BMW Motorrad has made motorcycle racing history by becoming the first European manufacturer to win the FIM Endurance World Championship.

But behind the German badge is a remarkably Belgian operation: the factory team is run by former Belgian racer Werner Daemen, whose MRP Racing organization is based in Genk.

The BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team secured the 2026 world title at the season-ending Bol d’Or at Le Castellet, where Michael van der Mark, Markus Reiterberger and Steven Odendaal took pole position and then dominated the 24-hour race with their #37 BMW M 1000 RR.

They entered the finale 19 points behind YART Yamaha but collected the maximum haul available: five points for pole, intermediate points for leading after eight and 16 hours, and 40 points for victory. BMW finished the championship with 158 points, just four ahead of Yamaha on 154.

A world title made in Belgium

For BMW Motorrad, it is a milestone. For Belgium, however, the story is arguably even more remarkable.

Daemen’s MRP Racing does not merely supply some personnel to a German works team. The Belgian company effectively operates BMW’s official FIM EWC factory squad.

MRP has recently moved into a larger workshop in Genk, Limburg, where it builds and prepares racing motorcycles and runs both the factory #37 BMW and its Superstock activities.

The partnership with BMW goes back much further. In 2022, BMW Belux already described Daemen’s then Zonhoven-based squad as its Belgian factory team and renewed the cooperation after it had finished runner-up in the 2021 Endurance World Championship.

At the time, Daemen was clear about his ultimate ambition: becoming world champion. Four years later, that goal has been achieved.

The Belgian, born in Limburg in 1971, knows the other side of the pit wall as well. Before becoming a team manager, he competed internationally himself, including in World Supersport and endurance racing.

He also has a special place in BMW Motorrad’s racing history: in 2009, Daemen scored the first international race victory for the then-new BMW S 1000 RR, at the Salzburgring.

After retiring, he turned MRP Racing into a highly successful BMW racing organization. Daemen and his teams have collected nine titles for BMW in IDM and European Superstock racing before adding the biggest trophy yet.

Taking on the Japanese

The achievement also matters because endurance racing has traditionally been Japanese territory. Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki have decades of experience in the discipline, while BMW only entered the championship with its current factory program in 2019.

The 2026 season demonstrated how far the program has come. After problems cost BMW a possible victory at Le Mans, the team won its home race at Spa-Francorchamps.

At the Suzuka 8 Hours, it then finished third, becoming the first European manufacturer ever to reach the podium in the Japanese endurance classic. That made the Bol d’Or a winner-takes-all finale.

There was an additional technical message for BMW. The M 1000 RR completed the 24 hours without major problems, while BMW says its fuel efficiency allowed the team to make fewer pit stops than some rivals.

In endurance racing, where seconds saved at every stop accumulate over an entire day, efficiency can be as valuable as outright engine performance.

The title is also the third motorcycle world championship for the M 1000 RR in three years, after two successive WorldSBK crowns. That gives BMW an unusual combination: its flagship superbike architecture has now proved capable of winning both sprint-based Superbike racing and 24-hour endurance competition.

More than a niche racing trophy

FIM EWC does not enjoy the global visibility of MotoGP, but for motorcycle manufacturers it provides a different kind of proving ground. Eight- and 24-hour races push engines, transmissions, electronics, brakes and riders far beyond the demands of conventional sprint racing.

For BMW Motorrad, the title therefore adds another layer of credibility to its M performance strategy.

And for BMW Belux, there is an unusually strong local story behind it. A Belgian team manager, a Belgian racing organization based in Genk, Spa-Francorchamps as the team’s home round – and now BMW’s first endurance world championship.

Seven years after BMW and Daemen started building the program, the relatively small Belgian operation has beaten manufacturers that have been racing endurance motorcycles since the 1970s.

Or, as Daemen put it after finally securing the title: they did not only build the motorcycle. They built the team that could win with it.