Third place in BMW Motorrad Race Trophy for Jordan Szoke

Jordan Szoke might have taken the Canadian Superbike premier class championship again, but he’s had to settle for third in the BMW Motorrad Race Trophy.

For the past few years, BMW’s motorcycle division has run an international competition to reward privateer racers using their bikes. The Motorrad series ranges from international events – like the road circuits of the U.K., Ireland, and Macau and pan-European series – to the national and local races, like the Canadian Superbike championship. BMW pro-rates the points from these series (a win in the German superbike league might be worth more, or less, than a similar series in Brazil). Then, the racers with the most points earned in a single series wins (you can’t combine World Superbike and British Superbike totals, for instance).

Even though it’s only open to BMW-mounted racers, some of the best riders in the world participate, and winning the Race Trophy is an honour—an honour that comes with a serious paycheck. Last year, Szoke went undefeated in CSBK and won first place in the Race Trophy, taking home a cheque for 20,000 Euros for being top racer, plus another 10,000 Euros for running the team that scored the most points.

Szoke wasn’t that fortunate this year; he won all the CSBK races except Grand Bend, where the race was red-flagged. That meant that, in the short seven-race CSBK season, he wasn’t able to accumulate as many points as BMW riders in other countries with longer race seasons. Szoke finished with 440.00 points in the BMW competition, good for third behind Sebastien Le Grelle, who put up 460.09 points in the International Road Racing Championship, and Markus Reiterberger, who earned 500 points in the International German Championship.

Reiterberger, who won this competition before in 2014, takes home 15,000 Euros for his victory, plus other bonuses. Szoke still does OK, getting a 7,500 Euro payday for his third-place finish, along with bonuses for finishing first in the CSBK series.