BMW XPLOR Race Teams capped off a very successful year with a few podium finishes, including 3 first and 2 second places, on the weekend of October 19-21 at the Daytona International Speedway.

BMW XPLOR Race Teams successfully competed in ASRA, CCS and Moto-ST 8 Hours at the final race weekend of the year at Daytona. The BMW R 1200 S race bike from San Jose BMW team, piloted by Brian Parriott (CA), Nate Kern (GA) and Richard Cooper (UK) secured a second place after one of the most exciting Moto-ST races of the year.

Brad Hendry (CO), racing for Foothills BMW team, had a stunning 3 first place and 1 second place finishes in the ASRA/CCS, all on his BMW R 1200 S.

Also racing the R 1200 S at the Moto-ST was the Team Motorrad, piloted by Ivan Messina (NC), Brad Hendry (CO) and James Chance III (GA). They finished ninth overall, even though they had some technical problems at this race.

SPEED TV will be airing the sights and sounds of the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series beginning Tuesday, November 20.

Starting with the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in March, each of the six events in this year’s series will be broadcast on SPEED TV per the following schedule. Running one hour in length, each show will feature spectacular non-stop action-packed racing and will be broadcast at 12:00 p.m. (EST).

• Daytona USA 300 Tuesday, November 20, 2007
• Homestead 500K Tuesday, November 27, 2007
• VIR 500K Tuesday, December 4, 2007
• Road America 500K Tuesday, December 11, 2007
• Iowa Speedway 500K Tuesday, December 18, 2007
• 8 Hours At Daytona Finale Tuesday, January 8, 2008

San Jose BMW’s second place Moto-ST victory was quite a feat, considering they suffered through a few unfortunate mishaps, during one of the most dramatic Moto-ST races of the year.

“I spoke with Richard Cooper in January and he emailed me asking if there is a place in the endurance racers for him and I said I’d keep him in mind and when Nate got hurt I told him that I could use him, and meanwhile he started racing for BMW AG and he couldn’t make any of these races. We needed someone for this race and we came to the conclusion that he’d be the best choice,” said Chris Hodgson, team manager at San Jose BMW. “He is an extremely nice guy. The killer is he is only 5’ 2” and 121 lbs. In the start of the race we decided to use Cooper for the weight advantage, and sure enough at the end of the first lap we end up in fourth place. But Cooper got tangled with another racer toward the end of the race and crashed. Cooper isn’t a big guy but he quickly picked up the bike and pulled the clutch in and she fired right up. He spun a donut and brought the bike back into the pit. This incident was the other rider’s fault. It was up to the rider coming onto the track from the pit entrance to yield to our bike. When Cooper was knocked off the bike, he was within four seconds of the leader. Brian gets on the bike very quickly without losing much time, but then we hear that officials needed to inspect the bike to make sure it’s safe. So we lost quite a bit of time, yet we finished second, with only a 25-second margin.”

“In eight hours a lot can happen,” said Brian Parriott. “The weekend started really smooth, and we had a few races to get things started and also do some practice. We also wanted to get Cooper up to speed at Daytona. We had a very good feeling early on about our chances. During the Moto-ST practice we were fourth or fifth position, we were a bit concerned because the Aprilia teams seemed to have more top end at this race. We thought Cooper would be the best starter because of his weight advantage. It actually worked out great, he got the jump and got to the third position in turn one, with two bikes in front of him the slipstream was quite good, and our bike was able to run nearly the same speed. Our fuel economy and pit stop strategy were different than others. Our bike would go a bit farther than other teams; we weren’t using as much fuel, so we were pitting later than others. After Cooper, I took over and while I was in the pits the two other bikes that were in front went by and they got the lead back. Midway through my stand, I started catching the lead bike and he pitted and I took over the lead. I maintained the lead all the way through Nate’s first stop. Nate successfully led halfway through his stint. But a safety car pulled in due to a crash and about an hour later we were about 30 seconds behind.”

