Featured in the December 2023 issue of Roadracing World & Motorcycle Technology magazine:        

On The Charge: Electric Energica Podiums In MotoAmerica Against Gas Machines!

By Michael Gougis

Energica officials knew that racing in the one-make MotoE class had its limitations. The Energica Evo Corsa is an awesome machine, but at the end of the day, Energica was racing against itself in the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup. And it left unanswered the big question: How would an electric racebike perform against traditional internal combustion gasoline-powered machines?

“We had to prove to people that we had a legitimate sportbike. And you earn your respect on the racetrack,” says Stefano Benatti, CEO of Energica Motor Company, USA.

So last year, Energica withdrew from the MotoE class and prepped a Eva Ribelle RS, the company’s streetfighter model, to compete in MotoAmerica’s Super Hooligan class. And this year, in Race One at Circuit of The Americas, Stefano Mesa was holding down a solid third place on the Ribelle when a last-corner pass went wrong for Jeremy McWilliams on the Indian in front of him, giving Mesa second, the first podium for an electric motorcycle in a professional race against ICE machines. Respect, indeed.

“I knew we had third, but, honestly, those two (McWilliams and Indian teammate Tyler O’Hara) race each other so hard all the time, that when I saw that yellow flag, I thought maybe they’d taken each other out!” Mesa says. “We had a legitimate third. We would have been happy with third. We’re super stoked to get the second place. To get the second was so much better.”

In June of 2022, Benatti told Roadracing World that Energica planned to race in America, but he could not reveal details of where and when just yet. The debut came shortly afterward at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where Mesa was entered on a lightly-modified street Ribelle RS. The results were encouraging, so Tytlers Cycle Racing decided to keep developing the bike (“ribelle” is Italian for “rebel”) and enter the eight-race, four-round 2023 Super Hooligan series.

Mesa scored a seventh and a fifth at Daytona, then DNF and finished fourth at Ridge Motorsports Park, still nearly six seconds off the podium. Then came Laguna, where the results were impressive, but not as impressive as the launch Mesa got in Race One. When the lights went out, Mesa nailed the start and led into Turn One and held the lead for nearly half a lap before finishing sixth. “Our hearts were bursting through our chests,” Benatti says.

The Tytlers team was not looking forward to the COTA round. Heat is the enemy of electric bikes, and the track’s long, fast straights and the forecast high ambient temperatures would not play to the strengths of an electric motorcycle.

But the team had been developing the bike, which now incorporates the company’s Kit Corsa Clienti package. Power management firmware, suspension, and brakes all were upgraded. And the bike worked well enough that Mesa had advantages where he didn’t expect to find them. The bike’s torque got it out of tight corners well; the Öhlins suspension and geometry changes kept the bike stable in the fast corners; and the brakes were amazing. “We’ve done solid work with the package we’ve got,” Mesa says.

The red flag that interrupted Race One in Texas didn’t do the Energica any favors. The few minutes of extra charge weren’t really significant, and the ambient heat didn’t allow the battery pack to cool significantly, Mesa says. Still, Mesa was into the podium positions at the end of the second lap, and was two seconds ahead of Andy DiBrino, who was running fourth, when McWilliams crashed. Fifth in Race Two was anti-climatic, but it was enough for Mesa, Tytlers, and Energica to seal fourth place in the Championship standings. “We could not have asked for more,” Benatti says.

It was good for Energica, but it was also good for Tytlers, which took the chance on an electric racebike program; and good for international energy conglomerate Petronas, which came on board as a sponsor. It turns out that making lubricants for electric vehicles is a new and growing market.

And it was good for Mesa. The 29-year-old Colombian was running his own Supersport and Stock 1000 programs in MotoAmerica when he was approached with a unique opportunity. “We were at Road America and I was riding my own thing, doing the 600 and the 1000 stuff, and Corey Alexander came up to me and said the owner of my team wants to talk to you about a possible ride. So I went to talk to Michael Kiley (founder of Tytlers Cycle Racing.) He wasn’t sure how everything was going to pan out, but it might bring a lot of attention, and it might be the future. I’m really, really glad I took the opportunity.

