creation of a future racing series for electric motorcycles. If carbon-based competition indeed enters a decline, an all-electric racing series will be a good hedge for the future.

The new FIM series will be run inside the Road Racing Grand Prix Commission under the direction of TTXGP founder Azhar Hussain. The goal, according to the initial press release, is to provide an international platform for the development of electric bikes, driving low- and no-carbon technological innovation forward while demonstrating that clean-emissions motorcycles can be fast and exciting. "The future of the sport depends on our capacity as well as that of the manufacturers to innovate quickly," says FIM President Vito Ippolito. "We are convinced that very shortly the motorcycle world championships will be accessible to non-polluting engines as far as gas and sound emissions are concerned."

Technical rules and an official event calendar are being drafted right now, with the intention of hosting at least one international competition in 2010. It's an ambitious goal, and a tall order. The electric motorcycle infrastructure is in its infancy, with no major OEMs involved yet. Development budgets are tight, and nothing on any continent resembles a race-ready program. Still, this is exactly the sort of challenge-and opportunity-under which innovation thrives. And that is what makes racing relevant.