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.