When the International German Motorcycle Championship (IDM) holds its season finale at Hockenheim this coming weekend, the season won’t be over for Thomas Gradinger. The Supersport rider from Team Eder Racing still has a long road ahead of him as he recovers from his injuries before he can ride again next year. The Austrian speaks to the IDM editorial team about his future with more openness and sensitivity than ever before.
The 26-year-old Yamaha rider had been plagued by bad luck on several occasions in 2022. First, he broke a bone in his right hand in a crash at Oschersleben. In Schleiz, the Upper Austrian—who was among the title favorites—injured his shoulder and fractured three thoracic vertebrae.
After the Hockenheim finale, which he’ll watch as a spectator from the team’s pit, he’ll undergo further surgeries. “Pins, screws, and plates will be removed from my back and hand.” A minor cosmetic flaw will remain for the time being. Gringer’s back tattoo—featuring his race number and a motorcyclist—will suffer some damage, “but I was planning to have it retouched anyway,” he says, not taking it too seriously.
The plan to rebuild the team in the IDM so it can subsequently return to the Supersport World Championship has been put on hold. 
Gradinger had made the leap to the World Championship in 2017 as the IDM champion. However, various circumstances interrupted his career at the World Championship level. “It is what it is now; I can’t change that. Sometimes the plan isn’t feasible. You just have to adapt,” Gradinger says, taking a realistic view of the situation. “But I’m assuming I’ll continue with Eder Racing next year. First, though, I have to see when I’ll be back on the bike and how things look then. It wasn’t exactly a minor back injury.” 
According to his doctors, Gradinger “was incredibly lucky” not to be in a wheelchair now. The experience has left its mark on him. “For two days, I even questioned whether I should keep riding my motorcycle,” Gradinger reveals, “but then that feeling passed. I can’t live without it. But now I find more joy in certain things, and my priorities have shifted. “I can’t complain if I have to walk on crutches once in a while.”
At the Hockenheim finale, Austrian rider Leon Lambing will be racing Gradinger's Supersport Yamaha YFR-R6 at the Motodrom in Baden, just as he did most recently at the Red Bull Ring.