As January Testing at Circuito de Jerez commences, both Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and Michael van der Mark took to the track to familiarise themselves the new 2024 package.

With only a month until the season opener in Australia at Phillip Island, the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team continued the development of the BMW Motorrad M 1000 RR on the track for the first time in 2024.

After facing challenging weather conditions in December, which included a previous visit to this circuit, the team finally experienced favourable weather for testing. Both Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and Michael van der Mark showcased their prowess, completing a combined 300 laps over both days, collating a significant amount of data for the team. Thus the inaugural days of January testing proved to be a resounding success.

Razgatlıoğlu proved to his peers that he is starting to feel at home on the BMW bike, by setting the tone early on Day 1, with consistent times in the 1:39’s before reaching into the 1:38’s on Day 2. January testing continues in Portimao for a further 2 days testing, leading up to the 2024 World Superbike season.

Shaun Muir – Team Principal

“Well, obviously it was difficult at the back end of last year with the weather conditions over here. We didn’t get any laps, and were chasing the sunshine as it was well publicised, but I feel we’ve got great conditions and almost the whole WorldSBK paddock is here as well so there’s nowhere to hide as such. I think both guys have got off really well, Toprak jumped straight up the timesheets pretty early on, and consolidated that, chipping away in the 1:39s, which was really good. It’s difficult to say where we will end up on Tuesday evening at Portimao before we go to Australia, but I generally feel we’re in a good position already. We’ve still got a lot of material to work through, so it’s good working progress and we’re in a good position already.”

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu – #54 Rider

“First I’ll say I’m really happy because finally it is nice weather and also it’s good all riders are here. and I can see the potential and that we have worked a lot to improve the bike. The first day was very positive, I’m happy. We did a very good lap time but we need time, because I’m still learning the bike and also we are trying to improve. We have also tried some new parts today and tomorrow we have many new parts. In general, I am happy, it’s a very positive test and tomorrow I hope we improve the bike more and we make a good lap time.”

Michael van der Mark – #60 Rider

“It was nice to be back out on the bike. The winter hasn’t been very long, but for me it’s always too long. I was getting bored so I wanted to ride a bike and we couldn’t ask for any better weather here in Jerez, it has been fantastic, so it was nice to go out this morning, straight away and enjoy riding the bike again.

Winter testing is always difficult because people are using different tires at different times of the day and it’s always hard to predict (your speed) just based on these results but personally I felt quite good on the bike, better than the last year so that’s positive, but for sure there’s a lot of stuff we can improve.”