FEBRUARY 15, 2013 - PRELUDE TO THE FIRST RACE 

PRELUDE TO THE WEEKEND...

Preparing for the CMRA inaugural 2013 event, the team planned to continue to campaign the trusty 2008 Suzuki GSXR-750 that the team now enters the 4th season in competition with. In mid-January however; news from one of the team’s sponsors was really good…A NEW GSXR-1000 was now on the way to the team, and all were excited and apprehensive as many times a new bike means waiting for parts. “Good news” prevailed and the team received over $10,000.00 in retail parts within 2 weeks with NO BACKORDERS.

With M4 Exhausts as the new exhaust sponsor and the new GSXR-1000 being delivered to the team on January 30th, that left only two weeks to prepare the team’s new GSXR-1000 and get both bikes on the dyno. In addition, the team’s GSXR-750 was still awaiting its rebuilt motor that was late to be completed.

The team installed the new M4 exhausts on both the GSXR-750 and GSXR-1000. In addition, the 1000 was dressed with Vortex rear sets and fairing stay, Hotbodies Racing bodywork (which fit up perfectly), DP Brakes RDP X-Race Titanium brake pads, a RK XSO chain & Vortex sprockets, JRi Shock, Yoshimura swingarm pivot inserts to increase swingarm angle, and GP Suspension cartridges were received, but were the team would not be able to install until they were at the track due to time constraints.

Danny Kelsey painted the bodywork in the traditional RPSRaceTeam.com red and white color scheme, while 212 decals provided the sticker livery to provide a great look for the red Suzukis. Moto Liberty provided RS-Taichi suits to provide extra protection and a more professional look for the team. South Central Race Center delivered Diablo Supercorsa (DOT) and Superbike tires for extra traction on for the Suzukis. K’s Motorsports helped out with OEM Parts which included a Yamaha R-6 master cylinder to replace the Suzuki OEM equipment. Dynojet was able to deliver the PCV and Autotune components to ensure the M4 pipe worked its best. Unfortunately the short time frame did not allow the Dynojet Ignition Module to be installed which prevented Kelsey to use the quick shifter on the GSXR-1000 this first weekend.

The team was already stocked up on Shoei helmets to ensure Kelsey would be able to race with the best protection in the industry. KMC Controls and Motopia provided key material support to ensure this first race and the season will be a big success!

The team came together and got both Suzuki’s together and on the dyno. The dyno results showed the choice to move to M4 Exhausts was a great change as the GSXR-750 exceeded the previous dyno numbers attained with an exhaust system 3 times the retail cost of the M4 system. M4 is definitely the way to go! The new Dynojet Power Commander V also performed flawlessly with the Autotune module.

The team also received some new Pirelli Diablo DOT and Superbike tires for testing. The team was getting really geeked up about testing until mother nature decided to rain or sleet on all usable venues for testing. This meant that the team would only have the weekend of the CMRA first race to setup the bikes and sort out any and all issues. This last condition really pushed the team to the breaking point as both Kelsey and crew chief Marcus McBain realized that if the team really wanted to retain the #1 plate, then the team would have to perform at an extremely high level.

Danny Kelsey completed the painting of the new bodywork, and the team headed to MSRH. The team was fortunate to get 6 sessions on Thursday to shake down the GSXR-750 and do an initial run on the team’s GSXR-1000 to ensure that all the parts and components there were able to install prior to arriving at the track were working properly. The team was pleasantly surprised when Kelsey turned a 1:36.3 on the fifth lap of the “shake down” despite having stock forks on the team’s GSXR-1000. The team would now be ready for the CMRA race weekend one way or another.