BMW Motorrad finishes season on a winning note

Highlights of the final round of the South African Superbike Championship at Red Star Raceway in Gauteng on Saturday included a BMW 1-2 in the first of the day’s two races, first overall on the day and second place in the championship for Chris Leeson and the BMW Motorrad Motorsport HP4 in his first year with the team.

With the championship already won by Clint Seller at the penultimate round at Killarney in Cape Town last month, BMW’s challenge was to get Leeson from third to second in the final standings this weekend. Team-mate Ryan Ottens was already assured of fourth place.

Making a guest appearance on a third HP4 was 2010, 2011 and 2012 South African champion Greg Gildenhuys, who finished equal 13th in the 2013 World Superstock 1000 Championship with the BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet Team.

The opening 10-lap race at the 4,2-kilometre Red Star facility, which was hosting a national championship race for the first time at an all-bike race day, was full of action and excitement. Qualifying was close with Gildenhuys second, Leeson fourth and Ottens fifth behind polesitter Seller and just seven tenths of a second covering the first four.

Seller led from the start but fell off while being challenged by Gildenhuys, with Nicholas Grobler, Leeson and Ottens in close attendance.

When Grobler fell on the next lap Leeson took control of the race with BMWs filling the top three places for a few laps. Ottens, lying third behind Leeson and Gildenhuys and enjoying one of his best weekends of the season, fell back to fifth at the finish. Leeson took his third win of the season from Gildenhuys and Anthony Shelley.

Race two saw an exciting battle between Seller and Gildenhuys with the win going to the new champion who crossed the finish line just 0,4 sec ahead of the outgoing champion. Leeson was unable to extract the same performance from the BMW HP4 as he had in the first race and had to settle for fourth, half a second behind Grobler and ahead of Ottens on the third HP4.

Ottens’ consistency throughout the season saw him finish a clear fourth in championship after 15 top-five finishes in the 18 races.

Team principal Rob Holder declared himself pleased with the day’s results. “Congratulations to Chris on finishing second in the championship in his first season on the BMW HP4. We’ve all worked hard together to extract the most out of this all-new bike and there have been improvements with each round.

“We have been most impressed with the Red Star Raceway. It’s a great motorcycle track and the facilities are excellent. We had two close and exciting races today and Chris, Greg and Ryan all showed great form.”

Chris Leeson: “We had some good results this season on a bike that got better as we learnt more about it. We probably should have won a few more races, but at the end of the day I’m not unhappy about the final result.”

Ryan Ottens: “It’s been an awesome season on an awesome bike and I’ve learnt so much. I’ve worked hard on improving my performances over the year and am very happy with my progress.”

Ends

For more information on BMW Motorrad Motorsport, please contact Mr. Rob Holder, General Manager: BMW Motorrad on Rob.Holder@bmw.co.za or visit http://bmwmotorrad.co.za. 

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