EV Racing!

ECEDRA announces NJ EV Racing Date in April at Englishtown, the largest race-track in NJ -- and I get conflicting reports: first someone who should know tells me it's the same day as the EV-ent in Macungie (April 30), but the website says April 9.

The same date confusion reigns within the Eastern Electric Vehicle Club as to the weekend date for the 21st Century Automotive Challenge in May: is it the 20-22 or the 27-29?  There is autocross at this event as well as range & efficiency competition.

The US also has no date for its race in the EV Cup, and neither does Spain or Portugal.  The other 4 races in the series are in the UK, which already has them all planned.  Kudos to the can-do UK person!

From their press release:

A Think City EV will be among the vehicles competing in the EV Cup series for electric vehicles in 2011. Credit: EV Cup

The world's first electric vehicle (EV) circuit race series, the EV Cup, will launch in summer 2011, with seven races, including one planned for the United States. Organizers announced on January 13 that the event will include two classes of racers: a city class of EVs for drivers in race-prepared Think cars, and a sport class with teams racing Westfield iRacers that can reach top speeds of 115 mph. A third category, the prototype class, will not feature races, but will hold time trials showcasing the latest non-production EVs on circuits through streets.

Thinks are trickling into Indiana so this story is practically local and logically that is where the EV Cup should be held, but I guess we'll see.  

A quick fishing trip around the EV racing organizations around the country turned up an awful lot of 2010 calendars.  Come on folks, it's the new year: resolve to update your websites!   So I have no more specific EV-ents to plug (please post a comment if you know of one!), but here are a few great EV racing sites:

Of course, Plasma Boy's website, featuring the beloved and rocket-fast White Zombie.  A video of the White Zombie making one kick-ass start after another was very popular at the 2009 EV conversion workshop!

 I also very much enjoyed the zaniness over at Suck Amps

Their main website is here but I recommend going straight to the most bad-ass racing electric postal van ever by clicking on the image above!

One forum that seems active is V is for Voltage's EV Racing forum.  Look, it's the first animated image ever posted on this blog:

ProEV seems to be a bit dormant at the moment, but I have to include it anyway.  The lithium-polymer-powered Green Imp above bested ICE vehicles in six separate events to win an autocross championship in 2005 and then moved on to road racing.   At the end of 2007, in only their tenth outing, they showed that EV's can take on ICE vehicles directly in a sanctioned road race -- and win.

The history of the Green Imp seems to end there, but the ProEV website turned out to be worth poking around in because of two great things:

a proposed set of rules for EV racing -- the level of detail in this was fascinating, with the writer covering everything from the technical concerns to the entertainment value, and putting forth a complete vision for a professional racing structure.

and another EV history moment -- the Narragansett Park Races of 1896.  The article at ProEV.com says 1886, but I believe that's a typo, not a fact.  While I am sure as soon as people started building cars they were starting to race them against each other,  it was the 1890's and 1900's when EV's battled and often dominated ICE vehicles in the auto racing world.  A.L. Riker, who came 2nd in the 96 race, would equal the winning time of 11:28 12 years later on the same track -- beating the best gasoline car by over a mile -- as I learned from Electric and Hybrid Cars: a History (available at Powell's Books, please don't buy from Amazon)