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Mid Term WSBK ReportWith just one more round to go at Brno until the Superbike World Championship’s summer break, BMW Motorrad brings you a mid-season report from those directly in action in this year’s series. For Head of BMW Motorrad Motorsport Berti Hauser, seeing the blue and white roundel line up on the grid at Philip Island in Australia for the first round of the 2009 Superbike World Championship was the realization of a dream come true.
Head of BMW Motorrad Motorsport Berti Hauser looks on as Troy Corser discusses set-up with a crew memberFrom the early days of working with the factory Dakar team in the late ‘90s, Hauser has guided BMW Motorrad through its return to road racing, with the International BMW Boxercup and Power Cup series that supported the MotoGP World Championship. This was followed by the development of the racing boxer with the HP2 Sport’s presence and considerable success in selected rounds of the Endurance World Championship. Alongside this has been the introduction and swift development of the G 450 X sport enduro to the point where it is currently enjoying podium success in this year’s Enduro World Championship, as well as various national championships. But this latest WSBK project is without a doubt the most ambitious yet and Hauser is clearly delighted just to be here. This is what I have dreamed of for a long time,” he says. “We’ve had a really warm welcome from all the other teams involved in this championship – it’s one big family and everyone says that it’s great to have BMW here. What’s really taken us by surprise though is just how tough this series is. We knew that it would be competitive but we didn’t expect it to be as competitive as this! All the teams seem to take a big step forward each year; the lap times we’re running are already faster than those from last year, but of course everyone else has moved on, so there’s still a gap to really being ‘on the pace’. In summary though, we’ve learnt an awful lot in a short space of time and we’re starting to feel like a real WSBK team in terms of our structure and our understanding, and I really feel we’re moving in the right direction now.” 
Ruben Xaus discusses the intricacies of the Donington Park circuitOne of the team’s main frustrations has been dealing with a lack of circuit data that a full year in the Superbike World Championship will provide. For Hauser, this is inevitable in the team’s debut year, as you have to start somewhere. As such, it has been difficult to set achievable goals, when the ‘goalposts’ seem to keep moving! “It’s hard to think about where we would like to be by the end of the season because you are comparing yourself to the rest of the grid – and the whole grid is so strong this year. It would be more realistic to try and get the bike closer to the pace – less than 0.5 seconds would be a good target. Our engineers will also help us close the gap more and this will allow us to get closer to the top five and then hopefully a podium placing next year. We’re under no illusions that we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and to keep improving the bike is essential. More testing will obviously help, but we have to have patience. Thankfully, everyone is fully committed to this project and very excited about it.” Of course, no one goes racing just for the fun of it – the overriding reasons from a manufacturer’s perspective are brand credibility, machine development and, naturally, sales of the associated series production machine. Fortunately for BMW, there is a tremendous amount of interest in the forthcoming customer version of the S 1000 RR and Hauser believes that this bike has the potential to take the BMW brand into completely new market segments
Ruben helps unveil the S 1000 RR series production machine in the wet at BMW Motorrad DaysThe S 1000 RR is such a great opportunity for BMW – we are pleasantly surprised about the capability of the ‘stock’ bike and how it is much ‘closer’ to the factory race bike than the competition. The level of tuning is similar but the engine still has scope for further development in my opinion.” As you’d expect, both Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus have taken the opportunity to ride the forthcoming customer S 1000 RR and their reactions are reassuringly positive. “People are going to be very surprised by this bike, because I loved it when I first rode it,” said Ruben. I rode the IDM (German Superbike Championship) bike and then the streetbike, and found it very close to my race bike, but more smooth of course. It was easy to ride fast, especially with the traction control, and this will help slower riders go faster! For sure it’s a premium product but it will be competitively priced.” This was a view shared by Troy Corser, who has also ridden the series production S 1000 RR: “I recently rode the bike at the Lausitzring – it had wires all over it for testing and recording various things. The ‘standard’ machine is at a great level and it was very surprising how fast it is; in fact, it’s not much slower than my race bike! think it also has a great chance to capture sales from its rivals in this class because it will be in the same ‘ball-park’ price-wise, but the product is a lot more advanced with all the innovative technology.” That’s two fine endorsements from two of the fastest guys out there – the rest of us mere mortals will have to wait until early 2010 to try the Unstoppable S 1000 RR for ourselves. Post count: 2134
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