Well, that escalated quickly… AFM Round 1.
- Brian Wismann
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
“Is this where you imagined yourself when you started this project 5 years ago?” It was an honest question from Robert Martinez, our ace videographer. I’m not sure what I said in the moment, but what I SHOULD have said was… “No. … but also, YES!” I knew we were developing a bike in our spare time on a bootstrap budget and even for motorcycle racing enthusiasts, it was niche. Still, I was following my passion and hoped that it would lead to new opportunities that were unthinkable at the time. So… the fact that I was sitting in Buttonwillow with a professional race crew, our newly developed version 3 of the bike, and 2 of the fastest riders in the paddock on hand was pretty darn unbelievable. But then again, we were also exactly where I hoped we would be – i.e. doing something that had seemed unimaginable just a few years ago.
What has now blossomed into a strong partnership with the Chicago based Orange Cat Racing team began with some aligned interests on supporting Jayson Uribe in what was a breakthrough year for him in 2024. Jayson was pulling double-duty riding for Lightfighter in club racing events and Orange Cat on their BMW M1000RR Superstock machine in MotoAmerica. Through chance, I ran into the team principal, Andrew Sieja at Laguna Seca, where he was also competing in the AHRMA series. Andrew was able to study the Lightfighter up close and watch as Jayson broke the EV motorcycle lap record and went on to win races overall against some potent gas-powered motorcycles. We stayed in touch since that event and things began to escalate (in a good way) rather quickly. The two teams joined forces at AHRMA's season ender at Barber Motorsports Park with some strong results and we've been learning from each other ever since.
Rewind to earlier this year in February, and the LF team received an invite to join the Orange Cat race team on a private test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s Road course as a way to get more seat time for their newly confirmed riders, Andrew Lee and Brenden Ketelsen. While we didn’t have the best conditions for the test, it was the perfect opportunity to learn how to work with these new riders and give them their first taste of the Lightfighter’s performance. Andrew and Brenden confirmed the refrain that we had heard from Jayson Uribe when he first hopped on the bike last season – the bike handles really well, provides great front-end feel, brakes like a demon, and generally behaves like a “proper” race bike. The test was a success for us in shaking off the cobwebs and picking up the development of V3 that got put on pause with a mechanical failure at Barber.
Photo credit: Tucker Swanson
In the off-season, we learned that AHRMA decided to drop their electric class they’ve been running since about 2013 due to an unwillingness to invest in proper safety equipment to take to the race events. It was an unfortunate change in heart that no doubt involved some internal politics, but I’ll keep my opinions to myself on that one. I do hope they reconsider this decision in the near future, as Lightfighter got our start racing with the AHRMA organization and Barber has been a great event to cap off our season in years past. So… with a new bike to develop, fast riders on hand, and professional race team support, we looked to find a championship that was both highly competitive and would be willing to welcome us with open arms. That series is AFM, the nation's oldest motorcycle road racing club, where legends like Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Rainey, Kenny Roberts, and Eddie Lawson all got their start. All of our racers successfully competed in the AFM championship in the past with Jayson and Andrew Lee as prior club champions and Brenden Ketelsen as the current champion and No. 1 plate holder.
New Season, New Livery
Here at Lightfighter, we're big fans of neons, pop colors, and bold graphics in bike liveries. I'm also a fan of relatively simple color breaks and graphics that complement, rather than fight, the bike design. For V3, I wanted to come up with a more integrated look with actual paint and gloss finishes and a lighter bodycolor. I was happy with the combination of white and flo-red on the frame and decided to expand the use of that same color on several of the body pieces. The illustration below was the starting point for working with Chloe Maddrill at Maddrill Design to see this through to reality. Chloe also does the livery designs for the Orange Cat Racing team's BMW M1000RRs.
It's hard to judge colors on small swatches, and in the end I chose a slightly darker grey - Porche's "Chalk" color vs. the almost white in the illustration. I'm happy with it, especially in person, where the slight warmth of the color plays nicely with the intensity of the flo-red. Special thanks to Chloe, who got us the decals and numberplates in time for our first round of the season!
Lightfighter LFR V3 sitting pretty in the early evening sun at Buttonwillow Raceway at AFM Round 1. Photo credit: Josh Alvarez
AFM Round 1 - an early start to the season at Buttonwillow Raceway
While we think of our California tracks being rideable year-round, I've learned that race rounds at the start of the year through March and April can be pretty unpredictable when it comes to weather. When AFM announced their opening round at Thunderhill was in early April, I was a bit nervous - but I shouldn't have been. The conditions turned out to be close to ideal for our first race weekend. While we have (3) additional V3 bikes in progress up in Oregon, they weren't going to be ready for this round. We elected to bring in the two local boys - Jayson and Brenden to race V3 and V2 respectively.
