VOL. 51 ISSUE 48 DECEMBER 2, 2014 P23
BMW BOSS TALKS RACING AMBITIONS
O
ne country conspicuous
by its absence in the BMW
Race Trophy in Munich recently
was America, with no partici-
pants so far. That may change in
2015, if BMW can break through
a wall in perception of its poten-
tial in racing, according to Bertie
Hauser, BMW's race activities
boss.
"America is actually quite dif-
ficult," Hauser said. "It is a bit
complicated to get the trust of
the teams, but we will push and
in several situations we have con-
tacts, so we will also try to bring
the new American championship
[MotoAmerica] into the BMW
Race Trophy. We will give an of-
fer to attend this 'community' and
we will see who is willing to come
with the BMW."
After great success at the Isle
of Man TT with Michael Dunlop
and the S1000RR, Hauser also
stated, "For road racing there is
a clear signal that people want to
go racing with the BMW because
of the new regulations, which
will be a downgrade in status to
the new World Superbike regula-
tions. I think we will be quite com-
petitive and we have the door
open. We will also support all the
BMW teams from the Ulster GP,
North West 200, [Isle of Man] TT
and Macau."
The new S1000RR was devel-
oped by BMW to fit in with what
they expected to be Evo regula-
tions in 2015, but now the tech
rules will be halfway between the
2014 World Superbike and Evo
regs.
"It is more than Evo for sure,"
said Hauser. "The new rules
allow several changes on the
cylinder head and some minor
changes to the bottom end but
we are in a good position to
have a competitive bike, that is
for sure. Soon we will be in Jer-
ez and we will be ready with the
BMW Motorrad Italia team."
BMW currently only offers
parts for sale to their various
teams, but that may change
sometime soon, according to
Hauser.
"For the future, we have this
idea to have the intention to of-
fer fully ready race bikes, but ac-
tually there was too much new
stuff to prepare for next year.
We have a new bike, new homol-
ogation, and new rules and we
only have a small team of people.
The new bike has a whole new
homologation because it is all-
new. We will do the homologa-
tion in January, but already we
have produced more than 2,000
bikes. So now we are just prepar-
ing the paperwork."
Gordon Ritchie
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
BMW's race boss, Bertie Hauser
talks 2015 and hopes for
involvement in MotoAmerica.
Quote
OF THE
WEEK
"
I'm more proud
of my kids when
they give back than
what they have
accomplished in
racing!
"
– Earl Hayden on his kids'
donations to help injured
flat track racer Jethro Halbert
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
