A Decisive Victory at Laguna Seca
This past weekend at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Mission Motors won the TTXGP / FIM e-Power International Championship Race. It was a weekend that produced some very compelling stats:

• Our qualifying time of 1:31.3 is a track record for electric vehicles of any type, besting the previous record by seven seconds
• This qualifying time would have placed the Mission R fifth on the weekend’s AMA Pro Supersport grid
• Our average race lap times were ten seconds faster than last year’s fastest times
• Piloted by Steve Rapp, the Mission R finished the eight-lap race in 12’40.6, 39.9 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher

There are a few reasons why we believe the weekend represents a major milestone. First, the fact that electric motorcycles shared the weekend with MotoGP illustrates just how rapidly the new era of electric vehicles is gaining mainstream acceptance. And the fact that the Mission R is lapping Laguna Seca at the same pace as combustion-engine race bikes shows how competitive electric vehicles can be.

But perhaps most compelling is the technology that won the race. The Mission R’s powertrain has been built with production-grade durability and reliability in mind. It never missed a beat all weekend. Everything we learned and achieved on the track translates into powertrain improvements that we can offer to our partners using our technology.

There were 10's of thousands of people watching the race, also hearing our CEO and Marketing Manager give play-by play coverage over the PA's during the Qualifying session, enabling us to mention our sponsors at that time. The talk of the paddock was about how the electric bike was besting many of the gasoline bikes earlier in the day. And at the ProItalia booth in the always-crowded marketplace section, our bike was surrounded by motorcycle fans eager to learn about the motorcycle, its extraordinary components, and the state of the art of electric motorcycle technology.

This is the last major event of our racing season, and it is an extraordinary way to close our season.

Moto Electra – Classic Chassis with 21st Century engineering

We are back from the 6,000 mile round-trip from Virginia to the Moto GP. I attached some pictures from the GP. We finished mid-pack (7th) during the Moto-GP weekend due to a fire in our motor that caused us to make a hasty trackside replacement. The Moto GP crowd cheered the Norton Featherbed! They obviously recognized it as the chassis that won the 1951 Moto-GP, but back in competition 60 years later. We may not have won, but the old Norton put in a strong showing against bikes costing many times more (and slightly more modern).

Brian Richardson

Mission Motors – Lap record at Leguna Seca
Over the weekend, 25th June 2011, Mission Motors participated in REFUEL, a Time Trial event for clean power vehicles at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Our rider, Steve Rapp, took the track on the Mission R and set a new EV motorcycle lap record of 1:43.7. The event was an excellent opportunity to push our technology to the limit.  The bike performed really well, and Steve Rapp was very pleased with both the chassis setup and power delivery.

Thank you so much for helping to make this possible-- we couldn't have done it without you. We are planning to continue using your wheels for testing and racing. They rock!
We are looking forward to our next event at the Laguna Seca TTXGP, July 22-24.  We will be on track with practice on Friday, qualifying on Saturday, and race on Sunday.  The Sunday race is the same day as the MotoGP final, and will have many people in attendance.
 
Until then, enjoy this video of Steve tackling the 2.36 mile road course on the mighty Mission R.

Watch the on-board video footage