Penz13.com wins Open category at Le Mans 24 Hours – Reiterberger extends lead in the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy with another victory in the IDM.

The legendary endurance race at Le Mans turns out to be a big success for the Penz13.com team – Marco Nekvasil crowned champion in the Superstock class of the SUPERBIKE*IDM – Exciting races for Ryuichi Kiyonari in the BSB.

Munich, 24th September 2014. The Penz13.com team returns from France with a big trophy: At the legendary “24 Heures Moto” at Le Mans, Sylvain Barrier (FR), Jason Pridmore (US) and Glenn Allerton (AU), won the Open category with their BMW S 1000 RR prepared with the support of BMW Motorrad Motorsport. The fans of the International German Motorcycle Championship (SUPERBIKE*IDM) witnessed an exciting 2014 season finale at Hockenheim (DE). Markus Reiterberger (DE) celebrated another victory on his RR, while Marco Nekvasil (AT) won the title in the Superstock class in front of second placed Lucy Glöckner (DE). Assen (NL) hosted the British Superbike Championship (BSB) this weekend, with Ryuichi Kiyonari (JP) having nail-biting battles at the front in both races. In the FIM Sidecar World Championship (SWC), Uwe Gürck (DE) and Manfred Wechselberger (AT) finished the 2014 season third overall.

BMW Motorrad Race Trophy: Markus Reiterberger extends his lead.

With his strong results at the final round of the SUPERBIKE*IDM at Hockenheim (see below), Markus Reiterberger extended his lead in the current BMW Motorrad Race Trophy rankings. The young German now has 274.00 points to his tally. Second is Emilien Jaillet (FR), who races in the French Superbike Championship (FSBK), with 238.00 points. Belgian SUPERBIKE*IDM rider Bastien Mackels has improved to third with 210.00 points. The total number of participants in the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy has risen to 69, as EWC riders Pedro Vallcaneras (ES) and Jason Pridmore (US) have now also registered.

“24 Heures Moto” at Le Mans.

It was undisputedly the highlight of the endurance season: the legendary 24-hour race at Le Mans (FR), which marked the final round of the 2014 FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC). After an intense weekend, the Penz13.com team and the specialists from BMW Motorrad Motorsport left France exhausted but happy. This time, the squad of Rico Penzkofer (DE) entered two BMW S 1000 RRs: the #13 of Pedro Vallcaneras (ES), Steve Mercer (GB) and Didier van Keymeulen (BE) in the Superstock class and, for the first time, the #31 in the Open category, ridden by Sylvain Barrier (FR), Jason Pridmore (US) and Glenn Allerton (AU).

The start for the #31 RR in the Open category served as a test under race conditions, as the team is considering entering the Superbike class of the EWC next season. The outcome exceeded all expectations: Barrier, Pridmore and Allerton celebrated the win in the Open category, crossing the line with an advantage of four laps to their closest rivals. In the overall classification of the 24 hours they finished eighth. In the early stages of the race, Barrier was even in the overall lead and with a time of 1:38.133 minutes set the outright fastest lap of the race.

The #13 RR of the Penz13.com Fank’s Autowelt Racing Team is a regular competitor in the Superstock class of the EWC. Vallcaneras, Mercer and van Keymeulen finished the race sixth in their class and 15th overall. In the final classification of the FIM Endurance World Superstock Cup, they concluded the season in third place. Björn Stuppi (DE), Hayato Takada (JP) and Tristan Guyot (FR) finished the race eighth in the Superstock class and 18th overall with their Völpker NRT#48 BMW S 1000 RR.

SUPERBIKE*IDM in Hockenheim.

The 2014 International German Motorcycle Championship (SUPERBIKE*IDM) concluded with the final round at Hockenheim (DE), with specialists from BMW Motorrad Motorsport also being on site there to support their customer teams. Markus Reiterberger (DE) built on the success he had the week before at the Lausitzring (DE). On Saturday, he secured pole-position with his BMW S 1000 RR from Van Zon-Remeha-BMW. In race one, which was held under dry conditions, he celebrated his third victory of the season and won with an advantage of nearly three seconds. In the second race, which was held in torrential rain and had to be red-flagged after 14 laps, Reiterberger claimed third on the podium. In the overall classification of the SUPERBIKE*IDM, he finished the 2014 season in third.

