Race Report: MotoGP Supersport support race

Overview

GvD Racing achieves strong results at the Island. 

RACE REPORT - SUPERSPORT

2010 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix

Track: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit (Victoria)

Date: 15-17 October, 2010

Race Team: GvD Racing

Rider / Bike: 

Garry van Diggele / Suzuki GSXR600 k7

The GvD racing team were extremely excited to be competing at the Island for the Moto GP support races. Having really only competed against Superbikes this year due to only a few 600cc competitors in Formula Oz it was a welcome change. Having no previous Island race experience and only one track day GvD racing was heading into the unknown.

Having repaired the bike after Wakefield Park round 4 the team headed for the long trip down when the heavens opened up. Wednesday’s night drive was a nightmare with an open trailer and a monsoon of rain coming down, suddenly the new fairings did not look so new. It turns out this was only a taste of what was to come in the weekend. Friday morning came up and after a nervous sleep Garry was ready to head to the race track to prove and test himself against the 600’s. Upon arrival there was a continuous down poor with heavy wind gusts. Having never ridden the track and no setting to go off the team was very apprehensive of a struggling weekend to come with constantly changing conditions.

The practice session was first thing in the morning. Gale winds, pooring rain and very changeable and unpredictable weather saw a rider off almost every lap. When Garry starting to get a move on, he opened up on MG, the rear swung around and down he went in the practice session. A very embarrassing situation as it was a simple mistake. The rear suspension was not squatting having been setup for tyres which run at 20 PSI not 36 PSI. The bike and or tyres simply did not squat and the first point of friction loss was the tyres with the road. Lucky there was no damage (except for a lost oggy knob) and Garry continued the practice session as if nothing had happened. Considering this was Garry’s first ever outing in the rain and no wet weather experience ever, we were happy with the overall results. A 2:05 in practice was satisfactory and with some setup changes, focussing on the rear a big improvement was to be expected.

The qualifier was 45 minutes later and with the rear changes and having engine bolt drama’s Garry headed out in the poring rain. We estimated that a 2:03 was enough for qualifying and without wanting to push the limit with limited wet weather experience we would be satisfied on ensuring we qualified. Few laps into the qualifier and Garry came in, 2:05’s not good enough… the very next lap he got his finger out and came in with a 2:01.5, the one after a 2:01:00 flat.. alright this will do with enough front end movement, suspension changes were a must for the race. After qualifier we noticed the right engine frame bolt went missing… No wonder the bike was moving around so much the engine was loose and way to much flex in the chassis was upsetting the ride an incredible amount. After talking to some people and the help of the support paddock and PTR we got a new engine bolt. A racer from the historic’s category helped the team fix the actual mount and thread as there were issues and made his own tool to fix the thread! Thanks to them we managed to get the bike ready on time for the race, only to have the next 2 races cancelled!! That’s racing. GvD racing qualified 26th out of a large field of 35 starting the day.

The 3rd supersport race was right on schedule and with the other 2 races cancelled it was a one race winner takes all. One chance to prove yourself and put yourself out there. Having never had a race start in the wet and only his 3rd ever ride in the wet, Garry was very apprehensive of the task ahead. After making changes to the front suspension, fixing the chassis Garry was confident of reaching his goal of a top 15 in the support race in his first ever supersport race in his very first race season even though the rest of the team were not. The red light went out and the moment arrived… standing still on the line and being gentle on the throttle Garry got passed by the whole field before the finish line... In last position Garry opened up and started to chase, by the first corner he had already gained 3 positions, southern loop another 3… The first lap completed Garry had sliced and diced the back field to 19th position from the worst race start completed by Garry this season. With an extremely slow opening lap of 2:14 a huge task was ahead of Garry. Putting his head down he continued to take the back field apart gaining 1-2 positions per lap. By the 4th lap Garry was in 14th position and settled down not being able to spot the riders in front of him or behind him. Every lap his times improved with an overall best lap, the final lap, of 1:55:09.

