The major motorcycle road racing championships are dominated by a few manufacturers, who seem to take just about all of them. The Japanese brands Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, along with Ducati, dominated the past few decades with racing.

Aprilia joined the party in the '90s by winning 250 Grand Prix championships then finally took World Superbike with Max Biaggi in 2010. Life is hard at the front. You can’t just knock on the door. Sometimes you have to kick it down.

BMW’s World Superbike program has been knocking on the door for a while. There’s a party going on inside, but no one will answer.

The German firm joined World Superbike in 2009 with a major factory effort to promote a full-on Superbike they had designed and manufactured.

Their S1000RR was an immediate success with consumers and won MCN’s “Machine of the Year” in 2010. It’s probably the leader of the class on the street. At the very minimum, it’s one of the best.

On the racetrack, it’s been more of a mixed bag. BMW has performed quite well, but they haven’t been able to achieve the ultimate successes they have wanted. They are still looking for their first win.

Initially, Ruben Xaus and Troy Corser -- two experienced WSBK veterans with disparate styles -- were drafted to compete. Corser earned a top-five that first year in England and got on the box twice in 2010.

However, those who expected BMW to produce a win in short order given the spec sheet of the bike found a little disappointment. After all, the German factory team did have a big budget (rumored to be the biggest in WSBK) and riders who had won before.

The criticism was BMW relied too heavily on their in-house team (i.e., “car guys”) for engineering solutions. Whether this was true, or even a valid concern, is up for debate. One area in which this emerged was the black box. BMW developed their own electronics package rather than going for an aftermarket system the way everyone else had.

It didn’t help that BMW split with former Ducati team manager (and a passionate and driven Italian), Davide Tardozzi, hiring him to run the team in 2010 only to fire him before the season ended -- far earlier than his three-year contract was scheduled to run. It was an ugly divorce, and Tardozzi’s previous record of success held a lot of water in the paddock.

No matter who was right or wrong (or if it was just a bad fit) the 2011 season presented an opportunity for BMW to make a leap in competitiveness. Leon Haslam, fresh off a WSBK number two championship performance, replaced Xaus alongside Corser. Haslam proved solid but couldn’t match the front-running pace he’d managed the previous season on a Suzuki. The season was more of the same for BMW.

Corser retired after three years on the S1000RR and was replaced by former 250GP World Champion and MotoGP race winner Marco Melandri, who became available when Yamaha quit the series. Melandri, like Haslam, can win races. He showed that this past year in his first World Superbike campaign.

The team also saw an influx of ex-Yamaha personnel. Andrea Dosoli, the former Yamaha team manager, is now running the team.

The question will be whether the bike in race trim is up to the task.

Haslam was quickest at the Portimao test in November. The team tested at Valencia last week and declared all was good. They don’t give any trophies for preseason testing but it looks promising.

An interesting note in the press release from Valencia… the phrase “updated software for the BMW electronics,” was included. It has been rumored that the team would switch to an aftermarket brand like Magneti Marelli or Cosworth for this year. This statement seems to indicate they are sticking with their own stuff, but is that really the case?

In the end, it doesn’t matter. What’s important: BMW has been stuck in a rut, competitive but not quite competitive enough for a win for the last few seasons and well off a championship pace. Everyone is expecting at least a victory out of BMW in 2012. It doesn’t matter how you do it. They just need to get it done.

Yamaha pulling out pulling out might have thinned the field at the front some but it isn’t going to slow Checa, Biaggi, and the other frontrunners down.

BMW is a proud company with a rich history in motorsports and a high level of engineering expertise. But motorcycle racing is a highly specialized beast and requires a unique set of knowledge and personnel. Getting beat is a challenge that makes you better in the end.

Will they kick down the door?

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