ENERGY FIELD

Rider, builder and organiser all report from the first ever Electric National flat track race

Words: Jamie Robinson, Brandon Dawson, Thor Drake Photos: Cameron Strand, Erik Jutras, Kyle Hannon, Jason Hansen, Dylan Andrako, Sammy Halbert

Our frontline correspondent Jamie Robinson, no clutch, no noise, and, as it turns out, no chance

RACER

THE FRONT ROW is tightly packed, bar-to-bar. All eyes are on the starter, waiting for his flag to drop, but it’s so quiet I can hear my own squeaky farts, and the crunching of the chubby kid munching on popcorn in the stadium seats to my right. A deafening silence has fallen around Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum in anticipation of the first ever Electric National flat track, part of 2020’s One Moto Show. To my left, I have a host of motorcycle pros including Davis Fisher, Andy DiBrino and none other than Slammin’ Sammy Halbert. Halbert is the holder of 13 Grand National victories, a de facto National #1 and someone who has already used me as traction in a heat race earlier in the day. Prior to this nerve-jangling moment I’ve done four practice laps and nearly got lapped1. Next it was time for the six-lap heat race, and I nearly got lapped. Slammin’ Sammy crashed in turn 1 and he still got back up and beat me into last place. He skilfully slid up to me then slammed into my side, causing me to take a sharp right in this left-handed sport. It was a hard hit, but ‘rubbing is racing’. Still, you could say I’m feeling less than confident about what is to come… As the starter makes his way towards me, my right wrist begins to twitch in anticipation, but there’s no noise, no vibrations, no toxic fumes to get me high. This is a very real-life Scalextric slot car race, and I’m sat on the joystick. To add to the madness, I don’t have a clutch to drop, or gears to shift, only a throttle to twist and go and brakes to squeeze and stop. Half of what I know about riding a motorcycle is missing, and yet, I’m about to race one. With a nod of my head to the starter, signalling I’m ready to go, he makes his way down the line shouting, ‘Eight laps!’ What? I thought it was six. I’ll do well not to get lapped. But the flag man has made a mistake and returns, waving his hands and shaking his head. I’m relieved for a split-second until he shouts, ‘No, no, 12 laps! 12 laps!’ My heart sinks. I shout out loud, ‘What? 12 laps?’ The rider next to me quietly says, ‘Yes, 12 laps.’ Up until now, every start line I’ve ever sat, on from being ten years old, has featured deafening, revving engines and vibrations that tingle through you like an electric shock. Usually, just seconds before the start, you can’t hear yourself think, let alone hear someone speak. Now, I’m hearing everything, much of it I don’t want to, and wish I was wearing the same earplugs that I’d laughed at my competitors for using as we geared up. It is all oddly surreal as the starter raises his flag. I pin the throttle back and wheelspin my way towards turn 1 with a gaggle of other racers. I don’t know if you’ve been concentrating, but there is no ‘VVVRRROOOOMMM! or BBBbrrrraahhHH! Just a ‘WWhhhiiiizzzZZ! And a BBiiiiiZZZZZ! Like a swarm of

(clockwise from top left) BlatantMoto crew meet their rider, Andy DiBrino in The One Moto Show’s exhibition hall the night before the race; Temporary track in Portland’s Veteran Memorial Coliseum; Wet winter clay made track conditions tricky; Organiser, Thor Drake, receives some feedback; DiBrino leading the pack; Road racer Cory West, one of Zero’s entries; Thor is a shovel head; Zeroes for heroes: 69 is Sammy Halbert, on his right is Davis Fisher, 0 is West, 499 is Zero R&D test rider, Trevor Doniak

Appendix

1 Englishman Jamie Robinson is no mug when it comes to racing bikes, he’s a former World Championship Grand Prix 125, 250 and 500 racer and has competed at the Isle of Man TT.

