Riding an all-electric superbike against conventional twin-cylinder, gasoline-powered race bikes, Aliso Viejo, CA-based rider Chip Yates placed 2nd and 3rd in two races yesterday at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. As I reported last month, it was the self-funded SWIGZ.com Pro Racing team’s first race with the electric superbike. A statement from the group says Yates posted the fastest lap of 1:39.792 in the WERA Heavyweight Twins Superstock race, in which he finished second. According to SWIGZ.com’s statement, “The all-electric machine was recorded at 158 mph on the straight and appeared visibly quicker to spectators.” A video of the race is available here.
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
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