SBK, Razgatlioglu the gambling man – will it pay off again this time?

Toprak Razgatlioglu has always been acrobatic and full of surprises, and we don't just mean on track. We’re not talking about his stoppies with the scooter, but rather the gambles he has taken with regard to his career, daring to say the least – in certain cases – much like some of the moves he makes on track.

The decision to wear BMW colours in 2024 is only the latest in a string of surprising choices made by the Turk, a rider who is advised by none other than Kenan Sofuoglu, a mentor to all the Turkish riders who are doing so well in the SBK paddock right now, and also in MotoGP. But first things first.

2019: The split from Kawasaki and the move to Yamaha

His upcoming move to BMW represents a second big change in Toprak’s career in the top class, coming on the back of that of 2019, when the Turk decided to leave Kawasaki and the Puccetti team in favour of a factory Yamaha ride.

A decision that, if we consider the situation now, appears to have paid off, but it didn’t look to be such an obvious choice at the time. We’re talking about the last season in which Jonathan Rea won with Kawasaki, when the Akashi manufacturer was – at least on paper – looking for a worthy successor to captain Rea. This could easily have been Razgatlioglu, a rider capable of winning his very first SBK race aboard the team Puccetti ZX-6R, if it hadn’t been for that “cursed” Suzuka 8 Hours.

His decision to leave Kawasaki came soon after the 8 Hours, in which the Akashi manufacturer left the Turk on the bench for the duration of the race – largely for technical reasons – fielding only Rea and Leon Haslam, the other two team members. An 8 Hours in which Kawasaki won the race, but lost Toprak.

The story repeats itself: from the certainty of Yamaha to the unknown of BMW

And so to the present, with the recent confirmation that Razgatlioglu and Yamaha will part ways at the end of the 2023 and that Toprak will move to BMW. A less thunderous split this time perhaps, but a move that is far from predictable. If we set aside the V4R for a moment, the R1 looks to be the best bike on the grid, without forgetting the world title that Toprak achieved together with the Iwata manufacturer.

Few improvements of a technical nature, some far from positive comments from Yamaha management following the test with the M1 at Jerez and – it seems – an inadequate financial offer all convinced Razgatlioglu to make a change, which is more of a leap into the darkness. This is BMW right now, given that despite the arrival of the new M1000RR and a rider of the caliber of Scott Redding, the results are slow to come.

And so the question is, will this latest ‘made by Razgatlioglu’ gamble pay off? As of now, it’s hard to imagine that results will come at the first attempt, although we don’t doubt that BMW will be investing in its future in order to accommodate its talented new recruit.