Ahead of his home round of the FIM Endurance World Championship at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium next week (6-7 June), BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team head Werner Daemen took time out of his busy pre-8 Hours of Spa Motos schedule to answer five key questions.
Much is spoken about home advantage, but does being a Belgium-based team really give you the upper hand over your rivals?
“Not especially. I’m a local guy but our riders are not Belgian, they’re French, German and South African. Of course, for me, it’s a very important race. As a Belgian it’s the best track in the world but it’s not because I’m a Belgian I say that, I ride everywhere in the world but if it’s nice weather for me Spa is the best, it’s simple.My experience helps for sure. Spa is one of my favourite tracks, I have 10 years the lap record by myself at Spa so I was quite quick and that means you have something. Spa is not like the other tracks, it’s much faster, different skills, different riding lines are needed. Le Mans, for example, is a completely different track.”
Fourth place in the season-opening 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans last month (above) was a good result, but should it have been better?
“Le Mans was good but also we were not happy. We were leading the race for a long time, then we crashed, then we place 25 or something, then we were coming back to place three and then we were unlucky because we had a technical issue two hours before the end of the race and we were fourth. Normally the result should be much better, but fourth place is not bad, especially because after eight hours and 16 hours we were third so for the points it was okay. The goal for Spa for sure is a podium.”
BMW Motorsport World Endurance Team won at Spa in 2022 (above). How good was that result and what would it mean to win again?
“That was really good, a dream. I was myself one time on the podium in 2000 and when I came back as a team manager it was very important to win. But the next goal is to be world champion. When I was a young guy, I wanted to be Belgian champion, then European champion and finally to be world champion. To be world champion this year we need a good result in Spa and then Suzuka and then we will see in Le Castellet what happens.”
You’ve recently announced the return of your Superstock team in partnership with Tecmas (above) once again after missing Le Mans, why?
“We have our main sponsor Champion, but we were too late to prepare for the first race in Le Mans and, also what I wanted, compared to previous years, is that the team had to be completely independent. The bike is prepared in the same workshop, it’s the same bookkeeper, but technical-wise it’s completely split so the truck, the mechanics, the full thing is completely split from the EWC team so not one per cent of energy can go to the other team. This was really important for me. We want to win in both classes, or at least a podium so we decide that we make two completely different teams, like we do with our IDM team. We also moved to a new factory [in Genk at the end of last year]. Before we were part of a car racing team and it was too much work to do everything. Now we are only focused only on two wheels, which are my thing.”
And you’ve got three strong riders with Jan Bühn, Leandro Mercado and Hannes Soomer?
“Hannes is a spare rider for us in EWC so otherwise he cannot ride at Spa, he never ride at Spa and it’s also important for him for the future to ride at Spa. Leandro Mercado is coming from the 333, he has no ride in EWC and he’s really good. It’s a good line-up.”
Sylvain Guintoli, Steven Odendaal and Markus Reiterberger will race for BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team in the second edition of the 8 Hours of Spa Motos, round two of the 2025 FIM Endurance World Championship, place from 6-7 June. Ticket information is available HERE.
Watch the 8 Hours of Spa Motos teaser video here:
Original Source [ FIM EWC ]
