AGV Backmarker: Electric race promoter shocker, Part 2

Last week, I outlined a coup and counter-coup in the emerging world of zero-emissions motorcycle racing. Until recently, there was only one significant electric racing organization, and it was Azhar Hussain’s TTXGP group. Azhar promoted just one event in 2009, but it was a doozy—a one-lap race on the Isle of Man during the TT. It attracted entries from far and wide, including several high-profile U.S. teams, and generated a ton of press—including mainstream media that the “regular” TT usually only attracts when the news is bad. But although everyone expected another TTXGP race on the island this year, the Isle of Man TT organization recently announced it would be promoting its own race, called TT Zero.

If you haven’t read my last edition of Backmarker, you should check it out before picking up the thread continued below. Last week, I presented the TT’s official perspective on this matter. In this week’s Backmarker, I’m going to give equal space to Azhar and his TTXGP organization’s perspective on its falling-out with the Isle of Man.

The decision by the TT to leave Azhar out of the 2010 event puts him in a difficult position. He built up that event as the crown jewel of a global TTXGP plan. Now, he’s competing against his own race.

Over the last year or so, I’ve had many conversations with Azhar, so I was obviously very curious about how the TT’s surprising announcement had affected him. In the course of a long and often emotional interview he spoke at length about forging the relationship with the Manx government that led to last year’s TTXGP race. He spoke, not for the first time, about an often-strained relationship with the largely volunteer organization that actually makes the TT happen each year. And he freely speculated about the motivations that a restructured Isle of Man Department of Tourism and Leisure and the TT organization might have had to drop the TTXGP race, in favor of its own TT Zero race.

Suffice to say that if you created a Venn diagram of the reasons the TT gave for dropping Azhar, and the reasons Azhar gave… well, the intersection would be the null set. In hindsight, I called him too soon. A few days later, he emailed me asking that I not use any direct quotes from that interview.

By immediately scheduling an American race during the TT period, Azhar created an if-you’re-not-with-me-you’re-against-me situation. He isn’t just trying to convince high-profile American teams to race in his U.S. championship; he’s actively discouraging them from racing on the Isle of Man.

Azhar also controls a company, Mavizen, that builds electric race bikes. That fact makes one wonder whether Mavizen would sell motorcycles to a team that was registered to compete in the FIM’s ePower series or in the TT, and whether teams that plan to race in the TT would be allowed to enter TTXGP events. I wasn’t able to get a clear answer on this from Hussain.

According to Azhar—and he’s not the only person, on or off the Isle of Man, who shares this general view—the first and only TTXGP race came about as the result of happy alignment of politicians and appointees on the Isle of Man. In 2008, support for the TTXGP came right from the top, from the island’s Chief Minister.

The Manx Department of Tourism and Leisure (DTL) is the rights holder for the TT. Martin Quayle was the minister in charge of DTL, and the department’s chief executive of the department was a civil servant named Colin Kniveton. They too were both supporters of Azhar’s vision.

After the inaugural TTXGP, Kniveton (who had only been a temporary appointee) returned to his duties with the Manx Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry. The Department of Tourism and Leisure got a new CEO, Nick Black.

Now, Azhar’s take on it is that the people in charge in DTL are trying to quietly de-emphasize the zero-emissions race. In his view, moving it from Friday (the day of the Senior TT) to Wednesday was an attempt to downgrade its media profile. And by giving “his” time-slot to the parade lap of historic bikes, the TT organizers have literally chosen to emphasize the past, at the expense of the future.

Suffice to say that there are echoes of paranoia in all of this, but as the old expression goes, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t really out to get you.

(Click link under video for page 2)

A look back at last year’s inaugural TTXGP at the Isle of Man.

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