Best European team at the Suzuka 8 Hours: BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team scores important points in the FIM EWC.

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Suzuka. The BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team recorded an
outstanding, hard-earned seventh place at the Suzuka 8 Hours (JPN)
to secure important championship points in the FIM Endurance World
Championship (FIM EWC). Markus Reiterberger (GER), Ilya Mikhalchik
(UKR) and Jérémy Guarnoni (FRA) defied the hot and humid conditions
as well as rain on the #37 BMW M 1000 RR. In a very competitive
field featuring numerous Japanese teams on home soil, the BMW
Motorrad World Endurance Team was the best European team and was
accordingly awarded the Le-Mans-Award. Suzuka was hosting the third
of four events in the 2023 FIM EWC. Ahead of the September finale at
Le Castellet (FRA), the team is in third place in the World
Championship standings. There is still every chance of closing the
37-point gap to the leaders in the final 24-hour race.

 

The Suzuka 8 Hours is the most important race of the year for the
Japanese manufacturers. They compete with correspondingly strong works
teams and works-supported squads. The target of the European teams is
to score as many points as possible, which is exactly what the BMW
Motorrad World Endurance Team managed to do.

At 11:30 local time, the #37 BMW M 1000 RR started the eight-hour
race from eleventh on the grid. The bike fell back to 16th place
during the opening stages, but Reiterberger, Mikhalchik and Guarnoni
battled back courageously into the top ten before continuing to
further progress through the standings. Despite the high temperatures
and extreme humidity, they stayed cool, lapping consistently without
making any mistakes. The BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team also
applied its extensive experience to produce some outstanding work in
the pits. The team and riders even kept their focus when rain set in
around an hour before the end of the race. As darkness fell, the #37
BMW M 1000 RR finished in a very good seventh place at 19:30 local time.

The season finale, the famous Bol d’Or 24-hour race at Le Castellet,
will take place from 14th to 17th September.

Four privateer BMW teams from Asia also made an appearance at Suzuka.
The SANMEI Team TARO PLUSONE claimed 17th place overall (16th in the
EWC class) with the #44 BMW M 1000 RR. The team from TONE RT SYNCEDGE
4413 BMW was able to rejoin the race after falling at the start,
crossing the line with the #85 BMW M 1000 RR in 43rd positions (13th
in the Superstock class). The Shinshu activation project Team NAGANO
and the TEAM FRONTIER both retired early.

Reactions after the Suzuka 8 Hours.

Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director:
“Taking the tremendous commitment of the Japanese
manufacturers into account, as well as the strong line-up of
competitive Japanese teams and riders on home soil, we can be
extremely pleased to secure seventh place, being the best European
team. This becomes even clearer when you see where our main world
championship rivals finished. We dropped a few points to FCC, but got
closer to YART and moved further ahead of SERT. This means that the
world championship is still wide open, as one-and-a-half times the
points will be awarded at the season finale. So, we are confident! The
team gave another faultless race performance that underlines our
consistency. The rain made the final hours somewhat tricky. We also
had a few minor technical issues during the last stint, which cost us
in terms of lap times but not positions. The performance of the tyres
in our package must be regarded as critical. The statistics don’t lie.
But we performed well, thanks to support from Dunlop, and Dunlop Japan
in particular. We are working hard on further improvements with our
partner, which we hope will allow us to battle for the world
championship at the next race, the Bol D’Or season finale. The omens
are good!”

 

Werner Daemen, Team Manager BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team:
“Before the race I said that a top-eight result would be
perfect because we did not have the strongest package here. I think we
are world champions in changing the wheels as we always have been the
fastest. I am very proud of that. Also the riders did a tremendous
job. They made no mistake, no crash and P7 in the end is really great.
Now I am pretty exhausted but very much looking forward to the last
race of the season where everything is possible.”

Markus Reiterberger: “I am relieved and happy. We
were aiming for a top ten finish. Of course, the top five would have
been even better, but we finished right in between and that is a good
result. All three of us had a good race. I made a great start but then
had a minor problem with the bike, which cost me a few positions.
However, we were able to move up again. The third and final stint was
draining, physically and mentally. It repeatedly rained and then dried
out. I wasn’t sure whether to head to the pits or not. Luckily, we
chose to stay out and our communication was good using the pit board.
That enabled me to make up a few places. We really achieved the best
possible result and finished ahead of all but one of our world
championship rivals. That was important for the finale at Le Castellet
too. A big thank you is due to the team for delivering superb pit
stops once again and working so well, and to everyone who was cheering
for us and helping us. That was a tough, demanding week, but everyone
gave their all.”

Ilya Mikhalchik: “For sure I am really happy and I
want to say a big thank you to everyone in the team. The race was
really difficult. In the first two hours, it was really hot. We also
struggled a bit with the grip. But apart from that, we tried to have a
good pace, to focus, and all three riders made a really good job. The
last part of the race was the most difficult but we managed to finish
in P7 and I am really happy about that. Thanks to BMW, they’ve made a
big step with the bike from last year. Also here in the heat, the bike
was perfect and I enjoyed riding it. We can be more than satisfied
because our target was to finish in the top ten and we achieved that
and have been quite close to the top five. That shows that we did a
good job.”

Jérémy Guarnoni: “It was really good. Maybe we could
have fought for the top five but in these kind of conditions, when it
was raining, we lost a bit. It has been like a roulette, like a game.
But we did our race and we bring home a lot of points for the
championship. We have seen that it has been difficult to finish the
race as some of our competitors made mistakes or had problems. We are
really happy. We are the best European team and we have the best
European tyre. That shows that we did our job. Before the race we said
that we want to be in the top ten and we finished in P7. We all three
riders and the team did a great job. We now are looking forward to the
Bol d’Or where we clearly can win the world championship. The fight
will be there.”

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