Defending champion Ilya Mikhalchik has cut his points deficit to IDM Superbike 1000 leader Julian Puffe to 14 points. The Ukrainian won the first race of the weekend at the Schleizer Dreieck ahead of his teammate Puffe (both alpha Racing-Van Zon-BMW).
At first, all eyes were on local hero Julian Puffe. The 23-year-old BMW driver started from pole position. Just as the spectators in the packed grandstands had hoped, the Schleiz native shot off like an arrow right from the start. He led the race for most of the way, but with five laps to go, Mikhalchik made his move and immediately began lapping a second faster. Puffe was unable to respond. His strategy hadn’t paid off. “I was conserving my tires in the middle section. When Ilya passed me, it was all over. Lapped riders were in my way, and there was nothing I could do.” Puffe was nevertheless extremely satisfied after his rough start to the weekend—which included a crash in free practice and a swollen foot.
Mikhalchik was celebrated as the winner of the IDM’s premier class with a 1.357-second lead and was thrilled. “The fans cheered me on at the track, even though Julian is from Schleiz.”
Jan Bühn (EGS Moto Racing, BMW) crossed the finish line in third place, completely exhausted by the summer heat and the close battles. “I think that was the toughest race of my life. But there are spectators everywhere, waving to us. That’s a huge source of motivation.”
Bühn, Pepijn Bijsterbosch (Dutch Comfort Houses, BMW), Alessandro Polita (Holzhauer Racing Promotion, Honda), Toni Finsterbusch (Suzuki Mayer), and Marc Moser (MGM, Yamaha) had been battling it out for laps on end. Moser had initially dropped from third on the grid to eighth place. With four laps to go, Finsterbusch rolled into the pits with a technical problem: the hose clamp had broken. Every manufacturer had at least one rider in the top ten, with Kawasaki represented by Austrian Stefan Kerschbaumer (Weber-Motos Racing) on the sole ZX-10R.