RW-3

Performing so well for two years straight at the Isle of Man had the team in incredibly high spirits, and we were excited to continue paving the way into the future of racing. However, after re-evaluating the Isle of Man competition and some of the logistical issues of transporting about 1000 battery cells through national borders on a limited budget, the team decided upon a new competition at which to showcase our prowess in 2015: the United States’s own Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

At 12.4 miles, 5,000 feet of elevation change, and 156 turns, Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is the second oldest motorsport race in the U.S and a completely different beast than the Isle of Man. With a shorter course more focused on acceleration and handling, the team had to go back to the drawing board and design a completely new bike, designed solely with the intention of breaking the overall motorcycle lap record.

With Rob Barber returning as our rider and making his U.S. race debut, the team ran into an unfortunate bout of bad luck; during testing two weeks prior to the race, Rob and RW-3 high-sided during a cool-down lap after hitting black ice on the track. The team rebuilt the damaged bike and recruited a new rider, PPIHC veteran Joe Prussiano, to substitute for the injured Rob in the span of a week. For our Stateside professional debut at the 2015 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Buckeye Current took 2nd place in the Electric Modified class with a time of 11:12.0, also giving us 16th place overall in a field of over 30 gas and electric motorcycles.