aggressive bees around a hive. There’s plenty of argybargy going into turn 1 and I keep well out of it, hoping to pick up the pieces, but no one goes down and my wide line is for nothing. I exit turn 2 dead last. Going into turn 3 a rider goes down on the inside and I have to take avoiding action, more time lost, and as I cross the line to end lap one I’m already nearly half-a-lap down on the leader, and there are still another 11 to go. Oh boy, this is going to be a long race – for me, at least. I blow corner after corner and waste more time as I try to get used to the Zero’s lightning-quick kick in the on-off powerband, which has nearly spat me over the high-side a few times already. As the laps wear on and I lose sight of the next rider, a dread fills me. It is only a matter of time before I’m going to be used as traction. This time, before I get whacked, Sammy does me a favour and shouts, ‘Get out of the way!’ And I hear him! I do just that and avoid being used as a berm once again. Not wearing earplugs has come in useful after all. Despite my own sluggish performance, which lacks spark and is not lightning fast, the Zero electric motorcycle is the total opposite. This thing is zippy, and goes places fast. It doesn’t feel powerful in the same way as a two- or four-stoke motor does, but you can still feel the energy each time you twist the throttle, and that energy surge connects with the rear wheel. No clutch or gears to worry about, just twist and go, and next to no sound or vibration between your legs. Instead, my hearing is in tune with everything else, like the whizz of the spinning tyre on the moist Oregon dirt, and the clang of the chain as I hammer on the rear brake. For the first time during a race I can even hear the crowd scream, riders yell, and the race commentator jabbering down the mic. This is undoubtedly a different sensation, because a lot of what I enjoy about riding a motorcycle is now missing – things that I believe add to a fulfilling ride – but the rest is the same: two wheels, a powerplant, and, with a simple twist of the throttle, fun is to be had. So plug me in and charge me up, as I am all in for electric motorcycles and doing it the greener and cleaner way. And think of the possibilities of where we can now ride… Imagine more indoor motorcycle races, moto parks in residential areas, and more moto events that combine racing with shows. I’ve had so much fun whizzing around on a dirt oval I could easily have blown my own fuse, and I’m seriously looking forward to my next electric moto experience. But to get the full effect I’ll be making my own brum-brum noises. JR motogeo.com

If you thought first corners were scary, imagine holding the rider meeting in front of this lot

BUILDER

A DEATH RATTLE is the colloquial name for the noise someone makes as they’re about to die of terminal respiratory secretions. This bike is the death rattle of Alta Motors and it is the sum of so many things we wanted to accomplish during our time at the all-electric motorcycle company founded in 2007 in San Francisco. The demise of Alta was painful, but it wasn’t without its positives. This bike is one of them. Not widely known, there was an internal effort at Alta to create a tracker based on the Alta Redshift. For numerous and unimportant reasons, this bike never came to be. After Alta went out of business, we found ourselves without jobs, a surplus of Redshift parts and a bad taste in our mouths about what went unfinished. The three of us (John, Vinnie and I) founded BlatantMoto and set out to create a purpose-built flat tracker. Dale Lineaweaver2 helped us with the frame hard points and we went to work bending and notching tube. We ditched almost everything on the stock Redshift other than the battery and drivetrain. The bike ended up with a 54.5in (1384mm) wheelbase, 25-degree head angle and was more than 30lbs (13.6kg) lighter than it started. Almost as soon as we finished the bike we were invited to be part of the Electric Revolution exhibit at the Peterson Auto Museum in LA. Although honoured, it meant the bike wouldn’t see a race track for a whole year. While the bike was in the museum, we caught word that Thor was organising an all-electric race class at the One Moto Show. The timing of when the bike was to be released and when the race was being held was tight, but we knew we had to be there. With only one chance to go testing, we reached out to James Monaco3, who was nice enough to invite us to his private track and even set us up with Damon Coca as a test pilot. To finally see the bike’s design intention realised, spinning laps on a proper short track, was awesome. With a few small tweaks to the bike, we were as ready as time allowed. Andy DiBrino rode the bike at the race, grabbing a flagto-flag win in his heat. To most, winning a heat race isn’t much to write about, but in that moment it was validation of all the hard work started by Alta and carried on by the three of us at BlatantMoto. During the main, Andy nailed the start, breaking out front early and led a couple of laps before getting stood up aggressively by another rider, pushing him off the podium. All in all it was a success; one that we were proud to accomplish. Our Death Rattle closed the door on Alta and gave birth to BlatantMoto, but, most importantly, it represents a challenge to the motorcycle world for the possibility of what could be next. BD blatantmoto.com

Appendix

2 Flat track engineer and former Alta employee. 3 Monaco is the former AFT Twins racer who was paralysed in an accident at the penultimate round of the 2019 season. Coca is a 23-year-old California fast guy who has competed in AFT’s GNC2, Singles and Production Twins classes.

