If you’re not First, you’re Last.

Jayson Uribe pilots the Orange Cat Racing Lightfighter v3 to it's maiden victory at Barber Motorsports Park. Photo credit: eTechphoto

The season ending round of the AHRMA race schedule takes place at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. It’s the crown jewel of the series and arguably one of the largest motorcycle race events in the US with an estimated 85,000 in attendance over the 3 days. Based on a stellar result at Laguna Seca, along with a chance encounter at that race, the Lightfighter team had a unique opportunity to not only attend the Barber round, but to do so with the support of rider Jayson Uribe’s Orange Cat MotoAmerica race team! That team had just wrapped up their 2024 season taking a successive 2nd place in the Superstock 1000 championship. That level of support lit a fire under the whole team to accelerate the completion of our “v3” bike to make its debut at the race. An ambitious goal, but ambition is what drives this whole program to continue to make progress. And waiting until next season to see v3 race sounded like torture….

Over the course of just a few months, the V3 bike went from a pile of parts to a running motorcycle. The main build took place at Ely's shop in Ashland, Oregon with final race prep and electronics package being added at Nick's garage and my shop in northern California.

Three of a kind. The green and orange frame bikes are both v2 and the red frame is the new v3 bike.

Luckily, our friends at Kramer Motorcycles were traveling across the country to race their new APX-350 MA race bike and offered us some space in their box truck to get our 3 bikes to the track. The time was so short to get V3 ready, these were the only photos of the finished bike prior to rolling it off the truck at Barber!

Troy's bike looked to be all set for practice on Thursday with a morning top-off charge in the co-branded Orange Cat/Lightfighter pit area.

Proof that Troy made it on track at the start of the event. Photo: eTechphotos

After a surprise powertrain issue in the first session, Troy’s race weekend on Lightfighter was over almost as soon as it began. We discussed putting him on v2, but agreed there would be too many set-up changes vs. Jayson’s settings AND v3 was still untested, having just been completed days before the race weekend. Luckily, Troy already had planned to be the first journalist to race the new Kramer APX-350 MA MotoAmerica bike, so he was still able to take part in the race weekend. We did miss him in the Lightfighter pit though…:(

After a single practice session to reacquaint with v2, Jayson and the combined LF/Orange Cat crew turned full attention to shaking down v3 and getting her ready to race.  Feedback and data were processed swiftly and efficiently after every available session. The rear shock and front fork springs were changed no less than half a dozen times in a quest to find the perfect balance and set-up. Meanwhile, the LF team focused on charging and improving the power, regen, and TC mapping with the Motec VCU that Troy has been helping develop all season long on his bike.  It's always impressive to me to see a team hit a flow state where everyone inherently understands his or her roles on a team. Even more impressive was how quickly the two teams meshed having never worked together before. We were united by a common goal to give Jayson the best bike possible come race day. It was so awesome to be able to work under the Orange Cat canopy and use their lifts and tools all weekend long!

The 2-days of practice culminated in a timed Pro Class qualifying session on Friday. We had been making solid progress during the practice sessions with Jayson proclaiming the new bike felt like a "more complete package" compared to V2. A good sign given we were just starting on its development journey. With a slightly increased battery size, the performance was also more consistent across the laps and higher voltage gave Jayson a bit more peak power as well. That said, we were developing all new power, regen, and traction control maps, so Jayson was smartly inching his way up to those limits to avoid risking the bike and rider.

The Pro Class is unique to the Barber event and gives professional racers the opportunity to compete for a sizable purse in the top positions. This year, in a bid to attract even more pro racers, AHRMA opened the class up to MotoAmerica spec Supersport bikes, albeit without the same level of tuning restrictions. We knew there would be some fast riders on fast bikes in this class. We sent Jayson out knowing he was going to get some clean laps chasing some fast riders in an effort to set our own benchmark on the new bike...

Jayson uses all the track and then some during qualifying for the Pro Class race... Photo credit: eTechphoto

... And what a benchmark he set! Jayson got well under the 1'30 mark for the first time in Lightfighter's history at the track with a 1'29.158, placing him in a solid 8th place as the only electric bike in the field.