Brian continues: “From that point we were focused and tried to catch up. We did regain control of the lead during my stint and then when Nate took over he maintained the lead. We made up quite a bit of time, we were doing great. Then Cooper took over and he took it back to 2.5 seconds. A few laps from the end of the race, he got tangled with another rider and this is the same hard crash that, at the end, decided the race against us. Cooper had the sense to pit the bike and we had just enough time to look over the bike and change fuel, tires and for me to get back on the bike. After two laps I was called back in the pit. The officials were concerned about the front fender, because it was loose, so we tore off the fender. The bike was falling apart because of the hard crash and it was a miracle that the R 1200 S was able to still perform this well. So the fender was pulled off the front and the exhaust was also damaged and if you can believe this the header pipe wasn’t connected to the right cylinder, so our right header pipe was hanging about five inches from the engine. This was the most dramatic Moto-ST race yet. So we had a noisy bike, the tail section was pushed over eight inches to the right, the front brake adjuster was broken too and so was the upper fairing bracket. Despite all of these problems, I was able to restart the race, 10 or 11 positions behind the leader and then I managed to get to about a few seconds off the leader, then the automatic shifter also broke as a result of this crash, so we lost more ground. At this point the front brake was basically not working at all, even though I tried to adjust it while riding, so I basically had no front brake. I tried all four fingers pulling real hard and I just barely had a bit of front brake, when I finished the race I had to use the rear brake to stop the bike. This was one exciting race because both top teams were very close to each other. For me this was wonderful. And we did it! We had a podium finish regardless of what we had to do to get it.”

Last year at the inaugural 8 Hours of Daytona Moto-ST race, San Jose BMW’s #46 R 1200 S crossed the finish line ahead of the rest by a rather comfortable margin. At this year’s Daytona race weekend, BMW proved competitive not just at the Moto-ST but also at the ASRA races, grabbing 3 first place finishes.

Nate Kern spoke very optimistically about the 2008 racing season: “Brian and I have even more confidence for the future. The BMW motorcycles at the race track will never have an eye rolled at them again. The credibility and the validity we now have as pilots and for the machine itself is solid. After our hard crash no one would have ever thought we would be there in the end, but we were! ASRA Pro Thunderbike has turned out to be the most hotly contested class in ASRA. With Buell Motorcycles taking the honors each season since the Pro Thunderbike class inception in 2001, they now know that there is a new top contender on the field. The BMW family loves the bar-to-bar action of the “4 lbs per hp” measured class. I want to give the BMW community that championship in 2008, so that they can take a piece of each weekend’s action with them back to their dealers and to their local watering holes and counter anything anyone could possibly say about a BMW not having what it takes!”

Mike Hendry, team manager of Foothills BMW commented: “We had one hell of a great weekend in Daytona. Brad Hendry entered five races, he got 3 first, 1 second and 1 eighth place finishes and the problem with the eighth place was the wrong tire choice. He did all this on the BMW R 1200 S. Over the weekend, Brad raced in ASRA/CCS GT Lights, CCS Thunderbike, Light Weight GP, Light Weight Superbike and ASRA Thunderbike. Our competition was primarily factory Buell, Ducati 748 and 1000SS, Suzuki SV650 and Honda CBR600. I had a great experience. It was a very challenging weekend; we had a lot of choices to make. Brad and the BMW R 1200 S performed beautifully. We of course were in the Moto-ST as well with the Team Motorrad Touring Sport and unfortunately we ran out of fuel about one third into the race, due mainly to radio failure. But we are very proud of Brad for such a phenomenal showing.” “Team Motorrad raced in every Moto-ST race this year,” said Ivan Messina from Team Motorrad. “We had some ups and downs, but it was an exciting and educational season. We finished seventh overall in the championship against some great competitors, and we couldn’t have done it without the support or our sponsors and our volunteer crew, as well as some great riding from Frank Shockley, Brad Hendry and James Chance III.”

XPLOR riders applauded BMW XPLOR race teams at this year’s Daytona They cheered the efforts of committed dealers such as BMW Motorcycles of Daytona, Touring Sport BMW Motorcycles, Foothills BMW Motorcycles and San Jose BMW. BMW’s strong showing at these high-profile and extremely demanding races with several podium finishes, prove the competitiveness of the brand. And as Nate mentioned, “[XPLOR riders] can take a piece of each weekend’s action with them back to their dealers and to their local watering holes and counter anything anyone could possibly say about a BMW not having what it takes!”

Catch all this BMW racing action on SPEED TV in the coming weeks.