New territory for WorldSBK: BMW Motorrad Motorsport ready for the Most debut.

Munich. BMW Motorrad Motorsport is once again entering new territory with the FIM Superbike World Championship. This weekend (6th to 8th August), WorldSBK races in the Czech city of Most for the first time. Autodrom Most is unfamiliar terrain for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team and its two riders Tom Sykes (GBR) and Michael van der Mark (NED), although Mark has ridden there many years ago. Jonas Folger (GER) from the Bonovo MGM Racing Team has more recent experience of the circuit.

Autodrom Most is located in the northwest of the Czech Republic, not far from the border with Germany. The Most region has hosted motorsport events for over 70 years – first on street circuits, before the permanent racetrack opened in 1983. Since then, races in national and international championships have been held there. Most features on the WorldSBK calendar for the first time in 2021.

Quotes ahead of the Most round.

Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director: “Most is a new circuit on the calendar. For this reason, it is very important to immediately find a good basis in the two free practice sessions on Friday. Jonas Folger has been there often, and our colleagues in the International German Motorcycle Championship have also ridden there. As such, we have some information, but it can never be transferred directly to World Superbikes. In addition, it had been agreed that no one goes testing there with their Superbikes so we are all entering uncharted territory. We will see what awaits us there. Recent events have shown that you have to land on the front two rows in Saturday’s Superpole to have a successful race weekend. That is one of the goals for the weekend.” 

Shaun Muir, Team Principal BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team: “The team is looking forward to going to the first WorldSBK round at the Most circuit. That's exciting for everybody and very much a level playing field with all the competitors and teams agreeing in not take part in any testing leading up in the event. Overall, I think it will be a very challenging circuit, lots of variations. Changeable weather conditions are expected and we already know that we were competitive in those environments. But overall, the team hopes that we end up with a completely dry weekend to continue the development of the BMW M 1000 RR. I think we are in a very good place, the riders are feeling very good about the progression of the bike over the last three, four races and we are looking forward to getting the event underway.”

Michael van der Mark, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team: “I’ve been to Most, but that was 13 years ago. I watched an on-board lap on YouTube and noticed that I have forgotten half of the track, so it I think one can say that it’s like a new circuit for me. So in the first couple of laps I will just try to learn the track and find some markers, braking points and stuff like that. The last couple of weekends, we saw that we were making progress. The gap to the podium was getting smaller and smaller. So we now have to try and find these last couple of tenths, especially on race pace, to be able to fight for the podium. It is difficult to say what to expect for this weekend on a new track but this is our goal, for sure.”

Tom Sykes, BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team: “I am obviously very much looking forward to the new venture. I have been to the Czech Republic a number of times before but Most is a new circuit for myself and I believe for most of the WorldSBK paddock. This is going to be very interesting and hopefully now with our base set-up of the new BMW M 1000 RR we can have a strong start to the weekend and look to build on this in preparation for the races even if we only have a small amount of time on Friday to do so. The weekend will be a kind of an unpredictable one in terms of results because most of the teams are going there with zero information. I am looking forward to this new challenge.”

Jonas Folger, Bonovo MGM Racing: “I am really looking forward to Most after the race weekend in Assen was such a positive one – apart from the crash. We had really good pace there. We are now looking to continue at Most where we left off at Assen. The circuit is not far from me, so I can virtually call it a home race. I hope a lot of German fans make the trip. I am looking forward to WorldSBK’s debut at Most. I can hardly wait.”

*Information from the International German Motorcycle Championship (IDM) – no data for WorldSBK available yet.