WORLD SUPERBIKE
WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 3/APRIL 27, 2014
CIRCUIT VAN DRENTHE/ASSEN, HOLLAND
P78
SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED, I'M USED
With limited numbers of eight en-
gines per rider in the 2014 full World
Superbike class and only six for the
Evo class, a new method of sealing
them up has been devised. A total
number of three staff are responsible
for the sealing and unsealing engines,
led by FIM technical Director Scott
Smart, who explained how it all works.
The good news for teams is that
a sealed engine is not active, and
therefore does not form part of the
riders' allocation - until it has crossed
pit lane and has been used. So even
a sealed engine, which has not been
used in anger but only been in the
team's garage, can have the seals
broken again to perform modifica-
tion, should the teams find problems
with a particular engine spec.
Development can also continue
mid-season, for that reason.
And for the official tests – like the
upcoming single day after Imola - en-
gines are free, to allow development
during these test sessions.
"The sealing procedure is that they
present us an engine that is ready
built, we make some checks on it
with the gearbox in," Smart said. "We
seal the cam cover in several differ-
ent places. We have a lock wire sys-
tem, very thin, which is the same as
MotoGP. It then gets a clamp around
it that is numbered, and stamped with
the SBK logo. Then a lead weight on
Guintoli led the
first attempt
at running
race two, but
the race was
stopped due to
conditions like
this.
