BMW Motorrad Motorsports

Success at Barcelona 24 Hours for HP2 Sport

Endurance

The HP2 Sport’s growing reputation as a blisteringly fast, yet extremely reliable endurance racer was proved beyond question at the ‘24 Hores de Motociclisme’ race that recently took place at the Catalunya circuit, located north of Barcelona.

While the BMW Motorrad Days event was happening in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a team of HP2 Sport riders representing the Spanish BMW dealer Busquets finished in a remarkable fifth place overall – and third in their class – on the famous circuit where Dani Pedrosa had cruised to victory at the corresponding MotoGP round just four weeks earlier.

The Busquets family is well known in BMW racing circles, having achieved notable success in both the BoxerCup and Power Cup championships. Dealership owner Josep Maria Busquets actually won the ‘24 Hores de Motociclisme’ race in 1966 on a 250cc Montesa and also competed with his two sons on a R 1100 S BMW in 1995, finishing in a credible 17th place. For 2008 though, he left it to his sons – Josep Maria and Alex – to team up with Jose Luis Nion and BMW Motorrad Germany’s Gerhard Lindner for the legendary day/night endurance race.

Although the Barcelona 24 Hours event is not part of the Endurance World Championship calendar, it still attracts many top riders and teams, including many of the world championship regulars. Past winners include newly signed BMW Motorrad Motorsport racer Ruben Xaus, who will campaign BMW’s S 1000 RR factory racer in next year’s Superbike World Championship. Last year, the works team also entered this race as part of its Endurance World Championship preparations. However, after a successful and very positive qualifying, the team’s attack on the 24 Hores came to a premature end after just eight laps due to a crash that left the sports boxer too badly damaged to continue.

There was no such misfortune this year though, and after 696 laps, 24 hours, two minutes and 18 seconds of non-stop race action, the Busquets team brought the HP2 Sport home in fifth place overall, and third in the Superbike class. This was the first time in almost 50 years that a BMW team has been on the podium in Barcelona. The last victory was in 1959 when Bruce Daniel and Peter Darvill won on a 600cc BMW at the old Montmelo circuit.

BMW Motorrad’s Gerhard Lindner – a former racer and Motorrad journalist, who is now responsible for product validation and the long-distance durability test development of the company’s series production motorcycles – was delighted at the team’s results in Barcelona against more than 50 teams mostly riding four-cylinder Japanese race machines.

“This was a fantastic result for all of us and I’m proud to have been asked to ride in the team,” he said. “To finish fifth overall and third in our class is a major achievement and shows the true potential of the HP2 Sport as an endurance racer. The bike had a completely stock engine and the Busquet technicians – with a little help from Thomas Eckhard at Wittech (who prepare the works endurance machines) – fitted the big 24-litre fuel tank, a quick-change system for the rear wheel and an Akrapovic race exhaust.

“We qualified in 22nd position on the grid but we knew that the HP2 Sport had several advantages over its rivals. While the Catalunya circuit with its two long straights puts our twin-cylinder bike at a disadvantage over the four-cylinder Japanese machines in terms of outright top speed, we knew we’d be strong in the braking zones and also in terms of fuel consumption. Our riders were able to stay out on track for around one hour and 15 minutes, compared to about 50-55 minutes for the other teams. This meant that we only needed 17 fuel stops, whereas the other teams needed around 24.”

The team changed tyres every second pit stop and had they been able to use a quick-release system for the front as well as the rear wheel, this would have made quite a difference to the time sheets, as it took around a minute to swap over front wheels. Despite this though, the team’s massive achievement didn’t go unnoticed in the paddock, where many of the other riders congratulated the excellent result on the HP2 Sport, as Gerhard explains.

“There was tremendous interest in the bike – not only from the fans, but also from the other teams that were happy to see BMW in this historic race. We were congratulated on our success by many riders, especially those who kept passing us on the straights – where we had a 60 km/h disadvantage in top speed – only to see us fight back in the braking areas and through the corners, where the true potential of the HP2 Sport’s chassis could be seen. We were the most successful twin-cylinder bike in the race, beating several Ducati and both KTM teams, and we had no mechanical problems whatsoever during the 24 hours of racing. You can’t ask for more than that!”