Bench Racing: Off Road - David Knight leaves BMW Motorrad Motorsport

[Mika]

19 June 2009 07:13
Munich: With immediate effect, David Knight and the off-road team of BMW Motorrad Motorsport will be parting company. The two-times World Enduro Championship winner and winner of the US Grand National Cross Country only joined the BMW Motorrad Team Offroad at the beginning of the 2009 season. The move during the current enduro racing season is by mutual agreement.

Before the start of the racing season David Knight completed several tests on the G 450 X racing machine. However, during the season it has become apparent that rider and racing bike do not harmonise well enough to be able to achieve top placements within this highly competitive environment. For this reason, David Knight and BMW Motorrad Motorsport have decided to end their collaboration in good and fair manner.

[Visian]

wonder what the story is behind this news?

one thing for sure, it wasn't due to lack of talent on thr rider's part.

i was hoping for bigger, better things.

ian

[108625]

I wouldn't be surprised, seeing how BMW seems to run all of their racing programs, if David found what was expected of him to be a sacrifice of sorts.

Look at how their philosophy in World Superbike reflected what they did in Formula One. Spend the first year (at least) developing the machine on the track, getting feedback, learning what works and what doesn't, and clearly state to the public that is your agenda (R&D season one, trying for podiums season two, and wins season three). It's like a disclaimer, and an excuse for not competing hard before you even start.
Some riders and drivers can accept that, they also tend not to have joined BMW as champions. David Knight is a champion, at the prime of his career. I can completely understand why he would rather move on and race for glory while he's still riding at his competetive peak. You can still get a job developing someone's race bike later.

Remember Miguel Duhamel leaving the Harley VR1000 effort, in spite of a lucrative contract? He wanted to win, and he did. Pascal Picotte stuck around for the money instead. Which rider do you remember as a champion now?

[Mika]

I was surprised when I read and posted this. I hope to find out more about the story behind this in the coming week.

I don’t believe the comparisons to BMWs F1 and WSBK racing hold up when you look at the G450X factory team effort. Bertie Hauser and Mario Theissen both work for BMW to run race efforts but their style in approaching how they manage is not interchangeable.

The bike and the team are at a very different point in their evolution than BMW is at in the other two racing efforts. Looking sideways at WSBK the analysis of how they approached their entrance to WEC was the same. The F1 effort is a very methodical year by year plan. That is where the similarity ends as I watch. The WEC team has broken into a new level that the other two have yet to achieve.

Knight definitely has the skills and I expected more. The press release may be right that he and the bike weren’t a good match. Great riders and bikes in the past have been held back by bikes that didn’t match up well. When they parted they both did better. We’ll see.

All that said there is definitely more to find out about both Knight and BMW in this story.

I have my thoughts what it may be on the BMW side but for now I will just research and :lurk

[Mika]

I haven't found any good information on this but it certainly has caused a tizzy where ever I have looked.

My guess, and it is just that a guess, is the factory is not going to commit to WEC for much long or a second gen of the G450X for that racing class. The madness for my thinking runs along the lines of,

1. The law of diminishing returns. After they committed to develop and build the bike they had the chance to buy Husqvarna. Now the BMW G450X team is racing against the (BMW)Husqvarna team. You have to ask to what end?

2. Even though it is new to us it is time to plan the next generation of the bikes development. Given the conclusion in #1 my guess they are taking the development in another direction.

Given those two and Knights problems with the bike (from either perspective) they decided to part company. I am guessing he was offered to stay but did not want to because of where I suspect they are going with the bike.

3. FIM Endurance racing in events like Dakar and the Africa Race (http://www.africarace.com/index.php?lang=en) and other endurance rally events like that. Last year Pellicer took the motorcycle class handily with a G450X with support from BMW Spain. With the FIM rules going to a 450 only bike class and BMW's history in these races it seems the place to go racing for them. It would continue to build a new BMW racing heritage on top of and in a class of racing they are associated with. At the same time it would not duplicate the factory Husky racing effort.

Just guessing but that is what I expect to hear at the end of the year.

[Mika]

Knight goes green08/07/09 - 11:06

Former FIM Enduro World Championship winner David Knight has teamed up with Paul Bird Motorsport to race Kawasaki machinery for the remainder of the season.

Knight quit the BMW team recently and has since ridden a privately-entered Kawasaki in events on both sides of the Atlantic.

Knight, who will contest selected remaining rounds of the FIM Enduro World Championship and the FIM International Six Days Enduro has received backing from Kawasaki's Team Green Racing through the PBM team which is currently contesting the FIM Superbike World Championship.

Knight said: "I've been in the lucky position to choose whatever bike I wanted to race on for the rest of 2009. I'd heard such good things about the KX450F that I had to have a ride on one."

PM team owner Paul Bird added: "Knighter is a legend and a great friend of the Paul Bird Motorsport team. We are more than happy to help him continue the 2009 season on a Kawasaki.

"The presence of such a successful, respected and well liked ambassador for off-road sport is a genuine privilege for us. We will do our utmost to support his racing effort."