Florian Alt (Wilbers-BMW-Racing) will start from pole position in the IDM Superbike 1000 at the Red Bull Ring. He was half a second faster than Markus Reiterberger (BCC Racing) in qualifying. Valentin Debise (Kawasaki Weber-Motos Racing) ensured with his ZX-10RR that BMW wouldn’t occupy the entire front row of the grid. Championship leader Ilya Mikhalchik posted the fourth-fastest time and worked with his girlfriend on large name signs for his display board in the pit lane. The team plans to use this to keep him updated on the positions of potential rivals during the race. Bastien Mackels wrecked the SWPN Yamaha in the first qualifying session. The handlebars would only turn left and go straight. Nothing else worked. The team had to dig out half the grass from the Red Bull Ring from the fairing. Thanks to the manpower around him, he was still able to ride again in the second qualifying session.
Alessandro Polita will no longer be competing. The Italian rider from the HRP team crashed during free practice yesterday and broke his collarbone.
Florian Alt didn’t have to worry about securing pole position for even a minute. There was just one fly in the ointment. He isn’t home today to serve as best man in person. Alt’s sister, Sina, had a church wedding at 2:00 p.m. in Hülsenbusch. That’s a district of Gummersbach in the Oberbergischer Kreis in southern North Rhine-Westphalia. Florian Alt had already served as best man (see cover photo) at the civil ceremony in May. At that time, the family had postponed the date by a week because “Flo” would otherwise have been at the Endurance World Championship during German Speedweek, which, as is well known, was subsequently canceled due to COVID-19. In hindsight, the rescheduling even paid off for the bride and groom, as the weather was much better a week later.
Although he isn’t attending today’s celebration, Alt went all out to help organize it. He picked out the wedding dress with his sister, “because she knew she’d get my honest opinion. When it comes to wedding dresses, I’m the expert now,” he says with complete conviction after the mammoth task. He also took care of everything needed for the wedding, including the white BMW M4 Convertible that picked up Sina and her husband Pascal at home. And the superbiker wasn’t entirely absent, either. He joined the ceremony via video conference at the church. Admittedly a little later, because the second qualifying session in the IDM Superbike 1000 was taking place at exactly 2:00 p.m., but Alt did hurry.
IDM Superbike 1000, Q1 + Q2 Results:
1. Florian ALT (GER/BMW)
2. Markus REITERBERGER (GER/BMW)
3. Valentin DEBISE (FRA/Kawasaki)
4. Ilya MIKHALCHIK (UKR/BMW)
5. Vladimir LEONOV (RUS/Yamaha)
6. Luca GRÜNWALD (GER/BMW)
7. Julian PUFFE (GER/BMW)
8. Bastien MACKELS (BEL/Yamaha)
9. Pepijn BIJSTERBOSCH (NED/BMW)
10. Philipp STEINMAYR (AUT/Yamaha)