BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE · OFFICIAL PROGRAMME
EXCITING CONTENT of SMR racing life are similar to Crescent , and indeed all other WorldSBK teams , irrespective of origin . But what about SMR , specifically , in 2022 ?
“ If I just tell you where we are with the team , because we ’ ve made some quite significant changes over the last 18 months since Brexit ,” said Shaun Muir . “ We formed a Portuguese SMR . That ’ s a live trading business now . We ’ re also in negotiation with the Portimao circuit about relocating our workshops . So , with Paolo Pinheiro and Miguel Praia we ’ re looking at building a workshop down there , which will house the entire operation , as well as some of the small business to do with off-road . Because of the structure of the team , there is quite a lot of UK mechanics and engineers in the team . We will still keep it based in Guisborough for development , but it will be much smaller . We will probably reduce the size of the Guisborough facility by quarter . But all the trucks , all hospitality , all the main building of the bikes will be carried out in Portugal .”
Pre-season work was always done in the UK , then in some ways what goes on the road stays on the road . “ I always find at the start of a season it ’ s an intense eight-week period to prepare everything ,” said Muir during the first round of the season at MotorLand Aragon . “ So , literally from the 1st of January until packing flight cases for Australia , or coming here to Aragon , if that is our critical period , after that period we don ’ t really come back to base anymore . We haven ’ t done that since we started in
WorldSBK in 2016 .” The logistics of being on an Island always played a part in SMR ’ s approach to WorldSBK racing , it seems . He continued on the topic of what ’ s changed , saying , “ It made sense . It ’ s two-pronged , really . The first one , for commercial reasons and Brexit ; it was wise for us to set up a European entity . Then for logistical reasons it was sensible to just relocate that heavy workload into an area of Europe where we test regularly , and because of Faro ( airport ) it is readily accessible . It just made sense to do that . So , that ’ s where we are today .”
When SMR came from BSB , obviously they had the money to do so . And the drive . Muir arrived in WorldSBK full of desire and ambition with his Customer Support BMWs , but the target of winning and winning early - both exceptionally admirable qualities - can now be looked at with the kind of clarity only hindsight allows . “ I was relatively naïve in ’ 16 to think that we could get on the podium or win a race “, said Shaun . “ It was never going to happen unless there were adverse conditions . I understand the level , but I also say that the level has lifted a lot in the last few years . I think you look down pit lane now and see that the additional teams that are here now and what is needed to not just maintain , but to improve your performance , like we ’ ve done over winter with a huge amount of investment and development with the engine and the electronics . Everyone else is going the same . If you ’ re improving 10 %, everyone else is improving 8 %, you ’ ve still got to challenge because you ’ re always trying
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