BMW Superbike gathers speed
2008-07-21 08:52
Eight months since BMW first announced they would be entering the Superbike World Championship in 2009, the project is moving up a gear.
After various tests on racetracks in Spain, BMW has now for the first time put the new S 1000 RR through its paces on a track used by the Superbike World Championship - the Eurospeedway Lausitzring.
The German circuit was on the WSBK calendar up to last season and the recent two day test gave the team a chance to compare their lap times and performance with last year's race weekend.
At the end of the test, the team and the three test riders were all happy with the progress of the bike and eager to work on analysing all the data before moving on to the next stage in the bike's development.
The three riders, Steve Martin, Kevin Curtain and Jeremy McWilliams, had this to say: ‘The basics of the S 1000 RR are very good, the engine has good power, the chassis and suspension are working well and the bike has the basis of a Superbike racer already.’
This sentiment was echoed by BMW Motorrad Motorsport's General Manager Berti Hauser, who added that he was very happy with the amount of feedback they received. ‘We are under no illusions of the amount of work we have to do before the start of the season next year, but we are ready and looking forward to facing this huge challenge.
Up to this stage BMW has done very little work on the electronics and have preferred to get the bike's basics working well, something that Hauser feels they have now achieved. ‘If our project continues at this good pace, I think we could surprise a few people next year.’
Whilst the main focus of attention has been at the track, a lot of work has been going on near Rosenheim, a small town about sixty or so kilometers south east of BMW's headquarters in Munich.
It is here that BMW Motorrad and their partners, Alpha Technik, will prepare the Superbike racebikes in a brand new state of the art facility, incorporating 7 000 square metres of workshops and offices.
The new facility marks another step of BMW Motorrad and Alpha Technik on their way towards the 2009 Superbike World Championship season.
