BMW READY FOR ANOTHER TOUGH CHALLENGE. The BMW endurance racing team are in Barcelona preparing for their next challenge – the 24 Hores Frigo de Motociclisme at the Circuit Cataluyna in Barcelona. Although the race is not part of the World Endurance Championship series, it will give the team a chance to continue the development of the 1200s bike they raced so successfully in the Le Mans 24 hours earlier this year. Since then, the bike has benefited from a weight reduction of some five or six kilos, improved aerodynamics and other small touches. The rear Brembo disc and caliper are lighter then before, as is the lower triple clamp. A new windscreen and subtle revisions to some of the streamlining has given the bike a better shape through the air. For this race, the team are allowed to use four riders, so they have called up Briton Richard Cooper. Richard may only be twenty-four years of age, but he is an experienced BMW rider and shows BMW’s commitment to youth. He joins the threesome who finished top in their class at Le Mans (and 16th overall) – Marcus Barth, Thomas Hinterreiter and Rico Penzkofer. Berti Hauser (Team manager) This race was in our schedule for the season and it gives us a chance to put into practice what we learnt at Le Mans. It gives us a good opportunity to test the ideas from that race and continue our development programme for this bike. We learnt a lot in Le Mans and we feel that our pit work will now also be better because we have a bit more experience of this category. Our target at Le Mans was to finish the race – and we did that – and our target this time is just the same. Of course, I’d like a top ten finish here, but you can never tell what’s going to happen in a 24 hour race. We want to make this a good race for all the BMW fans in Spain and show that we are a sporty brand. We chose Richard because he has experience of this kind of bike and because he is young. We want to show that young riders can have fun in this kind of team, on this kind of bike.