According to Infineon Raceway’s site, the TTXGP U.S. Championships will be held May 14-16, 2010, as part of the raceway’s AMA Motorcycle Sonoma Showdown weekend.

The first-ever electric race bike grand prix was held in conjunction with this year’s Isle of Man TT, and organized by TTXGP. The event was hailed a success, and TTXGP founder and producer of the Mavizen, Azhar Hussain, continues to ride the electric wave of support gained in the TT.

With the success of the TTXGP on the Isle of Man, we have shown that zero carbon technology is ready to deliver the thrills and passion for both spectators and riders,  said Hussain.

Steve Page, president and general manager of Infineon Raceway, echoed Hussain’s electric fervor:

When it comes to development of zero carbon motorcycles, Northern California is the center of the industry, so it makes perfect sense that Infineon Raceway should host the first event in this historic new series.

Hit the jump and check it out for yourself.

Unlike with most athletes, motorcycle racers’ faces remain hidden during competition. Except for promotional events or pre- and post-race interviews, the faces of our racing heroes are shielded under protective helmets with tinted visors. You don’t see the same human emotion in their faces like you can when soccer players score a goal or baseball players hit a home run.

But one thing helmets provide is a canvas for racers to express their creativity and personality.

The 2009 MotoGP Championship is almost complete, so we thought we’d take a look at some of the top helmet designs from the season. Here’s our list of the most interesting helmet designs for 2009. Let us know what you think about our choices or suggest ones we missed.

Of all MotoGP racers, Valentino Rossi is probably best known for his creative helmet designs. Rossi’s usual helmet, the Five Continents is a work of art on its own, but every season, Rossi and his designer Aldo Drudi bust out a couple of special one-off designs. Who can forget Rossi’s screaming face plastered on his helmet in last year’s Mugello race? This year, they gave us the Shrek Donkey design at Misano and at Mugello, they produced the Hands design with Rossi’s gloves painted on the helmet.

Not to be outdone, Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha teammate and main title challenger Jorge Lorenzo showed off several helmet designs of his own. In most races this season, the Spaniard sported his Lorenzo’s Land helmet with his trademark circled X logo. At the Catalan Grand Prix, Lorenzo paid tribute to his favorite soccer team,  Barcelona FC.

This season, two of Lorenzo’s four wins were earned wearing one-0ff helmet designs honoring American icons. At Indianapolis, Lorenzo was victorious in this Captain America helmet, paying tribute to the Marvel Comics character. A couple rounds later, Lorenzo was victorious again, this time in Estoril with an astronaut motif celebrating the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk.

Staying with the theme of Yamaha riders, America and outer space, we have Tech 3’s Colin Edwards and his Star-spangled helmet. For most races, Edwards wore a colorful design but at Catalunya, the Texas Tornado switched to a black-and-white helmet.

Nicky Hayden celebrated the Fourth of July weekend with a fireworks-themed helmet at the U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. At the Indianapolis Grand Prix, Hayden wore a one-off helmet supporting the Make a Wish Foundation. The helmet was later auctioned to raise funds for the charity.

Hayden’s Ducati Marlboro teammate Casey Stoner missed several rounds due to a mystery illness but returned with his usual form, including a win in his home circuit at Phillip Island with this Aussie-themed helmet. Fellow Australian Chris Vermeulen had his own tribulations this year. The Rizla Suzuki rider will move on to World Superbikes in 2010, but in what may be his final MotoGP season, Vermeulen sported this Red Bull design.

Veteran Loris Capirossi wears an asymmetrical design with his number 65 on one side and stars on the other. At Phillip Island, Capirossi wore a modified design with 65 in yellow and his nickname “Capirex” running across the vertical stripe.

Honorable mentions:

Okay, so maybe the Rainbow helmet of Gresini Honda’s Alex de Angelis wasn’t one of the “best” designs of the year. It probably wasn’t very intimidating for racers to know Rainbow Brite was on their tails. But the design was eye-catching to say the least. Meanwhile Ben Spies’ Lone Star helmet also deserves honorable mention. Spies will race as a wildcard in the season finale in Valencia before becoming a full time MotoGP racer in 2010. The Lone Star helmet worn in the World Superbike round at Miller Motorsports Park was great and deserves recognition.

The highlight of the event will be quarter-mile legend Dale Walker trying to set new VMax records on bikes modified to produce 200 horsepower at the rear wheel. Traction has proven to be an issue for the current VMax, so drag slicks have been spooned on to harness the big power through the shaft drive. Walker will also be offering free drag race lessons. Only Yamaha motorcycles are allowed in the event.

Motorcycle.com’s Fonzie will be there to capture the sights and sounds of the mighty V-4 engines roaring down the track.

More info can be found at the StarVmax.com website.

Check out the clip as Hayden takes his first ride on his namesake 848.

For more info on the bike, click here.

An extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the remarkable new technologies being used to avoid motorcycle crashes, and prevent injuries or even death when a racer or rider does go down.

Hit the jump to watch the preview.

You’ll realize how cheesy that headline is after watching the pretty rad video that Yamaha has released.

Yamaha’s new motocross bike has taken a radical new approach.  The engine is backwards.

Yamaha’s reason for doing this is to shift the heavy end of the motor more to the center of the motorcycle to make it more agile and responsive.  Slanting the cylinder also made for a straighter pathway for the air intake at the front of the bike.

Of course you can read about many more details and features of Yamaha’s YZ on Motorcycle.com where they just wrote a preview for it this week!  There’s also a bunch of photos to go through if you just don’t feel like doing any reading.

Check out the rest of the post for Yamaha’s official video on the 2010 YZ450F and also why I mention sketching (also, see if you can understand any of the equations that are scribbled down throughout the video)

We’re still a few months away from testing it for ourselves, but we can across this great video that will give you a little insight into how this Beemer howls at top speed. This was shot at the infamous Nordschleife course at Germany’s Nürburgring, a 14-mile road circuit built in the 1920s that is perhaps the grandest and most challenging racetrack ever built.

Check out the S1000RR on the track along with four other videos after the jump.

What, you mean it’s not powered by a 1.2-gigawatt flux capacitor?

Motorcycle.com will get a chance to see the new YZ this week in a private unveiling, and we’ll unleash full details when the embargo ends on September 8. Stay tuned!

Hit the jump, watch and learn.

For some reason the Google street view doesn’t include a whole lap of the track, just from around turn five to turn 10.  That portion does include the famous Corkscrew but the Google street view car doesn’t seem to capture it, which does make sense to anyone who’s taken the corkscrew before.  One of the things that makes the Corkscrew so challenging is the fact that it’s so steep you don’t even know where the road is until you’re going down it (or, if you’re unlucky, driving down the dirt).  Likely the Google street view camera was filming the sky at that point.

The filming appears to have been done during a practice session at last year’s ALMS race, as you can see the black and yellow GT1 Corvette and one of the Flying Lizzard Motorsports Porsches.  Ride along with the Google street view car at Laguna Seca here:

Google Streetview Drives Laguna Seca