An excellent result was achieved by Garry with a 14th position finish for his first ever supersport race. The team was ecstatic with the result. We would like to thank all the people who have helped out, Garry would like to especially thank the Steve Thibou from Motorcycle Rim Stickers for the help in the weekend especially wet weather riding help. We would also like to thank the Laverda Race team from historics for helping us fix the engine mount. Without them we would not have participated in the actual race. A thanks must also go out to Phill Taiton for giving us a spare engine mounting bolt whilst they were busy with there own drama’s and changing conditions. Garry would like to personally thank his family and girlfriend for the support and belief in him this weekend providing encouragement in bloody scary conditions.

Garry van Diggele - #49
I am absolutely ecstatic with the result I have achieved this weekend. This is only the second time at Phillip Island with the first being a simple ride day testing some suspension setup changes on very old tyres. I hoped for a top 15 result but when the weather came in I thought I had no chance. I have never ridden the bike in the wet, practice or racing, so to simply qualify was a good result.

The crash at practice was simply due to the rear end being way too hard for the conditions and tyres. In qualifying I could feel the whole bike and frame move under me... off coarse this ended up being the engine bolt. We also found out that the front was too soft and changes to the suspension made a huge difference.

I’m actually a little disappointed with the result if we look at the lap times. For more than half the race I was by myself, I could see no one in front of me or behind. I have never ridden when there was no one and I relaxed on the bike and rode at a comfortable speed. In terms of competition it is extremely difficult to ride without any visual indicators of how you are going. I had no pit board, no visual confirmation of rider position etc. this is definitely a race where I learned a lot.

If it wasn’t for the start and a few electrical problems during the race I could have easily run with the 4 in front of me, the person who finished 13th was only 7 seconds in front of me. This gap was achieved in the opening lap. I was advised to be very gentle on the throttle and I simply accelerated very softly to ensure I didn’t crash on the line, next thing I know is that I am in last position. I was held up on the first lap by the riders in front of me and was overtaking in every corner. The spray from all the bikes was simply scary and incredible. It caused my electronics to feel like the ignition was retarded, the bike would not rev pass 12K revs and I almost pulled the bike into the pits. By the end of the second lap this cleared up and I think the bike has a water/electrical problem somewhere. I must admit, I love racing against 600’s, its some of the best racing I have done to date.

This result could not have been achieved without the help from everyone especially the support from my dad and girlfriend. I could not ask for a better pit crew for support. I must thank a couple of race teams to help solve a few issues and provide guidance. Thanks to Steve Thibou from Motorcycle Rim Stickers for providing help on wet weather racing, Wetty from Wet4U Racing for checking my engine quickly after the Wakefield crashes, PTR for providing me with an engine bolt and most of all thanks to the Laverda Race team from historics class for helping us fix the engine mount and thread.

Suzuki GSXR 600 07 / 08 Engine Swapout part 2

Overview:
This post will cover the second part of the engine swap-out. It will specifically cover the problems diagnosed at the last test session.

Disclaimer:

All changes, views are correct at the time of writing to the best of knowledge of the author. These parts are for Australian Motorcycles and it may differ at your location. You are responsible for any changes made to your bike and if you decide to try this check everything with your local dealer and service rep.

Additional Work:

The bike was sent down to Phill Taiton Racing, the Australian Suzuki Factory race-team for diagnosis and an engine tune. It was initially believed that the problem was the engine map of the Yoshi EM Pro harness and ECU. After a good day investigation and a few dyno runs it was found that the problem was dirty injectors. The injectors were changed to the 07 injectors and it was put on the dyno. Dyno graphs will be made available at a later date. 

Phill from PTR also went over the bike to make sure everything was ok. As requested they revalved the Ohlins TTX rear shock and put a new spring on. The spring was changed from 110 Nm to 100 Nm. The ride height was adjusted for Phillip Island.

After successfully tuning the bike and having a rain and dry map the bike went to Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit for testing.

