To South America for the final spurt: BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team eager to fight for front positions again in Argentina.

Munich. In the final spurt of the 2019 FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK), the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team is off to South America. The ‘Circuito San Juan Villicum’ in Argentina will host the penultimate round of the WorldSBK season this weekend (11^th to 13^th October). The team has made further improvements to the BMW S 1000 RR Superbikes of Tom Sykes (GBR) and Markus Reiterberger (GER).

The province of San Juan is in western Argentina, around 180 kilometres north of Mendoza. With its 4.276-kilometre ‘Circuito San Juan Villicum’ it is one of the country’s motorsport centres. The WorldSBK stopped off in San Juan for the first time last year.

Quotes ahead of the races at San Juan.

Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director: “We are already very excited for the race weekend in Argentina. The fans there gave the WorldSBK a great reception last year, and no doubt the atmosphere will be amazing again this time. There will also be many BMW guests from Chile and Brazil who will come to support us on site. We have used the short break since Magny-Cours to continue working on improving our BMW S 1000 RR, and will be bringing new parts and ideas with us. We are expecting hot, sunny weather, and we need to try to prepare the bike for high track temperatures right from the first practice session. We will be relying on our experiences from the most recent races. The objective is to consistently be up there in the top five and to seize the opportunity of a spot on the podium if it arises.”

Shaun Muir, Team Principal BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team: “First of all, we are looking forward to this event. I think we certainly made a good step forward with Tom in race one at Magny-Cours. We are now continuing this progress and have some good ideas. We also have some new parts coming to San Juan which should give us a good continuation of the progress. We are happy to be going to San Juan. Tom is confident and he knows he can challenge for the top four or top five. It is certainly a circuit that is very technical with a long straight, but we feel now with the progress we have made over the last few races that we can be contenders for these podium positions. Markus is new to San Juan, so it will take him some time to familiarise himself. Off the back of a difficult Magny-Cours we hope that he can get to know the circuit quickly and hopefully make a step forward.”

Tom Sykes: “We are looking forward to going back to Argentina. The debut there last year was great. There were a lot of spectators who really showed a lot of passion for racing. It’s obviously a long journey going there but after that we have a great circuit layout. I feel that we can carry on in development with the information we have gained in the last couple of events. We have a very large uphill back straight at the circuit which obviously will not be our strong point, but the whole BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team is working hard and we will go there, give our best efforts and see where we can end up. After the weekend in Argentina I will be travelling to Brazil for an event for the new BMW S 1000 RR and that’s going to make it an eventful and exciting trip for me.”

Markus Reiterberger: “Argentina is a very long way away, but I am already looking forward to the weekend. I’ve never been to San Juan myself, but I followed last year’s races on TV, and the track looks really exciting. I love overseas races because the schedule isn’t as packed as in Europe. I really hope that things will be better this time than they were at the last weekend at Magny-Cours. I would like to get a better result with my team in Argentina. I am motivated and am looking forward to finally getting to know this track that’s new to me.”