Melvin van der Voort (Team SWPN) won the first IDM Supersport race at the Schleizer Dreieck. The 17-year-old Dutch rider isn't giving up on the title race, even though Twan Smits (Team Apreco) arrived in Thuringia with a 31-point lead as the championship leader.
Melvin van der Voort pulled away right after the start and went on to win after 15 laps with a 3.370-second lead over the chasing pack. Andreas Kofler (M32 Racing) surged into second place from the second row of the grid at the start. Behind him was his Austrian compatriot Thomas Gradinger (Eder Racing). Twan Smits returned from the first lap in fourth place. They all drove in single file for lap after lap, with the gaps remaining the same.
On the eighth lap, Smits pulled out all the stops, passing Gradinger and later overtaking Kofler as well. Gradinger reacted in a flash and latched onto Smits’s tail, thereby passing Kofler as well. Meanwhile, Martin Vugrinec had closed in on the group battling for the podium spots behind van der Voort, who had long since disappeared from view.
On lap 14, Vugrinec launched an attack on Gradinger. It was unsuccessful. A podium finish was crucial for both riders. For Gradinger, because he had crashed so badly on this track a year ago and wanted to make a comeback at the front. For Gradinger, because after his IDM comeback, he finally wanted to show what he was still capable of. After a nerve-wracking battle in the final lap, the decision went in Vugrinec’s favor.
Another notable point was that Melvin der Voort narrowed the gap to Twan Smits from 31 to 26 points. That Luca de Vleeschauwer was the only rider in the top ten on a Kawasaki who wasn’t riding a Yamaha. That local hero Chris Beinlich finished three places higher in the race than he did in qualifying. That the first Triumph, ridden by Jonas Kocourek, finished in eleventh place, and the only Honda in the field, ridden by Julius Caesar Rörig, finished in twelfth position.
IDM Supersport, Round 1
1. Melvin VAN DER VOORT (NLD), Yamaha
2. Twan SMITS (NL), Yamaha
3. Martin VUGRINEC (CRO), Yamaha
4. Thomas GRADINGER (AUT), Yamaha
5. Andreas KOFLER (AUT), Yamaha
6. Christoph BEINLICH (DEU), Yamaha
7. Luca DE VLEESCHAUWER (BEL), Kawasaki
8. Leon ORGIS (GER), Yamaha
9. Milan MERCKELBAGH (NED), Yamaha
10.Damien RAEMY (SUI), Yamaha