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. They celebrated podiums with Garrett Gerloff back in 2024 and enjoyed seasons with regular results landing around the top ten or higher. Most recently, Tarran Mackenzie rode their bike to a personal best of P4 at Phillip Island in the wet, as well as at Misano with a dry weather fifth place before his season-ending injury. Loris Baz closed the circle riding as a replacement in the team’s final WorldSBK races after competing with the team as a full-time rider in the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
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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