NEWS:Canada’s Amarok Racing Reaches For the Clouds, Falls 1 mile Short in Re-started Pikes Peak Race

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Photo by Ray Roske

Pikes Peak, Colorado.  Team Amarok Racing, makers of Canada’s first electric racing motorcycle, competed in the 91st  Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on Sunday.  The event, also known as the Race To The Clouds, is North America’s second oldest motor race, running up the treacherous 156 corners of the mountain course into the rarefied air of the summit at over 14,000 feet.  The race is open to almost any type of motorized vehicle, and includes exotic and production-based race cars, motorcycles, quads, trucks, both gasoline and electric powered, and has long been considered a crucible for new motor vehicle technology.  

Amarok was the only team from Canada, entering their proprietary P1A prototype, an all-electric racing motorcycle developed from blank sheet and entirely hand-made in a 140 year old barn behind the co-founder Michael Uhlarik’s house in Lennoxville, Quebec.  Uhlarik, a 15 year motorcycle industry veteran motorcycle designer who has worked with Yamaha, Aprilia, Piaggio, Bombardier and others, combined forces with Kevin O’Neil, a professional machinist and race car hobbyist to craft the P1A using hand tools.

“Our goal was to demonstrate the viability of our unique SAF battery-monocoque technology and minimalist design philosophy.  Pikes Peak was the ideal location to do this.” explained Uhlarik.  “The Amarok concept is to bring  high performance and unrivalled handling to the track by creating a lightweight motorcycle that uses power efficiently.  Electric vehicles are the perfect platform to do this.  To prove that less can equal more”

The Amarok P1A suffered problems during early tests throughout the week leading up to the race, requiring the team to pull several all-nighters, and forcing them to miss one practice session.  “The Wednesday before the race was brutal.  I hadn’t slept in 30 hours, and the charging system and battery had performed badly.  I had to wake the team up at 2am and tell them we might be done.”  said Uhlarik.  “But we took the next day off from practice, and methodically worked backwards right down to the last electrical connection until we cracked it.  We would never have made it without the network engineering expertise of my friend Christopher Bowes, who came along just for support.” 

Power system troubles solved, the Amarok P1A moved to the qualifying round on Friday and discovered that there simply wasn’t enough battery energy on board to make it to the summit at speed.  “I ran flat several times in practice and had to push the bike to get back down to the pits” lamented Amarok test rider and motorcycle road racer Michael Leon.  “The bike has a lot of potential, but you aren’t thinking about that when you are on the side of the track watching others go by.”

The team spent all day Saturday, the day before the race, adding every extra back-up battery cell that they had brought to boost the total energy carried on board.  “By the end, we added nearly 15% more capacity.  That is a lot, considering that we only had to go 12 miles.”  explained Uhlarik.  “we tried to balance the need for energy versus keeping the weight as low as possible.”

On race day, Leon took off in the Exhibition Powersports division and was looking confident and fast, until a crash further up the mountain forced a re-start.  Having covered about 3 miles there and back, the Amarok P1A’s battery has used up battery power when the race was started over.  Recharging was not possible between attempts.  As a result, Leon reduced speed in hopes of at least finishing the course.  At a section known as Boulder Park, the Amarok P1A coasted to a stop, battery depleted, only 5 corners from the finish.  “It was a big disappointment, but a great adventure.” said Leon after the race. 

Amarok Racing is now returning to Canada to rest, analyze all of the collected data and consider the future.  “The race result was not what we had hoped for, but I am happy with the overall experience.  We know that our chassis technology works.  In fact, of all the problems we had, the only failures came from parts we purchased, made by others.  Everything we designed and manufactured ourselves performed reliably.”  says Uhlarik.  “I think we will be back next year, with a much improved P2, more power, more range, and a lot more experience.”

About Amarok Racing

 

Amarok Racing is the competition arm of Amarok Consultants, a motorcycle industry specialist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.  The Amarok team includes co-founders Michael Uhlarik and Kevin O’Neil, team test rider Michael Leon, a 20 year veteran motorcycle racer and multiple series champion, and a number of supporters including family, friends, and kind strangers. 

 

About the Amarok P1A prototype

 

The Amarok P1A is an experimental technology demonstrator designed to test the company’s unique Structural Aluminum Fuselage (SAF) chassis construction technology.  In Pikes Peak trim, the motorcycle weighed only 137 kgs (301 lbs) making the P1A one of the lightest high performance electric motorcycles in the world.  Full technical specifications are available on the Amarok Racing website.

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