BMW competes in races around the world on two wheels as well as four, and BMW Motorrad Motorsport has a busy season ahead in 2026, with factory teams competing in the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) and the FIM Endurance World Championship (FIM EWC), as well as official customer racing teams competing in the USA, Great Britain and Japan.
WorldSBK
The WorldSBK season opened the weekend of February with races at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia. BMW is represented by the ROKit BMW Motorrad team in WorldSBK, which are coming in with two consecutive riders’ championships in 2024 and 2025. The team has two new riders in 2026, with Danilo Petrucci from Italy and Miguel Oliveira from Portugal. The first two races saw the new riders get solid results, with Petrucci finishing finishing 10th in race one and sixth in race two, while Oliveira finished eighth in race one and seventh in race two.
The WorldSBK team will be represented by riders Miguel Oliveira (left) and Danilo Petrucci (right).
Petrucci was fifth in the WorldSBK championship in 2025 and was the Best Independent Rider. “I am happy and proud to join the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team,” he said. “It is the team that won the last two championships, and I am very proud to be a part of it. Of course, there are many expectations, but above all I want to enjoy it. I simply want to be as fast as possible and improve on the results from my previous season.”
Oliveira is coming over to WorldSBK from seven seasons in MotoGP, where he scored five wins. Before MotoGP, he was racing in the Moto2 Championship, where he finished as runner-up in 2018. “I am very excited,” he said. “I don’t yet know exactly what to expect, but I do know that the entire field is extremely competitive and hard-fought. My goal, therefore, is to be up to this challenge and as well prepared as possible so that we can fight for top positions. I want to have fun and to make the team enjoy the races.”
FIW EWC
BMW will compete in FIW EWC with the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team led by Werner Daemen, which came very close to winning the championship in 2025. They will have four riders competing in 2026, with Markus Reiterberger from Germany, Steven Odendaal from South Africa, and Michael van der Mark from the Netherlands, who is moving over from WorldSBK to FIW EWC as a works rider. Hannes Soomer from Estonia will be the fourth rider. “We have a clear goal: to fight for the championship,” said Daemen. “Everything fits together very well. We have a very good bike and very strong riders with Markus, Steven, and now Michael van der Mark, with Hannes as the fourth rider. Technically, we are perfectly prepared. I expect that we will be competing at the front – and, of course, a bit of luck is also needed. If luck is on our side, we can fight for the world championship title once again.”
Riders for the FIM EWC include (left to right) Hannes Soomer, Markus Reiterberger, Steven Odendaal and Michael van der Mark.
The FIW EWC season opens at Le Mans in France on the weekend of April 18th-19th.
CUSTOMER RACING
In addition to the factory teams in WorldSBK and FIW EWC, BMW Motorrad will have “official” customer teams competing in the USA, Great Britain, and Japan. The USA team is OrangeCat Racing, which will compete in the MotoAmerica Superbike class in 2026, after competing in the Superstock class last year, where they won the team championship and had both riders in the top three in the rider’s championship. The OrangeCat Racing lineup features American riders Sean Dylan Kelly and Jayson Uribe. Kelly, who is new to the team, was the 2021 MotoAmerica Supersport champion. Uribe has been on the OrangeCat team since 2024 and had eight podium finishes in the MotoAmerica Superstock class in 2025.
OrangeCat Racing is led by Team Principal Jeff Connors (center), with riders Sean Dylan Kelly (left) and Jayson Uribe (right).
All of the various BMW Motorrad Motorsport teams competing around the world will be using the BMW M 1000 RR motorcycle, which uses a 999cc four-cylinder, four-stroke engine with four titanium valves per cylinder, liquid-cooled titanium rods and two-ring pistons. In WorldSBK spec, it puts out 233hp at over 14,0000rpm.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy BMW]