ORGANISER

FINALLY, AFTER YEARS and years of talking about ‘Wouldn’t it be cool?’ and ‘Man, I wonder if it would work?’ there are enough electric flat-track-looking race bikes to have a full-grid race. I took notice of this and somehow talked Zero Motorcycles into co-hosting a professional indoor short track race: electric bikes plus nationally recognised riders. Getting pros to participate wasn’t too hard. Sammy Halbert asked if there was money on the line and I told him, ‘Yes, $1000 in $1 bills.’ He was in. When I asked Davis Fisher if he wanted to race my bike, he said yes without hesitation. I find it funny that flat trackers by and large are the most accepting of the electric wave, when much of the rest of racing is pretty well consumed by tradition. Try getting a motocrosser on the electric wagon and they will most likely laugh in your face. They usually say something like, ‘What about the sound?’ Like if you can’t hear the bike it’s not actually going fast. I’m going off on a tangent, but it strikes me as a funny opposition. So then came the day of the big race, The One Pro, inside a 12,000-seat historic venue right in downtown Portland. Part of a weekend of motorcycle celebration called The One Motorcycle Show. I expected the race to be so quiet that you could hear the grunts of the racers or some shit-talking in the corners, possibly even a pin drop. As it turned out, that wasn’t the case. The buzz of the crowd and the whizz of the chains created a unique and satisfying sound, loud enough to feel the intensity but not the ear-destroying scream of ten bikes inside your grandma’s house. And it was the best racing I saw all night. Every bike was set up to a different spec, but with the same game-levelling power. It came down to aggressive riding and a slow hand. Sammy Halbert came out victorious, but not by his usual half-a-lap lead. It was anyone’s win, and all the riders could see the glory of winning the first ever Electric National. You’d better believe we will be doing this again next year, bigger and better (but not louder).

TD @the1moto

(above) Halbert’s One Pro Race spoils; (below) Sammy’s celebratory burn out at the end of the first Electric National

SCRAMBLER STYLING

WITH MODERN PERFORMANCE.

Who? What? When? Why? Where?

Anthony Brown

Interview: Gary Inman Illustrations: Toria Jaymes/Stay Outside

You head up the Dirt Track Riders Association, running flat track races in the UK and Europe, and you’re the current European vintage flat track champion, but when was your first bike race?

It was at a speedway training track, that doesn’t exist now, inside a banger track1, in Farringdon, Oxfordshire, UK. I was 14, so it was 1987. I was riding a methanol-burning, 500cc, two-valve Jawa speedway bike. My dad, Dickie, was a speedway enthusiast who used do vintage demonstrations [read about Dickie in SB24]. It was a pirate race meeting, there were no age limits, so I was against anyone else on a 500cc speedway bike. Previously, I had a moped that I used to ride around a field, but this was my first bike and I did terrible. I’d ridden that track a couple of times, slowly got the hang of it and when the race meeting came up I entered. I was nervous. Racing that bike was like trying to ride a rocketpowered cricket bat. It was so fast.

Did you ever turn pro?

I was never pushed, it was just, ‘See how you get on’. I rode speedway from the age of 14 to 19. I rode for the Milton Keynes Knights, I signed for them on my 16th birthday. At that point I was racing once, sometimes twice a week. I raced for a season and a half. I won my first ever speedway race in my last meeting for them. During that season I put someone through the fence and broke their back and knocked myself out. That made me think I probably didn’t want to do this long term. I stopped speedway and did two seasons of grasstrack, representing the South Midlands Centre team, which was a big deal. Simon Wigg2 was our captain. Grasstrack was a big deal then and it was hard to get into that team. Then I went to university and didn’t ride much when I was there, I used to go mountain bike racing, downhills and avalanche cups and that sort of stuff. At the same time, I was passengering a guy in pre-’65 sidecar motocross. I didn’t have any money and he paid for everything. When I got a job I bought a trail bike and started doing some enduros. That was the first time I’d ever ridden a bike with brakes. Before that it was speedway and grasstrack only. I used to do long-course enduros, where a lap would take the whole day. That progressed into doing rallies; the first was in 2004 and I did about four of those in Morocco. I worked for the organisers at two Tuareg Rallies.

How did flat track come into your life?

