Other experienced members include Rajiv Vohra - Director of sales and dealer development, who has worked with Honda Siel earlier. Yogesh Phogat, former BMW India employee, is appointed as the company's director of operations and finally Manish Agarwal who will be handling the financial department of HD India. With a team of industry experts HD is surely here to capture the hearts of Indian riders.

Team Agni has vast experience with electric race bike, as team leader Cedric Lynch had built his first electric performance bike way back in 1981. The team had worked for months at a stretch for the TTXGP (the electric superbike GP).

This Indian took the frame of a 2007 Suzuki GSXR 600, fitted it with two Agni 95 reinforced motors and a Kokam lithium-polymer battery of 63 cells that could produce around 16 kilowatt-hours of energy.

The team claims that their e-Superbike can churn an impressive 40 to 50 bhp. So, it was no surprise that their creation was the first to complete the 37 miles course, with team rider Rob Barber riding at an average of 84.81 mph! Meanwhile, Brammo finished third and Mission Motors fourth.

Arvind Rabadia, a former newspaper delivery man worked with veteran engine developer Cedric Lynch to build the winning bike. And how much do you think the team spent on their winning bike? Nope, it's not a couple of millions, but the cost of Agni X01 was around $30,000. That's much lower than the millions spent by other entries.

Rob Barber, the TT racer who rode the Agni X01 for the TTXGP said that it feels like home as soon as you ride it. The rider says that Agni feels better and more peaceful the traditional Suzuki GSX as you can concentrate more because your eyes aren't bleeding.

The TTXGP received 60 entries from 15 countries to compete in the race. Only 16 actually landed at the starting line, out of which just nine finished the actual race.

PRO Class times
* Team Agni (Rob Barber): 26:41 (Agni Motors is indian company, building electric motors)
* Mission Motors (Thomas Montano): 33:45
* XXL (Thomas Schoenfelder): 34.07
* Brammo/Bike (Roy Richardson): 35:47
* Brammo/Bike (Mark Buckley): 35:52
* HTBLAUVA - TGM (Paul Dobbs): 41:53

Open Class times
* ManTTx Racing (Dan Kneen): 32:01
* Barefoot Motors Racing (Chris Petty): 33:35
* Electric Motorsport (Chris Heath): 36:26
* NSR - Kingston University (George Spence): 40:44

[Via: BikeIndia]

"I'm sure they were very frustrated at having to withdraw," Brawn, 54, told the Bloomberg news agency. "I've had many notes from senior people at Honda, so they are frustrated because obviously the team has moved forward, but it was a necessity for their business."

The team netted embarrassing results in the last two years, but during 2008 invested millions of Honda dollars setting the groundwork for the current BGP 001 chassis. With Mercedes power, the 'Brawn GP' car collected both poles and both wins from the opening two Grand Prix of 2009.

[Via: motorbeam]

The Indian team along with five other participating teams from the South East Asian countries was present in Thailand to compete in the Novice as well as the Experts class.The ASEAN Cup is a platform for upcoming racers from every country to compete against each other in a healthy way. Every rider gets a bike through a draw ensuring fair competition.

The racer along with his pit crew then gets the opportunity to set up the bike according to his requirement. This can include changing gear ratios, tuning carburetors and adjusting the riding posture, etc. The bikes provided for the Novice class were Yamaha T110s while the ones provided for the Expert class racers were the Yamaha T135s.

A set of sprockets and jets was also provided with each bike. With an extra pair of tyres, the rider had an option to shift to brand new rubber for the race day. Going for practice sessions, coming back in the pits, providing the mechanics with appropriate data to set up the bike and then going out on the track again to see how the new setup works was the agenda for the first day.

Though this was the case with most of the participating teams, for Team India it was more about getting used to the new type of motorcycles and the tight racetrack - something that the Indian racers have never experienced before.

Knee-scrapping on the underbones on the bumpy track was something the Indian racers started doing within an hour of practice. However, with such a limited time on the machines, it wasn't possible for Team India to exploit the full capabilities of the bikes.

[Via: BIKE]

Valentino Rossi, better known as the Doctor will be competing in the second round of the World Superbike Championship at Losail, in Qatar on 15th March. Troy Bayliss has also decided to accept the challenge by returning from his retirement one last time to compete against the Doctor.

According to reports Rossi will be seen in action on the R1 while Bayliss will be riding the Ducati Corse 1098. Rossi will also have long time arch-rival Max Biaggi and AMA Superbike Champion Troy Corser for on-track company!

Rossi has always maintained that he wanted to race against Bayliss. Lately, he has said in interviews that Superbike Championship Racing is more interesting for him than MotoGP. Don't miss it as the Superbike Championship round at Qatar will definitely be one of the most viewed sporting events in history.

[Via: Bike]