Victory's twin racing assault: updated

Victory Motorcycles will mount bespoke campaigns in two very disparate race meetings in 2015: the Isle of Man TT and the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado.

The Isle of Man will see Victory compete in the electric TT race with William Dunlop — the nephew of Isle of Man legend Joey Dunlop — and Lee Johnson, while the hill climb, aka the 'Race to the Clouds' will see the American company team up with Roland Sands Designs to take on the legendary 156-turn circuit which climbs to 14,000 feet.

The Isle of Man project will see Victory enter a professional motorcycle-racing event in Europe for the first time. Parker is providing the race-proven, high performance GVM PMAC motors for both machines.
"The entire Victory team is excited to make history with this effort," said Rod Krois, Victory General Manager. "We know that William Dunlop’s experience and the continued Victory Motorcycles development of this electric race bike through work with Parker will propel us into a strong future with electric motorcycles."

The TT Zero Challenge class event for electric motorcycles is a one-lap race round the island’s 37.73-mile Mountain Course, and is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, June 10.

"I’m more than excited to race this prototype at the Isle of Man," said Dunlop. "Electric powertrains have many advantages, and the Isle of Man is one of the greatest tests in motorcycle racing."

Victory Motorcycles will host a continuous news feed of updates and photos from the Isle of Man TT and will have more information available on the Victory electric prototype race bike at www.victorymotorcycles.com/en-us/isle-of-man. To learn more about Parker and its production version of the GVM traction motors visit http://www.parker.com/hev.

Meanwhile, Roland Sands Design has been hard at work preparing the Pike Peak Challenge, which is known as Project 156.

American firm DEI Powersports is another player in Project 156, with the bike to feature a hand-built racing chassis and Victory’s own in-house prototype liquid-cooled powerplant. DEI Powersports will be providing parts and technical support for the thermal management side.

The engine has twin 67mm throttle bodies with downdraft runners for maximum power and torque, as well as titanium intake and exhaust valves.

There will be more videos to come as the bike moves out of Roland Sands' workshop and onto test tracks. The machine will be ridden at the event on June 28 by Dan Canet from American motorcycle media outlet Cycle World.

Having started in 1916, it is the second-oldest motorsport event in America after the Indianapolis 500. The track measures 19.99km over 156 turns, climbing (1440m) from the start on Pike’s Peak Highway to the finish at 4300m.

“Ever since Victory and Roland Sands introduced me to this project I’ve been counting down the days to the event,” said Cycle World Road Test Editor Canet. “This will be my second time racing the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb. Now that I’ve had a taste of what it’s like I’m ready to get back and finish stronger in 2015.”