Today Wednesday June 10, 2015, Victory Racing is celebrating its first ever TT podium after Lee Johnston rode a 111.620mph lap in the SES TT Zero race to take third place. First place was John McGuinness, 2nd place teammate Bruce Ansley and 4th place for the other Victory rider Guy Martin on a 109.717mph lap, just shy of the 110mph mark. Lee said in the winner’s enclosure: “Yeah, awesome to be back on the podium again. Every time we go out, we’re getting faster. Think we had a little bit of battery left, so maybe could have went a bit quicker. Fair play to the Mugen boys, but at the end of the day they have been coming here for three years and in their first year they did nowhere near 110mph, so credit to the whole Victory team, it’s an absolutely awesome job. The bike’s so fun to ride because it’s so small, I really like riding it.”
Guy Martin, who stepped in to ride the bike on behalf of the injured William Dunlop, placed fourth, an equally sweet victory in some ways, as he had only ridden two practice laps on William’s No.6 machine ahead of the race. He also posted his fastest lap of the week in the race – a 109.717mph, just shy of the 110mph mark. “It’s a proper fast bike,” he said. “The Victory boys judged it just right to use up all of the battery power as I came over the finish line. I’d need more time to properly get my head around it but I’m happy to have had the opportunity to ride it.”
Victory Racing Team Manager, Brian Wismann, said: “I’m feeling very, very good. It was good day for Victory Racing on our first ever time at the TT. We accomplished what we set out to accomplish… got on to the podium, but we also got a 111mph average in our first ever TT Zero race. Speeds were good, the bikes were good and reliable, they looked great out there. I’m just very, very pleased with all the hard work the team’s put in and the work that the riders have done to get the bikes round here so quickly.”
For Gary Gray, Director Motorcycle Product for Victory Motorcycles, the third and fourth place is reward for all the efforts the brand is putting into proving ‘American Performance’. He said: “I couldn’t be prouder of the team for putting a bike on the podium the first year out and for building the fastest American electric bike ever at the Isle of Man TT. I promised we would be competitive and beating nine of the 10 teams proves American performance.”
A podium finish has also excited Parker, the makers of the GVM electric motor that propelled the bikes. Parker’s US-based strategic account manager, Kevin Holloway said: “We are proud of the entire Victory Racing team for the third and fourth place finishes in the TT Zero. Everybody worked so hard and we exceeded our expectations by setting an American lap record today.”
Victory Motorcycles has been flexing their muscles in various forms, not only by entering the Isle of Man TT, but also by taking part in professional drag racing, running a stunt team and fielding an entry in the iconic Pikes Peak Hill Climb with a prototype and custom race machine built by Victory Racing and Roland Sands Design.
Well hell yeah!
Agreed !!
A double Hell Yeah !!!!
Congrats to the Victory/ Polaris Team
Not bad for a 1st timer
Way To Go !!!!!
Great start. It looks more and more that electric bikes are going to be an ever increasing factor in racing.
Quite Impressive.
Wow! Now just hustle the bikes back and just for a thrill do the the pikes peak run. Doesn’t have to be on race day. Maybe a ” lets do it!” Kind of run. Or maybe bring the bike with the 156 and make competitors nervous! Ha!
Great to see a rider from a competing team step up for another and even place!
Be well
Laurence
TJ says no
Geez, it looks like Victory is going to leave Harley in the dust when it comes to electric bikes. You probably won’t see Harley at the TT with a competitive electric bike for the next 5 to 10 years.
Congrats Victory!
Eager to see their Victory Charger street legal bike.
The Isle of Man TT is one of THE BIGGEST BADDEST tracks to stage a racing effort, and 150 miles is a long way on battery power. For Victory to make this attempt before God and everybody took big, ummmmm, lots of ambition and planning. I am impressed! I wish the team challenging Pikes Peak the same level of success. Go get em Roland! Then show us a new American sport bike.
M
Great job guy’s!
Congratulations Victory, you’re killin it!
Impressive for sure. That bike took a big commitment (including buying an existing electrics company) and really doing everything to make a real debut instead of just phoning it in. Short commutes and balls out racing are the current best niches for electrics and Victory hit it out of the park on the racing end. From riders to builders to the crew and those who wrote the checks-well done!
OK, not to be a nabob of negativism here (I really am a huge fan of electric vehicles), but there were only six entrants in the race, and one of those was a college project bike that did about 70 MPH. The fifth place bike was a non-factory entrant. A good first showing, but not a game changing performance.
Also, the TT Zero is one lap of 38 miles, not 150.
Marcus, Is that a statement on the race or the quality of college education these days?
@ Marcus, even the All-Volkswagen drags are fun to watch, and in their own way that technology and competition is fierce. 🙂
How awesome is that….!!!
A well deserved congrats to all involved.
You guys ROCK….. !!!
-nicker-
Excellent !