Another victory for the BMW G 450 X
As the 2008 enduro racing season draws to a close, the great results continue to roll in for BMW Motorrad. While Simo Kirssi was celebrating a comprehensive victory in last weekend's European Cross Country series final in Mattighofen (just seven days after winning the 2008 German Cross Country Championship) BMW Motorrad's G 450 X chassis designer Stefan Krause was also tasting the champagne on the podium – this time at Reutlingen in southern Germany, having secured the 2008 ADAC Pirelli Enduro Cup.
BMW Motorrad's G 450 X chassis designer Stefan Krause in action in the 2008 ADAC Pirelli Enduro Cup at Reutlingen in southern Germany
Having been given a series production machine by G 450 X project leader Markus Theobald earlier this year, Stefan had entered this seven-round championship because he felt that the best way to test different series components was to get out on the dirt and go racing. On a virtually standard machine, Stefan entered the Expert class of this championship, accompanied by team partner Michael Ortlieb.
The series consisted of seven, four-hour team races with 'Le Mans' style starts. Up to last weekend's final round at Reutlingen, Stefan and Michael had enjoyed four wins and two second places, resulting in a healthy championship lead, but this final race was not without a fair amount of drama, as Stefan explains.
"We knew that we just had to finish this race to win the championship but we had a few incidents along the way," he said. "First of all I had a little accident when I crashed while running in third place and pushing hard for second. This crash probably caused an electrical cable to work itself loose and the bike stopped, so I lost about a lap getting it back to the pits. And finally, the chain broke on Michael's Yamaha, which cost us about an hour. It was quite a lot of drama for just one race."
In the end, Stefan and Michael finished the race in eighth position, securing the 2008 championship by a clear 19 points over nearest rivals Markus Schmidt and Johannes Steinel. For Stefan it was a dream come true, and a welcome payback for the thousands of hours of work put into the development of the bike.
"I am very proud to have won this series and the result leaves no doubt that BMW has firmly arrived on the enduro scene. The bike has been perfect all through the year for me and I had no problems whatsoever before this final round at Reutlingen. I've tested so many parts and there has been so much interest from both riders and public who have come to my truck to ask questions about the bike and find out more information. In this race there were also about 12 BMW G 450 X bikes, which was great for me to see and it was very satisfying to beat all the top riders in our class, which included some former German enduro champions.
Stefan in the sand on the BMW G 450 X at an earlier round of this year's series at Baden Baden
"I'd like to thank the project leader Markus Theobald who gave me lots of assistance throughout the year, as did Wolfgang Fischer, the BMW Motorrad Motorsport team leader. I have to also thank my mechanics Manfred Binder, Lee Palmer and Christoph Pflügler, who prepared the bike when I had no time, and I'm grateful to all my friends who travelled to the races and helped wherever they could in the pit areas. I couldn't have done it without all the above people."
For 2009, Stefan plans to ride in the same championship, as he enjoys partnering up with a team-mate to race against approximately 120 other teams that enter this series. With a four-hour race duration, there is the opportunity and time to rectify any mistakes or technical problems, and the large field of riders provides challenging competition at a variety of circuits.
It's the kind of racing favoured by Bernd Eckenbach, who since the beginning of 2007 has been assisting Motorrad dealers to familiarise themselves with the off-road world in preparation for the growing number of potential customers that are interested in BMW's latest model range and motorsport activities. He is seeing increasing numbers of BMW sport enduro riders turning up at amateur off-road events throughout Germany and hopes that this is being replicated worldwide.
"Congratulations to Stefan on his great result," said the former motocross star. "It’s been a great year for the G 450 X and all the excellent sporting achievements have certainly helped us. Next year is looking very exciting, as our ambition is to get a lot of the BMW Motorrad dealerships involved in fielding teams in various championships.
"Our network realizes that the first and best contact with potential customers is at the track – they realise that they can't sit in BMW showrooms and wait for these kind of customers to come in. So, what we're doing now is investing time and effort in helping them build teams that can produce local heroes. The new bike is great, so the next step is to get even more up-and-coming riders on it to make the headlines throughout the 2009 season."