Reiterberger’s team-mate Bastien Mackels (BE) also put in a strong performance and finished the races in fourth and fifth respectively. This meant fourth overall in the championship rankings for Mackels. Team Wilbers BMW Racing entered a second Superbike version of the BMW HP4 for guest starter Leon Camier. The Brit, who had claimed EVO wins in the FIM Superbike World Championship (WSBK) with the BMW S 1000 RR earlier this season, soon got acquainted with the bike and crossed the line in sixth and seventh respectively. Stefan Nebel (DE) was seventh and 12th with his Wilbers HP4.

In the Superstock class, there was a tense fight for the title up to the very end between BMW Motorrad riders Marco Nekvasil (AT / Interwetten Racing by Fritze Tuning) and Lucy Glöckner (DE / Wilbers BMW Racing). After the two final races, Nekvasil was crowned 2014 Superstock champion, while Glöckner finished the season second overall. Third and fourth places in the championship rankings also went to privateer BMW Motorrad riders: Dominik Vincon (DE / BMW Stilgenhauer) was third and Leon Bovee (NL / Van Zon-Remeha-BMW) fourth. Sunday’s results: race one was won by guest starter Marc Moser (DE), who was not eligible to score championship points, with Vincon and Glöckner finishing second and third on the podium. Nekvasil and Bovee crossed the line in fifth and sixth respectively. In race two victory again went to a guest starter, Michal Filla (CZ), who rode a BMW S 1000 RR from BMW Sikora Motorsport. Vincon was second, Nekvasil sixth, Bovee seventh and Glöckner eighth.

British Superbike Championship at Assen.

The British Superbike Championship (BSB) made a guest appearance in the Netherlands this weekend. The iconic “TT Circuit” in Assen hosted the tenth round of the 2014 season and, once more, the fans were offered exciting race action from start to finish. One of the protagonists was Ryuichi Kiyonari (JP) with his BMW S 1000 RR from Buildbase BMW Motorrad. In the mixed conditions of race one, “King Kiyo” was involved in a close battle for the win until the finish line and finished second, only 0.184 seconds behind Josh Waters (AU). For race two, the track had completely dried. Immediately after the start, Kiyonari took the lead and defended it for nearly the whole distance over 18 laps against Shane Byrne (GB) who was pushing massively from behind. It was only in one of the last corners that Byrne managed to pass. Kiyonari again finished second, this time with a narrow gap of 0.152 seconds. In total, Buildbase BMW Motorrad entered three RRs: Lee Jackson (GB) was tenth and 12th, James Westmoreland (GB) finished 14th and tenth respectively. Patric Muff (CH / Batham’s Prize Winning Ales) had a difficult day, retiring in both races.

FIM Sidecar World Championship at Le Mans.

The FIM Sidecar World Championship (SWC) held its 2014 season finale at Le Mans (FR) this weekend. Pekka Paivarinta and Timo Karttiala (both FI) finished second on the podium with their BMW sidecar. BMW pairing Uwe Gürck (DE) and Manfred Wechselberger (AT) crossed the line in eighth. This gave them enough points to claim third in the overall world championship rankings.

Brazilian Superbike Championship in Goiânia.

The fifth round of the 2014 Brazilian Superbike Championship (BRSBK) was held at the Autodrómo Internacional Ayrton Senna at Goiânia (BR). In the turbulent race for the GP 1000 class, which was red flagged and re-started, Matthieu Lussiana (FR) took the win with his BMW S 1000 RR of Petronas Alex Barros Racing. Second on the podium was Luciano Ribodino (AR / Aclat Racing). Douglas Figueiredo (BR / BMW Motorrad Alex Barros Racing) was fifth and Victor Moura (BR / M2B racing) seventh. In the GP Light class, Lucas Teodoro (BR / BMW Motorrad Alex Barros Racing) finished third on the podium.

