Now it’s official: Josef Sattler and his passenger, Uwe Neubert, will definitely not be awarded Sunday’s victory at Zolder. It had already been struck from the record at the event in Belgium because the camshafts on the Adolf RS1 F1 BMW sidecar were found to be non-compliant during technical inspection. Sattler appealed the decision to the DMSB Sports Court in Frankfurt am Main. The final ruling has now been issued.
Sattler comments: “The 25 points in the IDM Sidecar are gone. But I would have had to invest more money in an expert opinion. Without an expert opinion, we wouldn’t have been able to prove that everything was in order. The burden of proof is on us. And if something isn’t explicitly described, it’s not allowed. It would have turned into a never-ending back-and-forth. The whole thing has already cost me a lot of money. I could have competed in a whole race weekend with that money.”
Many teams felt that Sattler had been rightly disqualified. They hadn't expected any other outcome. Victory and defeat will now be decided on the racetrack. The defending champions Bennie Streuer/Gerard Daalhuizen lead the IDM Sidecar standings by 30 points ahead of Sattler/Neubert, followed by André Kretzer and Björn Bosch, who have accumulated 120 points. In fourth place is the German-Swiss team with Mike Roscher/Anna Burkard with 98 points.
The tricky part of the situation is that Streuer won’t be on the starting grid for the IDM race in Assen. His sponsors have committed him to the World Championship round in Rijeka at the same time. So the Dutchman will lose his lead. When asked about it, Streuer replied, “If Kretzer were to win both races this time, that wouldn’t be so bad for us, would it?” In any case, the title will not be decided until the finale at Hockenheim.