By Michael GougisY
ou really get the idea of just how spe-
cial the BMW HP4 Race is when you
ride it back-to-back with any modern,
cutting-edge sportbike built for the street.
BMW doesn't want to let just anyone ride one
of their carbon-fi ber corporate showcases on a
racetrack, so at the special events for potential
customers, the company sends you out fi rst
on a regular S1000RR to make sure you know
what you're doing.
The fi rst time I rode the HP4 Race was
at Circuit of The Americas, and I had spent
the entire morning on the “regular” S1000RR.
Whipping the HP4 Race—with its carbon-fi -
ber frame, carbon-fi ber wheels, titanium fas-
teners and ridiculously light overall weight (a
claimed 322 pounds dry—through the esses
that form the fi rst third of the lap at COTA felt
like riding nothing else. It went where I want-
ed it to go with ease.
In comparison, the production S1000RR,
an astoundingly good front-line literbike for
the street, felt ungainly, and one of the most
powerful sportbikes ever to leave an assembly
line felt like it was in restricted mode!
The question is, really, how do you go
about making sure this $78,000 gem winds up
in the right hands? They can be complicated,
with a full racing electronics suite and racing
suspension. They require a bit more care than
your streetbike, which is designed to survive
10s of thousands of miles in the hands of rid-
ers who may or may not pay attention to little
things like oil changes. And they are bloody
fast, with a claimed 215 horsepower pouring
from a handbuilt engine that incorporatesSuperbike- and Endurance World Champion-
ship-spec parts and assembly.
So BMW adopted an interesting and
unique approach to marketing the HP4 Race.
It put on what the company calls "activations,"
where potential purchasers were invited to
come to a racetrack and ride one for a while.
"Participants were selected by dealers
as potential HP4 Race customers," says Jim
Dusky, Events and Experiential Marketing
Specialist/Marketing Fleet Specialist, BMW
Motorrad North America. "The dealer list was
communicated to me, and invitations were
sent out by me. Travel and riding gear was at
the expense of the participant. Hotel, food, fuel,
bikes, and everything else, was included in the
package and paid for by BMW Motorrad."
BMW did two activations in 2018, one at
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and an-
other at Virginia International Raceway. One
of the participants at Laguna was Luis Monte-
cinos from Costa Rica, who has been racing a
BMW S1000RR HP4 at the 1.9-mile La Guáci-
ma Racetrack near Alajuela.
“It's a short circuit. It's fun, kind of a
stop-and-go circuit, nothing like this one, but
we have fun," Montecinos says. "We have a
racing school there. We are trying to promote
motorcycle racing in Costa Rica. We have an
instructor who raced in Europe, Ivan Sala, he's
a friend of ours. It started with a small group,
and now it's almost 100 people." (Sala, inciden-
tally, found a successful career racing in CostaRica and Latin America, winning Superbike,
GP and Supermoto titles in the region.)
“It's an awesome bike. Awesome. Amaz-
ing. The bike is nothing like any bike I've ever
ridden before. Turning, it's so easy. You turn
the bike and the bike goes with you. The power
is extraordinary. And the braking is phenom-
enal," Montecinos says. "Very easy to manage,
very easy to go fast. It's effortless. My bike
has some strong points, but it has some weak
points. This one has no weak points.”
Another participant was Doug Grego-
ry from Connecticut, who has "a little bit of a
bike problem," he says. "I have a garage full of
bikes. And a friend of mine knew I was crazy
enough to buy one of these, so he put me in
touch with BMW.”(Above) Chris Ulrich rides the HP4 RACE on track at Estoril, Portugal. BMW North America imported
about 80 of the HP4 RACE track-only bikes, featuring a carbon-fi ber frame and wheels contribut-
ing to a claimed weight under 350 pounds and an Endurance World Championship-spec engine
making a claimed 215 horsepower. (Below, Right) Author Michael Gougis on the GP4 RACE at COTA.52—Roadracing World, Trackday Directory 2019The Mighty
BMW HP4 RACE
MARKETING A $78,000 TRACK DAY BIKE: