Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) claimed the 2024 title with second place at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto in Race 1, becoming the 11^th rider to win multiple World Championships in WorldSBK as well as only the third to win titles with two different manufacturers. Although he finished behind Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati), it was enough to secure the 2024 title and his first since 2021.

WORLD CHAMPION AGAIN: Razgatlioglu re-claims the title

Razgatlioglu’s move to BMW created a load of intrigue, but he was immediately on the rostrum, and a winner in his second round with BMW. Another win at Assen came before a record-breaking 13 in a row to take control of the Championship. A crash in FP2 at Magny-Cours forced him to miss two rounds but he returned at Aragon with three podiums, before two further wins at Estoril gave him match point for Race 1 at Jerez. Another P2 behind Bulega was enough to secure his second, re-claiming the Championship he last won in 2021.

ON THE TITLE: “Nobody believed me or the BMW, but finally they understand we’re World Champions…”

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!”

He also spoke about Magny-Cours FP2 crash and its impact on the season, saying: “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.”

MAKING HISTORY: two titles, two manufacturers and one unusual celebration

Razgatlioglu’s 2021 title came with Yamaha, but he relinquished his crown in 2022 to Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati), before the Spaniard defended his title in 2023. A switch to BMW for this season shocked many but it was a catalyst for Razgatlioglu to take his second title. He joins Bautista, Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha), Fred Merkel, Doug Polen, Colin Edwards, Troy Corser, James Toseland, Max Biaggi, Carl Fogarty and Troy Bayliss as a multiple WorldSBK Champion, while he’s only the third to win with two different manufacturers after Corser (Ducati and Suzuki) and Toseland (Ducati and Honda). He celebrated his title by walking into a spaceship, returning with an alien mask on and in gold leathers.

“THANKS TO MY TURKISH FANS BECAUSE EVERYONE WORKED VERY HARD” – Razgatlioglu on alien celebrations

Discussing the celebrations, Razgatlioglu said: “This year, when I won many races, people called me an alien; I saw some comments on Instagram. I was thinking about this. Thanks to my Turkish fans because everyone worked very hard, also at night, here. We did a different thing again, and we have different things for tomorrow! Today, we did the alien celebration.”

GUARD OF HONOUR: everyone congratulates Razgatlioglu when he returns to the pits

Razgatlioglu was greeted on the cool down lap by all of his WorldSBK rivals and, when he entered pit lane after his celebrations, he was given a guard of honour by the teams to mark his special achievement. He was greeted by his BMW team who were understandably emotional after taking their first title, and Razgatlioglu spoke about his feelings when he saw people from both inside and outside of BMW congratulating him.

“THIS IS VERY NICE; IT FEELS LIKE A FAMILY” – Razgatlioglu on his rivals’ gesture

“Not only my team, I saw everyone in the pitlane!”, began Razgatlioglu. “This is very nice; it feels like a family. I’m really happy for this. This weekend, I was just waiting for the pitlane because I love the burnout. This time, the tyre is finished! I don’t care about this because we are the World Champions. Normally this isn’t good for the engine, but the team said it’s not a problem. I said, ‘I’m not asking’. Normally I do, but this time I was just enjoying it.”

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