Suspension Note:
Phill when he inspected the unit said there was something majorly wrong with it. This was odd as I had the unit serviced including revalving done recently by Teknic a suspension specialist in Australia. Anyway, he said it felt like there was air in it. He also put the shock on the dyno to get a before and after picture. He confirmed  that there was no damping for slow velocity and that's why I have been having rear end trouble. After opening it up he noticed that they used the wrong oil for Ohlin's, there was air in it and was put together wrongly! This is a huge mistake by the shop and I will never use them again. Phill fixed it all up and put a new spring on. Dyno results will be put on at the bottom of the page when I have scanned them in. 

Testing:

It was the first time GvD racing went to Phillip Island Grand Circuit and with a newly tuned bike, it would be an interesting day. It was decided to do the testing with the Suzuki Race Team because if any issues were found we would be able to solve them straight away. It was identified in the first session that the bike felt very different. The bike felt very stable on the super smooth track and even under braking, the rear would not step out.

On hard acceleration around 14K revs the bike would lack a little power and suddenly kick off. After having a chat with Phill after the first session it was deemed that the bike was running a little lean. His team was having the same problem and he offered to change it. However, as the day was warming up significantly we decided to try one more session with the current map. The sprockets were changed to a better ratio and with warmer temperature the problem went away. We also raised the PSI of the tyres as they were getting very high wear on the super fast track.

Further sessions it was noticed that the suspension felt very hard but with a lot of traction. The stroke felt very smooth and linear unlike before. It was noticed that rear grip had significantly increased and we could get on the gas a lot earlier. The bike was very stable on hard braking with the back end not stepping out, this was a significant change to previous handling of the bike where the rear would easily slide under braking coming into corners.

In total all the work was well worth it. The k8 engine works very well in the frame and the exhaust system fits works well. We have a peak power of 124Hp with very linear power delivery. The suspension feels very strong and the geometry extremely stable under speed. The rear will be raised for tighter tracks like Wakefield as Phillip Island is very fast and flowing just like Eastern Creek.

I would recommend this upgrade if a new engine is required. If you get a complete engine kit it should just be a matter of changing over the wiring harness and K8 ECU. Your 06/07 exhaust system should fit and I recommend you use that as the catalac converter is in the muffler and the system is more free flowing.

Race Report: St George Road Race Rnd 2 - RB Racing 4 Hour Relay

Overview:

This blog is the race report from the 4hr relay endurance race Rnd 2 St George Motorcycle road racing series. This race series is club series and GvD racing did not attend Rnd 1. GvD Racing joined fellow competitors to form a team of 4 riders. The race is a 4 hour endurance race, relay style, which means each rider uses his/her own motorbike for the race. There are numerous catergories and CTD Racing entered category 5: Senior, BEARS F2 or Any Group 3 - 5 M/Cycle, C & D grade.

The St George series is a relaxed motorbike race series at club level where riders can get together and have a bit of fun.

Date: 31st July - 1st August 2010

Track: Wakefield Park Raceway

Race Team: CTD Racing - Crash Test Dummies Racing

Rider / Bike:

Colin Lewis / Suzuki GSXR600 k7 / D Grade

Scott Gapps / Suzuki GSXR600 k7 / C Grade

Garry van Diggele / Suzuki GSXR600 k7 (k8 engine) / D Grade

Russel Downie / Yamaha FZR-600 1992 / D Grade

Spare Bike: Honda CBR 600 99

Race Report:

The race report is written from a perspective of Garry van Diggele

Sat Practice 1: Suzuki GSXR 600 k7

Track Condition: Wet but drying

After having purchased the engine, rebuild and installation finishing only in the morning of the 31st July 2010, the day of practice, GvD Racing was ready for testing. The team arrived at the race track exhausted after having an extremely busy week prepping the motorbike for the race meet. After sign-on, setting up and having a chat to the clerk of the coarse regarding getting a practice session in the team was ready to start. After finally finishing the bike by picking up and installing the brand new case protector for the engine we were ready to roll.

