Earlier in the month the second round of the MotoE electric motorcycle racing series got underway at the Pembrey circuit in South Wales.  Its one that I’ve never visited, but I couldn’t miss the opportunity to tie in a visit to the circuit with the chance to go to the Mumbles and Gower Peninsula, two places I’ve also always wanted to visit.


The two electric motorcycles from University of Bath Zero team and the Nova Racing team from University of Delft were present again.  We had been expecting University of Nottingham, but due to a technical issue they were not able to compete.  Once again the electric bikes were mixed up with the petrol ones in the Desmo Duo series.


Practice and the qualifying laps went well for both teams, with Casper Voogt for the Nova team qualifying midfield in a full grid with the petrol bikes with the fastest lap time of 1:07.488 and it looked like we were in for a great race in the afternoon.


Due to extremely wet weather being forecast for Sunday, the event promoters NG Racing decided to hold some of the races on the Saturday in place of the afternoon track session, just in case the weather restricted opportunities to race the following day.


Unfortunately the gremlins struck both teams just before the race start at 3pm, with each team having difficulties in starting their bikes, despite last minute checks that had revealed that everything was in order.  Due to the teams having to find the faults and fix them, both bikes had to start from the pit lane.  Each bike managed a couple of laps before both of them suffered a DNF result.


Nova team had a problem with their motor controller and because it could not be repaired in situ they had to withdraw from the race weekend.  The University of Bath Zero team had a last minute low voltage electrical problem that they fixed temporarily, but to fix it they needed to dismantle the battery box which was best done back in their workshop.

It was disappointing that the teams were not able to race on the Sunday, but at least it gave me more time to view the beautiful scenery on the Gower, so not a wasted weekend and the scenery lived up to the guide books.


Both teams are planning to come back to Donnington for the series finale on 7-8 October 2017 with improved bikes.  Donnington should be an excellent race weekend as there will be more teams on the grid.


For more details about the Pembrey races and MotoE click here.