UTFacultiesETNewsElectric Superbike Twente wins first electric race MotoE

Electric Superbike Twente wins first electric race MotoE

During the first racing weekend at Donington Park, Electric Superbike Twente won the first race. The rider Thijs Peeters started the race, which was a class that combined electric and combustion motorcycles, on the 13th starting position and was able to finish at the 3th position. This made Peeters on the Liion-GP the first rider of the MotoE to cross the finish line.  

During the free practice the team from the University of Twente had a lot of problems. This meant that only 2 laps were made and the team had to work really hard to get the bike ready for qualifying. Just in time the superbike was finished and the qualifying started. Peeters got the 8th fastest lap-time of the whole field of 32 bikes. During the race in the afternoon the team from Twente finished after a spectacular and faultless race on the 3th position. This made the Liion-GP the first electric motorcycle to cross the finish-line in the MotoE class. 

On Sunday, two more races were held. During the first race, a problem occurred, which dropped the superbike to the 32nd place. Peeters had to make a comeback and pushed the bike to the absolute limit. A 8th place among the petrol bikes was obtained.

Race three was started from the third place, which allowed the Twente team to get a holeshot into the first corner. The biggest competitor of the team, University of Nottingham had technical problems and made the race exciting until the finish. Electric Superbike Twente finished 4th and second in the MotoE class. Despite the wet conditions on Sunday, Peeters improved its laptimes to 1.21.1 in the end.  

Peeters: “We have a very good bottom line, and were able to improve the bike a lot in these two days. We’re learning fast”. Team manager Tim Veldhuis is excited as well: “Unbelievable! We’ve already beaten the personal track record of Nova (TU Delft). And we’re not done yet, there are big technical improvements in the works.”

 MotoE is a dynamic Engineering Competition that challenges teams from all over the world to design, build and race electric motorbikes. The series enables teams to test themselves them against the best competitors in the world on iconic race tracks throughout Europe. The next race after the Donington Park race is at the TT circuit Assen on the 1st of September, in collaboration with the OWCup. Points are given each race with a total three racing weekends in 2018.

Photo’s of the racing weekend can be downloaded via www.superbiketwente.nl/media 
For questions, interviews or a visit to the Future Factory: Tim Veldhuis (Team Manager) t.veldhuis@superbiketwente.nl or +31(0)6-534 536 97.

drs. J.G.M. van den Elshout (Janneke)
Press relations (available Mon-Fri)