“When I was doing my own thing, I was changing my own tires, I was the mechanic as well. It was definitely taking a toll on me. I’m super grateful that Michael gave me this opportunity. The biggest thing that changed was having a crew behind me and me being able to just concentrate on riding and going fast. Now every lap counts and I can put in laps and get better at it. I think people are starting to believe in these electric things. I’ve become a huge EV fan since I started.”

Energica’s Stefano Benatti And Giampiero Testoni, On The First MotoAmerica Podium For An Electric Motorcycle Competing Against Gas Machines

“We Are Making History…”

Energica USA CEO Stefano Benatti  and Energica Chief Technical Officer Giampiero Testoni talked to Roadracing World Editor John Ulrich about Energica racer Stefano Mesa taking second in MotoAmerica Super Hooligan Race One at the Circuit of The Americas. Benatti and Testoni were understandable thrilled at the company’s first podium in MotoAmerica competition, and, more importantly, the first podium for an electric bike racing internal combustion motorcycles in a National Series.

Roadracing World: What were some of the difficulties you had to overcome to make the Energica Eva Ribelle RS model competitive against gas motorcycles. Can you explain those?

Giampiero Testoni: First of all, it’s facing different kinds of bikes, different kinds of usage of the bikes. We have of course power delivery, energy usage, and length of the whole race. And most of all, how well the rider adapts to riding something different than what they’ve been used to for the last maybe 20 years.

So first of all I would say the approach we had during this Championship was to allow Stefano Mesa to adapt to the bike, because as you can see he has done a very good learning curve. He has adapted to the bike. He is riding very well.

And at the same time, one of the major issues, major challenges for us, is facing the energy consumption on very long tracks and very fast tracks. Daytona and COTA are two of the most challenging tracks for electric vehicles. Very long straights, very high top speeds, it’s where the bike is getting more energy requests.

So based on that we have been bringing all the experience we had in MotoE the last four years–of course, it’s different because that was a single-manufacturer race. Here the challenge mostly is to race against different bikes that have a clutch, have gears, have a transmission, have a different braking point, so even the lines could be different because of how you have to brake and how you accelerate.

We have a big advantage in torque, so you can see that the start off the grid is great. That’s the biggest advantage of the electric. But at the same time we have super acceleration and one of the highest top speeds, even without a transmission.

Of course, we have to set up the bike perfectly for every track. We have to see how to do the management of the energy during the whole race, so over the weekend we try to gather data. But this is our first year for us on new tracks, and the rider of course is learning. He’s pulling down seconds between each session! So you have the data from the previous session, and then he goes (several) seconds faster. So all the data you have from qualifying is completely different, because he is going faster.

So every time, we have to re-set our understanding of our data and try to set up for the next race, for the next venue. So let’s say that this first year for us is a learning year, although we are doing very well. It is unexpected. We are, OK, we will participate, we will see how it goes, we don’t have great expectations. Second place, the expectations start to get high! The rider is happy, the rider is happy on the bike. He feels he is very competitive.

Roadracing World: No one’s done this before–racing an electric bike against gas bikes with any kind of success. They might have done it a long time ago, but nobody’s done it at the National level and nobody’s done it in the last 20 years that we can recall. We used to see some guys with experimental bikes they built themselves try to do it in club racing, but they didn’t work very well. So basically you are making history with this. Did you expect it to go this well?

Giampiero Testoni: This well? No. We have the experience working with electric motorcycles. We started with racing, working up to production and now racing again for the last 15 years. So let’s say that we are already pioneers–not the first pioneers, but we were one of the first.

We put our racing experience together with a new vision of propulsion, going electric. And let’s say that we brought our road experience to the racebikes, and the race experience to the road bikes, and now again our road experience to racing. We didn’t expect to go that well, but we know the job that our guys have done in the last 10 years and all the development we have done.

