It’s done. The season opener of the International German Motorcycle Championship (IDM) at the Sachsenring was a feast for the senses. See, hear, smell—over 15,000 fans didn’t want to miss the high-octane spectacle at this motorcycle mecca. The series, organized by Motor Presse Stuttgart, featured competition in four premier classes and three cups as part of the supporting program.
In Germany’s top motorcycle class, the IDM Superbike, Ilya Mikhalchik became the first race winner of the year. The Ukrainian rider from Team BCC-ALPHA-VAN ZON-BMW secured a flawless start-to-finish victory at the Sachsenring. Florian Alt (HRP-Honda-Team) finished second after a spectacular performance in qualifying. Third place went to class rookie Hannes Soomer (Enos Motorsport) from Estonia.
The Superbike show was impressive. In qualifying, Alt had closed the gap to just under two seconds behind the times set in MotoGP. “I never would have thought we’d be this fast,” Alt said in amazement after securing pole position.
In the second race, Mikhalchik handed him a golden opportunity for victory. He had slid off the track in the first corner and was unable to recover. The 26-year-old Alt dominated the entire race without coming under pressure. After 18 laps, Alt achieved what Honda had been longing for and hoping for: He won an IDM Superbike race—and did so with a 3.185-second lead over the extremely strong rookie Patrick “Pax” Hobelsberger (GERT56). Hannes Soomer also returned to the podium on his Honda. For Honda, the weekend was a breakthrough. Florian Alt currently leads the overall standings as well.
In der IDM Supersport war der 17-jährige Niederländer Melvin van der Voort (Team SWPN) das Maß der Dinge. Der Vize des letzten Jahres machte dort weiter, wo er im vergangenen Jahr aufgehört hatte: mit einem Doppelsieg auf der Yamaha. Beide Mal folgte ihm sein Landsmann Twan Smits (Team Apreco) aufs Siegerpodest. Im Kampf um den dritten Platz überschlugen sich die Ereignisse. Im zweiten Lauf waren gleich zu Beginn die potentiellen Spitzenfahrer gestürzt, unter anderem der Österreicher Thomas Gradinger (Eder Racing), der im ersten Lauf Dritter war. Im zweiten Lauf wurde aber erneut deutsch gesprochen, denn Andreas Kofler (M32 Racing) kam als Dritter ins Ziel. Sein Teamchef und Mentor ist kein Geringerer als Max Enderlein, der dreifache Champion der Klasse und derzeit auch amtierende Meister.
In der Supersport 300 gab es gleich zwei neue Gesichter auf dem Siegerpodest zu sehen. Im ersten Rennen errang der 16-jährige Dustin Schneider (Freudenberg KTM-PALIGO Racing) den Sieg. Der Sachse wechselte vom Northern Talent Cup in die IDM, wo er an diesem Wochenende seinen Einstand gab. Im zweiten Rennen siegte der Spanier Inigo Iglesias und betrieb damit Schadensbegrenzung, nachdem er im ersten Rennen wegen eines Frühstarts eine doppelte Long Lap Penalty kassierte. Der Neuzugang im Team Füsport – RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki war letztes Jahr in der Supersport 300-WM am Start und ist jetzt dauerhaft in der IDM.
The icing on the cake was the Sidecar World Championship, which the IDM promoter and organizer Motor-Presse Stuttgart took over just a few weeks ago to run in parallel with the series. All the top-tier World Championship teams competed at the Sachsenring. In the opening races, Ben and Tom Birchall emerged as double winners. The British brothers won both the sprint race and the main race with ease, celebrating a successful start to the season. As a subcategory, there is a separate IDM championship in which ten teams are competing simultaneously for the national title. In the IDM standings, Josef Sattler and his passenger Luca Schmidt earned the most points this weekend with a first-place and a second-place finish.