Race cancelled due to rain: shortened Sunday race day for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team at Imola.

Imola. Sunday’s race day at Imola (ITA) was much shorter than
planned for the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) and the
BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. Tom Sykes (GBR) and Markus Reiterberger
(GER) claimed eighth and tenth positions in the morning’s Superpole
race. Race two in the afternoon had to be cancelled due to heavy
rain.

 

The track was already moist during morning warm-up. This was the very
first session in rainy conditions with the new BMW S 1000 RR for the
BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team, as all previous tests and races had taken
place in the dry.

 

The weather conditions for the morning’s Superpole race were
changeable, with dry spells. Sykes gave an impressive recovery
performance: he had to start from the pit lane, in last place, due to
his tyre pressure being slightly too low on the grid. Sykes ploughed
through the field on his RR, moving up so far that he was able to
cross the line in eighth position. Reiterberger ended the Superpole
race in tenth place. A heavy downpour began just as the grid formed up
for the second race. The start was delayed and then the race was
finally cancelled an hour and a half later.

 

Quotes after Sunday at Imola.

 

Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director:
“After this weekend, we can draw the positive conclusion that our race
pace is very good. However, yesterday’s technical problems and Tom
being demoted today meant that we weren’t able to make the most of it.
I understand the decision made by race control and the riders that it
would have been too dangerous to start the race in the afternoon,
although it would have been good for us to ride in the rain, as that
would have helped us prepare for the future. Overall, we take a
positive attitude from Imola as we head to the next race.”

 

Shaun Muir, Team Principal BMW Motorrad WorldSBK
Team:
“The summary of the day is that we proved again that
the BMW S 1000 RR is getting very quick now. We have a good pace and I
was looking forward to a dry race. In the Superpole race, Tom
unfortunately had to start from pit lane. He did the sighting lap to
the grid on race tyres. Due to the low temperatures, the tyre pressure
slightly dropped below the limit. We will adapt the procedures to
avoid this in the future. Tom’s race then was very positive. With his
lap times he could have been battling for fourth position which is a
fantastic position to be in. Markus went with a different tyre
scenario. He was one of only four riders to opt for the SCX tyre. It
was a gamble and he would have been very, very good if that would have
worked out but unfortunately he lost the tyre before the race was
finished. But anyway, we are happy with the top ten for Markus.
Overall we can say after this weekend that we are now showing that
with its pace the bike can be fast now at many circuits. We can carry
this forward and it’s also important that we will have a test at
Misano before Jerez because we once again have many things to test.”

 

Tom Sykes: “We just had a little bit of bad luck. The
tyre pressure was finally correct but on the grid it was a little bit
low because I made a slow lap to the grid. The BMW S 1000 RR chassis
was working very well. I made obviously a lot of passes in ten laps.
Sure, I’m a bit disappointed but we’re making progress all the time;
the team works very hard and I am sure we will have some good fortunes
soon. For now it has been a strange day, another race cancelled due to
safety conditions, and now we are moving on to the next race where I
hope the package can also be competitive. So keep working and hoping
we will get the result we’re all working forward very soon.”

 

Markus Reiterberger: “This morning’s warm-up was the
first time that we had raced in the rain with the new RR. I had a
pretty good feeling. The conditions were changeable for the Superpole
race. It was mainly dry, with some wet spots and we took the risk to
opt for the Supersoft tyre. Unfortunately, tyre wear was quite heavy
towards the end but I managed to cross the line in tenth place. We had
to wait a long time to find out whether we would have a second race or
not. It would have been important for us to gain some experience in
the rain but the decision to cancel made sense from the point of view
of rider safety, as it was really at the limit. Overall, we learned a
lot at Imola and we will check out a lot of things during testing to
help us continue to make progress. Thanks to the team for their hard
work. We will all work hard together to reap the benefits of this work.”