On paper, each championship title is price the identical – that is sort of the entire level. However in terms of legacy factors, Toprak Razgatlioglu delivering BMW its first-ever World Superbike crown is price two or three ‘extraordinary’ title triumphs.
A journey to second within the opening race of the Jerez finale formally made Razgatlioglu a two-time WSBK champion with two races to spare. It was comfy ultimately – it should have been infinitely extra comfy nonetheless if not for a foul crash in Magny-Cours apply that, by way of an influence with the wall, sidelined Razgatlioglu for one sixth of the season’s races as a result of a pneumothorax damage.
With all of the respect to his nearest rival, breakout rookie Nicolo Bulega, it should have been a travesty had the title slipped away from Razgatlioglu – however as soon as he was again on the bike it by no means regarded something like slipping away.
When truly getting to begin the races, he has been mainly pitch-perfect. Remarkably for a rider famed for his ‘daredevil’ fashion constructed round making use of off-the-chart brake stress, he had recorded all of 1 DNF all season – as a result of an expired engine at Phillip Island somewhat than a crash.
By itself, it is a fantastic marketing campaign. WSBK, after all, has seen no scarcity of nice campaigns in recent times – and whereas the 13 consecutive wins Razgatlioglu reeled off mid-season is a sequence file, his fellow champions Alvaro Bautista and Jonathan Rea have had 11-win streaks of their very own in recent times.
In that sense, Razgatlioglu is Novak Djokovic – a member of a transparent ‘huge three’ in his discipline, working rampant as soon as his two rivals had aged out of their prime (albeit with a a lot larger age hole in Razgatlioglu’s case).
In one other sense, although – and that is what makes this title so particular – he’s Valentino Rossi.
Amid a run of three titles for Honda between 2001 and 2003, Rossi felt undervalued by his employer, felt the impetus to show that it was him, not the bike, making the distinction.
In switching to Yamaha and profitable a title there instantly, he had – single-handedly – modified the panorama of MotoGP. He was MotoGP.
It is not a one-to-one comparability as a result of Razgatlioglu didn’t depart Yamaha at its peak, off the again of a World Superbike title – though he bought nearer than he ought to have, by rights in 2023 – but the parallel is evident.
Razgatlioglu felt spurned and undervalued by his earlier employer and, in leaving it, hand-delivered a title to a prepared and keen rival.
Publish-Rossi Honda no less than gained a handful of MotoGP races and the constructors’ title within the season after his exit. Publish-Razgatlioglu Yamaha is but to win.
In having left Yamaha for BMW, Razgatlioglu taking the title instantly means what it meant for Rossi. Razgatlioglu is World Superbikes proper now.
“Once I signed with BMW, everybody stated ‘your profession is completed’,” he gloated upon celebrating the title.
“Now we’re world champions. Everybody has understood my potential on the bike – and everybody has understood BMW is a profitable bike.”
The complete extent of Razgatlioglu’s sporting achievement can and shall be debated. It might be unusual, after all, to not point out that WSBK revised its weight guidelines for 2024 in a transfer broadly considered being aimed toward curbing the 60kg Bautista’s dominance.
Then there’s the matter of Razgatlioglu’s sternest opposition coming from a rookie, although it is a two-sided coin – as it’s Razgatlioglu who has made Bulega appear like simply a fantastic rookie and never the brand new face of WSBK.
After which there’s the query of BMW being a significantly better proposition on monitor now than it was when Razgatlioglu signed up for it, in a transfer you’ll be forgiven on the time for dismissing as paycheck-chasing. The BMW had not gained a race within the dry for over a decade by the point Razgatlioglu joined.
Besides, nicely… it nonetheless hasn’t in anybody else’s palms.
The notion within the World Superbike paddock is that the big-spending, well-oiled BMW machine of now’s clearly a title-calibre proposition, boosted by a concession system that has helped it shortcut its method to glory and elite check riders in Sylvain Guintoli and Bradley Smith.
Clearly, BMW – and its manufacturing facility workforce Shaun Muir Racing – has put in a giant effort right here that goes past merely hiring Razgatlioglu and cashing in on a gimme title. But when Razgatlioglu is just the perfect rider profitable on already the perfect bike, that may maybe make all of it a bit much less particular.
The factor is although, stablemates Michael van der Mark and Garrett Gerloff have been perhaps half a step to a step higher than their 2023 selves. There may be progress – however there’s nothing of their outcomes to point a quantum leap within the BMW M10000RR’s competitiveness that is unbiased of the Razgatlioglu impact.
Scott Redding, the fourth member of the BMW rider quartet, has regarded downright tough – and whereas BMW Redding is clearly not the perfect model of Redding, it has been fairly jarring to listen to the 31-year-old, an completed rider in MotoGP and a real standout within the faculty of arduous knocks that’s Moto2, going so far as to say that from what he is seen now that they are in the identical camp Razgatlioglu is just extra proficient.
Proper now Razgatlioglu towers above all of them, not simply Redding. At 28, he might nicely select to try this for a lot of extra years – or chase that MotoGP dream, which feels as distant as ever as a result of his age and but nonetheless believable as a result of narrative energy of his second WSBK crown.
However that is a matter for later – ditto for the matter of BMW’s potential MotoGP entry. For now, let’s bask within the outrageousness of what is transpired, as a result of it appears like one thing that simply would not occur in trendy top-level bike racing.
As essential as equipment tends to be, a single rider transfer could be a huge change for the aggressive image. However Razgatlioglu, and his wily supervisor Kenan Sofuoglu and long-time crew chief Phil Marron (and fellow crew members) as an extension, did not change WSBK’s aggressive image – they tore it up and drew a brand new one on an empty canvas.
In doing so, they gave the sequence its personal iconic Rossi 2004 second.
