The negotiations have dragged on for months, but now it’s official: Dominic Schmitter will continue to ride a Yamaha for Hess Racing in the IDM Superbike 1000 class in 2021. The 26-year-old Swiss rider says he is ready to take on the role of title contender. He has good reasons for this.
“I finished third overall in the championship and was the only one to snatch a pole position from Jonas Folger in 2020,” Schmitter recalls. At the Hockenheim finale, he set the fastest time in practice, leaving the second-fastest rider, Vladimir Leonov, 0.911 seconds behind him. Jonas Folger, who had already clinched the championship title by winning every race, started from the second row at Hockenheim.
The move by the dominant Bayern rider to the Superbike World Championship is set to shake things up in the IDM Superbike 1000 class. “Finishing five seconds behind in the race, I was closer to Folger than any other competitor,” notes Schmitter, who concludes: “Of course, that makes me a title contender.”
If everything had gone his way at the start of the short season, he might have been in contention for the runner-up title in 2020, believes the ambitious Yamaha YZF-R1M rider, who lives in Altstätten, a well-kept small town of 11,000 residents in the canton of St. Gallen in eastern Switzerland. “But the bike stalled a few times, which made me lose confidence. It happened in Assen too, and Florian Alt almost crashed right into me. But thanks to his incredibly quick reaction and professionalism, nothing happened.” The team led by boss Konrad Hess subsequently built a completely new motorcycle for Schmitter. Despite all the circumstances, the Swiss rider with start number “9” secured top-ten finishes in every race and earned points for podium finishes three times.
In 2021, Schmitter will be the only Superbike rider at Hess Racing. Jan Mohr is no longer with the team, but Marcel Brenner has joined the 600cc class. “Each rider has his own team,” Schmitter explains, “and we’ll also have separate pits.”
We plan to participate in the official IDM test in Spain in March. “I hope it goes ahead and doesn’t fall victim to the COVID-19 situation. Things are constantly looking up in the IDM. It’s extremely difficult to revive a series that was on the brink of collapse, so I have the utmost respect for everyone involved. The championship has become a fantastic event that’s recognized internationally.”