It was the year Kenny Roberts’ MotoGP team finished in the UK3 , as a celebration of winding up they organised a day at Peter Boast’s CCM Flat Track School. I think it was end of 2007. Me and Geoff Cain4 went along. We rode the DRZ-powered CCM FT35 at Rye House and that was it. I bought an SR500 and went flat track racing. My first race was at Buxton. I had a shitty start in my first heat, everyone fell off in front of me and I ramp-jumped a bike that was lying on the ground. I finished out that season and over the winter we built the first Co-Built Rotax5 .

What has been your most memorable win so far?

The most memorable result, not a win, was 14th at Weston Beach Race [in Weston-super-Mare, UK] on a sidecar against 120 motocross sidecars. Everyone in front of us was a pro motocross sidecar team. I was driving and Geoff Cain was passengering. If it’s a win, it would be the 2011 Short Track UK Thunderbike series. I’d never won a championship before.

What’s your favourite flat track?

Mariánské Lázně. It’s in the Czech Republic. It’s in the centre of town, surrounded by hotels and houses. The town looks like it’s out of the film Grand Budapest Hotel, a spa town, they have to sweep the streets after a race because it’s a deep, pea gravel track, nearly 1100m (almost three quarters of a mile) long.

What the best bike you’ve ever raced?

My Co-Built Rotax. The best bit about it is I’m racing it in the knowledge that me and my friends built it. The Rotax engine is a simple, tuneable motor that lends itself really well to a flat track bike with good handling.

Appendix

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1. Banger racing involves stripped-out former road cars (old bangers). Colliding with opponents’ cars to damage them is the norm. 2. Grasstrack and speedway pro, five-time world long track champion. Died of a brain tumour in 2000, aged 40. 3. KR’s MotoGP team was based in Oxfordshire, UK, Anthony’s home county. He was friends with some of the employees. 4. Co-founder of Co-Built, racer, frame maker, exhaust fabricator. 5. Anthony, Geoff and motorsports design engineer Barry Ward have created a number of Rotax-powered framers under the name Co-Built. See SB9.

And the worst?

I raced a rigid Triumph grasstrack bike called Killer. You had to put your leg under a bar on the right-hand side and full-leg trail with your left. Nearly everyone who got on it ended up severely hurt. I rode it at Reading speedway track and didn’t get hurt, but it was super sketchy. Because your leg was trailing, you couldn’t do anything to save a crash and the front wanted to tuck all the time.

What’s the worst injury you’ve suffered?

Either multiple concussions or a broken leg, depending how I get on in 20 or 30 years and if I can remember anything or not. Or perhaps when I impacted speedway track shale up my bumhole. I was racing speedway and I’d almost worn through my leathers doing practice laydowns6 , then we had a practice race at the end of the day and I crashed going into the corner, my leathers wore through and the dirt went right up inside. I had to sit on a pile7 cushion at college for two weeks. Or the time I crashed and my cock went black.

Who is the toughest competitor you’ve raced?

Wayne Drake in the Thunderbike class. If he wasn’t beating me, he was falling off in front of me or running me over. a lack of people prepared to do that. I felt if I didn’t [at that time] nobody else would8 .

What’s the best bit about running the DTRA?

When you see people who’ve had a really great day, then the feeling on a Sunday night when you’re finished and you don’t have to think about it for a few days.

And the worst thing about running an amateur race series?

Pushy dads.

You have a good job outside racing, and run the DTRA as a non-profit organisation, does that help you make decisions?

It takes the pressure off making business decisions, because you can make them based on values. If the main purpose of the DTRA is everyone comes along and has a good time, you can make the decision based on that, not on how much money it’s going to cost, as long as the club can afford it.

Who is the greatest flat tracker of all time?

Because greatness is not necessarily about someone who’s done all the winning, I’m going to say Aldana. I feel his reputation, personality and charisma – and the fact he still races after all this time – is inspirational.

You run the series in the UK and Europe. What made you want to take that on?

First and foremost, I didn’t want it to stop, because I was enjoying it. Secondly, I’ve always been involved in helping organise motorsport in some way or other and there’s

Appendix

6. Deliberate lowside crashes. 7. Piles is UK slang for haemorrhoids. 8. The DTRA was formed at the end of 2012 when the previous UK race series, Short Track UK, ceased promoting races.