With the close of the 2026 campaign, MGM Optical Express Racing have announced their withdrawal from the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship. For six seasons, the independent team battled it out in the category, first competing on Yamaha machinery in 2020, then BMW from 2021 to 2024, then Ducati through 2025 and 2026. Having celebrated podiums and a strong development trajectory in their later seasons, the German outfit disputed their final round in WorldSBK at Jerez as they transition to other projects.
EARLY YEARS WITH FOLGER AND BAZ
Riding for the team in three rounds during their debut 2020 season on a Yamaha R1, 2020 IDM Superbike Champion Jonas Folger rode as the team’s sole rider, then on BMW machinery in their first full season in 2021. For the 2022 season, the team brought in WorldSBK race-winning French rider Loris Baz and 2013 WorldSBK Riders’ Championship runner-up Eugene Laverty. Baz delivered the best results of the season, including two sixth-place finishes at the ‘Cathedral of Speed’.
THE TEXAN TAKES THE TEAM’S FIRST SILVERWARE
2023 brought fresh blood into the box in the form of American rider Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team). The Texan entered his fourth season in the paddock, and although it was his first season on the BMW M1000RR at the World Championship level, he bagged both his and the team’s maiden WorldSBK pole position at Magny-Cours. In 2024, the #31 rode alongside Scott Redding, who joined the squad from the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. The #45 was close to the podium on four occasions, with P4 doubles at Magny-Cours and Donington Park, but Gerloff brought home the team’s maiden rostrum result at Magny-Cours and later took P3 again at Aragon.
TAZ TAKES OVER IN 2025 BEFORE OUT WITH A BANG WITH BAZ
With the team now sporting Ducati machinery, Redding continued as the team’s sole rider at the start of the 2025 season, before he and the team parted ways, and opened up the seat for Tarran Mackenzie to join the team just in time for WorldSBK’s first-ever trip to Balaton Park. He was on the ball early and took his best-ever WorldSBK result in that round’s Tissot Superpole Race, a mark he would improve on in the final round of that season, finishing P7 at Jerez in Sunday morning’s short race. He picked up where he left off in the opening round of 2026, putting on a clinic in his favoured rainy conditions for P4 at Phillip Island. He went on to finish in the top ten another eight times before his season-ending injury at Donington Park. Bringing it full circle, the team enlisted Baz's help once again for their final three rounds. He performed honourably after three years without racing in the paddock, scoring in all three races at Cremona, and taking P12 in the team’s final round at Jerez.
Looking back on six competitive years in the WorldSBK paddock, Team Principal Michael Galinski said: “We saw the final race weekend with a touch of melancholy, but nonetheless, we had a great time with Loris once again. We’re happy, the season has come to an end. We started off strong with Tarran; it was a lot of fun. For the first half of the season, he was almost always in the top ten, and later on, he was even pushing toward the top five. All in all, I want to thank everyone who made this possible. We’ve spent six wonderful years here in the Superbike World Championship. We’ve shown that it’s possible to make the leap from IDM to World Championship level, anyone can do it. Of course, it requires a great deal of effort and, unfortunately, a significant amount of money, but I’m still incredibly grateful to everyone involved. We are now closing the World Superbike chapter. Thank you to everyone, and a big thank you to all the fans who cheered us on. I’m sure we’ll cross paths again somewhere, someday.”
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