2014 BMW Motorrad Race Trophy – Current Standings.

Status: 24th September 2014

16. Ryuichi Kiyonari (JP/BSB/138,00), 17. Leon Bovee (NL/IDM/137,78), 18. Matthieu Lussiana (FR/BRSBK/137,00), 19. Daniel Rivas (ES/CEV/127,00), 20. Eeki Kuparinen (FI/CEV/120,00), 21. Alessandro Polita (IT/CIV/116,25), 22. Luca Conforti (IT/CIV/101,25), 23. Marc Neumann (DE/IDM/100,88), 24. Andy Rey (FR/FSBK/100,00), 25. Stefan Nebel (DE/IDM/97,50), 26. Hudson Kennaugh (ZA/BSB/97,00), 27. Michael Rutter (GB/IOMTT/BSB/96,83), 28. Florian Drouin (FR/FSBK/93,00), 29. Björn Stuppi (DE/EWC/92,75), 30. Hayato Takada (JP/EWC/MFJ/92,75), 31. Uwe Gürck (DE/SWC/91,32), 32. Gianluca Vizziello (IT/CIV/90,00), 33. Janine Davies (ZA/SAM/83,70), 34. Federico D‘Annunzio (IT/WSTK/80,00), 35. Jason Pridmore (US/EWC/79,00), 36. Fabrizio Perotti (IT/CIV/75,00), 37. Alessio Corradi (IT/CIV/73,75), 38. Mark Albrecht (DE/IDM/69,15), 39. Denni Schiavoni (IT/CIV/68,75), 40. Thomas Hainthaler (DE/IDM/62,25), 41. Florian Brunet-Lugardon (FR/FSBK/62,00), 42. Nicolas Pouhair (FR/FSBK/58,00), 43. Lucas Teodoro (BR/BRSBK/57,00), 44. Sylvain Barrier (FR/WSBK/EWC/56,50), 45. Marco Muzio (IT/CIV/55,00), 46. Luciano Ribodino (AR/BRSBK/46,50), 47. Jean Foray (FR/FSBK/45,00), 48. Daisaku Sakai (JP/MFJ/EWC/44,73), 49. Robert Muresan (RO/WSTK/42,00), 50. Marco Sousa (CA/CSBK/41,00), 51. Jörg Steinhausen (DE/SWC/40,80), 52. James Westmoreland (GB/BSB/33,00), 53. Sergiy Grygorovych (UA/IDM/33,00), 54. Kohji Teramoto (JP/MFJ/EWC/32,96), 55. Lucas Barros (BR/BRSBK/27,00), 56. Patric Muff (CH/BSB/23,33), 57. Rémi Boitel (FR/FSBK/21,00), 58. Camille Hedelin (FR/FSBK/18,00), 59. Tim Robinson (CA/CSBK/17,50), 60. Alessio Velini (IT/CIV/15,00), 61. Shinya Takeishi (JP/MFJ/EWC/10,73), 62. Imre Toth (HU/WSBK/7,00), 63. David Datzer (DE/IDM/6,00), 64. Peter Sebestyen (HU/WSBK/3,00), 65. Filip Altendorfer (DE/EWC/2,45), 65. Florian Bauer (DE/EWC/2,45), 65. Rico Löwe (DE/EWC/2,45), 68. Didier Grams (DE/Macau Grand Prix/0,00), 68. Martjin Polinder (DK/IDM/0,00)

It is still possible to register for the 2014 BMW Motorrad Race Trophy on the websitewww.bmw-motorrad.de/motorsport. The deadline for registrations for the current season is not until 2nd November 2014, entry is free. Regardless of when the registrations are received, each participant will receive points for all the race events he/she has competed in since the start of the scoring period on 15th February 2014. So the ranking can also continuously change as new participants are added.

More, from a press release issued by Team WD-40:

WD-40 and Stauff VIP’s enjoy their visit to Assen

Team WD-40 by GR Motosport Ltd, returned to Assen for the 10th round of the 2014 British Superbike Championship. Assen is always somewhere we look forward to visiting as we have a successful history there in different Championships including European and World Superbikes. Assen is a fantastic venue and with good weather forecasts, is a huge draw to the motorcycle sport fan from across Europe and the World. For the most the weather was ok just spoiling the party for the first Superbike race but it wasn’t enough to damper the spirits.

We had quite a party of guests from WD-40 Netherlands and Stauff partners in Germany where we have to thank Stuart Higgs and his MSVR Team for their help in organising some fantastic hospitality and viewing. Young Tarran Mackenzie was also on hand as Team clown to brighten the quieter moment and support his Team mate helping out pit boarding.

