Chapter 9: Premonition (5/23/25)

As I tore into the pre-release DVD of "CHARGE," a documentary about the TT Zero electric motorcycle races we were about to enter, my initial excitement for a sneak peek into this secretive world quickly turned to dread. The film, sent by the filmmaker himself, was meant to be a treasure trove of information for our rookie eSuperbike team, especially since we'd been designing in an information vacuum. But as I watched, a horrifying trend emerged: the very same electric motors we were using had catastrophically failed for numerous teams in the 2009 and 2010 races, leading to smoking bikes, seized bearings, and even crashes. The only exception was a team led by the motor's original designer, who obviously knew its limits intimately. With our own bike already en route to the Isle of Man and my flight just a day away, a sickening realization hit me – we might have avoided this by choosing different motors had we known sooner. Now, despite our own rigorous testing, the documentary's vivid failures replayed in my mind, and I knew we were likely flying headlong into the same devastating problems, with only our team's ingenuity and determination to see us through.