Kelowna superbike racer Marcel Irnie had two BMW S1000 RR race bikes stolen from a trailer in Kelowna two weeks ago.
Image Credit: Contributed
September 04, 2015 - 9:00 PM
KELOWNA – A Canadian superbike champion is going to have to race with a backup bike after his two BMW race bikes were stolen out of a Kelowna parking lot in broad daylight.
Kelowna’s own Marcel Irnie, who taught himself to ride on Westside Road, was working out at Worlds Gym in Kelowna two weeks ago when some brazen thieves broke into his enclosed, decaled race trailer and stole two bikes worth roughly $60,000 in total.
“I went in for my workout and came back out after a couple hours and the trailer had been opened up,” he says.
Irnie says when police showed up they told him they don’t have enough leads to follow up and the bikes will likely be stripped and the parts sold off separately on the black market.
“I canvassed the area and nobody heard any bikes so there’s no way the rode them away. They loaded them into a trailer.”
Irnie broke onto the American road-racing scene last year with an impressive sixth-place AMA Superbike finish at New Jersey. He says the two bikes represent hundreds of hours in tuning and thousands of dollars in aftermarket parts.
They are a 2012 and 2015 BMW S1000 RR. Both are black and orange in colour with Irnie Racing decals.
He is currently trying to prove the value of the bikes to ICBC.
“My worry is that they won’t give me replacement value,” he says. “Each bike has at least ten grand of parts.”
Irnie was planning to take the bikes in to a local tuning garage later that day to prep them for an upcoming race in Portland. He says even though his first and second bikes are gone, he still has an older Kawasaki ZX6RR which was in the trailer but wasn’t taken.
“I have two weeks before I’m racing again so I’m going to have to get that Kawasaki running perfect and put my best foot down on the old 2005 bike.”
To learn more about Marcel Irnie, visit his Facebook page, website and YouTube channel.
If you know anything about this crime, or any other crime, call the Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers’ anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS or visit the Crimestoppers website. Your information will be kept confidential and could lead to a reward of up to $2,000.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infonews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015