New factory team BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team made their FIM EWC debut in September 2019 sporting the number 37. That choice wasn’t a matter of chance.
37 is the lucky number of one of the mainstays of this Belgian team, which is officially representing the German brand in the 2019-2020 FIM EWC season. Steven Casaer – technician, tactician and behind-the-scenes lynchpin of the BMW Motorrad squad – was the one who chose the number.
Like team manager Werner Daemen, Steven was formerly an international endurance championship rider, as well as a bike preparation and tuning specialist. In the early 2000s he raced MV Agusta prototypes with hands-off backing from the factory, who stipulated only one condition: that the machines bear the number 37, symbolizing the Italian brand’s 37 world titles in the different GP classes from 1952 to 1973.
Since then, Steven Casaer has always used the number 37 in his professional as well as his personal life. As BMW Motorrad had no particular preference in the matter, he affixed the number 37 to the fairing of the BMW S 1000 RR in the endurance championship – a fine example of a swap between two European brands in a field dominated by the Japanese.
BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team are currently 2nd in the provisional standings of the 2019-2020 FIM EWC. The team made a standout debut by finishing on the podium in the first two races of this season’s championship, the Bol d’Or and Sepang. What’s more, Ukrainian rider Ilya Mikhalchik put the focus on the BMW’s performance by clocking the fastest race lap at the 2019 Bol d’Or.
Werner Daemen, the team manager, also keeps BMW firmly in the spotlight in Germany’s IDM Superbike championship. The team has taken the German Superbike title for the past three years, with Markus Reiterberger in 2017 and Ilya Mikhalchik in 2018 and 2019. Last year the BMW squad pulled off a double victory, with Ilya Mikhalchik and Julian Puffe winning both the IDM champion’s crown and runner-up spot.
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Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
