The penultimate chapter of this year’s International German Motorcycle Championship has been written. A new champion was crowned early at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. Max Enderlein (M32 Racing) won the IDM Supersport title for the third time in his career. In the premier IDM Superbike class, Markus Reiterberger (BCC-alpha-Van Zon-BMW), who had already secured the championship, dominated once again.
A one-two finish by Markus Reiterberger in the IDM Superbike sparked yet another celebration within his team. Once again, Florian Alt (Wilbers-BMW-Racing) was unable to defeat the four-time champion for a second time this season, even though the races were extremely close. One more lap in the second race, and Alt would likely have achieved his goal of defeating the four-time champion once again this year. As it was, he finished 0.699 seconds behind the 28-year-old Bavarian. Alt isn’t giving up. He’ll make his next attempt at the grand finale in Hockenheim in three weeks. And he says: “It was clear once again that we are the only team truly capable of beating the official BMW team.” In qualifying, Alt’s best time was just under four seconds slower than the MotoGP World Championship leader.
Argentine rider Leandro Mercado (Holzhauer Racing Promotion) really hit his stride in Styria. The World Superbike rider had joined the HRP team as a replacement for the long-injured Luca Grünwald, had further developed the Honda CBR 1000 RR-R, and was now reaping the rewards.
Two podium finishes in a single weekend had team boss Jens Holzhauer on cloud nine. It’s been a long time since Honda has performed this well. However, Mercado won’t be there when the big Hockenheim finale takes place. He’ll be competing in the Superbike World Championship in Barcelona on that date. In the IDM, the recovered Luca Grünwald is now the star of the show. The Waldkraiburg native made a comeback after his injury layoff with two brilliant top-ten finishes in his first races of the year. The sun is shining again at Kawasaki as well, and the weekend ended just as promisingly as the season had begun at the Lausitzring: fourth place for the resurgent Bastien Mackels (Kawasaki Weber-Motos Racing), without whose injury-related break a higher position than his current ninth in the overall standings would have been possible. Rob Hartog (Team SWPN) brought the fastest Yamaha across the finish line. A sixth and a fifth-place finish was the Dutchman’s haul, and he currently sits in third place in the overall standings. With the exception of the two outliers, Reiterberger and Alt, a tight battle is unfolding in the field, with BMW, Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha placing at least one rider in the top ten in every race.
In the IDM Supersport class, Max Enderlein took no risks in the final sprint for the title. Luca de Vleeschauwer (Kawasaki Weber-Motos Racing) could have prevented him from clinching the title early, but the Belgian didn’t storm onto the podium in Styria as he usually does; instead, he finished behind Enderlein in the first race, and Enderlein didn’t let anything slip in the second race. His sixth-place finish was more than enough to be crowned the new champion. Victory in both races went to Patrick Hobelsberger, last year’s champion. However, he had entered as a guest rider to prepare for the Supersport World Championship following the summer break, a series he has moved up to after last year’s success. The remaining podium spots were shared by the Dutch riders Melvin van der Voort (Team SWPN) and Twan Smits (Team Apreco), in reverse order.
KTM celebrated a resounding success this weekend in the IDM Supersport 300 junior class. Although Kawasaki signed Dirk Geiger (Füsport – RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki) as an additional regular rider for Spielberg to score points for the team and support his teammate Marvin Siebdrath in the fight for the championship, KTM celebrated a triple podium on Saturday and a double podium on Sunday. Title contender Leo Rammerstorfer (Freudenberg KTM – Paligo Racing) extended his lead in the standings with a win and an eighth-place finish and heads to the season finale at Hockenheim with a seven-point lead over Marvin Siebdrath.
Ahead of the second half of the season in the Sidecar class, which will conclude in October at Oschersleben, four-time world champions Ben and Tom Birchall (Birchall Racing) competed as guest starters in the IDM this weekend. However, overheated tires brought their thrilling duel against Tim Reeves and Kevin Rousseau (Bonovo Action Team/Adolf RS F1) in the sprint race to a premature end. Reeves emerged as the winner. In the second race, the eight-time world champion himself suffered a technical failure, allowing the Birchall brothers to triumph. Josef Sattler and Luca Schmidt (Bonovo Action Team/Adolf RS F1) secured a total of 28 points across both races and were able to reduce their deficit to Reeves/Rousseau in the overall standings to nine points.
In Germany's top motorcycle racing class, young talent also has a firm place. The Northern Talent Cup, the Austrian Junior Cup, and the Yamaha R3 bLU cRU Cup were each given an international stage with two rounds.
The season finale will take place in three weeks, from September 23 to 25, 2022, at the Hockenheimring in Baden-Württemberg.
