By Noel Nunkovich
MotorwayAmerica.com

(April 8, 2011) Most of the "green" push in the automotive industry in recent years has been focused on the four-wheeled part of the industry. There has, however, been a smaller but very vibrant movement in the motorcycle world as well. Particularly in the motorcycle road racing world.

The motorcycle industry and race fans really began to sit up and take notice when the event organizers for the world-renowned Isle of Man TT announced that the 2009 edition of the TT would host what was billed as the very first Clean Emissions Grand Prix.

The race was a single lap event held on the famous 37.7 mile Mountain Course on the Isle of Man and was won by Rob Barber riding the Team Agni all-electric, battery powered motorcycle. The winning lap was completed in 25 minutes 53.5 seconds, with an average speed of 87.434 miles per hour.

To put that into perspective, the fastest lap of the Mountain Course during the 2009 event was completed by John McGuinness on a 1000cc Honda CBR1000-RR in 17 minutes 12.3 seconds, with an average speed of 131.578 miles per hour. The electric bikes had a decent showing,
particularly for the very first event, but clearly they were quite far behind the normal internal combustion motorcycles in June of 2009.

Fast forward a year and a half to a WERA motorcycle road race event on Jan. 9, 2011, at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Veteran racer William "Chip" Yates went one step farther than the organizers of the electric bike race at the 2009 IOMTT and the subsequent all-electric races that were featured as part of the 2009-2010 AMA Road Racing program by entering the SWIGZ.com all-electric motorcycle.

Chip Yates during historic race at Auto Club Speedway on Jan. 9

It achieved very impressive horsepower (240 HP) and top speed (227 MPH) numbers during a recent dynamometer test, in two races to compete head to head with standard internal combustion race bikes. In the process, he made a little history by finishing in the top three in both
races.

In the first race, WERA's Heavyweight Twins Superbike class, Yates managed a third place finish after starting from the third row. If that wasn't enough, his encore performance in the WERA Heavyweight Twins Superstock race netted both a second place finish and the fastest lap of the race.

The SWIGZ bike was also clocked at 158 miles per hour during the race. Watch it on YouTube.

Not a bad showing at all for the electrics.