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Isle of Man

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Carbon fiber products manufacturer 666 Road Racing has announced its plans to enter into the 2010 Isle of Man TT Zero event, making them the first announced team to enter the TT Zero event with a Mavizen electric sport bike. Mavizen, as many may remember, is owned by Azhar Hussain, founder of the TTXGP, which was recently ousted by the Isle of Man, which then created the TT Zero racing class for the Isle of Man TT. This announcement is a turn of events as it was previously believed Azhar would not let a Mavizen bike compete in rival series created by the FIM and Isle of Man.

Starting with 2010 and for the next two subsequent years, Arai will make a limited edition Isle of Man TT series of helmet. Each helmet will be designed by Aldo Drudi, and will be limited to 500 helmets. The move is part of Araii’s sponsorship package with the IOMTT, and will see the venue get a cut of each helmet shown. First up for 2010 is this Arai RX-7 GP that features the Three Legs of Man symbol.

Officially official now, Team Agni has confirmed their entrance into the Isle of Man’s TT Zero electric racing event. Although we’ve suspected for some time that this announcement would come, Agni through up a dust storm a couple months ago when they said they would not compete at the Isle of Man if generators were being used to power the TT Zero paddock. The use of generators was quickly denied by TT Zero organizers, and apparently Team Agni was content with their response. For 2010, Agni will field two bikes on the TT Zero grid, with the hopes of achieving the first 100+mph speed average over the Mountain Course.

BMW announced today that it will send a factory backed team to compete in the Isle of Man’s Superbike and Senior TT’s. This announcement ends over 30 years of the Bavarian brand’s absence at the Isle of Man. For Austrian-based KTM, this will be their first time running at the Isle of Man TT. The KTM RC8 R will be entered in the Superstock, Superbike, and Senior TT’s. More after the jump.

MotoCzysz has confirmed today that they will be racing at the Isle of Man’s TT Zero event. The Portland based team has been hard at work on a new bike design that they feel not only has a chance of breaking the 100mph barrier, but possibly winning the event as well. MotoCzysz was a favorite in last year’s event, but failed to finish after suffering a failure to its Agni electric motor drive system. Learning from that hard taught lesson, Czysz & Co. are expected to return to the Isle of Man with their new 2010 E1pc, and tackle the Mountain Course once again.

In the flurry of press releases sent out by TTXGP regarding what teams were signing up for its racing events, TTXGP mentioned that several teams had agreed to exclusive deals to compete only in the TTXGP series of races. At the time, this meant that the teams would be racing in their local TTXGP series events, the Isle of Man, and possibly at the Championship event in Spain. However with the announcement that TT Zero would replace TTXGP at the Isle of Man, teams that were hoping to race at the Isle of Man, may find themselves precluded from the event because of these prior obligations. Talking to a number of American electric motorcycle teams this past week, it is clear the first priority for all these teams is to race at the venues where the best competition will be…wherever that may be.

For many teams the Isle of Man represents the pinnacle of electric motorcycle racing. Having already run the Mountain Course before, there is a tangible baseline in electric racing that is defined by the historic course. On top of this, the Isle of Man offers an opportunity for teams around the world to compete against each other in a race that has gained a great deal of exposure over the past year, and is a known entity to everyday motorcyclists.

Late last month it was announced that the eGrandPrix who ran the 2009 TTXGP clean emission race at Isle Of Man TT would be replaced by TT Zero. TT Zero would be run without the involvement of eGrandPrix and instead the responsibilities would be split among the IOM Department of Tourism And Leisure and the ACU. Speculation followed about the FIM’s role in the TTXGP’s departure and the reasons for TT Zero coming into existence.

The Isle Of Man issued a statement in response to speculation on why TTXGP was replaced by TT Zero at the Isle Of Man TT for 2010. We are waiting for a response from TTXGP which we will add to this post. Please check back for updates. Click the break to see the full statement from the Isle Of Man.

Update: A response from TTXGP is posted at the end of this blog post.

For MotoGP fans, Mark Neale’s Faster is probably the pinnacle of  portraying two-wheels on the big screen (or in your living room). It chronicles the progression from two-stroke 500cc GP racing to the birth of MotoGP and four-stroke prototypes. Neale’s newest work, Charge, carries on with this same vein, and documents the world’s first electric motorcycle race, the TTXGP, at the Isle of Man TT last year.

Ewan McGregor is back narrating along with plenty of on-bike footage and candids with all your favorite e-moto personalities. Available in Spring 2010, this movie is sure to take up a spot on your DVD rack…we certainly can’t wait to see it. Trailer after the jump.

Tork India, third place Open Class winner at this year’s TTXGP at the Isle of Man, has posted up a teaser on Facebook announcing the imminent arrival of their new electric motorcycle racer. While the photo being displayed on Facebook is really just a GSX-R cover with the Tork logos superimposed onto it, we’re still excited to see our first glimpse of the new Indian racer after the new year.

With the announcement of Mavizen’s TTX02 KTM RC8 look-alike taking up all of the spot light, Mavizen’s other project the TTX03 has quietly been hinted at by the company, and is expected to be an electric supermoto racer. Continuing what is shaping up to be the worst naming structure in the industry, the TTX03 also shows the links between Mavizen and the TTXGP organizers.

One of the most successful TT racers of the 1950’s and 1960’s, the Manx Norton dominated the 50cc and 350cc classes. This 350cc Model 40M features a “Featherbed” frame, and was raced in the 1957 Isle of Man TT by Norton Team rider, Bob Keeler. Keeler owned and raced this motorcycle as a privateer racer with factory support from Norton. The bike is now owned by Allan Grimm of Piedmont, California. Pictures after the jump.