It never gets old watching our electric bike rip down the front straight sounding like a fighter jet taking off. Having two bikes nose to tail put that into stereo for us...
Behind the scenes and in the garages with the combined Orange Cat and Lightfighter crew. Photos: Josh Alvarez
Friday Practice
AFM and the track offer a Racer's Only practice day the Friday before the race weekend, and we gladly took them up on that offer having only had the previously mentioned LVMS test to continue development on V3. It's a good thing we started when we did! While Brenden changed very little on his V2's setup and generally took to it like a duck to water, Jayson was having quite the opposite experience on V3 and looked like he was working pretty hard to keep the bike underneath him. In the end, a misread potentiometer lead us down the wrong path on set-up and it took us the majority of the Saturday to get back to a reasonable setting. Luckily, Jayson's an amazing rider and still managed to best our previous lap record every time he went out, even as we were still just trying to find our baseline.
Qualifying & Race Day
The team made the most out of the quick practice and qualifying sessions in the morning and early afternoon on Saturday, focusing on getting Jayson a more compliant steed while Brenden continued his acclimation with minimal changes. We were lucky to have the support of suspension expert Mike Canfield to help us make quick spring changes on Jayson's shock as we chased that setup.
Brenden showed why he's the no.1 plate holder in the club in qualifying, besting Jayson's time from last year on V2 with a 1'49.082 while Jayson impressed by dipping into the 48s for the first time on V3. It was enough for the pair to qualify 1-2.
After a quick morning warm-up to get some heat in the battery cells (and racers), we waited patiently for our first race of the season - Middleweight Superbike. We were slotting both riders into this class, with Brenden ultimately having the tougher job of managing his race to not push V2's battery too far trying to keep up with Jayson on V3 with superior battery capacity. We let him know that he should stay around a 1'50s lap time to ensure he'll have the battery to complete the race. Brenden obliged but kept Jayson honest as the two cleared off from the pack to take a 1-2 in the class! Jayson dipped into the 47s this time out on V3, improving significantly over his qualifying time...
For the afternoon's races, we opted to throw Jayson and V3 in at the deep end (with the Race Director's approval) with the new Formula 1 class that includes 1000cc Superbikes now. Brenden would stay in the Formula 2 class, where the Middleweight Superbikes (think modern MotoAmerica Supersport bikes) race. I will mention that AFM and CRA have elected to schedule race rounds on the same weekend, which is forcing the field to choose which series to attend, rather than having two great options for California racers. With CRA running tracks closer to LA and AFM in NorCal, it's effectively splitting the field that used to all come to the same event. So... we did see smaller grids and thus less competition. I'll also note that the BPR team (Bryce Prince Racing) that has been omni-present on the podiums over the past few seasons has taken their program to MotoAmerica, so they were also a no-show apart from a few customer bikes. In the end, you can only race whomever shows up, so that's what we did!
I'll let the results speak for themselves. Jayson not only won the Formula 1 class, but he also set a new Lightfighter (and EV motorcycle) lap record of 1'47.110, smashing last year's record by over 2 seconds. It's these kinds of huge gains that keep us motivated to keep going and justify the choices made along the way. Let's be honest - they also point out what a skilled and capable rider we've got on the team to be able to provide the feedback needed to the engineers and keep the bike upright, even when we get it wrong...
For Brenden, he was still under battery management orders and obeyed brilliantly. It's clear from the results that the Middleweight class was a bit more competitive this time out, but Brenden managed the race beautifully and fended off an early charge from Stephen Rue.
And so, we ended our first race weekend of 2025 with plenty to be smiling about. We went 1-2 in the Middleweight Superbike race and each rider took home a 1st place trophy with a class victory as well. Jayson showed that theirs more potential to be had from V3 while setting a new lap record for us. And we had a great time doing it!
Along with his racing duties, we also asked Jayson to record a short video piece for our friends at Pirelli detailing why there's such a great fit between the tires they produce and our electric race program. Jayson nailed the spot and Robert Martinez came through with an awesome edit. Don't be surprised to see this on Pirelli's social channels as well!
While our program escalated quickly in resources available to us, our small team really had to step up to the added expectations. Each time out, we're looking for meaningful improvements on multiple facets of our bike, our race craft, and getting the most from our professional riders. We're off to a great start - let's see if we can maintain this momentum. Stay tuned for our Round 2 recap, where we finally let Brenden try V3 and don't ask him to hold back...
Thanks to all of our sponsors, especially Orange Cat Racing, Farasis Energy, and Pirelli Tires. For more great content from this round, check out our Instagram account @lightfighterracing
Also - Be sure to check out the saved stories for a way to re-live the stories from these past events. You'll also be up to date with our latest events as I frequently run behind in getting the blog updated.
-Brian.