Riding Toprak Razgatlioglu's WSBK M 1000 RR

A day to remember as we are handed the key* to Toprak's priceless 250-hp BMW M 1000 RR WSBK (*Except there is no key)

- Story: Adam Child 'Chad' Photography: Alex Photo

LIKE SO MANY OF us, I was a wide-eyed teenager when I became besotted with World Superbikes. In 1995 I had saved up just enough money to attend my first race and rode my Kawasaki KR-1S to Donington Park in the English Midlands to watch the gladiators of the time do their thing. Carl Fogarty, Aaron Slight, Anthony Gobert, and Troy Corser were like gods as they snaked down Craner Curves with a ferocity and bravery that remain etched in my mind. I was hooked.

Thirty years have passed since that introduction to planet's premier production-based race series and, although I have since ridden several of the machines that have made history in the championship, I remain at heart that same teenage fan. Nothing races the pulse like a factory superbike, which is why, as I drove into the still-busy Cremona paddock on the Monday after the Italian round of the World Superbike Championship (WSBK), my legs were feeling a little shaky.

Riding any WSBK machine is intimidating on countless levels—all that power, all those electronics, and only a handful of laps to work it all out—but to set off down pit-lane on the world champion's BMW M 1000 RR in front of the whole ROKIT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team and the ridiculously talented double world champion, Toprak Razgatlioglu, himself is another level. The BMW team had even left Toprak’s pit garage as it had been over the race weekend. We were going to experience not only the bike, but also what it feels like to be a WSBK rider.

If that was not enough, BMW had planned a full day of extensive testing at the Lombardy circuit, starting with the Alpha Racing Superstock and €149,000 (Rs 1.49 crore) Euro Racing Superbike spec M 1000 RR customer bikes as well as the BMW Motorrad factory World Endurance M 1000 RR. This was going to be a day like no other. Time to dig out those big boy pants.