Electric motorcycle team competes with world's best on Pikes Peak
If anyone ever told the student members of The Ohio State University's electric motorcycle team to get their heads out of the clouds, they obviously (and thankfully) didn't listen.
After recently completing the design and build of its racing motorcycle, RW-3x, the Buckeye Current team will compete in the 2016 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, also known as The Race to the Clouds, on June 26. This follows on the success of the team’s 2015 performance at the competition, when rider Joe Prussiano steered the RW-3 motorcycle to a 2nd place finish in its all-electric class and 16th overall out of 52 motorcycles (both electric and gasoline-powered). The team is one of three universities selected to participate in this year’s prestigious 100th anniversary of the race.
The student-led Buckeye Current team operates out of Ohio State's Center for Automotive Research and races at a professional level in national and international competitions.
The product of the team, however, isn’t just the motorcycle. Students in this—and the university's other motorsports teams—are often targeted as by industry recruiters.
Previous Buckeye Current successes include 2013 and 2014 Isle of Man TT Zero performances in which Barber piloted the team’s RW-2 and then RW-2.X vehicles to third place victories, achieving the title of the world’s fastest collegiate electric motorcycle two consecutive years.
Stay tuned to the team’s social media channels for up-to-date information on competition practice runs and results: Twitter (@BuckeyeCurrentRacing) and Facebook (@BuckeyeCurrent).