WORLD SUPERBIKES SLAYER: TOPRAK'S Bullet

It’s not every day you get to knock around with the World Superbike champ, let alone head out for a spin on his title defending M 1000 RR, but that’s how Rennie passed the time at Cremona recently, getting under the skin of BMW’s Bullet before trying it out for size...

- RENNIE SCAYSBROOK

Sometimes, it just takes the right man to do the job. That's the position BMW Motorrad found itself in at the conclusion of the 2024 WorldSBK season, when its star signing, the prodigiously talented Toprak Razgatlioglu, turned the bike that was always the bridesmaid, never the bride, into a championship winner.

The key to success

For BMW Motorrad, it marked the completion of a journey that started way back in 2009, when Troy Corser and Leon Haslam took the brand's first tentative steps back into world-level racing with the first BMW S 1000 RR. The following 16 years saw BMW place a host of talented riders on the RR's seat in the hopes of title glory, including Marco Melandri, Chaz Davies, Tom Sykes and Eugene Laverty. However, Toprak's arrival at the end of 2023 which coincided with a complete overhaul of BMW's factory racing department under the stewardship of legendary team owner Shaun Muir saw the final piece of a near two-decade old puzzle finally click into place. The result? A dominant WorldSBK title win at the hands of a man Muir says is the most mentally tough rider he's ever had on his books.

But it wasn't quite as it seemed. Razgatlioglu and ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team stablemate Michael van der Mark had use of the 'super concessions' M 1000 RR chassis, which was essentially a prototype unit that had varying stiffness characteristics to what you'd find on a full production M 1000 RR chassis.

At this level, everything counts, and Razgatlioglu could use the super concessions chassis to devastating effect. His trademark ultra-late braking style was enhanced on the 2024 M 1000 RR and paired with that bike's ability to hold a more consistent line on corner exits.