Heroic tenth for Lukoil BMW Motorrad CSEU at the 12 horas de Portimao Portimao, Portugal.

It’s been another tough weekend for the Lukoil BMW Motorrad Central and Southeastern Europe team in the FIM SuperEnduro World Championship: Lukas Pesek, Roland Resch and Martin Choy brought home a heroic tenth place at the end of the first edition of the 12 horas de Portimao.

Qualifying on Friday ended with a 16th spot on the grid for Saturday’s race, but the headline for the team was unfortunately made by Martin Choy who cracked some rips during his stint in the timed practice. But Choy wouldn’t give in and still went on to race a couple of stints on Saturday to help his team mates Pesek and Resch.¨

Pesek took the start turn, with Resch to follow. Choy would jump in for two stints but had to withdraw from the race due to strong pain. Pesek and Resch would go on to finish the race in tenth position after 12 hours, P6 in EWC-category, to reach the team’s goal to see the chequered flag.

The Pirelli equipped BMW S 1000 RR machinery was a perfect lady for its three riders, not providing a single problem to the mechanics in pits so all stops were only for the standard maintenance work such as changing tires and re-fuelling.

Lukas Pesek – Rider Blue:
“It was a real hard and tough race for me because, mainly Roland and myself were riding on two riders only for most of the distance. But on the other hand it was also a very good training for me. I was able to maintain a high pace of 1:48 and 1:49, which was really good. At the end we were tenth overall and sixth in EWC-class and this is a fantastic result for a new and private team in the FIM Endurance World Championship. I am happy for the whole team. Our BMW S 1000 RR never missed a beat and was perfect.”


Roland Resch – Rider Yellow:
“Especially those last two stints were extremely exhausting as this track is a proper monster and always requires 120 per cent of physical effort when riding. But we made it to the finish line and everyone was doing a perfect job – on the bike as in the pits and beyond. I am happy with the result and especially to be a part of this bunch of people and this wonderful team.”

Martin Choy – Rider Red:
“It was a really good race and I think the team once more did a great and perfect job. We finished the race without having one technical problem at all, which is a fact that speaks for itself. I tried to help where I could, but after my second stint the pain was really strong and we didn’t want to risk further or even worse injury so I sat out for the rest of the race. I am looking forward to be back fit at the next one.”

‪#‎RR‬ ‪#‎MakeLifeRide‬ ‪#‎12horasdePortimao‬ ‪#‎EWC‬ Viktor Noss
Photos: Highside PR - Toni Börner