The deal, which has been in the works behind the scenes for days, has just been made official: IDM champion Patrick “Pax” Hobelsberger has signed with Kallio Racing Team for the 2022 FIM World Supersport Championship season. The Finnish team has a track record of major successes. In 2018, it won the Supersport World Championship with Sandro Cortese, who subsequently moved up to the Superbike World Championship.
Hobelsberger is likely to be the only German rider competing on a full-time basis in the Supersport World Championship in 2022. His good friend and training partner Philipp Öttl, who finished fifth in the World Championship last season, is now also moving up to the Superbike class.
The 25-year-old from Landau an der Isar, who hails from Hobelsberg, secured seven victories in the IDM Supersport 600 class with Team Bonovo Action Racing by MGM. At the same time, he was given the opportunity to compete in select World Supersport Championship races on a Yamaha YZF-R6. His best result was a 10th-place finish in September in Barcelona, Spain. For the extremely ambitious racer, the sole goal was to fight his way back into the World Championship via the IDM title, where he earned six points in 2020 but then found himself without a team.
So now it’s Kallio Racing. “Pax” returns to the World Championship stage in strong form from the IDM, and his new team manager, Vesa Kallio, says: “We’ve spoken with Pax before. Now a great opportunity has opened up for us to work with him next season.”
This is obviously a big deal for Hobelsberger, as he says: “I’m joining the Kallio Racing Team with a lot of excitement. It feels really great to be joining the same team that Sandro Cortese was on. I have some pretty big goals for the upcoming season and am working very hard to achieve them. I train almost every day on my bike or on a motorcycle. I want to start the season as strong as possible. It would be great to finish in the top ten. I think I have a chance at a podium finish in Most and Barcelona.”