It was very cool seeing Lightfighter on track with MotoAmerica Supersport machines! Photo credit: eTechphoto

 Now... what I failed to mention is that when AHRMA opened this Pro Class race to MotoAmerica spec machines, they also increased the lap count on the race to 12 laps from the previous year's 10 lap event. While the V3 bike has more battery capacity, it wasn't enough to account for both the increased pace AND the increase lap count needed to be competitive. It was clear from the qualifying times that Jayson would need the full performance of the bike over the full lap count to finish in the top ten or better. While the team was up for a challenge, this was just a bridge too far. Had the lap count remained the same as the previous year, I think we would have gone for it. As it was, we stuck to our regular Formula Lightning Extreme and Formula Thunder classes, both with more manageable 8 lap races.

Jayson lined up for Saturday's Formula Lightning Extreme (FLE) race with only a single competitor in Pete Nicolosi on his Energica Ego. It was an easy win in the class for the bike's debut race and Jayson made his way up from a second wave start up into 7th overall in the first wave SOT1 field. A solid performance that gave us some strong anticipation for the more competitive Formula Thunder race in the afternoon.

V3 features new Ohlins FGR 252 front forks and Attack Racing triple clamp. Jayson puts them to good use here. Photo credit: eTechphoto

Jayson started the Formula Thunder race from the third row in 8th position. By the end of the first lap, he had used v3's torque to move past those other seven riders and take the lead of the race. Clear of the field, he then went on to set a lap faster than qualifying for the Pro Class and a new benchmark for our program at Barber with a 1'29.063. Jayson was managing his lead when disaster struck on lap 6 of 8 with a something in the motor failing and momentarily locking the rear wheel(!). Jayson's cat-like reflexes allowed him to keep the bike upright, but it was a scary moment.

The big twin Ducatis were forced to chase the e-bike until our luck ran out on lap 6. Photo credit: eTechphoto

Following the motor issue in the race, the team quickly tore the bike down to assess whether the problem was terminal for v3's debut weekend. Of course, the OC crew asked the sensible question for a professional level race team... "Do you have a spare?". Sadly, no. Each of these motors is a labor of love and while we entertained swapping the motor from one of the other bikes, we realized that there were enough small changes to V3 that would make that tricky. V2 was running well and we brought it as a back-up bike for this very reason. One of our goals for next season is to have a more complete set of spares as it's often more efficient to swap a component than complete a full tear-down and rebuild at the track.

The full root cause of the motor issue is TBD, but we were able to rule out a main rotor bearing failure, so a full diagnosis will come when we pull the rotor from the stator - not something we were prepared to do trackside.

With the v3 down for day 2 of racing, we turned our collective attention back to v2 and attempted to update the chassis settings with everything we had learned thus far. Jayson wasted no time acclimating to his old steed and easily took the win in the Formula Lightning Extreme class. We had one more shot at the Formula Thunder class in the afternoon before a long winter break... and I was a bag of nerves.

Racing v2 and v3 back-to-back gave us some helpful insight in the strengths of the two bikes. The lap times were similar, but v3 came out with the slight edge and much more to come. Photo credit: eTechphoto

I shouldn't have worried. Jayson took the lead by lap 1 and managed it through the end, nearly matching his fastest time on v3 set on Saturday. What impresses me most about Jayson beyond his outright speed is his eternally positive attitude and ability to shrug off setbacks and focus on achieving the best result out of a given situation. And that's exactly what he did on Sunday - he took that v2 bike and achieved 2 wins from 2 starts.

Back on his familiar steed, Jayson got straight back to the pair's winning ways. Photo credit: eTechphoto

Day 2 Recap Video:

I may have aged myself due to the stress of the weekend, but I can’t be prouder of how the team reacted to the challenges to reach the best possible result.  I am also so appreciative of the help provided by the Orange Cat Racing team to raise our collective game.

It was a weekend spent at polar ends of the racing spectrum. We finished first in every race that we finished over the weekend. Jayson took race wins on both v2 and v3 and set lap times in the 29s. In the one race we didn’t complete, Jayson was scored as last place, 2 laps down on the leader.  Troy never even made it to the grid. I don't think that's what Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights meant when he said "If you're not first, you're last.", but it does sum up the extremes of our Barber weekend pretty nicely...

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The Orange Cat Racing & Lightfighter Crew - A force to be reckoned with at Barber! Let's have more of this next season! L to R: Aidan, Andrew, Julian, Joe, David, Kirk, Jayson, Amber, Brian, Meghan, Nick, and Tucker

Big thanks to our sponsors Farasis Energy and Keith Kepler, who finally made it out to see us race! We couldn't do this without your support!