Superbike boss on hunt for race wins

North motor sport with ZOE BURN

NORTH East World Superbike team boss Shaun Muir has revealed he’s under serious pressure to deliver this season as he hunts for race wins with his factory BMW squad.

The Guisborough businessman and team principal of the BMW Motorrad WSBK outfit, wrapped up testing in Spain earlier this month with a raft of new parts fitted to the all-new M1000RR model.

And as Muir prepares for next weekend’s opening round of the World SBK championship, he knows his squad needs to be on the rostrum before long.

“The M1000RR is a new package for us,” he said. “We’re very familiar with the chassis, but we’ve got new, improved electronics, a new engine and powerplant, which is a good step forward for us as we know we lacked there last year.

“The swinging arms are new to us and we’re changing a few other components, we’ve got a new wheel supplier, so there are quite a lot of changes and new things for us this season.

“We expect to be on the podium, that’s a given. I’m always careful about making bold predictions, but I always say if we can challenge for podiums then the win is in sight.

“But we need to deliver, myself and Marc Bongers [BMW Motorrad Motorsport director] are under a lot of pressure to take the team forward. We feel we’ve made the steps we need to and ticked the boxes, so now we just need to make sure we’re ready for Aragon and round one.”

And Muir isn’t the only one feeling the pressure. Former world champ Tom Sykes, who took the title with Kawasaki in 2013, is keen to be back on the box.

The Yorkshireman hasn’t won a race since 2018 and after switching to BMW in 2019, he went all of last season without a podium finish.

But amid one of the strongest fields in recent years, he knows the German firm wants to see progress.

“When I first joined this project it was because of

BMW and SMR”, Sykes admitted.

“It’s a great combination and a great manufacturer with great infrastructure.

“We just needed time. At some stage, the target is to win that world championship and my ambition is to win another world championship on another manufacturer.

“But there’s a lot of competition and I’m not blind to that. We’ll keep working, but I’d like to start winning some races and being more consistent on the podium.

“It’s still early days for

Michael [van der Mark, new team-mate] on the bike, he still has things to learn but I think he’ll find his feet very fast.

“We’ve got a good balance inside the garage and it’s so far so good.”