After a difficult Round 4 at CTMP that ended on a positive note with a Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike class win on our Suzuki Canada GSX-R600, the team decided to build a Suzuki GSX-R750 for the final round of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship at Shannonville Motorsport Park, as that machine was newly approved for the Sport Bike class.
Those who read our previous race reports know that building a bike in the middle of a season is a difficult proposition to say the least. The chassis of the 600 GSX-R and its bigger cousin the GSX-R750 being nearly identical, our plan was to strip the 600 chassis and build the 750 with all of the 600 parts. Leaving the motor bone stock. Easy peasy.
Or so we thought!
With no testing before the actual Friday practice on our newly built Suzuki Canada GSX-R750, we were surprised to see Sebastien struggling with corner speed and corner exit. The 750 definitely does not like the 600 settings. Sebastien being the rider and our suspension expert, all the team had to do is follow directions. New springs, a few clicks here and there and off he goes to qualifying. Sebastien's first qualifying lap was promising but after a great drive out of Allens corner on his second fast lap, he ran a bit wide and lost the front in the last turn. Fortunately, his 1.49.2 lap stood for fourth on the grid. Let's go racing.
Race 1 was restarted twice due to red flags, finally running the full 12 laps at the end of the day. Seb had a great start, like he did twice before, and ended up leading most of the race for a much needed win.
Race 2 was challenging. A difficult start had our Suzuki Canada GSX-R750 in 6th place after turn 2. Picking off each of the 5 riders ahead of him one by one made for an exciting race even though the race was shortened due to an accident. Second win of the weekend and third win in a row!
The Suzuki Canada GSX-R750 proved to be a great motorcycle to race, the stock motor pulling similar performance figures than a nicely built 600. All at a lower cost, racing ain't cheap but we think that the CSBK decision to allow the GSX-R750 is a good one, making this bike a cost effective competitive choice in the hotly contested Liqui Moly Pro Sport Bike Class.
Let's see what 2024 brings!
Special thanks to:
Suzuki Canada, Bridgestone, CSBK, Turcotte Performance, Bickle Racing, Hindle, ST Motosport, Euromoto
Team Shaker!
From a press release
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