The racing at Assen was just fantastic for the near capacity crowd with nearly all the races coming down to a desperate last corner lunge right under our guests vantage point. It also saw some quite bizarre race results coming from the pressure of the championship as a whole coming to a close. A presumed combination of pressure and weather saw crashes from some of the main Superbike championship contenders but still at this point it looks down to Kyo and Shakey to take the title.

Our long time Friend Pete Banks (Banks Racing) saw his rider Ed Rendell take their first British Championship title in 20 years of trying, a superb result for the little team from the North East

Superbike:- we had had another tough weekend with Barry salvaging a single point from the second race.

Brent Gladwin Team WD-40’s manager, said: “Assen is just a fantastic place, it has many memories for us in racing from my own small success to the hey days of Dean Thomas and Karl Harris. The sad memories of waking up there to the loss of Princess Dianna and some of the fastest Taxi Drivers you may ever wish to meet when they find out your from a team !!!

This weekend we had a great bunch of guys from WD-40 and Stauff as guests with Iain Stansbie and Taz on hand to help out on the entertainment, a great job they both did for me.

Unfortunately our own racing just did not go the way we had hoped, Barry’s discomfort in the changing weather in the first race saw us start from the very back in the second race and he was lucky to salvage a single point.

We return to Silverstone on the 3rd-5th of October for the next round where we will have all 3 riders out. Ben is chomping at the bit as he returns to the scene of his first Championship points of 2014, Taz has his own very high standards to meet and Barry has to find and deliver the form he is capable of.”

More, from a press release issued by Pure Action Sports:

Pure Action Sports claims lead in National CCS/ASRA Team Challenge GTU division with win at VIR.

With an emotional start to the weekend at Virginia International Raceway, Pure Action Sports set out to win the Championship Cup Series/ASRA Team Challenge GTU (600 class) race and did just that. With the scheduled 89 lap race on Sunday reduced to 65 laps due to the tragic events that unfolded on Friday evening, some last minute changes had to be made to the bike’s fuel mapping on the R6 to provide adequate fuel mileage to finish the race with only one pit stop.

Slightly underpowered from where the team wanted to be due to the adjusted fuel delivery, Mark Miller Jr. started the race strong aboard the Michelin clad Pure ASC Yamaha R6, running in 3rd position overall for the first 10 laps of the race behind the top two GTO competitors who were pulling away on their 1000cc machines. Miller was running in 3rd overall position until about lap 11 where he began battling with another GTO competitor for the 3rd and 4th overall positions until a red flag on lap 21 brought all competitors back to pit.

At the restart, Pure ASC was already leading the GTU – 55 seconds in front of the 2nd place competitor, who unfortunately, was the cause of the red flag. With the green flag back underway, Dustin Young piloted the Pure R6 back to 3rd position overall, still on the lead lap until 42 laps where he was hit by another competitor coming into turn 14 and was knocked off the track out into the grass. He was able to ride the bike back to hot pit to remove a broken section of the tail and check the bike, but lost 2 laps from the overall competitors, completing 57 of 59 laps.

Pure Action Sports finished the race 1st in GTU class with a 4 lap gap over 2nd place, and 6th position overall amidst the 1000cc competitors. Pure team rider Dustin Young said about his bump off the track: “I really have no idea how I managed to stay on the bike. I was hit so hard it knocked me out of the seat, and I found myself hanging on to the bars, and trying to get my legs back across the saddle as I was headed down the hill towards the cornerworker station. It’s unfortunate because we’ve worked really hard in preparation both on the bike and to get our pit stops faster. We would have finished on the podium for the second time this season in the overall position of 3rd place behind the 1000 cc machines, but at least we did what we needed to do to get back on the track, and still won our class. We’ll take it, and now set our sights on victory at Daytona”.

With this win, Pure Action Sports moves into the first place position for the GTU Team Challenge division.

Team owner, Jasin Kania, said: “Though the win is certainly nice, this victory was bittersweet. With the passing of Jon Couch, there was one very fast and professional team absent from the team challenge grid. With one round left before the end of the season finale at the Race of Champions at Daytona, the team challenge event at VIR was shaping up to be a fierce battle. Pure Action Sports would like to express our formal condolences to the entire TOBC family and crew members, and dedicate our win to Jon and Fran Couch”.