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BMW S 1000 RR RIDER WINS FINNISH SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP

03/09/2010

A BMW dealer-supported team has won the 2010 Finnish Superbike Championship with its debut season using the S 1000 RR.

The Motomarket dealership from Turku, in the southwest of the country, entered a two-rider team in this year’s championship, although there have been five BMW riders in total contesting this year’s series. For the Motomarket dealership, 34-year-old former Supersport 600 champion Sami Penna joined forces with 16-times Finnish Ice Racing Champion and three-times Finnish Road Racing Champion Kari Vehniäinen to contest the six-round, nine-race series that started in at the Botniaring circuit in May and finished last weekend at Kemora circuit in the Veteli municipality.

Along the way, the team riders have achieved 10 podium places on their S 1000 RR machines – including six wins – but leading up to last weekend’s final round of the series, there was everything to play for. With a race on the Saturday and Sunday, and the possibility of mixed weather conditions, it was team rider Kari Vehniäinen who was victorious in the first leg. He won Saturday’s race by 10 seconds over his nearest challenger, securing maximum points.

Unfortunately for the 34-year-old Finnish Airforce Maintenance officer, he made a mistake in Sunday’s race and was forced to retire from the action. This meant that he didn’t score any points at all on the Sunday, which eventually cost him the runner-up position in the series, as he was beaten by just one point in the end.

The final race on the Sunday was indeed won by another BMW S 1000 RR rider – Magnus Collin – who took advantage of the RR’s race ABS and advanced traction control functions to help him stay at the front in the unpredictably tricky, wet conditions. Knowing that he was leading the championship going into the final race of the year, Motomarket Team rider Sami Penna rode a smart, calculated display on his RR on the slippery track, and made sure he didn’t make any mistakes on his way to his title victory.

The #28 rider was very satisfied with his performances throughout 2010 and although he started his championship campaign after the first race – and with hardly any testing time on the RR – he had no crashes or technical difficulties throughout the season and in the end, beat his nearest challenger, Ducati rider Topi Haarala, by 32 points. Rounding off the top three was the second Motomarket Team rider Kari Vehniäinen, just one point behind Haarala, on 113.

The Motomarket BMW shop is also a dealer for Alpha race parts in the Nordic area (four countries) and its race team manager, Esko Kuparinen, was understandably delighted at the results achieved by the two riders in their debut season aboard the S 1000 RR:

“This is an excellent result for the whole team,” he said. “We have set very high targets for 2010 and I’m pleased to say that these targets were achieved after a hard and challenging season. The BMW S 1000 RR has been very fast, rideable and reliable all year, and I’d like to thank all the Finnish BMW dealers who were supporting the BMW team throughout 2010 and of course a big thanks to BMW, for delivering the winning bike.”

Encouraged by the success of the season in Finland, the team will be making the journey to Germany to compete in the final round of the IDM championship at Hockenheim, where rider Kari Vehniäinen will take on some of the best riders in the world on the S 1000 RR, including team alpha Technik – Van Zon – BMW’s Barry Veneman and Werner Daemen.

Photos taken by Tuomo Seppänen