It’s like a curse. Four races have been run, and Julian Puffe has finished fourth in three of them. He managed a third-place finish once. But after that, it was fourth place all over again. The 22-year-old from Schleiz has had enough of it. Yet there’s no sign of despair. Instead, he’s issuing a challenge.
“My routes are still to come.”
Their names are Zolder and Schleiz. “I like the layout at Zolder, and the jump hill too. It has a real road racing feel to it.” Next week, he’ll be able to let loose there on the BMW S1000 RR. And in Schleiz, he’s right at home anyway—he’s already been training there for the past two weeks.
Julian Puffe has found his place in the IDM Superbike 1000 and on the alpha Racing-Van Zon-BMW team . “In terms of the environment, this is a clear step up from my last few years in the European Superstock Championship. There were more top riders there, but right now I prefer racing in the IDM Superbike 1000, where I’m part of a great team,” says Puffe. And he adds: “In the European Championship, I was always on foreign teams where no one spoke English well. Either you’re Spanish or Italian, or you’re at a disadvantage. That didn’t get me anywhere. 2017, in particular, was a year full of contradictions.”
At alpha Racing-Van Zon-BMW, data specialist Jens Schulze is now explaining everything to him in German, and there are no communication issues whatsoever.
And what does Julian Puffe have to say about his teammate and IDM rookie Ilya Mikhalchik, who has already won three races? He already knows the Ukrainian from the Superstock 1000 European Championship. “Ilya was already very fast in the European Championship. Back then, I was 30 seconds behind him at the finish line. Now it’s only seven, even though the IDM race distance is longer. Things are really moving forward, and everything is different.”
When Puffe isn't working, he spends every spare minute working out. He's a passionate road cyclist. Last weekend, he took part in a public race on the eight-kilometer loop around the old Schleizer Dreieck. Julian Puffe completed the 40-kilometer course, finishing 24th overall and second in his age group. Not bad.