WorldSBK’s Remy Gardner completes one of world’s toughest motorcycle races

WorldSBK’s two-month summer break left Remy Gardner with some time on his hands, so he filled it by taking on one of the world’s toughest motorcycle races.

GRT Yamaha’s Gardner headed to Romania last week for the Red Bull Romaniacs hard enduro rally, billed as the toughest in the world.

For Gardner, it meant 27 hours of competitive riding over four days riding on some of the hardest terrain in Europe.

The Australian finished – which is a feat in itself – 34th in the Silver category, seven hours down on compatriot and class leader Sandon Kerswell.

The race overall was won by KTM’s leading hard enduro star, Mani Lettenbichler, the current leader of the Hard Enduro World Championship (HEWC) – a championship he has won five times already in his career – after three rounds. 

A win last weekend was a record-equalling seventh at Romaniacs for Lettenbichler, who finished over an hour clear of second-placed Teodor Kabakchiev of the factory Sherco team.

Lettenbichler will continue his HEWC title defence later this month on 20–22 August at the Forza Orza race in Sweden, while Gardner and the rest of the WorldSBK field will be waiting a little while longer to get back on track.

WorldSBK is due to return from its summer break on 4–6 September with the French Round at Magny-Cours. 

Gardner will head there lying 17th in the standings, while Nicolo Bulega will lead the field into France, 133 points ahead of Iker Lecuona.

Gardner is also one of few WorldSBK riders to have a contract secured for next season, as well as his GRT Yamaha team-mate Stefano Manzi and factory Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli.

Yari Montella and the aforementioned Lecuona are also secured for next season at Barni and Aruba.it Racing Ducati, respectively, as well as Sam Lowes at Marc VDS, both Bimota riders, and Garrett Gerloff at Kawasaki, but the rest of the 2027 grid remains to be decided in the second half of 2026.