Barry Burrell Crowned 2025 BMW F 900 R Cup Champion
Barry Burrell has clinched the 2025 BMW F 900 R Cup title after holding his nerve in a tense season finale at Brands Hatch to fend off the challenge from rivals Josh Corner and Nikki Coates.
The trio had come into the last round of the season embroiled in a tight three-way tussle for glory with ex-BSB podium winner Burrell holding an advantage of just 15 points over Coates and 16.5 points over Corner.
With a maximum of 52 points on the table for any rider that could win both their heat and then triumph in the main race, Corner and Coates did their bit early on in the weekend by scoring a full 17 points for winning their respective heats.
Nevertheless, Burrell’s second place finish in the heat ensured he still held all the cards heading into the all-important main race, with a third place being sufficient to win the title.
And so it proved, Burrell surviving a late safety car period that had bunched the field up behind him with two to go, to hold onto his third place at the finish line.
“After the Safety Car, in the last two laps I thought ‘let’s try and win it’ and I made a couple of moves,” the Halliwell Jones Motorrad rider said.
“If the championship wasn’t at stake, I’d have been up for the win... but at the end of the day we did what we came to do.
“A massive shout out to everyone who have supported me, thank you so much, what a year, what more could I ask for?”
The race itself was won by Corner, who’d fall just short of the title win by just 6.5 points but would leapfrog Coates to end the year as runner-up.
The BMW F 900 R Cup breaks the mould of most motorcycle racing series’ by utilising a naked roadster platform as the base for it machinery. Indeed, while fully faired sportbikes are commonplace on the racetrack, sport-inspired roadsters are arguably more relevant among the motorcycle-buying public.
As such, the BMW F 900 R Cup – with boasts vast grids and thrills with its elbow-to-elbow action – is a veritable showcase for how capable roadsters can also be in a racing environment.
Previous title winners of the BMW F 900 R Cup include Richard Cooper and Thomas Strudwick.