After a break of a few weeks, the European leg of the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) begins this weekend for BMW Motorrad Motorsport. The iconic TT Circuit at Assen (NED) will host round three of WorldSBK 2023 from 21st to 23rd April. The races at the ‘Cathedral of Speed’ are a home outing for Michael van der Mark (NED) from the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. The headquarters of the Bonovo action BMW Racing Team, in the town of Cuxhaven in northern Germany, is also just two and a half hours down the motorway from Assen.
BMW Motorrad Motorsport has used the break in action to make more progress with the new BMW M 1000 RR. At the end of March, both teams attended tests at Barcelona, where they were able to evaluate various components and set-up solutions. The riders in action were van der Mark and Scott Redding (GBR) for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team, and Garrett Gerloff (USA) for the Bonovo action BMW Racing Team.
Loris Baz (FRA) was unable to take part in the test, due to the injuries he sustained to his right leg at the second round of the season at Mandalika (IDN) at the start of March. However, he plans to return to the Assen grid, if the race doctors give him the green light to do so.
Gerloff travels straight to Assen from his native USA. Last weekend, he visited the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin (USA), where he performed a demonstration run on the new BMW M 1000 RR MotoGP Safety Bike.
