One man’s joy is another’s sorrow. Ilya Mikhalchik (alpha Racing-Van Zon-BMW) won the first race at the Autodrom Most and reclaimed the lead in the standings. He knocked his teammate Julian Puffe off the top spot in the overall standings. The 23-year-old from the racing town of Schleiz crashed, as did pole-sitter Erwan Nigon (Kawasaki Weber-Motos Racing Team). For Mikhalchik, returning to the top was a tough feat after he had retired twice while in the lead due to technical problems with his BMW S 1000 RR. However, he is now once again the one to beat.
Starting from the fourth row, Max Moser (MGM Racing Performance) fought his way up to second place. “We had a few problems with the Yamaha at first, but they’ve been resolved now. Of course, you always need a little luck to make it onto the podium,” Moser said, looking relaxed after the race.
Alessandro Polita (Holzhauer Racing Promotion) finished third. For him, it was a cause for celebration. The Italian was beaming with joy over his podium finish on his Honda Fireblade, which, admittedly, wasn’t exactly brand-new anymore. He referred to his team boss, Jens Holzhauer, as the “Super Boss.” But it was precisely Holzhauer who was puzzled by his rider’s lap times. “They weren’t that exciting. We’ll figure out what’s causing it by the second race,” he said, looking promisingly at his USB drive containing the collected data.
Pepijn Bijsterbosch (Team Dutch Comfort Houses) finished in fourth place. The Dutch rider is a regular in the IDM Superbike 1000 series, but he still rides the 2018 BMW S 1000 RR and occasionally uses parts from 2017 as well.