Countdown to Daytona 200

The countdown has already started for BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s road racing team, which makes its first appearance of 2008 early next month at the famous Daytona 200 race that is held annually at Daytona Beach, Florida, in the USA.

The 68-lap, 200-mile race at the Daytona International Speedway is well known as one of the toughest in American motorcycling because of its endurance-like qualities of pit stops for tires and fuel, and safety car periods. Having had a very successful debut year competing in the World Endurance Championship, BMW Motorrad Motorsport will be fielding four riders at the Daytona 200, as a prelude to another full season of race action in 2008.

American riders Brian Parriott and Nate Kern will be joined by German riders Thomas Hinterreiter and Rico Penzkofer on the HP2 Sport. All riders will be competing in the Formula Extreme class on BMW’s sports boxer and according to Head of Motorsport Berti Hauser, the selected riders have the perfect combination of local knowledge, speed and experience to achieve a good result in this prestigious race.

“We’re going to be running four bikes at Daytona this year,” said Berti. “Thomas Hinterreiter is fast wherever he goes – we know that from his BoxerCup days – and Rico has quite a bit of knowledge of this circuit. Brian has lots of experience here, as does Nate, who is also an excellent ambassador for BMW and attracts a loyal following of supporters wherever he goes! Thomas and Nate participated in a tire test here in December, which has given us plenty of set-up information and a good starting point. What will be crucial though is for us to get the engine mapping set up correctly because this is a tricky circuit to get right, because of the banking, the infield section and the altitude.”



Other areas that will be of utmost importance for the team are tire preservation and fast pit stops, as a slick, polished routine can make a tremendous difference to the outcome of a race, according to Nate Kern, who can’t wait to turn out for all the BMW fans who will be cheering the team on at this historic race.

“Fast pit stops are crucial and there are many different strategies,” said Nate. “The rider has to be off the machine during pit stops and the bike shut off. Thomas Hinterreiter and myself will have one pit box with technicians maintaining our pit stops and Rico and Brian will be in another separate pit stop box.”

The team had a year to perfect its pit-stop routine while competing in last year’s World Endurance Championship, as well as selected non-championship rounds. By last year’s race in Doha in November, the technicians had got the routine – that involves refuelling and changing tires – down to about 16 seconds, which is a great starting point for Daytona. However, there are many other variables at this circuit, all of which will play a part in the race, according to Nate.



“Due to the nature of Daytona it will be tough on top speed, but we will shine on the brakes and with the HP2 Sport’s high torque out of the corners,” he said. “When Thomas and I spent a couple of days testing there, we mainly focussed on machine set-up and getting more tire life. The HP2 Sport’s awesome torque just shreds tires, coupled with the extreme amount of force on the left side of the tire on Daytona’s banking. I am looking forward to the race – mentally, it’s a bigger challenge than physically.”

The final word goes to Berti Hauser, who is looking forwards to building on the success from 2007, although he realizes that the task ahead is not an easy one.



“For sure, we cannot forecast what will happen at Daytona, but we do realize that a lot will depend on the cleverness of the riders, as there are many long straights and they will have to benefit from the slipstreaming effect to be competitive. We haven’t made many changes to the race bike from 2007, as we are close to the limit already and will be looking for reliability and durability, rather than enhanced performance. We were positively surprised at how well last year went – the team spirit was great and the riders fought all the way. In that sense, we already have a high target to beat in 2008. That said, our immediate target is to finish all the races and then improve the results even further.”



BMW Motorrad USA will not only be supporting the factory team riders out on track but will also be offering demo rides on the latest BMW motorcycles, as the Daytona 200 Week attracts thousands of bike fans to the International Speedway. In addition to the 67th Daytona 200 race that takes place on Saturday 8 March, there is also a jam-packed schedule of bike races between 28 February and 8 March, including the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series, AMA Flat Track, AMA Supercross and AMA Superbike.

Provisional road race calendar 2008

Daytona 200 – Saturday 8 March
Endurance World Championship, Le Mans  – Saturday 19 April
Endurance World Championship, Magny Cours (Bol D'Or) – Saturday 20 September
Endurance World Championship, Doha – Saturday 8 November