Having joined the FIM Endurance World Championship only two seasons ago, the factory BMW team managed by Werner Daemen claimed their very first win at the just-concluded 6 Hours of Most, the final of the 2021 season cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The crazy finish at Most, with only 0.07 seconds between BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team and YART–Yamaha Official EWC Team, resulted in a significant achievement for the factory BMW team. The win at Most was the very first for the Belgian team managed since 2019 by Werner Daemen.
Third at the Bol d’Or and the 8 Hours of Sepang last season with the BMW S 1000 RR, this year BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team finished third at the 24 Heures Motos and the 12 Hours of Estoril with the new M 1000 RR. The only race in which they did not score points was the Bol d’Or where they had to withdraw following a mechanical problem.
At the 6 Hours of Most, the BMW M 1000 RR #37 moved quickly into the lead. YART–Yamaha Official EWC Team were the only ones able to compete towards the end of the race. The result of their epic duel was that Markus Reiterberger in the saddle of the BMW #37 crossed the finish line with the Yamaha #7 ridden by Marvin Fritz right behind.
Werner Daemen is very pleased with the success of Markus Reiterberger and Ilya Mikhalchik (Kenny Foray did not ride the race at Most) and his entire team in the Czech Republic.
“I am overjoyed. This weekend has been perfect from the word go. To win the race by 0.07 seconds after six hours of racing is a dream. It is simply excellent, and I know how much work we have all invested in this success. Despite the races at Le Mans and Estoril not running entirely smoothly, we still finished on the podium. We then retired with a technical issue in the Bol d’Or, but these things can happen. Despite this, we still managed to finish the season in second place in the championship.”
The last time a BMW team won the runner-up spot in the FIM Endurance World Championship was in the 2011 and 2012 seasons. In those years, BMW Motorrad France won two races, the 2011 8 Hours of Albacete and the 2012 8 Hours of Doha.
