From a press release issued by BMW:

GIABBANI 6th WINNER FROM 8 BMW BOXERCUP RACES

The eighth and final race of the BMW Motorrad BoxerCup 2004 took place this afternoon in front of over 122,000 fans at the Valencia MotoGP race where crowds saw a thrilling BMW race, and yet another new winner in the series with Frenchman Gwen Giabbani victorious with his Team Reseau France bike. Giabbani started from the front row and battled between pole sitter Sebastien Legrelle and former champion Stephane Mertens around the 4 km track regularly just millimetres apart from each other with their BMW R 1100 S machines. Third was Jose Luis Nion who took a brilliant podium in front of his home crowd with his Spanish run Auto Sport Busquets bike. The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for the home town hero…

Although Austrian Thomas Hinterreiter had wrapped up the BMW Motorrad BoxerCup 2004 at the previous race in Brno, there was still a race within a race because the battle for second place in the BoxerCup was still up for grabs with Brian Parriott, Roberto Panichi and Markus Barth all in contention for the prize of a brand new BMW Z4 2.2. Daytona winner Parriott qualified second well ahead of his rivals and maintained second early on.

However, the pace at the front was electrifying for the big hitters who were gunning for the second place in the title hunt, but Panichi crashed out, while Mertens was black flagged after the safety installed cylinder head covers broke loose and fell off. Parriott stealthily kept to his rythym as others around him found the pace too hot. “I’m so relieved that is over but I knew I could do it especially after such a good qualifying time. A brilliant season that is now all worth it!” Said the American.

Leaders Legrelle and Giabbani were never more than one second apart after the sixth lap such was their pace. It was brilliant to see them using all of the track and them the kerbs as both were gunning for their first victory of the season.

Giabbani said atop of the podium, “From the practice sessions I knew I could win this one even though I had to learn a new track. The difficult thing out there was knowing if it was best to lead the last lap, or pounce upon Sebastien from second. I just went for it and it worked. A brilliant day for me and the team.”

It was a good day too for Giabbani’s team mate Guillaume Dietrich who was the first YoungStar rider over the line in 4th just ahead of Britain’s Richard Cooper who has won the BMW YoungStar 2004 title for the best under 21 rider. He collects the keys to a new Mini Cooper this evening at the season ending party.

Just 3.6 seconds back of Cooper was Markus Barth who has finished 3rd overall in the BMW Motorrad BoxerCup 2004, netting himself a brand new BMW R 1200 GS.

That brings to a close the BMW BoxerCup series under the sunny skies of Valencia. Next year a series based on the K1200R 4 cylinder machine is going to continue BMW’s long Motor Cycle racing history. Further details will be announced soon.



BoxerCup Results
Valencia, Spain
Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
1. Gwen Giabbani, France, 18 laps, 32:28.574
2. Sebastien Legrelle, Belgium, -0.337 second
3. Jose Nion, Spain, -22.161
4. Guillaume Dietrich, France, -25.671
5. Richard Cooper, UK, -28.218
6. Brian Parriott, USA, -30.879
7. Markus Barth, Germany, -31.853
8. Barry Burrell, UK, -35.474
9. Franz Aschenbrenne, Germany, -35.482
10. Olivier Jervis, Canada, -44.826
11. Jose Barresi, Venezuela, -45.160
12. Michael Bursa, Czech Republic, -45.347
13. Dirk Buylinckxs, Belgium, -45.818
14. Nate Kern, USA, -64.513
15. Alex Busquets, Spain, -67.502
16. Giulio Rangheri, Italy, -68.057
17. Jereon Oudeman, Holland, -77.502
18. Klaus Nies, Germany, -77.728
19. Robert Van Der Molen, Holland, -81.936
20. Massimo Rosetti, Italy, -92.000
21. Stefan Heinrichs, Germany, -102.143
22. Philippe Coulon, Switzerland, -1 lap
23. Thomas Hinterreiter, Austria, -3 laps, DNF, retired
24. Oriol Fernandez, Spain, -3 laps, DNF, crashed
25. Mario Carazo, Spain, -4 laps, DNF, retired
26. Josep Busquets, Spain, -5 laps, DNF, retired
27. Roberto Panichi, Italy, -13 laps, DNF, crashed
28. Calvin Hogan, UK, -18 laps, DNF, crashed
29. Javier Valera, Spain, -18 laps, DNF, crashed

DQ: Stephane Mertens, black flagged

BMW BoxerCup
Final 2004 Point Standings
Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
1. Thomas Hinterreiter, Austria, 132 points
2. Brian Perriott, USA, 117 points
3. Markus Barth, Germany, 108 points
4. Roberto Panichi, Italy, 103 points
5. Sebastien Legrelle, Belgium, 101 points
6. Stephane Mertens, Belgium, 81 points
7. Gwen Giabbani, France, 62 points
8. Jose Nion, Spain, 57 points
9. Richard Cooper, UK, 51 points
10. Guillaume Dietrich, France, 50 points
11. Barry Burrell, UK, 37 points
12. Oriol Fernandez, Spain, 32 points
13. Dirk Buylinckxs, Belgium, 29 points
14. Franz Aschenbrenner, Germany, 26 points
15. Klaus Nies, Germany, 24 points
16. Calvin Hogan, UK, 21 points
17. Nicholas Dussauge, France, 13 points
18. Robert van der Molen, Holland, 13 points
19. Javier Valera, Spain, 11 points
20. Michael Bursa, Czech Republic, 9 points
21. Guilio Rangheri, Italy, 8 points
22. Alex Busquets, Spain, 7 points
23. Nate Kern, USA, 7 points
24. Stephane Lacaze, France, 6 points
25. David Fouli, France, 5 points
26. Jerouen Oudeman, Holland, 3 points
27. Stefan Heinrichs, Germany, 2 points