The two championships that count towards the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy season drew to a close last weekend. The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship (World SBK) held its last two races of the year under the floodlights of the Losail International Circuit in Qatar.
In Japan, a double-header weekend at Suzuka marked the final round of the 2017 MFJ Superbike All Japan Road Race Championship (Motorcycle Federation of Japan), which is Japan’s premier road racing series.
The Championship of MOTUL FIM Superbike in Doha, Qatar had a schedule of 13 rounds that took the BMWs 1000 RR racers and the BMW Motorrad Motorsport experts all-round the world over the last eight months.
On Friday’s race one, Jordi Torres (ESP) from the Althea BMW Racing Team crossed the line in seventh place. The result secured him fourth place on the grid for Saturday’s second race. Torres hopes of finishing the season with another strong result ended on Lap two, however, when he had a high side and crashed. His team-mate Raffaele De Rosa (ITA) was on his way towards a top-ten result in race one but crashed on lap ten. In the second race, De Rosa was 11th.
The 2017 season of the MFJ Superbike All Japan Road Race Championship (MFJ), consists of nine rounds of one race each. The rider who accumulates the most points over the year becomes the champion. This time the race drew to a close with a doubleheader at Suzuka (JPN). One BMW rider was in action for the finale: Yuta Kodama (JPN / Tone RT Syncedge 4113) ended the two races in 25th and 21stposition respectively.
Well, the grand closure with the champions for the power-packed races of the season was nothing to be missed.
