The IDM Supersport 300 is where the young guns compete . At the Lausitzring, they all share the same goal: to beat Jan-Ole Jähnig , the 17-year-old from Thuringia who also races in the Supersport 300 World Championship. Victor Steeman from the Netherlands and Toni Erhard lead the standings. The two KTM riders are followed by Dion Otten, the first and only Honda rider in the field. Jähnig is in fourth place and does not compete in every race. The 2017 champion only takes his KTM to the starting grid when there are no conflicts with World Championship dates.
It actually makes sense that Jähnig is now the one to beat in the IDM Supersport 300 class. Instead of being the hunter, the 11th-place finisher in the World Championship is now the hunted. But this time, the rider from the Freudenberg WorldSSP Team is competing under challenging conditions. He knows what the competition is capable of and wants to win, “but my World Championship bike is already in Portimão for the next event. I’m riding a stock bike at the Lausitzring. It’s on loan from KTM.” Jähnig adds: “I can tune my World Championship bike more precisely to my needs.” Team boss Carsten Freudenberg does have different fork springs in his luggage, but there’s very little time for a setup change. In free practice today, Friday, Jähnig was the second-fastest rider, 0.143 seconds behind Victor Steeman.
Jähnig will fly to Portimão, Portugal, early next week, where World Championship testing will continue. He and his teammate Maximilian Kappler—who is not at the Lausitzring—are already under contract with the Freudenberg WorldSSP Team for the 2019 World Championship season.