After last season, team manager Evrén Bischoff had high hopes for young rider Janusch Prokop. But so far, the 20-year-old has failed to score any championship points. Instead, after three races, he has brought the Suzuki across the finish line battered and bruised every single time.
Things were supposed to go differently. When Janusch Prokop moved from the IDM Supersport 600 class to the Superbike class with Team Suzuki Alber-Bischoff in the middle of the 2017 season—and was able to stay there—it was a stroke of luck. And team boss Evrén Bischoff finally had a young rider he could groom for the future. That’s still the plan, but right now, everything is going against them.
At the IDM season opener in Oschersleben at the end of April, Prokop posted some solid lap times, but it wasn't quite enough to earn his first points.
“In the first race, I was knocked off my bike by another rider. And in the second race, while I was in seventh place, I slipped on the front wheel and crashed again.”
Even five weeks later on the same track—this time as part of the FIM Endurance World Championship—things didn’t go any better. The Suzuki GSX-R 1000 was in mint condition, and the new electronics kit from Suzuki supplier Yoshimura was also ready to go. The result: 13th place in qualifying—achieved under a blazing sun with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees. “I can handle the heat,” Prokop assured, “but I’m not quite in sync with my bike yet.”
In the first race, however, Prokop was already running in a solid eleventh place when he pushed too hard on a fast section of the track and crashed. “We would have had spare parts, of course,” said Bischoff. “Among other things, the fork and the electronics had been damaged. But it wouldn’t have been feasible to get everything sorted out in a short warm-up.” The team decided to sit out the second race.
Prokop needs to deliver results at the next IDM round in Zolder, Belgium, from July 6 to 8. The Reichenbach native has set a personal goal for 2018 of finishing in the top ten. And that’s where it should stay.