After AMA Pro Racing and Virginia International Raceway had their little hubbub over hosting one of the last road racing events on the AMA calendar, the news that the two parties had fallen-out meant that the TTXGP round scheduled to piggyback off the VIR round was by proxy also cancelled. With TTXGP’s New Hampshire round (yes, you read that right…New Hampshire) also cancelled because of worries over competitor attendance, TTXGP’s joint-round with the FIM e-Power Championship at Laguna Seca threatened to be the series’s final running of the 2011 season.
With rumors swirling at the US GP that TTXGP was hard at work securing a final round, we get word tonight that the final round will be held at the venerable Miller Motorsports Park on the weekend of September 3rd & 4th. With MMP hosting Bike Fest (a regional gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts) during that weekend, TTXGP will presumably become a part of the Fests’ festivities. That is of course if anyone actually shows up to the racing event.
One of the strengths in the previous TTXGP schedule was the fact that the electric motorcycle racing series followed the AMA Pro Racing calendar, thus ensuring not only that race fans were in attendance; but perhaps more importantly, that the associated motorcycle press was at the event as well. Without any sort of media opportunities available at the race, would-be TTXGP competitors have little motivation to make the trek out to Salt Lake City (if an electric motorcycle race happens in Utah, and no one is there to see, did it actually happen?), especially when the TTXGP North American Championship has all but been buttoned up by Brammo, thanks in part to some crafty reading of the TTXGP rulebook.
With the costs involved to bring the major players all the way out to Utah from their west coast habitats, and assuredly almost no media exposure to come from the event, it’s a tough proposition for race teams already low on cash to come race at an event like Miller Motorsports Park. With this venue and event, there exists all the makings for repeating the flop that was New Hampshire (another non-AMA Pro Racing calendar event we might add), and despite TTXGP’s desire to end the season with three races instead of two (one could further argue that Laguna Seca wasn’t TTXGP’s race even), we have yet to hear of a major team committing to racing at Miller.
Photo: © 2011 Jensen Beeler / Asphalt & Rubber – Creative Commons – Attribution 3.0
Brammo will be at Miller with Steve Atlas on the Empulse RR. This would be a great circuit for the teams with higher top ends like Mission and Lightning, so I hope they’re able to make it to show what’s possible on a “fast track”. Kudos to TTXGP for trying to make something happen after the series was dealt a huge blow by the cancellation of the AMA races at VIR, an event outside of their control.
So why didn’t they come to New Jersey with the AMA? I would have loved to see them in person. They would have the biggest audience they could ever have.
Why would anyone schedule a race the same weekend as an AMA Superbike race 3,000 miles away?
Talk about conflicts.
Who does that?