Markus Reiterberger is a four-time IDM Superbike champion. He moved up to the World Championship, dominated the competition in Asia, and is now returning to his roots. The 31-year-old Bavarian from Obing, whom everyone calls “Reiti,” will race for Werner Daemen’s BMW team in the EURO MOTO Superbike class, the upgraded European successor to the IDM. In this interview, he explains his motivation and what drives him off the track as well.
You’ve won four Superbike titles in the International German Motorcycle Championship. What still drives you? Do you have something to prove?
In addition to my endurance racing stints in the EWC, I also served as a Superbike World Championship test rider for BMW last year, working with Toprak Razgatlioglu and Michael van der Mark. That was a very exciting and challenging job. But I have to be honest and say that I, too, can and want to race. Regarding the EURO MOTO, team boss Werner Daemen approached me. I had been following the series and saw how dominant Lukas Tulovic was on the Ducati and how the BMWs had fallen a bit behind. So I thought to myself, it’s my job to get things back on track.
Reiti and BMW are like a perfect match. Why have you never considered switching brands to prove yourself anew?
I get asked that question quite often. The answer is relatively simple. I’ve had several opportunities to switch and have even come close to doing so on multiple occasions. But what has always kept me at BMW is the factory itself, as well as everything that goes along with it. My entire environment, my entire racing career has always revolved around BMW, Alpha Racing, and my collaboration with Werner Daemen. I would have lost all of that if I had switched brands. I realize that I’m only as strong as I am because I have these people around me. I’ve always enjoyed working with them, and in my opinion, racing is a team sport. I’ve switched teams twice. That was in the Superbike World Championship, and I had some really bad experiences. So I swore to myself that I wouldn’t leave Werner’s team for anywhere else unless I really felt like I had to. I was recently faced with that decision again, because I had a pretty good offer to be a Superbike test rider for another manufacturer. But then BMW, Werner Daemen, and I put together a package for the Endurance World Championship as well as for the EURO MOTO.
Lukas Tulovic will be looking to defend his Superbike title in the EURO MOTO on a Ducati. Have you been watching to see where you can beat him?
Wow, that’s hard to say. I was never there in person; I just followed it online. I noticed that he was incredibly strong, and I’ve also heard what his competitors have said. The package was very good, and the rules favored Ducati a bit more than they did the other manufacturers.
What do you think of how the series has developed in recent years?
The IDM and what is now EURO MOTO are really on the rise. If we look at who’s competing, there are some absolute top-tier riders on the list. It’s not like 2017 or 2022, when I had just one or two rivals. Now it’s comparable again to 2014 and 2015, when we were racing at World Championship level against the 3C-Carbon team with Xavier Forés, Lorenzo Lanzi, and Max Neukirchner. It’s a really exciting championship again now, where you can really battle it out. A lot of people think I’m taking a step backward by competing in EURO MOTO, but I don’t see it that way. It’s a European Championship in extremely good shape.
“I was recently considering switching brands, but then BMW and Werner Daemen put together a great deal for me.”
You had mixed success in the Superbike World Championship. Have you put those results behind you?
It comes up every now and then. 2016 was the peak of my career, after I was stronger, faster, and fitter than ever in 2015. But I didn’t stand a chance in the World Championship. In 2017, I tried again with a larger team and hit a mental wall. Riding wasn’t fun anymore. After three races, I quit and went back to the IDM. Honestly: You spend your whole life trying to make it to the World Championship, and then it’s not at all what you thought it would be. You’re just a number and have to make do with what you’re given. It wasn’t like in the IDM or in my previous teams, where every detail was worked on or the bike was tailored exactly to you. It was just: take it or leave it. Those were the circumstances back then. It was also just a small team with little factory support. That just wasn’t enough.
In the Asia Road Racing Championship, you completely outclassed your opponents and were paid based on your performance. How did you invest that money?
I haven’t received any money to this day. What I haven’t told anyone until now: The whole thing escalated into a legal dispute, which we won. I raced there back then because Alpha Racing was involved with the Asian team. They were looking for a strong driver who spoke German best. I got a good contract. It was prize money-based, so heavily performance-dependent, and with a small base salary. With the support of BMW and Alpha Racing, things always worked out, but the team boss shortchanged me on the prize money. At times he went missing, but he was found and is now supposed to pay up. Still, I’m not yet confident that this will actually happen.
When did you race your last Superbike race?
In September 2024 with the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team as a replacement for the injured Toprak Razgatlioglu. I finished 14th and 15th in Cremona.
Is it true that you took over Ralf Waldmann’s tuning business?
As neighbors, we used to work on Kreidler motorcycles together at his place and at ours. When he passed away, I added his inventory to mine and used it to build a second line of business alongside racing. For me, it was clear that the whole thing had to live on. Since then, I’ve been doing moped tuning, restorations, and tuning—mainly for two-stroke engines, Kreidlers, and everything else out there. Or racing exhausts that are tested on the dyno and are officially approved by the TÜV for street use. Together with my father, I renovated our old farm and built a workshop. My third source of income is CNC milling. I bought the machine for that a few years ago. That’s what my work looks like outside of racing.
Could you make a living doing that?
That keeps me so busy that I can barely manage it on my own. Yeah, I could make a living off of it. That security for the future was important to me, too. I’m not dependent on racing. Because my parents always said, “You’re going to finish school. You’re going to do an apprenticeship.” I did all that and became a motorcycle mechanic. I didn’t want to be the kind of racer who ends up screwed over someday and is left with nothing.
You started a little family two years ago. How has your life changed since Valentina was born?
I had to reorganize my schedule. Because I was already pretty busy with two—or rather, three—jobs. Then the farm renovation and the house construction came on top of that. I try to structure my day so that I work either the early or late shift—or both. Since I’m self-employed, it’s pretty easy to manage. But I find it hard to be away from my two girls at home, so I do everything I can to spend a few hours with them every day. I want to be home for dinner, and Sunday has become a day just for the family.
Does Valentina have a rocking horse or a rocking motorcycle?
Both. I also have a little paddock moped. I built a tank pad on the tank and a footrest system underneath it. So we ride the 50cc bike out to the donkeys and sheep by our lake—which she loves so much—buy ourselves a chocolate ice cream, and ride back home.
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