Despite the injuries to both riders, Julian Puffe and Toni Finsterbusch, Team GERT56 will not miss the IDM Superbike finale at Hockenheim from September 23 to 25, 2022. Austrian rider Stefan Kerschbaumer will take the starting grid on the BMW M 1000 RR as a replacement. He is well known within the team. As part of the FIM Endurance World Championship, he was part of the GERT56 team that secured both FIM Endurance World Superstock victories at the 24 Hours of Le Castellet (Bol d’Or) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The script couldn’t be better written: he claimed one victory alongside Puffe and another with Finsterbusch.
GERT56 is now nearing the end of its second IDM season. It has been a rollercoaster ride. At the Schleizer Dreieck, local hero Julian Puffe secured two podium finishes. The 26-year-old moved into third place in the IDM premier class standings at his home race. In contrast, his teammate Finsterbusch was injured so severely in a crash that was not his fault that he had to end the 2022 season early.
Puffe crashed in Assen. Ten minutes into the first free practice session, he was thrown from his bike by a highside. Puffe broke his foot. This not only totaled the team’s second BMW M 1000 RR, but also dashed any hopes of a successful end to the season.
The fact that Team Manager Karsten Wolf’s phone hadn’t stopped ringing with offers of guest rides, and that many riders had offered to help, was both an honor for the Saxon team and a guarantee that they would have a strong lineup at the start.
“It’s very hard for me to accept the total loss of points and the premature end to the season for both Superbike riders,” says Wolf, adding: “While Julian’s crash and injury at Assen sadden me, I’m still extremely frustrated by the sequence of events and the circumstances surrounding Toni Finsterbusch’s crash in Schleiz, which wasn’t his fault. Once everyone involved has recovered, I still need to have a discussion about this.”
Right from the start of the season at the Lausitzring, GERT56 proved that, together with chassis partner Mototech SPV and technical partner RS Speedbikes, it had made exactly the right technical changes to be successful. Combined with Toni Finsterbusch and Julian Puffe, who performed at nearly the same level, the team achieved the results it had hoped for—results that had been out of reach just a year earlier. Until the total failure.
But Hockenheim without GERT56? For Wolf, that’s out of the question, and Kerschbaumer is exactly the right rider for the job. “He embodies GERT56’s most successful era like no one else and was an integral part of the IDM for many years. We’ll give him a fully fueled, perfectly tuned bike, and then we all just want to have fun. In the endurance scene, I always had peace of mind when I entrusted him with the bike during the toughest phases. It’s the same this time.”
The Austrian had his first track day at the Autodrom Most earlier this week. “GERT56 and I have celebrated a few successes together, and of course it’s great that we’re finally racing together in the IDM—even if the circumstances aren’t ideal. But I’m glad that Toni and Julian will at least be there as spectators. The first test with the BMW was fun. I haven’t ridden a race bike in quite some time now. So we shouldn’t set our expectations for Hockenheim too high.”