After having a quick chat regarding the track condition with team mates we hit the track very gently. We ran the bike on very low revs for the first 2 laps as well as investigating the condition of the track. There were 2 "rivers" running across the track at turn 2 and 9. Having the bike on slicks we were in for a very slow lap which was good for the gaskets etc anyway. After having a few soft laps with low revs we started to wind up the pace, 1st and 2nd gear felt great, quick shifter was working well and acceleration was strong.

In the fast sections 3rd gear felt a little sluggish but we were still taking it easy. In the 3rd lap after picking up the pace significantly we noticed that 3rd, 4th and 5th gear were very weak. It felt extremely sluggish with slow response, fluffy and significantly struggled to rev past 12K revs. We were unable to get the bike above 14K revs and were not even able to get the bike into 6th gear on the straight. After pulling into the pits and taking the bike apart we made a small change. We noticed the bike was running extremely rich so the small change incorporated attaching another breather tube from the throttle tube which we originally blocked.

Sunday Practice 1: Suzuki GSXR 600 k7

Track Condition: cold, damp but drying

Rider: Scott Gapps

Fastest Lap: 1:14.09

After making changes to the intake of air for the throttle body, Scott Gapps went out to test and run the engine in. One lap and it was determined that the Suzuki needed to be retired for the race meet. The bike was still running fluffy and rich. Scott continued the session with his race bike putting consistent laps on the board.

Scott ended up having the fastest laps for the class CTD Racing is competing in.

Sunday Practice 2: Yamaha FZR 600 '92

Track Condition: cold, damp but drying

Rider: Russel Downie

Fastest Lap: 1:15.108

Russel was the next one out on hit hot fire-engine red Honda. The track had dried quite a bit was still tricky with damp conditions. Russel completed his practice and felt comfortable on the track having consistent results.

Sunday Practice 3 / Qualifying: Suzuki GSXR600 k7

Track Condition: warm and dry

Rider: Colin Lewis

Fastest Lap: 1:08.162

Colin was selected to complete the qualifier for our team. Colin had completed the previous day's practice and was confident of being able to achieve a good results. As it was an endurance race our strategy was to ensure we had a decent start but consistency is more important than fast times. Colin went out and was able to qualify 19th out of 40 entrants. We qualified 6th for our class.

Sunday Practice 4: Honda CBR 600 '99

Track Condition: warm, windy and dry

Rider: Garry van Diggele

Fastest Lap: 1:10.884

As Garry had to retire his bike for the event he hit the race track on a bike which he had never ridden before, the spare Honda. The Honda was setup with road pattern for gears and suspension for a 60Kg person. The Honda is also a carby and 10 yrs old. As Garry hit the track there were many concerns due to the huge number of changes compared to his race bikes which are EFI, setup correctly and race pattern gears. Anyway, after a few careful laps Garry picked up the pace. The gear changes became smoother with the selection going right more often. Garry was quickly reeling in his competitors and managed to decrease his lap times every lap. At the end of the session with the revised riding style Garry managed to be the 3rd quickest of the riders in his class.

Quote
"Coming into the corners the first few laps the front would wobble significantly. Normally i push the front very hard into the corner and use the rear to steer out of it. With this bike I had to adopt my corners significantly. Weight had to be right back, back in the bike, power on the gas and slide the rear out significantly to keep as much weight of the front as possible"

"Awesome bike, it feels like steering a big boat around the corners... A few scary mistakes coming into corners with gear selections but a solid first outing. This bike is quick and if we sort out the front we should be able to lap consistently in the 9's."

Race:

Starter: Colin Lewis

After a brief discussion it was decided the best person to start the race was Colin Lewis. It is important to get away cleanly with 40 competitors on the track. Colin is also a very aggressive rider especially in the first few laps when things are very tight. Colin had a strong session and when it was time to pit we were running in 10th position. Russel was the second rider and again we had a solid run. The first hour went very quickly without any incidents and we were in a strong position. It was decided to do approximately 30 minute sessions each.

