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'Nobody believed me or the BMW' - Razgatlioglu reacts to his second WorldSBK title

Gold and Goose

After finishing in second place at Jerez, Toprak Razgatlioglu claimed his second World Superbike Championship.

Toprak Razgatlioglu secured the 2024 World Superbike title in the opening race at Circuito de Jerez. The Turkish rider finished the race in second place and became the 11th different rider to win multiple WorldSBK titles and only the third rider to win titles with multiple manufacturers.

It has been well documented that when Razgatliolgu announced that he would leave Yamaha for BMW he was written off. It seemed that what Razgatliolgu had done was a near career-ending move as he joined a manufacturer that had not had a single podium finish in 2023.

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However, in his opening weekend for BMW, he stood on the podium, and in round two of the 2024 season, he won his first race for BMW. After this race win Razgatlioglu became a dominant force in World Superbikes once again as he won 17 races before clinching the title.

Discussing his second title, Razgatlioglu said: “I feel like a World Champion! I’m not feeling any stress. For me, the season’s finished now; we have two more races tomorrow, but I’ll just be enjoying it. It’s been a long season.

"Nobody believed me or the BMW, but finally they understand we’re World Champions. This is incredible, especially with BMW; they’ve never won the title. Finally, I got my second title and BMW got their first!”

However, Razgatlioglu's Championship challenge came to an abrupt halt in the second half of the season. During Practice at the French WorldSBK Round, the #54 suffered a massive crash and was ruled out of the next six races. During this time Razgatlioglu's title lead shrunk drastically. However, the Turkish rider returned with a vengeance in Aragon.

Speaking on his crash at Magny-Cours Razgatlioglu said: “Maybe the title fight finished in Italy if I didn’t crash at Magny-Cours or maybe Estoril. After the crash, I had a big injury and missed two races: France and Italy.

"When I came back to Aragon, I kept fighting for the world title. If I didn’t come back at Aragon, I think we’d lose the title. It’s not been an easy three or four weeks after the injury. I went to Austria for the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center, and I kept working to come back quickly.

"Sometimes we’re lucky, sometimes we’re not. When I crashed in France, I learnt things. If we’re fighting for the world title next year, if we have a big gap, I need to be more careful in the last races.”

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