We are the reference for the road market for the electric. We are the top level, the top performance, the top styling and so on, so I think that our guys have done a very good job. We have been pushing everywhere. Racing is our DNA, so wherever it is possible …

We ended last year the four years of the MotoE World (Cup), so we said, what’s next? Our colleagues from the U.S. pushed a lot to go racing against petrol motorcycles, so, OK, we said, you know the market. Europe is completely different. So U.S. is a different market.

But at the end of the day, you have to say they were right, because this is proving, as you say, that we are making history. That the electric bike is a perfect alternative to a combustion bike. You can have fun and go fast. You can race against petrol and you can win against a petrol motorcycle. So this is a great shout to the public, showing that there is something else out there. We don’t want to say that everything will be electric, that there will be only electric so you just have to convert. No. But there is an alternative that is as fun, as fast, maybe funner, if you want, for the torque and so on.

The expectations were not this high, so a podium for us is something really unexpected, and at a track like COTA–it’s a really, really demanding track. So we’re very happy, but being in the top 10 was already being a success, then we started being top five, now the podium, so let’s see what’s next!

Roadracing World: What is next?

Stefano Benatti: Racing is a question mark. Anything could happen, so expectations are high. When you see something new coming on the podium, even the other racers have an extra eye on him, saying now he’s a threat! First he’s at the back, now let’s look out for the electric bike with Stefano, because that is really dangerous. When you are a little back, OK, you are a challenge to those at the back but the (leaders) are more calm and know that they are still winning. When you end up being second against 30, 40, how many petrol motorcycles, they are saying, that is something we have to have an extra eye on! So we think expectations are high everywhere, but at the same time Stefano may be the most targeted rider in the race!

Roadracing World: On Facebook, we’ve seen pictures of electric bikes on fire. We see pictures of electric scooters that people have catch on fire. A couple of weeks ago, when we were on the way to LAX airport there was a big traffic jam. In the middle of the raised transition road from one freeway to another there was a Tesla on fire. So some people worry about that kind of thing. So what would you say to someone who is worried about buying an electric bike because they think it could catch on fire?

Stefano Benatti: It’s just because everyone is looking at what is happening on electric. They say, oh, there was a fire. But how many petrol cars do you see on fire but you don’t think, ah, a car is burning. But if you see an electric car is burning you think, ah, we have to take pictures! We have to send it to the media! But maybe you have seen 10 petrol cars burning. So really I think it’s media attention now because whatever is new is scary because you don’t know. So everyone is having an extra eye on what is electric.

Of course you have to pay attention because there are dangers like everywhere. But we are used to petrol. You smell it, you can see it, you can touch it. While electricity is something you don’t see, you don’t smell. And if you touch it, you can get severely injured. At the same time, it’s an electro-chemical system, so if something goes wrong, mostly it is poor engineering in the battery management system or something intruding from the external. A crash, something severe that is damaging the battery. This can lead to a fire. So in that case, I say everything is dangerous, every vehicle.

Roadracing World: Life is dangerous. Racing is definitely dangerous.

Giampiero Testoni: Racing–how many MotoGP (motorcycles) you see when they slide and catch fire? But they’re used to that. An electric vehicle that is catching fire first of all is a different fire, so you have to know how to manage it. It’s mostly about how conscious we are about how we have to fight fire that is coming from electric.

But that is getting more consolidated because we know how the car industry is going on electric, at least in Europe; (by) 2045, we will have to go all electric. So because of that, the push on electric is huge. And (so is) the development on the safety measures, active and passive.

It’s about knowing and reacting  and doing the right thing. Here we are at the racetrack, so it is a closed environment. Anything may happen, so you have to be ready for that. I would say that it’s not something that we have to hide from. We have electricity in every house. You know that you cannot put fingers inside an outlet in your house, because you will get electrocuted. So it’s a different thing. We are getting used to it, we are getting used to the technology, and then it will be normal.