Fresh from their second victory in the 2023 FIM E-Xplorer World Cup, the championship leading duo of Sandra Gomez and Jorge Zaragoza were back on their EMX Powertrain electric motorcycles in Sardinia, supporting the third round of the 2023 Extreme E Championship (8-9 July).
The two Spanish riders took victory three weeks ago (Saturday June 24) in the spectacular Swiss mountain resort of Crans Montana, to consolidate their position at the top of the leaderboard of this brand-new series. In Sardinia, they swapped the sun-soaked Valais mountains for the sand and scorching sunshine to join the all-electric Extreme E weekend to promote to their four-wheel friends the moves being made towards electrification in the two-wheel world.
“This was the perfect place for us to bring one of our teams,” said Valentin Guyonnet, CEO E-Xplorer. “Extreme E and E-Xplorer have so many areas in common. We both run all-electric vehicles in extreme locations; we both have a fully equal field of riders/drivers, with a girl and boy in each team and racing against each other.
“The success of Extreme E gave me the confidence to create something along similar lines in the motorcycle world, and the commitment of the FIM and the great success of our first two events in Catalunya and Crans Montana has given us strong evidence that this is the direction for the future of motorcycle racing – especially in the off-road arena. I think we have turned some heads here!”
When the bikes arrived in the Extreme E paddock in Sardinia on Friday (7th July), the drivers flocked to take a look and some of them to have a ride. Nine times World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb was the first to jump on the bike and disappear for a few minutes.
“It looks like a lot of fun,” commented Seb. “I would love to have a bit more time to have a ride on these but there is a race to do…”
The Extreme E paddock has an extremely impressive array of world championship winning drivers, both in and out of the car, including teams run by three former Formula One World Champions and top-class international teams such as McLaren, Andretti, Ganassi and young disrupters in the sport Veloce Racing, who bring its billion eyeballs to the sport via its esport activities. It was certainly a great location and event to introduce this exciting new sport.
“The timing is perfect for this,” commented Extreme E Managing Director, Ali Russell. “Alejandro (Agag – CEO of Extreme E) and I have been discussing this concept with Valentin for a couple of years. We have all worked together in Formula E and I believe he has a great vision.
“It was great for the Extreme E paddock to see these motorcycles in the flesh and being demonstrated by these two incredible winning riders. In Extreme E we are committed to promoting electric mobility across the board, and it was great to welcome E-Xplorer to our Sardinian race site.”