BMW Planet Power: The S1000RR Superbike

With much of the focus for the S 1000 RR being centred around the second year of the BMW Motorrad Motorsport factory team’s Superbike World Championship campaign, it’s easy to forget the importance of the 2010 Superstock 1000 FIM Cup, which plays a vital supporting role to this year’s series and includes a BMW team for the first time.

Having timed its announcement of participation in the 2010 Superstock World Championship at the same time as the customer launch of the S 1000 RR in its domestic market, BMW Motorrad Italia has now confirmed its two-rider line-up for the 10-round series that will begin at Portimao in Portugal on the final weekend in March and run alongside the European rounds of the WSBK series throughout 2010.

FIM Superstock World Championship technical regulations allow teams a very limited number of technical changes, which means that the bikes that are raced are very close to the standard ones found in dealer showrooms. The competition level is very high and many fans see this championship as a true reflection of the ability of their own bikes under race conditions with professional riders at the controls.

The BMW Motorrad Italia Team will be participating with two promising young riders – Ayrton Badovini and Daniele Beretta – both of whom received their initial outing on the BMW S 1000 RR last weekend during the first tests at the Cartagena circuit in Spain. They have since travelled to Valencia and joined the official factory team for a test at the famous racetrack where the third round of the 2010 WSBK series will take place from 9-11 April.

Twenty-three-year-old Ayrton Badovini began his career racing mini-motos, followed by participation in various single-make series competitions, before switching to the Superstock 1000 championship in 2003. In 2007 he won his first world title and then entered the 2008 Superbike World Championship on a Kawasaki for the PSG-1 Team. After the team withdrew from the championship, Badovini found a slot on the X-One team in the World Endurance series on a Yamaha R1. His best finish was in Germany, where he took second place overall in the Eight Hours race at Oschersleben.

Daniele Beretta, age 20, also began his career competing on mini-motos and made his debut in the European Superstock 600 Championship in 2007, finishing in ninth place. The following year he improved, finishing in seventh place overall. In 2009 he joined the Superstock 1000 Championship team led by Serafino Foti – the new Team Manager of the BMW Motorrad Italia Superstock team – earning an excellent sixth place overall during his debut season.

BMW Motorrad Italia will capitalise on the experience of Serafino Foti in this championship, as he was team manager of Superstock champions Ducati for the past three seasons. With all the major manufacturers having competed in this series in 2009 (including Ducati, Honda, Suzuki Kawasaki, Yamaha, Aprilia and MV Agusta) BMW will have its work cut out in its first year of competition in the FIM Superstock Cup, although this doesn’t worry Foti, who is known to relish a challenge:

“I am highly motivated by this new challenge,” said the new Team Manager of the BMW Motorrad Italia Superstock team. “I know the riders very well and I am sure of their potential. In any case, this will be the first year for a new motorcycle that we must get to know and develop, so right from the first pre-championship tests, we will have to work hard on performance and getting along well together – both in the team and with the motorcycle.”

This was a view shared by Andrea Buzzoni, Director of BMW Motorrad Italia and manager of the Superstock project, who said. “The BMW S 1000 RR is a splendid, high-performance sports bike and it represents the crowning of the strategy of dynamic expansion that BMW Motorrad has carried out in the past few years. I’m really pleased that Serafino Foti will be the new team manager, as he has a wealth of experience to bring to this new project.

“At present, the team is hard at work in order to be ready for the 2010 season and together with Serafino, we have created an expert squad that is capable of confronting a new and exciting challenge with the BMW S 1000 RR. Ayrton and Daniele are two highly motivated riders who – together with the rest of the team – will be able to perform at their best in BMW Motorrad Italia’s debut in this competition. We are about to enter a racing season that will keep us intensely and passionately involved.”

For more information on the 2010 Superstock 1000 FIM Cup, please see the www.worldsbk.com website, which is available in Italian and English languages.