Razgatlioglu Seals His Second
Title, First for BMW
T
oprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT
BMW Motorrad WorldSBK
Team) won his second WorldS-
BK Championship title one day
early at the final round at Jerez,
but it had been a long 101-year
wait for BMW to take its first
world championship in any solo
category of full FIM World Cham
-
pionship racing.
The manner of winning the
title was telling in itself, with
Razgatlioglu breaking the record
for consecutive race wins mid-
way through the season, then
crashing horribly into a "safety"
barrier at round eight in Magny-
Cours in France.
They could very possibly have
lost the title through no fault of
Toprak or BMW's own after it
was revealed that he had punc
-
tured his lung, a lucky injury
given the severity of the crash.
Coming back so strongly, Toprak
still took the title two races early
after missing two whole rounds
(six races worth) of points, and
by the time Sunday night had
come around in Jerez, Toprak
had won 18 for the season.
In Superpole qualifying, the only
rider who had even a slim chance
of overthrowing Toprak was
Nicolo Bulega (Aruba Ducati Rac
-
ing), who took the pole at Jerez.
Bulega smashed in a new
track best of 1:37.596, which
was not only 0.606 of a second
faster than second-place quali-
fier Razgatlioglu, but was a mas-
sive shift forward compared to
Jonathan Rea's previous best (on
a Kawasaki) of 1:38.247.
In the first race, there was only
one real story to write, and that
was the front-running pace of
eventual and convincing winner
Bulega versus the finally acqui
-
escent mood of Razgatlioglu,
who accepted there was not
enough race-winning pace under
him to allow a real on-track
battle without too much risk.
WIND
IN THE
P44
Toprak Razgatlioglu
dons the champion's gold
after clinching the title
in race one, his second
and BMW's first FIM title
after 101 years of trying.
