Comeback

After a ten-year break, BMW Motorrad celebrated a comeback in rally sport with a works team in 1998. This time, single-cylinder models based on the F 650 were used. The focal point of involvement was once again the “Dakar”. BMW had to learn the hard way in the first year, but the Frenchman Richard Sainct gained BMW’s fifth victory at this event in 1999. In 2000 there followed the greatest triumph when BMW won the first four places. Once again it was Richard Sainct who took the winner’s cup, and behind Oscar Gallardo, but in front of Jean Brucy - both on single-cylinder models - Jimmy Lewis finished an amazing third on his BMW R 900 RR flat twin machine. In 2001, BMW Motorrad withdrew its works team from rally racing since the Boxer Cup meant a greater focus on road racing. Since 2005, BMW has once again been involved in off-road racing with the new HP2 Enduro. With this serial production off-road flat twin “boxer” model, BMW Motorrad is once again at the forefront – this time not in rallies but at off-road events such as the German, Austrian and Italian Cross Country series.