Team principal Shaun Muir in portrait: Perfectionist, manager, doer – Visiting the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team in Guisborough.

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Guisborough. The small town of Guisborough is in northeast
England. There is a passion for racing at the heart of this town,
after all this is where the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team is
located. Team principal Shaun Muir, who hails from Guisborough,
founded his company Shaun Muir Racing here more than 20 years ago.
During a visit to the headquarters, we take a look behind the scenes
of the team that has been contesting the FIM Superbike World
Championship (WorldSBK) as a works team alongside BMW Motorrad
Motorsport since 2019. We learn how the team has grown continuously
over the years, just how many areas the everyday tasks outside of
race weekends cover, and what tirelessly drives team principal Muir.

 

“Yes, I’m a perfectionist. I always try to do my best in whatever I
am doing,” is Muir’s assessment of himself. This attitude to life
plays a key role in all areas of his work. Coming from a family crazy
about motorsport, Muir started to ride motocross at the age of ten or
eleven. He rode in the national championship before switching to the
circuit to ride in the British Superbike Championship. An injury
brought his career as an active racer to an abrupt end, but that was
the beginning of Shaun Muir Racing. “After having to take a year off
because of the injury, the question was how I could make a comeback,”
remembered Muir. “It was at this point that I decided to go into team
management and to try and set up my own team.”

From the BSB to the WorldSBK.

Starting in 2002, Shaun Muir Racing contested the British Superbike,
Supersport and Superstock Championship and also enjoyed success in
major road racing events such as the Isle of Man TT, the Ulster Grand
Prix, the North West 200 and the Macau Grand Prix. After the second
British Superbike Championship title win in 2015 came promotion to the
WorldSBK in 2016. “It was a natural step for us,” said Muir. “But we
knew that we still had a certain way to go. We needed to understand
WorldSBK racing, familiarise ourselves with the travelling and the
tracks, as well as the organisational aspect of running a world
championship team.” That was when the collaboration with BMW Motorrad
Motorsport began; Shaun Muir Racing contested their first WorldSBK
season in 2016 as a customer team. Despite the switch to a different
manufacturer for the 2017 season, Guisborough and Munich never fully
lost contact, in part due to the collaboration in road racing. And
that’s how Shaun Muir Racing became the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team in
its works re-entry in 2019.

The team has grown massively since then. “In the beginning we had a
team of around 20 people, made up of SMR and BMW Motorrad Motorsport
employees. And now there are more than 30,” reported Muir. “We started
out with two mechanics, a tyre man and a crew chief for each bike. Now
there are three mechanics, the tyre man and the crew chief, as well as
two data engineers. Then there are additional engineers, a coordinator
for the spare parts, and additional mechanics here in Guisborough. The
team has also grown in the non-technical areas, the PR and marketing
departments, and VIP catering. We had maybe 50 or 60 VIP guests in
2019, now we have 120. Everything is getting bigger, and we have also
grown accordingly.”

A big project with two strong partners. Unlike in some of the other
teams, the riders at BMW Motorrad Motorsport all have direct works
contracts these days. The other key members of staff in the pit also
have contracts with BMW Motorrad Motorsport, for example, the crew
chiefs and the data engineers. SMR provides the other employees for
the operational activities, from the truckers to the mechanics and
catering staff. “This structure that has evolved over the years is a
big step,” said Muir. “It enables us at SMR to take care of the
operational side of things and BMW has the strong leadership role in
the technical development programme.”

Perfectionism at the racetrack and in everyday life.

During the European season, the race bikes and trucks usually travel
from one racetrack to the next directly and only come back to
Guisborough occasionally. However, work at SMR doesn’t stand still
even in everyday life. “The organisational work here at the workshop
in Great Britain carries on, with the team management and coordination
team, consisting of three or four people,” said Muir. “And then there
is the preparation for the next race of course. Our mechanics prepare
a large number of parts that we take to the track, not just for us,
but for the Bonovo action BMW Racing Team as well. Here, the guys
prepare the stuff that we are given. We have a type of dummy bike, on
which we install the stuff and see if it all fits and, if necessary,
it is remodelled, revised, and readjusted. That is how we make sure
that everything fits 100 percent before it is all packed up and taken
to the next race. So, a lot of work is done here, even though the
bikes aren’t here.”

What is evident both in the workshop and at the racetrack is
perfectionism, which Muir mentioned at the start. Everything is highly
professional, be that the workshop in Guisborough, the trucks, the
garage at the racetrack, or the hospitality. “When we entered the
WorldSBK as a privateer team, it was always important to me to
represent the manufacturer,” explained Muir. “We are proud of the
responsibility of representing the BMW Motorrad brand which is why we
always want to improve things to ensure they are at the best and
highest possible level. With every new sponsor that we have on board,
my goal is to reinvest in even better equipment and even better
material. Our workshop here is my pride and joy and I want to
implement what we do here at the racetrack as well, not only in terms
of what the pit looks like, but also in terms of the quality of the
mechanics, the team’s performance, the tools, the motorhomes, and the
hospitality. As a works team, everything needs to be at the highest
level, so each year I take another look at what can be improved. That
really is very important to me.”

The entrepreneur’s expertise.

A big advantage for Muir is his many years of experience as a
businessman with his own construction company. “I have run both a
successful construction company and a WorldSBK team in recent years,”
he explained. “And throughout that time, I noticed that my passion, my
energy, and my efforts were all being poured into the racing team. So,
I have taken a step back from the construction company over the past
three years and am now only acting as a consultant there. Now, I am
fully focussed on the race team. But you need a great deal of business
acumen to run a racing team, and that has to come from owning and
running a company. I think that most team owners or team managers are
fundamentally successful entrepreneurs as well. That is very
important. It is not just about running a company. It is also about
managing things, coordinating staff, the ability to negotiate with
sponsors, manage budgets, coordinate accounts, and so on. You are
responsible for many aspects and I think that experience is hugely
important here.”

As an entrepreneur, Muir also learned to rise to challenges. One of
the greatest challenges in racing is getting the team motivated again
in difficult times and getting the team to re-focus on success. “It is
easy to focus on the negatives and give up,” as he is well aware. “But
you also need to know how to handle difficult times. All it takes is a
glimmer of hope, a minor success, and a step in the right direction to
regain momentum and share that strength with everyone. And we know
that we can do it when we all work together and are strong as one.”
The fact that there are crew members who have been with SMR for 18 or
20 years is further evidence of how committed the team is.

The goal that everyone is striving towards is getting on the winning
track in the WorldSBK. “That is also one thing that I think sets us
apart from some of the other teams. All of us at SMR and BMW Motorrad
Motorsport have a common goal that we haven’t achieved yet. But we
have put everything in place to achieve that goal. I think we have one
of the best coordinated teams and the right package to make it happen.”

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