Garry was the next rider out and with only 1 practice session on the bike significant setup changes were made. The pre-load on the  bike was increased significantly (to the maximum) and other adjustments were made. Garry went out on the track and the changes made big improvements. Lap times were consistently faster than practice and with a lot of people on the track positions were increased. after about 10 laps a problem was noticed, under heavy braking, liquid flew up all around the front of the bike and onto the windscreen. Garry quickly pulled into the pits thinking a burst radiator. Scott was the next rider out and the team investigated the bike. It was determined the liquid was petrol and it was everywhere at the front of the bike. No where near the breather or overflow tubes. After pulling the bike apart it could not be determined the source of the spillage.

Scott finished his session and Colin went out next. Both Scott's and Colin's sessions were strong with no drama's. The team was in a very strong position and were just informed of severe weather warnings for the afternoon. It was estimated the weather would come in the next 60 minutes. It was decided to send Garry out again as we could not determine the source of petrol. We believed it was potential overflow from the cap and was not considered a major issue, however, if it continued we would retire the bike.

Garry was able to put up consistent fast laps and was lapping a lot of people as fatigue set in for most riders.

Quote
"There was one section, corner 4 and 5, a very tight section where you would be lucky to fit 2 bikes next to each other. I came up to a group of 4 riders quickly and made a move on the outside. I believed it was a little tight to make the move on all of them and was next to one rider waiting my turn. Out of nowhere a R1 came on the outside of me leaning on my bike, i was consequently on the bike next to me and he shot past almost taking out the 3 riders in front. A gap opened up and I followed in his wake overtaking in the fast corner 6. It was incredible tight the track with so many riders and mayhem, it was an unbelievable experience."

Mayhem broke loose as the weather came early. It started to rain and 7 bikes went down, yellow flags came up. As Garry approached a group of riders the flags were raised. Mid corner they stood the bikes up (reaction to flags raising and overtaking rules) and Garry had to use his front brakes middle of the corner in wet weather to not take them out from behind. Obviously, next thing, Garry was sliding down the road, holding the bars into the mud pool next to the track. He was quickly up and hit the track again pulling into the pits. As the bike was considered safe Garry was send out again and joined the riders behind the safety car. In the mayhem of the heaven's opening up 2 riders had collected each other and the safety car was out. The tyres were changed for Colin's bike and Garry got called in to pit. In the next 10 minutes we lost many positions making some bad calls regarding strategy. The heavens closed and the track was dry, Colin came in and Scott went out again followed by Russel. The heavens played havoc with our strategy and again it started to rain. Colin went out again and finished the race. We were very strong in the wet weather with very fast times considering the huge down poor. Unfortunately due to the weather playing havoc we lost many positions. We ended up finishing 26th, in total CTD racing was happy with the results with the blokes having a great time. This race was for all of us to go out and have some fun. We weren't necessarily concerned with results and lap times as none of us had competed in the first round.

The weekend was great fun with drinks Saturday night, motorbike racing Sunday and having a safe weekend with not to many incidents. CTD racing finished 6th in the class which was disappointing but for the first ever endurance race for 50% of the team including GvD racing it was a very valuable experience.

Suzuki GSXR 600 07 / 08 Engine Swapout part 1

Overview

This blog post will cover an Engine Swap from a Suzuki GSXR 600 k7 to a Suzuki GSXR 600 k8 engine. The reason for the engine swap is that the 07 super sport engine broke a shaft whilst racing in Race 2 Formula Extreme formula Oz class round 3.

Initially the engine was going to be replaced by a k7 engine, however, upon investigation the k8 uses the same engine mount positions. Initial research suggested it would be a straight forward swap as the Yoshimura race harness and ems pro is the same for the k8 and k7. We also ensured that in-case the mounting was different we got the k8 wiring harness, stock ecu, and dash.

Difficulty:

High - changes require include dropping the engine, wiring harness etc. It is recommended that you have a-lot of experience with motorbike repairs and comfortable replacing parts. Anything you are unsure of check the service manual and take photos for any plugs and sensor connections your not sure off.

Disclaimer:

All changes, views are correct at the time of writing to the best of knowledge of the author. These parts are for Australian Motorcycles and it may differ at your location. You are responsible for any changes made to your bike and if you decide to try this check everything with your local dealer and service rep.

