Chip Yates and the Flight of the Century

Chip Yates will be familiar to those of us following American motorcycle road racing - not only is he an accomplished racer on gasoline-powered bikes, he is also the only person to put an electric motorcycle on a podium in a race full of old-school fire-breathers - but he may also be known for his technological prowess. His SWIGZ.COM team - both the engineers and the race crew - are all top-notch on their own, and they make Yates look good. However, this is a different story; this is about the guy who wants to fly an electric airplane around the world - Chip Yates is after the Flight of the Century:

http://tinyurl.com/7g23fxr

Wednesday Afternoon Moto News - SWIGS.COM Pro Racing & Ilmor Viper 152

SWIGS.COM Pro Racing's Chip Yates has been working hard on his TTXGP project machine - his team has been working just as hard and they have even signed on some more sponsors. The team is on track to meet their performance goals; it looks like they may be able to produce an electric racing motorcycle which will lap as quickly as a Suzuki GSX-R600. The ePower, TT Zero and TTXGP confusion is not helping, though. Good interview...

http://tinyurl.com/yfdmfbc

The Ilmor and Viper Motorcycles joint venture has been merrily plugging along and they have finally released some information on their 152-cubic inch V-twin engine - it has been built and is running just fine! That is good news for the group as they prepare to launch the new custom cruiser engine on the worldwide market. They have even been able to hook it up to a dyno, but have not released any number yet. The first machine to sport the Viper Motorcycles-Ilmor V-Twin will be the Diamondback Super Cruiser, which is scheduled to be sold in the second half of 2010.

http://tinyurl.com/yhzn9lw

New TTXGP Team - SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing

The team will be constructing their own electric motorcycle with which to compete in the TTXGP series. They could have just used the Mavizen machine, but why not build it yourself? Their rider will be AMA veteran Chip Yates. It looks as if Yates is an instrumental part of designing and building the bike which he will race. This is the first new team to announce their intentions to race in 2010, but they will not be the last...

http://tinyurl.com/ylyz452