BMW Motorrad Motorsport family gathers in Munich to celebrate end of season – Top BMW Motorrad Race Trophy participants honoured.

Munich, 23rd November 2014. The international BMW Motorrad Motorsport family met up to bid farewell to the 2014 season: at the first BMW Motorrad Motorsport Season Finale in Munich (DE). BMW Motorrad privateers from all over the world gathered at the home of BMW Motorrad to look back on the successful 2014 season. BMW Motorrad had strategically realigned its motorsport commitment at the start of the year, increasing the level of support offered to customer teams around the world and launching an innovative customer racing project – the only one of its kind in the world – in the form of the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy.

“Tonight we want to celebrate the BMW Motorrad riders and the success they have enjoyed over the course of the 2014 season – the great results in their respective championships and in the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy,” said Heiner Faust, Head of Sales and Marketing BMW Motorrad, welcoming the guests. “I also want to take this opportunity to thank them all. With their commitment, they made it possible to create the largest global motorcycle racing community. BMW Motorrad Motorsport provides technical support to around 150 privateer teams and riders around the world with a wide network of BMW experts. BMW has formed a large global community of teams, riders and customers who race on the RR and the HP4. Many of them also compete in the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy.”

“BMW racing customers fly the flag for BMW Motorrad all around the globe. Our riders have once again been successful all over the world in 2014,” Faust continued, looking back at some of the highlights of the season. “There was the historic triple achieved by Michael Dunlop on the Isle of Man on his RR. The BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team celebrated seven victories in the EVO class of the Superbike World Championship. This season, we saw the first ever BMW Motorrad victory in the British Superbike Championship with Ryuichi Kiyonari. We saw a historic double victory for Lucy Glöckner in Zolder in the IDM Superstock 1000 series. I also want to highlight the victories of our BMW riders in the World Endurance Championship and in numerous other international and national championships.”

One of the highlights of the evening was the tribute to the most successful participants in the 2014 BMW Motorrad Race Trophy. In its inaugural year, 69 BMW Motorrad privateers from 20 different countries on five continents, and racing in 15 different championships, took part in the innovative customer racing project. Overall, they competed in 206 races in 19 countries on six continents. The top 20 were recognised at the BMW Motorrad Motorsport Season Finale – with trophies and a total prize purse of 100,000 Euros. These top 20 riders came from 12 countries and nine different championships. Victory in the 2014 BMW Motorrad Race Trophy went to Markus Reiterberger (DE), who lined up this season in the International German Motorcycle Championship (SUPERBIKE*IDM) and the FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC). He scored a total of 299.00 Race Trophy points and received a winner’s cheque for 20,000 Euros.

“I am obviously very proud to be the first winner of the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy,” said Reiterberger. “I find the concept of the Race Trophy very interesting. It gives us riders the opportunity to compete with our fellow BMW riders around the world. This way, you not only look at the results and standings in your own championship after the race weekend, but also the rankings in the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy. It is also fantastic to be able to celebrate together with all the other BMW Motorrad riders from so many different countries here tonight. We are like one big family, but all race in a wide range of different series and seldom have the opportunity to meet up.”

2014 is drawing to a close, and preparations for the coming season are already in full swing at BMW Motorrad Motorsport. The new BMW S 1000 RR will make its race debut in 2015. The Superbike World Championship is just one of the series, in which the 2015 version of the BMW S 1000 RR will be in action. At the same time, the BMW Motorrad Motorsport experts are working together with customer teams from a wide range of championships to ensure the RRs and HP4s are perfectly prepared for next year. Changes will also be afoot in the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy.

“It will be an exciting season,” said Faust. “BMW Motorrad Motorsport will continue to follow the direction we took this year. Our goal is to further expand our global family of private BMW riders and teams and to make our partnership with our customers even closer. One part of our strategy is to expand the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy. This innovative project gained a lot of interest and resulted in positive feedback among our riders. And for 2015, it will be even more appealing!”

As well as the riders’ standings, there will also be a Team competition in 2015. Additional championships will be incorporated into the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy and a new, adaptive points system will be introduced, which will make it possible to react to any changes to the individual race calendars. Additional bonus prizes will also be up for grabs for successful riders and teams.

2014 BMW Motorrad Race Trophy – Top 20.