Jubilation for Angelo Licciardi (BEL, Kawasaki, Benjan Racing – Weber Motos): The 21-year-old Belgian clinched the IDM Supersport 300 (IDM-SSP300) championship with one race remaining. It is the junior class of Germany’s top road racing series. To secure the title, the Ninja 400 rider needed only to finish third behind race winner Walid Khan (NDL, Kawasaki, NUTEC-RT by SKM-Kawasaki) and Rick Dunnik (NDL, Yamaha, ZUWI-HDRacing). At the podium ceremony, Licciardi wore his championship T-shirt and his gold championship helmet, which he designed himself for the occasion.
After the start, pole-sitter Licciardi engaged in a fierce battle for the lead with race winner Khan—until the start of the seventh lap. That’s when Khan fell back after making a mistake: “That was pretty dicey; I almost crashed,” reported the 19-year-old Dutchman. “I braked very late and went into the corner too fast.” Khan manages to stay on his bike and rejoins the six-rider leading group at the back. In the following laps, Khan fights his way back to the front.
It wasn’t until two laps before the finish that the outcome of the duel between Walid Khan and Angelo Licciardi was decided. The two Kawasaki riders raced side by side through the cross-section of the 3.692-kilometer track in Hockenheim. Khan managed to pull ahead on the inside line, while Licciardi was pushed wide and initially lost contact. But the Belgian title favorite still managed to finish on the podium: “I fought for the win. But when I realized it was getting too risky, I just tried to score as many points as possible.”
Rick Dunnik crosses the finish line sandwiched between the two fastest Kawasaki riders. The 17-year-old Yamaha rider, who is Angelo Licciardi’s closest rival in the points standings, even manages to briefly take the lead. But even at the Motodrom in Baden, there is no stopping serial winner Walid Khan, who has won the last five races in the IDM junior class.
Marvin Siebdrath (Wildenfels near Zwickau, Kawasaki, NUTEC-RT Motorsports by SKM-Kawasaki) finished fifth, making him the top German rider in a field of 42 international competitors. Thirteen-year-old Lennox Lehmann (Dresden, KTM, Freudenberg World SSP Academy) had a perfect debut in the IDM. The 2019 ADAC Junior Cup overall champion finished eighth. Amid the dramatic battle at the front, Lehmann’s photo finish against the 2017 ADAC Junior Cup winner, Max Schmidt (Wuppertal, KTM, Hertrampf Racing), almost went unnoticed: With a lead of 0.0026 seconds, Lehmann pushed the front wheel of his KTM across the finish line ahead of Schmidt.