A big name will be missing from the IDM Superbike starting grids in the future. The Wilbers Racing Team is withdrawing from Germany’s top road racing series. However, the team will remain involved in the IDM as a partner providing professional suspension services.
Benny Wilbers and his renowned racing team are retiring. The team has been in the sport since 2010. Christian Kellner, Jörg Teuchert, Gareth Jones, Lucy Glöckner, Matej Smrz, Bastien Mackels, and most recently Florian Alt are just a few of the drivers who have raced for Wilbers. Glöckner, Mackels, and Alt finished as runners-up in the team’s BMW.
In the run-up to the withdrawal, there had been several changes. Wilbers had ended its partnership with BMW and was open to other manufacturers. The fact that regular driver Florian Alt, after two runner-up titles, decided to switch to the HRP team—and thus to Honda—once again presented Wilbers with a completely new situation. According to Wilbers, the conclusion is: “After an extremely successful period with the racing team, we remain committed to motorsports, but on a different level. Effective immediately, the ‘Wilbers-BMW-Racing’ team becomes the ‘Wilbers-Suspension-Service by ZF’ team, to deploy the latest developments together with ZF in national and international championships across Europe! We will primarily offer suspension services with the well-known team led by Technical Director Burkhard Stember in the IDM Superbike series. Here, the products most recently used by Florian Alt—such as forks, triple clamps, shock absorbers, and steering dampers—will be offered with top-quality service for all participating brands.”