Differences

After purchasing a complete engine kit (engine, wiring harness, etc) the following differences were observed between the k7 and k8:

1. Intakes
2. Throttle bodies
3. Injectors
4. Throttle body - fuel clips
5. petrol pump
6. Direction of the fuel connector (makes connection to petrol tank very difficult)
7. ECU system (kill switch block), 3 map settings
8. Dash, for the maps, mounts the same as the k7
9. Higher compression engine
10. Different engine internals
11. Different thread for the idle screw, Yoshimura k7 idle adjuster does not fit

Some of the k7 Yoshimura parts are re-usable, they have not been used for this engine as we are keeping the engine in superstock condition instead of supersport. Speak to your engine builder before purchasing any parts.

Photos of the K7 throttle body

Photos of the K8 throttle body

Upon further investigation there have been major changes to the throttle body and head. There is an additional air tube which goes to the k8 air-box (we are currently using a k7 air-box).

Installation

Please note we are using a Yoshimura race harness which is NOT the same as the k7 wiring harness. It only has the essential sensors and plus required to make the engine and dash run correctly (Suzuki error codes still work).

1. Remove the k7 engine, radiator, air-box, petrol tank, ensure you label/note all the plugs and sensors.
2. Remove the wiring harness if you are using stock harness
3. Remove Dash
4. Install the engine (make sure the throttle body is off it), easiest if you do the back bottom bolt first, then do the back top bolt. Tighten the engine bolts to the required torque setting in the service manual.
5. install the wiring harness positioning everything in the same position. be extremely careful to ensure that you place all the sensors the correct way, especially the tip over sensor (if you get an FI light its most likely a sensor issue).
6. Attach the petrol tank, you will need to ensure your fuel line reaches both without over stretching. The 08 uses a different blue clip to attach which will not fit the hose. Modify to fit.
7. Bike should start, any error codes check your plugs especially sensors. We had to cut some plugs to ensure they fit.
8. Once everything is installed ensure you bleed both the water and the oil in the head. Make sure you have the correct amount of oil. Start with adding 2700 ml (should always change oil filter). Leave the bike running until hot. Switch off bike and leave it for 3 minutes, check the oil level.
9. Ensure that the water pumped through the engine and is bled properly.
10. slowly run the engine in, if feasible test the bike slowly on closed roads. If changing the wiring harness to the 08 everything should be ok and no tune will be required (if everything is stock). If you are using the yoshi EMS system, or the 07 harness (should be possible) you will need to tune the ECU and/or buy something like a PC5, bazzaz efi controller.

Testing - 31st July 2010 / 1st August 2010

After the rushed engine swap and rebuild (1 week including pickup 1000km away) the only test to safely test was at the next race meet which was a 4 hour endurance race. The perfect test. The bike was tested in 1st and 2nd gear before the trek to the meet.

After arriving, setting up and sign-on the bike was taken out into the first practice session. The first few laps were done very slowly with the bike responsive in low gears 1st and 2nd. The bike felt a little sluggish in 3rd gear but as we were not pushing the revs it was simply considered running in. After a few laps the pace quickened and it was soon discovered the bike refused to accelerate past 14K revs (red-line is 16.5K). The bike felt extremely sluggish and slow in 3rd, 4th etc. The bike also felt very unresponsive, upon inspection it is running extremely rich. After calling the Suzuki Factory Race Team it most likely needs a tune. Unfortunately they are the only ones in Australia capable of tuning the bike (1000 km away), as such, the bike is currently not running correctly. The bike had to be retired for the race meet and we ended up using a Honda 99 cbr 600 carby with very soft suspension for the race meet.

Upon investigation and a few phone calls and mechanics we believe it is the mapping as the injectors are different. The bike is currently scheduled in for a tune by the Suzuki race team. An update will be provided with the results including Dyno results. We will also update the results with the new engine from race meets. We will also do an analysis about the benefits of the 08 model.