New territory for WorldSBK: BMW Motorrad Motorsport ready for the Most debut.

Munich. BMW Motorrad Motorsport is once again entering new
territory with the FIM Superbike World Championship. This weekend
(6th to 8th August), WorldSBK races in the Czech city of Most for
the first time. Autodrom Most is unfamiliar terrain for the BMW
Motorrad WorldSBK Team and its two riders Tom Sykes (GBR) and
Michael van der Mark (NED), although Mark has ridden there many
years ago. Jonas Folger (GER) from the Bonovo MGM Racing Team has
more recent experience of the circuit.

 

Autodrom Most is located in the northwest of the Czech Republic, not
far from the border with Germany. The Most region has hosted
motorsport events for over 70 years – first on street circuits, before
the permanent racetrack opened in 1983. Since then, races in national
and international championships have been held there. Most features on
the WorldSBK calendar for the first time in 2021.

 

Quotes ahead of the Most round.

 

Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director: “Most
is a new circuit on the calendar. For this reason, it is very
important to immediately find a good basis in the two free practice
sessions on Friday. Jonas Folger has been there often, and our
colleagues in the International German Motorcycle Championship have
also ridden there. As such, we have some information, but it can never
be transferred directly to World Superbikes. In addition, it had been
agreed that no one goes testing there with their Superbikes so we are
all entering uncharted territory. We will see what awaits us there.
Recent events have shown that you have to land on the front two rows
in Saturday’s Superpole to have a successful race weekend. That is one
of the goals for the weekend.” 

 

Shaun Muir, Team Principal BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team:
“The team is looking forward to going to the first WorldSBK
round at the Most circuit. That’s exciting for everybody and very much
a level playing field with all the competitors and teams agreeing in
not take part in any testing leading up in the event. Overall, I think
it will be a very challenging circuit, lots of variations. Changeable
weather conditions are expected and we already know that we were
competitive in those environments. But overall, the team hopes that we
end up with a completely dry weekend to continue the development of
the BMW M 1000 RR. I think we are in a very good place, the riders are
feeling very good about the progression of the bike over the last
three, four races and we are looking forward to getting the event underway.”

 

Michael van der Mark, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team:
“I’ve been to Most, but that was 13 years ago. I watched an
on-board lap on YouTube and noticed that I have forgotten half of the
track, so it I think one can say that it’s like a new circuit for me.
So in the first couple of laps I will just try to learn the track and
find some markers, braking points and stuff like that. The last couple
of weekends, we saw that we were making progress. The gap to the
podium was getting smaller and smaller. So we now have to try and find
these last couple of tenths, especially on race pace, to be able to
fight for the podium. It is difficult to say what to expect for this
weekend on a new track but this is our goal, for sure.”

 

Tom Sykes, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team: “I am
obviously very much looking forward to the new venture. I have been to
the Czech Republic a number of times before but Most is a new circuit
for myself and I believe for most of the WorldSBK paddock. This is
going to be very interesting and hopefully now with our base set-up of
the new BMW M 1000 RR we can have a strong start to the weekend and
look to build on this in preparation for the races even if we only
have a small amount of time on Friday to do so. The weekend will be a
kind of an unpredictable one in terms of results because most of the
teams are going there with zero information. I am looking forward to
this new challenge.”

 

Jonas Folger, Bonovo MGM Racing: “I am really looking
forward to Most after the race weekend in Assen was such a positive
one – apart from the crash. We had really good pace there. We are now
looking to continue at Most where we left off at Assen. The circuit is
not far from me, so I can virtually call it a home race. I hope a lot
of German fans make the trip. I am looking forward to WorldSBK’s debut
at Most. I can hardly wait.”

 

 

 

*Information from the International German Motorcycle Championship
(IDM) – no data for WorldSBK available yet.