Latest News

Qualifying for Assen! (Plus Video)

4th August 2012

TTXGP Press Office

The rain held off all morning for the first day of the Gamma racing weekend at the world famous TT circuit in Assen. Both the first practice and the qualifying session went ahead with a dry track and warm conditions.

The day was full of highs and lows for the teams taking part. As always with prototype technologies, gremlins to appear in the machinery that cause the teams engineers to earn their living and today was no exception.

Agni Motors had once again chosen to run their 2009 IOM TT winning bike but long side the new 2012 racer. However the team experienced some controller issues in the morning session causing new electric racer Kim Bouwer to be frustrated by her lap-times as only one of the twin Agni motor set up was actually functioning as should.   The team had no time to investigate and repair the issues first thrown up in the morning practice given the time between sessions was just over an hour.   The last word from team leader was “we will go faster tomorrow, that is for sure.”

Kim has been joined on the grid with her brother racing a 2010 Mavizen TTX02 for Brouwer Racing Team. He qualifies nearly 25 seconds ahead of his sister but also was frustrated by the speed of the bikes.   As most new to electric racers will find, engineers are keen to preserve their machines; dial down all power settings for new eRacers allowing them some time to get used to the different ride experience of battery verses gas power.   The team have promised better performance times tomorrow as they gear the bike less conservatively

The Muench team were happy with both track sessions, fresh from Laguna Seca where they had taken part in the epower/TTXGP north America joint round the team were excited to return to the European series and a great track.
The team will be busy replacing the front fork this afternoon in preparation for the race tomorrow. Commenting on the qualifying session Matthias Himmelman said “I love my new motor, it is very powerful and once I have my front fork set up just how I like, I know I will be putting in faster lap-times, I know and like this circuit and am confident for tomorrow.”

The intrepid team from China Zongshen Racing are also having a good weekend have introduced a new bike; unveiling as well as testing next years machine during the Assen round gives the team a boost as well as the crowds some insight into how far the technology has progressed in a very sort period of time. Ho Chi Fungs latest machine was fastest out in the morning practice but did experience some heating issues during qualifying.   Ho Chi Fung and Tang Yu have been joined by local favourite Wayne Tessels for todays session.

Results from the qualifying session are as follows :

Pos	No.	Name	team	fastest (in)	gap	diff	speed
1	49	Matthias Himmelman	Muench Racing	1:53.710			144.2
2	59	Ho Chi Fung	Zongshen racing	2:02.617	8:907	8:907	133.73
3	64	Wayne Tessels	Zongshen Racing	2:06.010	12.300	3.393	130.13
4	26	Tang Yu	Zongshen Racing	2:09.283	15.573	3.273	126.83
5	25	Mike Brouwers	Brouwer racing	2:16.858	23.148	7.575	119.81
6	62	Kim Brouwers	Bruwer Racing	2:47.904	54.194	31.046	97.66