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The riders tend to get all the glory in motorcycle racing, even though, in reality, it's a team sport. If you don't have a competitive motorcycle and a team full of the right kind of minds to assess, understand, and exploit the reams of data collected by today's sophisticated racing systems, you likely won't win a championship.
But sometimes, the rider really does deserve the largest share of the glory.
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu clinched the 2024 Motul FIM Superbike World Championship for his ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team this weekend with a second-place finish in the first of the three races at Circuito de Jerez Ángel Nieto.
There were plenty of stories in the 2024 WSBK season (summed up in the video below). The impressive rookie debut of Nicolò Bulega, who won six races and finished second in the season standings. Danilo Petrucci doing the triple in Italy to add WSBK wins to his resume that already included race wins in MotoGP, MotoAmerica Superbike, and a stage of the Dakar Rally. Andrea Iannone winning a race to complete his comeback from his racing ban.
But as Jonathan Rea, the winningest rider in WSBK history said, Razgatlıoğlu was clearly the man of the year.
"Changing manufacturers and doing it with a different manufacturer, not many people are in that club," said Rea. "I hope he enjoys the moment. This year’s been about him, his dominance has been incredible. He’s definitely the man of 2024."
It wasn't just that Razgatlıoğlu became the first BMW rider to win the title in his first year on the M 1000 RR after switching from his long-time Yamaha ride. It wasn't just that he reeled off 13 consecutive wins, breaking the record of 11 straight wins shared by Rea and two-time champion Álvaro Bautista.
Two stats show Razgatlıoğlu's dominance. First, he wrapped up the title with two races still to run despite missing six of the 36 races because of his scary crash in practice at Magny Cours, where he literally hit the wall (seen at the 2:37 mark in the video above). Then there's the other metric experienced analysts look at to determine a rider's strength. How are the other riders on the same motorcycle doing? That's where Razgatlıoğlu really earns his bonuses. He finished the season with 527 points. That just one point less than the other three BMW riders — Michael van der Mark, Garrett Gerloff, and Scott Redding — combined.
Sometimes it's the rider who really does make the difference, and World Superbike in 2024 was one of those times.
