Turkish world champion motorcycle racer Toprak Razgatlioglu just set the bar a little bit higher while competing in the Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK). A historic win streak began in Assen on April 21st, followed by three hat tricks at Misano, Donington, and Most before adding three more wins this weekend in Portimão. The chariot he rode to victory – the BMW M 1000 RR – performed flawlessly and brought the racer to a grand total of 54 victories in his WorldSBK career. “That’s a nice number,” the Turkish motorcyclist – who joined the BMW factory team just this year – quipped.
The wins didn’t come easy, either. In the first race, Razgatlioglu couldn’t establish dominance until the 13th lap of the 20-lap sprint, although he held onto pole for the remainder of the race. In the end, Razgatlioglu finished over a second ahead of second-place Alvaro Bautista and his Ducati Panigale V4 R. The Superpole race saw a more typically dominant Razgatlioglu; he led from the second lap onwards. The second main race was much closer, but he grabbed a lead and finished 0.035 seconds ahead of the competition.
The BMW factory team is a collaboration between British Shaun Muir Racing and BMW Motorrad Motorsport that’s been around since 2019. Riders Razgatlioglu and Michael van der Mark pilot motorsport-ready versions of the already high-performing BMW M 1000 RR. On the street, production bikes utilize a water and oil-cooled four-cylinder engine that develops an estimated 205 horsepower at 13,000 rpm. The BMW M 1000 RR achieves speeds of up to 189 mph thanks to a low 423-pound curb weight. The bike seen at WorldSBK is quite a bit different – weighing around 50 pounds less, developing over 230 horsepower, and revving to over 14,000 rpm.
The M 1000 RR served team members well, too. Van der Mark placed sixth in the first race and even led the field in the Superpole race, although finished seventh. Garrett Gerloff from Texas, who rides on the Bonovo Action BMW Racing Team, navigated the field from ninth place to fourth in the first main race. He performed a similar feat in the second main race, rocketing from 18th to finish in eighth place.
The next SBK event is around a month away – September 6th through the 8th—and takes place at Magny-Cours in France. This somewhat infamous track previously hosted the French Grand Prix for nearly 20 years beginning in the early 1990s. “Now we will see what we can achieve in Magny-Cours,” says Razgatlioglu. “I am not looking at the championship points, I just focus on the wins. If this winning streak stops, then I start thinking about the championship.”
