The ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team will welcome Michael van der Mark back to action in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship at the next round. After fracturing his leg femur in a huge highside on home soil back in April, the Dutchman has been out of action as he recovers. However, BMW have now confirmed their plans to have him back on the M1000RR at the next round subject to van der Mark passing a medical check.

VAN DER MARK’S MOST RETURN: aiming to be back in the Czech Republic

The #60 was injured when he had a huge highside off his bike at the final chicane at Assen during Round 3, with van der Mark undergoing surgery on his fractured left femur. Since then, he has been recovering and has been training at the TT Circuit Assen in recent weeks to assess his feeling while riding a bike. He was initially replaced by Ivo Lopes in Barcelona before Tom Sykes stepped in for Misano and Donington. However, he was injured in a Race 2 crash in the UK with Leon Haslam drafted in for Imola.

If van der Mark passes the necessary medical checks ahead of the Acerbis Czech Round, he will return to the M1000RR in WorldSBK for the first time since the April 23^rd . After the first two rounds, van der Mark was only one point behind teammate Scott Redding in the battle to be top BMW and he had a best result of sixth, in Indonesia Race 1, which was BMW’s best of the season until Redding took P4 at Donington Park.

During FP2 at Donington, van der Mark spoke about his return to the track and plans to be racing again. He said: “It was nice to be back out on a bike. Riding the bike is not that hard for me, especially at Assen, but for the body it was still a bit tough. I enjoyed it. I just want to ride the bike because that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life. There’s no pressure from BMW. They want me to be 100% fit and I think I’m pretty close.”

IMOLA IN REVIEW: a weekend of top tens for BMW

BMW had a decent weekend at Imola as they closed the gap to Honda in the Manufacturers’ Championship. They took three top-ten finishes, with Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) in eighth and seventh in Race 1 and Race 2 respectively, while Redding was the lead BMW rider in the Superpole Race with ninth. In the Tissot Superpole session on Saturday morning, Redding was able to put his bike fifth on the grid while Baz made it two M1000RR machines in the top ten with ninth.

Reviewing the Italian Round and confirming van der Mark’s Most return, Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director, said: “It was an absolute scorcher. Imola is a beautiful track where we hadn’t been for four years. Our expectations were somewhat dampened beforehand because two of our four riders had never been here before, and the heat doesn’t usually favour us. At the end of the weekend, we had two top-ten finishes in every race. We can be quite satisfied with that. Loris gave a very strong performance with three top-ten results. He was the top BMW rider twice. He followed Scott’s setup, which clearly worked well for him. Garrett also had extremely strong performances in the practice sessions. Unfortunately, he was hindered by yellow flags multiple times during Superpole, starting from 15^th place, and couldn’t convert his strong pace into the races. That was a shame. For Leon as a substitute rider, it was of course difficult to jump onto a new bike during a race weekend. He delivered what we expected. Now we look ahead to Most, a track where we were very successful last year. We will also see Michael van der Mark’s comeback there.”

THE 2024 FACTORY BMW LINE-UP: no news from manufacturer or rider yet…

There has been a lot of talk about who will partner Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) in 2024 when the 2021 Champion makes the move to BMW. Both van der Mark and Redding have made their desire to stay with the German manufacturer clear, and Redding had a deadline of July 15^th to decide whether he would stay or not. On Thursday at Imola, the #45 teased that he thought there'd be an announcement on Sunday about "where I'm going and what I'm doing" but that has been and gone with no comment from the Brit or BMW. Baz has also said that his future in WorldSBK depends on Redding, meaning potential changes to BMW's Independent team line-up. It’s a seat that remains key to the 2024 rider market, but who will be at the BMW factory team next year?

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