Munich. In the final spurt of the 2019 FIM Superbike World
Championship (WorldSBK), the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team is off to
South America. The ‘Circuito San Juan Villicum’ in Argentina will
host the penultimate round of the WorldSBK season this weekend
(11th to 13th October). The team has made
further improvements to the BMW S 1000 RR Superbikes of Tom Sykes
(GBR) and Markus Reiterberger (GER).
The province of San Juan is in western Argentina, around 180
kilometres north of Mendoza. With its 4.276-kilometre ‘Circuito San
Juan Villicum’ it is one of the country’s motorsport centres. The
WorldSBK stopped off in San Juan for the first time last year.
Quotes ahead of the races at San Juan.
Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director: “We
are already very excited for the race weekend in Argentina. The fans
there gave the WorldSBK a great reception last year, and no doubt the
atmosphere will be amazing again this time. There will also be many
BMW guests from Chile and Brazil who will come to support us on site.
We have used the short break since Magny-Cours to continue working on
improving our BMW S 1000 RR, and will be bringing new parts and ideas
with us. We are expecting hot, sunny weather, and we need to try to
prepare the bike for high track temperatures right from the first
practice session. We will be relying on our experiences from the most
recent races. The objective is to consistently be up there in the top
five and to seize the opportunity of a spot on the podium if it arises.”
Shaun Muir, Team Principal BMW Motorrad WorldSBK
Team: “First of all, we are looking forward to this event. I
think we certainly made a good step forward with Tom in race one at
Magny-Cours. We are now continuing this progress and have some good
ideas. We also have some new parts coming to San Juan which should
give us a good continuation of the progress. We are happy to be going
to San Juan. Tom is confident and he knows he can challenge for the
top four or top five. It is certainly a circuit that is very technical
with a long straight, but we feel now with the progress we have made
over the last few races that we can be contenders for these podium
positions. Markus is new to San Juan, so it will take him some time to
familiarise himself. Off the back of a difficult Magny-Cours we hope
that he can get to know the circuit quickly and hopefully make a step forward.”
Tom Sykes: “We are looking forward to going back to
Argentina. The debut there last year was great. There were a lot of
spectators who really showed a lot of passion for racing. It’s
obviously a long journey going there but after that we have a great
circuit layout. I feel that we can carry on in development with the
information we have gained in the last couple of events. We have a
very large uphill back straight at the circuit which obviously will
not be our strong point, but the whole BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team is
working hard and we will go there, give our best efforts and see where
we can end up. After the weekend in Argentina I will be travelling to
Brazil for an event for the new BMW S 1000 RR and that’s going to make
it an eventful and exciting trip for me.”
Markus Reiterberger: “Argentina is a very long way
away, but I am already looking forward to the weekend. I’ve never been
to San Juan myself, but I followed last year’s races on TV, and the
track looks really exciting. I love overseas races because the
schedule isn’t as packed as in Europe. I really hope that things will
be better this time than they were at the last weekend at Magny-Cours.
I would like to get a better result with my team in Argentina. I am
motivated and am looking forward to finally getting to know this track
that’s new to me.”