ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK's Toprak Razgatlioglu crowned World Champion
The 28 year old Turkish rider, who achieved a record-breaking 13 consecutive wins during the season, achieved the 2024 WorldSBK title on Saturday 19th October at Jerez, putting BMW Motorrad into WorldSBK history books
Toprak, riding for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team, claimed the 2024 title at the Circuito de Jerez and said "We’re World Champions! This is incredible, especially with BMW as they’ve never won the title. Finally, I got my second title and BMW got their first!”
Toprak, affectionately known as El Turco, sealed the title win with a solid P2 on Saturday afternoon behind close rival Nicolo Bulega. At the second round of the season at Barcelona in March, Razgatlioglu climbed to the top of the podium for the first time on the BMW M 1000 RR. On Saturday, he claims pole position and wins the first main race. This victory is particularly special as he had never won at Barcelona before. He follows up with another victory in the Superpole Race on Sunday and a third-place finish afterwards. His tally after six races with BMW is two wins and two more podium finishes.
The start of Toprak's record-breaking championship season began at Assen where, starting from ninth place, Razgatlioglu won the second main race. In June, he achieved his first perfect weekend at Misano, winning all three races and taking the lead in the World Championship standings. He continued this dominance with hat-tricks at Most and Donington Park, winning all races there as well to extend the streak further.
Arriving at the seventh round at Portimão with 12 wins to his name, including ten consecutive victories, he equals the record of 11 consecutive wins in the first main race on Saturday and, with his victory in Sunday’s Superpole Race and the second main race to complete an astonishing his fourth hat-trick of the season, establishing a new record of 13 consecutive wins and a 92-point lead in the championship standings.
However, at Magny-Cours, Razgatlioglu crashed badly, spending the night in hospital and was unable to compete for the rest of the race weekend, leaving his return date uncertain.
After missing the races at Magny-Cours and Cremona, Razgatlioglu returned to action at Spain’s MotorLand Aragón where, despite his injury break, he remained the championship leader, although his advantage had dwindled to 13 points. With great mental strength, ‘El Turco’ makes an impressive comeback, finishing second in all three races and expanding his lead back to 39 points.
Shaun Muir, Team Principal for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team was overjoyed with the title result, saying “It's unbelievable, I'm super proud of this moment. It's been a long hard struggle, not without its problems. Every year we’ve improved, and become a stronger, more credible team and that's taken us to where we are today.
“Toprak has a steely determination that I have never ever seen in another rider in all my years I've been running a race team. The determination that you've got not only to compete at the highest level but to only accept a win, and in his opinion, he's not at the top yet... he's got a lot more to do.” Added Muir.
Jonathan Kendrick, the Chairman of ROKiT, said "It's an incredible achievement by Toprak to have won the WorldSBK championship in his first year with the team and we are enormously proud to have played our part, as Title Partner of the ROKiT BMW Motorrad team, in his success. Congratulations to Toprak and to Shaun and all the team. What a season it's been!"
Crowning the magnificent season, the final race on Sunday afternoon saw newly crowned Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu victorious, with teammate Michael van der Mark claiming 3rd in a double podium for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad team.
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