British battery charger manufacturer Traction Charger is proud to announce its sponsorship of Michael Howarth in the 2016 British Superbikes.
The former rugby league player will make his return in the 2016 MCE British Superbike Championship with his team ME Racing. The first race-meeting is on April 10 at Silverstone, and will be televised on Eurosport 2 from 11:30am – 18:00pm.
Michael will be riding the Yamaha YZF-R1, a bike which was previously ridden by both Tommy Bridewell and Josh Brookes for Milwaukee Yamaha, finishing third and fourth respectively in 2014 British Superbikes. It weighs in at 196kgs, is capable of over 200mph and has a massive 210bhp.
Sponsors Traction Charger creates battery charging technology for the automotive industry, as well as many others, its units suitable for both industrial and workshop use. It also designs and manufactures bespoke charging solutions for both one-off production or volume applications.
The company has been at the forefront of battery charging technology since the 1980’s when it developed the first charger to correctly charge the then new Calcium/Calcium and Calcium/Silver lead/acid batteries.
Since then it has developed many new charging related products, including the patented Sulphation Recovery Programme used by many of the world’s leading battery and vehicle manufacturers.
Sponsorship deal
As part of the sponsorship deal, Traction Charger will be supplying a Battery Support Unit for Howarth’s Yamaha bike. The BSU provides constant voltage during diagnostics and programming operations, avoiding any possible loss of data or damage to control units whilst the vehicle is in a Key On, Engine Off state. This technology will allow Howarth and his team to carry out pre and post-race analysis without risk of power loss or battery drain.
Michael Howarth said “We’re really excited to be introducing this technology into our race strategy. The unit will achieve two positive outcomes for us – firstly it will reduce any risk of losing any essential data that we download from the vehicle whilst analyzing the race.
“Secondly, to keep the vehicle lightweight for maximum speed, all components are reduced to their bare minimum in weight. This on occasion means that batteries are drained during diagnostic analysis and forces us to use starter rollers on the start line.
“Using Traction Charger’s battery charging technology means we’ll no longer have to contend with this frustrating task and focus solely on the race.”
The Battery Support Unit that Traction Charger will be supplying is the BSU2-50, which is OEM approved by Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Ford and Nissan. This unit provides a stable voltage and up to 50 amps of fully regulated power to prevent loss of charge and damage to the battery.
BSU2 can be used with any 12V automotive battery including AGM and GEL. When the battery is charged the BSU is a regulated power supply to sustain accessory loads and offset parasitic drain.
The unit specification includes reverse polarity protection, input of 100–240VAC 50/60Hz, Output of 13.4V up to 50A continuous and weighs 6.5kg. It is portable and slim line at 257 x 160 x 130 mm.
As part of the sponsorship deal, Michael will review Traction Charger’s Battery Support Unit range on the BSB weekly show ‘Motors TV’ which broadcasts at 9pm Thursday evenings during the BSB season.
The show focuses on “behind the scenes” and gives an insight into what it takes to compete, including the equipment that is used to optimise performance.
