Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

The inaugural BMW Boxer Cup event at Daytona is shaping up to be a very exciting event, and race organizers and racers are excited to be racing at Daytona International Speedway.

“We are very excited to race here at Daytona because it is the dream of every racer to ride at Daytona,” Berthold Hauser, Director, Motorsport Motorrad BMW Motorrad told Roadracingworld.com.

In fact, even the most experienced of the veteran International racers attracted to the nine-race BMW Boxer Cup series, English-speaking or not, displayed big smiles when asked about racing at Daytona.

“It is very special circuit, not the same in Austria, in Europe,” said three-time Austrian Supersport Champion and 2002 BMW Boxer Cup runner-up Thomas Hinterreiter. Hinterreiter races for BMW Motorrad Austria-Hinterreiter.

“The track is very good. Everyone know most famous track in the world,” said Dream Car Team’s Italian rider Roberto Panichi. Panichi finished 6th in the 1996 World Supersport Championship and is also a veteran of the World Superbike series. “The banking would be fun with more horsepower. Superbike is better.”

“It is fantastic. I really want to come to race in America. I like the way of driving here because it is very fast,” said BMW Motorrad Belgium/Herpigny Motors’ Sebastien Legrelle, a four-time Belgian 600cc Champion, 1997 600cc European Champion and veteran of the 2000 FIM 500cc Grand Prix season.

“This is very special event, a very special place,” said Markus Barth, a German racer with the BMW Group Niderlassungen Racing Team. Barth won the 1999 German Supersport Championship, scored points in every 2000 World Superbike race on a private Yamaha, raced with the Castrol-Alpha Teknic World Supersport team in 2001 and finished fourth in the 2002 BMW Boxer Cup Championship.

“It’s the greatest racetrack in the World,” said 19-year-old British racer Richard Cooper after taking provisional pole position in Thursday’s qualifying session. Cooper has raced in the British CB500 Cup, the British Honda Hornet Cup and the British Supersport Championship.

Most of the motorcycles BMW Boxer Cup racers will ride are R1100S Boxer Cup Replikas ($13,490). Special Boxer Cup Prep models ($11,990) come without anti-lock brake systems, with block-off panels over the headlight and front turn indicators, carbon-fiber guards on the flat-twin engine’s cylinder heads, an FIM-spec belly pan, a high-output alternator, sport suspension, a 5.50-inch-wide rear wheel, different exhaust pipes (for increased sound more than increased performance, according to Hauser) and Metzeler Rennsport DOT racing tires.

The bikes are very equal, say most racers, and BMW Boxer Cup organizers keep them that way with pre- and post-race inspections of top finishers and random spot checks. Spec fuel is also used.

Riding the Boxers is different, in the opinion of most racers, as cornering clearance is limited by the protruding cylinder heads. Riders routinely drag the cylinder heads mid-corner and some have scraped the outer wall of the Speedway tri-oval with the cylinder heads.

Riders have also commented that the action of the BMWs’ Telelever front suspension, especially in terms of weight transfer, takes getting used to and “being smooth” is a phrase often heard in the pits.

Barth, Hinterreiter, Cooper and Legrelle are among the fastest International riders so far at Daytona, but Americans Brian Parriott, Tripp Nobles and 18-year-old Californian Jason Perez have consistently been near the top of most practice time sheets also.

While some of the Americans entered in the Boxer Cup event have more experience with Daytona drafting techniques, the Americans are having issues with the rough riding style of some of the European racers.

Nobles is riding a Parts Unlimited/O’Brien/Rough Stock Racing/Foothills BMW, while Parriott and Perez are riding as part of the official BMW Motorrad Team USA.

Parriott will contest the entire nine-round, nine-country 2003 BMW Boxer Cup series. Five of the BMW Boxer Cup rounds are scheduled as support races for MotoGP World Championship events.

BMW Boxer Cup competitors race for “substantial prize money” at each event. The winner of the BMW Boxer Cup Championship will receive a BMW M3 Sport Coupe, the runner-up will get a Mini Cooper S and the third-place Championship finisher will get a BMW R1150RT motorcycle.

The BMW Boxer Cup race at Daytona is scheduled to be broadcast live on SPEED, Sunday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time, and re-broadcast on Eurosport in Europe.

Judging by the cylinder-head-banging action so far in practice at Daytona, the BMW Boxer Cup will not be an event to miss.