With his ninth win of the season, Ilya Mikhalchik (alpha Racing Van Zon-BMW) has further extended his lead in the IDM Superbike 1000 overall standings.
If the 23-year-old Ukrainian wins the second race today at the “Cathedral of Speed” in Assen, he will have defended his championship title in the premier class of Germany’s top motorcycle road racing series even before the IDM finale in Hockenheim.
Ricardo Brink (Team SWPN, Yamaha), who had started from second position, led the field for several laps. A group of three quickly formed at the front. Brink engaged in fierce battles with Bastien Mackels (Wilbers-BMW Team) and Mikhalchik. Shortly past the halfway point, Mikhalchik took the lead and held it until the finish. Mackels was able to keep up with the pace for the most part. Brink, now in third place, had to fend off attacks from Pepijn Bijsterbosch (Team Dutch Comfort Houses, BMW), who was closing in—and ultimately succeeded.
Dominic Schmitter (Hess Racing, Yamaha), who leads the Swiss Championship, finished fifth in his second IDM race of the year. The competition was fierce all around him. Alessandro Polita (Holzhauer Racing Promotion, Honda) was on the attack. Behind the Italian, Marc Moser (MGM Racing Performance, Yamaha) was hot on the heels of the new Endurance World Champion Erwan Nigon (Kawasaki Weber-Motos Racing). In the final sprint, Moser overtook both Nigon and Polita. The German finished sixth, just behind Schmitter.
Nigon dropped back to ninth place as Julian Puffe worked his way up the field. Mikhalchik’s 23-year-old teammate had been battered all weekend. After his crash in Friday’s free practice, not only was the bike badly damaged, but Puffe had also suffered bruises all over his body, which were now taking their toll. Puffe’s back, in particular, hurt with every movement. Nevertheless, he had tried everything to make it into the top 9 from his 16th starting position. That’s because the reverse grid applies for the second race starting from there. This means that, having finished eighth in the first race, Puffe will start the second race from fifth position.
Winner Ilya Mikhalchik will start from ninth position, which shouldn’t bother him much. “I didn’t push to the limit in the first race and had everything under control. I was thinking about the championship and didn’t want to overdo it.” He has already shown in Most and Schleiz that a victory is possible even when starting from ninth position.
For Bastien Mackels, who is making his IDM racing debut this year and will start the second race from eighth position, this is all new territory. “I’ll just have to take it as it comes.”