Stark makes history: Electric bike takes shock first win against top pro racers in UK championship

Riding against a field of racers like Tommy Searle, Conrad Mewse, Harri Kullas and Elliott Banks-Browne on their 450s, the all-electric Stark Futures team of Justin Bogle, Jack Brunell and Eddie Jay Wade planned to show the rest watt e-power is all about.
In the first 2024 round of the British Arenacross championship, there was a major upset as Brunell took his first main event win – and the series red plate as championship leader – on his Stark Varg.
Our exclusive edit features team boss and former world champ Sebastien Tortelli and his riders as the all-red e-bikes leave the sold-out crowd stunned.

It’s a very important event for Star you know that’s the actually that’s the first championship that we are entering as official brand so definitely it’s uh for us it’s uh very important to be present and to show and uh show the capacity of the bike and show that we can Race Very 1 2 three and four interesting How first time in Arena cross um yeah I I love it I really enjoy riding the bike um it’s fun like for your Joe Joe public getting on it I’ve just felt so comfortable just me getting on it and racing it um obviously it’s just a production bike straight out um I think

We got a different battery like a little bit lighter and then obviously our race suspension but everything else is as you would buy it um I really enjoy it today went all right um time practice was good I’m only like four I think of Tommy so it’s really tight obviously some good

Guys this year so um this is meant to be a rocket ship of the start so we’re going to see tonight hopefully gets me out front so then um I’m there to battle um Podium Podium is go tonight just get on the podium keep Podium like I did

Last year every race and then see we are at the end Um this was the chance I took I thought listen the bike suits me on paper and it does suit me when I’m riding it so I feel real comfy on it yeah can adjust the power obviously the bike’s at 80 horsepower but we obviously we’re

Limited to 60 so we lock them at 60 and then Seb has to show the data obviously to show that we haven’t gone over the 60 horsepower after the races the bloody thing is so fast I couldn’t stop for the turn I just laughed to myself I pick the

Bike up and just laughed for what an absolute sausage um but I come from last back to fifth and then actually showed him you know what I mean this this bike is honestly not cuz it just rid from the team so fun to ride oh good man I love

It over here got family over here obviously so it’s nice to always nice to come back over here so I’m having fun new series new bike new team a lot of excitement in my life at the moment so that’s always fun and try to make the

Most of it hopefully go out there and get some good results and uh yeah we’ll build as the season goes we’ll get better um when I was in Spain I wrote the bike quite a bit for you know 3 4 weeks or so but when I was home I didn’t

Ride so I haven’t been on the bike much since world superr so we’ll See Like I said once uh we leave here I’m going back to Spain for the next month or so so I’ll have a lot more time on the bike and I’ll be look uh look like I actually know what I’m doing out there when we get to the next couple so we’ll

Be all right hard to explain man it’s just it’s a lot different for sure it’s uh got its own little intricacies and and Beauties about it but it’s one of those bikes that you ride and it’s really really hard not to come off the track with a smile you know it’s just so

Fun to ride so like I said racing is a different deal but we it’ll come around as I get a little more time on the bike but riding it just for enjoyment doesn’t get much better and that’s not me with my salesman had on that’s me telling you

The truth exclusive this is my first time racing Arena cross though um which is exciting first time racing in the stadium another exciting thing so uh be a few new things to deal with there especially and fans be able to be H the fans there obviously on electric

Bik be them even more so yeah that’ll be exciting you don’t really have to take different lines with a bike it was for me a steep learn experience I didn’t really have too many days on super cost um so yeah it’s big Lear experience I’ve got a bit too carried away myself

Obviously I was up with the front guys um I had the Speed there just got a bit too carried away so this weekend I know uh I know I can be there if I want to but I want to take it steady be on two wheels and finish the

Races that’s the that’s the goal for us tonight uh you’ve got no gears or clutch which is big big Advantage I think you don’t have to worry about the power what you’re in or the engine revs you’re in um it’s Instant Power whenever you want it no no dip in the clutch it’s

Instantly there so off the start should be good very good also um obviously you do have to to be more precise on the triples and The rhythms but once you get used to the back think it’s a a good advantage to have uh my teammate in

Spain has the back break on the left I did try it out there it’s not for me I kept going for the back break on the foot maybe if I get used to it on some uh outdoors more comfortable uh tracks for me maybe I’ll be able to use it but

Definitely needs uh a bit of bike time if you’re going to use up a [Applause] amazing going Need I knew I obviously I knew I could do it and the effort that we put in like I said at the practi sh with John and little John sweeping puddles like people don’t see that stuff we’re out there I was there at 7:00 sweeping the puddles then absolutely rained for like 2 hours

Then I go back at 12:00 to S the puddles and it rains again and then I’m there at Half 8 at night with his dad thinking to myself what are we doing it’s going to rain again um but we managed to get one day on the track after about rushing it

For car God knows 10 15 times so it has taken a lot of pressure off my shoulders like I G gone to work this week and just thought I just got to go to work and just turn up at the race so that makes a big difference take some time off next

Week from work to go testing for a few days which is really nice nice just to try and get the bike where we want it a little bit more um the guys like I said they do so much there so I’m so happy that we we’re winning the championship

And we won for them so the guys at the factory are going to be pumped because like I said the the goal was just to come here they had the little expectation of maybe getting a Podium I knew what I could do with the bike so

I’m I’m glad I’ve showed them and um I just hope I can just keep showing them and uh be there at the end and maybe win a championship I mean there there is a lot of hate and love you know but it’s a it’s a good thing also you know when

There’s hate and love you talk about it and when you talk about it it’s a good thing um I mean on my side you know I I’ve been there since the beginning I developed the bike from the scratch so today you know you got a finished product that is a production bike so

That’s a big difference uh so that’s few years of work to be able to get there the guys today are racing with a production bike you know with couple modification for Super Cross and Arena cross but except that it’s a bond you know stock bike so that’s for me having

The opportunity to race in front of public it creates awareness and then people can choose you know if they want to ride termic or not termic U our goal is not to stop people riding termic is to ride with them and then be able to

Ride more places so at the end of the day you know we are not here to uh do something bad to thermic bikes we are here to ride with thermix and make it a better place the way you look at development is the the same thing you

Know today the engineers who are behind the stock are Racers also so they’ve been riding bikes they know you know how the regular production bike evolve so they have that knowledge with them so today and know I mean we start already with a bike that has a lot of evolution

And it’s part of his air I mean we have a bike that is very Nimble to ride way easier to ride than the termic bike you know because we have some you know the capacity of electric but because of chassis also is thought for that purpose

So I mean we don’t have you know anything to Envy to termic bikes because we have Engineers that are today at the top of the you know motorcycle work so you know we are just progressing with them I mean our first prototype was really good but you know there’s a big

Difference between a prototype and then a production bike and uh to be able to achieve what we achieve in a short short period of time with new technology that basically suppliers are not used to so we had to also form them to be able to

Produce the bike the way we want it so that’s lot of work and the team was very fast about it and then I mean it’s a young team so everybody is very motivated and uh they help a lot and they’re all passionate about the sport so when you’re passionate you know

Things goes better and they have the feeling also they know how bike should handle so that helps also quite a bit yeah I still do uh some testing obviously not Super Cross because you know it’s not my place anymore and then I think when you ride Supercross you

Need to be able to ride for quite sometimes to be able to be good but I do outdoors and all the improvements of the bike I go through it to make sure and and I I I guess St it that is a good way that we want to Go a