Ricardo Brink finished on the podium in the IDM Superbike 1000 at the start of the season. He doesn't intend for this to be a one-off. The 21-year-old Dutchman from IJsselmuiden is now among the top riders in the class and has set his sights on entirely new goals.
He himself had been expecting this success: 4th place in the first Superbike race and 3rd place in the second. Brink even rode faster than he had in practice, when he set his best time on a free lap. Team manager Frank Brouwer had already touted the young rider several times as an up-and-coming secret weapon, but people only believe you when you deliver results. Ricardo Brink, who finished 11th overall in the championship last year, certainly did his job at Lausitz.
But third place still came as a surprise to the Yamaha rider from Team SWPN. “I slept very well the first night, but after two days I realized what had happened. That was the end of my sleep for the time being.”
Because a new starting procedure had been introduced for the second race in the Superbike class, Brink—who had finished fourth in the first race—was now in pole position. “I tried to stay in the lead for as long as possible,” he says, “and it actually took a while before Erwan Nigon was able to pass me.” The French rider (Kawasaki) ultimately finished second behind winner Julian Puffe (BMW).
The new starting grid worked in Brink’s favor, as he admits. “I was right at the front and didn’t have to battle it out with Pepijn Bijsterbosch or Alessandro Polita to make up positions.” Notably, Brink secured his first podium finish in Germany’s top motorcycle road racing class on a track where things hadn’t gone so well for him last year. The Dutch rider has since revised his goal for the season. “I was aiming for the top 8, but now I’m raising the bar to the top 5. I think that’s possible.”