After just three rounds, privateer Team Reitwagen BMW is in financial trouble. According to the latest news, the squad who runs Andrew Pitt and Roland Resch, has run out of the necessary funding in order to continue to compete in the World Superbike Championship and will be skipping this weekend’s scheduled round at Assen.

The future of the Austrian based team is hanging on a thread and will be decided today at BMW’s headquarters in Munich, where the racing and especially the accounting department bigwigs, who hold the money reins, will see if they can financially help support, not only the official BMW team, but also the satellite team for the rest of the 2010 season.

Source | duegommeslick

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Team Reitwagen BMW rider Roland Resch will finally return to racing for the third round of this year’s Superbike World Championship at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia this weekend.

The Austrian rider who broke his collarbone in two places during free practice at Phillip Island, and was substituted by Makoto Tamada for the Portimao round, got back on his BMW S1000RR and did forty laps of the demanding Portimao circuit during last week’s tests to check his fitness and since he suffered no ill effects can rejoin his team for his first race of the season.

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Yesterday we talked about Makoto Tamada who will be subbing for the injured Roland Resch in the BMW Reitwagen team for the Portimao round in a week’s time. The Austrian rider suffered a double fracture of his right collarbone in a crash during practice and had to undergo surgery, where the doctors inserted a titanium plate with eight screws.

Resch is currently working on his rehabilitation and recovery at the Dungl Medical-Vital Resort in Gars am Kamp, near Vienna and from the video you can clearly see why the rider can’t be at Portimao.

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Not even the time to post the news that Makoto Tamada could be subbing for injured Roland Resch in BMW Reitwagen, that we have to update the news that both BMW Reitwagen and Pro Ride teams have confirmed that Tamada will be officially filling in for Resch at the Portimao round and will also help the Austrian team in testing the S1000RR.

Unsurprisingly, Pro Ride Racing Team has announced that will miss not only Portimao, but also the Valencia round due to sponsorship problems.

To read both press releases hit the jump:

Continue reading: WSBK : Confirmed, Makoto Tamada to Ride for BMW Reitwagen at Portimao

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Makoto Tamada is Pro Ride’s sole rider for this 2010 World Superbike season, but team skipped the first round at Phillip Island due to logistics problems, but now we have the latest rumor coming from Racesport.nl that the Japanese rider could be replacing the injured Austrian rider Roland Resch in BMW Reitwagen team for the Portimao round.

Tamada and his team did not take part in any of the official tests and we’ve haven’t heard if they did any private testing, so if this rumor should be true, it could mean that Pro Ride is once again facing serious economic problems and just like in 2009 after announcing that they would be competing in the championship with Gregorio Lavilla, had to pull out even before putting two wheels on any track.

Former World Supersport rider Barry Veneman who tested with the BMW Motorrad Motorsport at Valencia, was another rider who was named to replace Resch has decided to continue racing in the German IDM with the BMW Alpha Technik/Van Zon team and will wait till next year before making an eventual jump to the World Superbike series.

Source | duegommeslick

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With WSBK round 2 at Portimao in just two weeks time, we’ve got a couple of injury updates on riders of who will be racing and who’s still in doubt.

Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki Racing) with his usual video, (thanks Chris) tells us the extent of the knee injuries that he picked up during race 2 when his gearbox locked up and sent him crashing into the tire wall at 200 km/h. Vermeulen in doubt.

James Toseland (Yamaha Sterilgarda) fractured his third metacarpal bone of his left hand during a heavy fall in free practice and hurt his hand further when he highsided in race 1. In race two the Brit rider took 10th place, but rode the race with his hand heavily anethestized. Toseland will race.

Roland Resch (Reitwagen BMW) crashed during Q1 and picked up a concussion and fractured his right collarbone and was operated on a week ago according to his Twitter page and thinks he can be ready for the Portimao round. Resch still in doubt.

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Speedweek.com website has given us a first look at the colours of the BMW S1000RR that Austrian Reitwagen BMW Team will be showing in this year’s World Superbike Championship.

The livery is silver and black with an addition of red and white, colours of the Austrian flag.

The new privateer team is presently at the Eastern Creek circuit in Austrialia for three days of private testing with riders Andrew Pitt and Roland Resch before heading to Phillip Island later this month.

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While waiting to receive the of racing version of their BMW, new World Superbike private racing team BMW Reitwagen Motorsport were at the Eastern Creek race track in Australia to try out a street version of the BMW S 1000 RR.

Andrew Pitt and Roland Resch, got a chance to ride for the first time the BMWmachine, but had to share since there was only one bike available. Both riders stated that they were satisfied by the potential of the bike.

“The speed and acceleration of the engine was very impressive for a standard bike and the standard gearbox was also very smooth and precise. It was like a race gearbox, or better. The bike does what you want it to do. They have done a great job on the standard bike for sure.” said Pitt.

Pitt did more laps than his teammate and did a best lap of 1’36 in the high summer temperatures in Australia. Present for this mini test were Peter Goddard, chassis engineer and Johan Stigefelt, technical manager.

Pitt and Resch will test the race-spec bike at Eastern Creek, starting February 8th.

Source | bikeracing

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Reitwagen Motorsport BMW has officially announced that Andrew Pitt, who signed a two year contract, will be riding with their new team, that will debut in the WSBK paddock next season. The team will be fielding BMW’s S 1000 RR and have already confirmed Austrian rider Roland Resch as their other rider.

The squad will be run by Alfred Inzinger and Johan ‘Stiggy’ Stigefelt, who just three days ago announced that he was pulling his WSBK and SS teams from the 2010 championship, will be the technical manager. Other key crew members from Stiggy’s ex team have also found a place in the team and former racer Peter Goddard will be working as the chassis engineer.

The Reitwagen Motorsport team are now preparing for their first test which will take place at the Eastern Creek circuit in Australia in January and then test at Phillip Island twice before the start of the season at the end of February, but will not be at the Portimao test.

Source | sbk

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We’ll be seeing another team on the World Superbike grid next season, The team is the newly formed Reitwagen Motorsport squad that will take part in the chamionship with a privately run BMW S 1000 RR and is the first BMW client after the new superbike debuted for the first time last year.

The team rider will be 25 year old Austrian born Roland Resch who ran his rookie year in WSBK’s this year with the TKR Suzuki Switzerland Team on a Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9. Resch was the 2008 Suzuki GSX R European Cup Champion and the 2006 Austrian Supermoto Champion.

Team spokesman Andreas Werth:

“Roland will race the new BMW S 1000 RR next year with some know-how and assistance from BMW, but basically the team is developing the race bike from stock production bikes on its own. We have the budget for a full season and will start testing in Australia in late December. Reitwagen is the first BMW client in the Superbike World Championship and for us it’s a great opportunity.”

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