When Bastien Mackels crashed at the Lausitzring and suffered a wrist injury, his technical director, Sepp Buchner, was deeply devastated and spoke of retiring. In 2016, Buchner had helped Marvin Fritz win the Superbike 1000 championship with a small crew. Mackels, too, was slowly starting to see success until the bitter setback that hit everyone hard.
Andreas Steidele has now taken the reins as manager of the Bayer-Bikerbox team powered by Yamaichi Electronics and has begun planning the next steps at the team’s base in Feichten, Upper Bavaria. Mackels’ seat at Hockenheim will not remain empty. Bálint Kovács has been signed as a substitute rider for September 25–27, 2020. The 19-year-old Hungarian is no stranger to the scene: he won the 2019 Suzuki GSX-R Cup, which was held as part of the IDM. Since then, he has primarily been racing a Yamaha YZF R1 in the Alpe-Adria Cup, where he currently leads the standings.
“My goal was to use our Yamaha Superbike one more time,” Steidele explains regarding the decision. “That’s why we want to give a young rider this opportunity at Hockenheim. My friend, former World Superbike rider Gabor Rizmayer, recommended Bálint Kovács to us. We’re hoping for a great end to the season, even though Bálint still has to get used to the bike. We hope our technical director, Sepp Buchner, is only taking a temporary break from racing. He has not only handled the technical side but also managed the day-to-day operations at the racetrack.”