At the IDM season opener on the first weekend in May at the Sachsenring, a completely new team will take to the track: Yamalube Motorsport Kofler. The newly founded team has big ambitions, backed by Yamaha. It will compete in the IDM Supersport Superbike classes.
The lineup includes three riders: Andreas Kofler and Lennox Lehmann on the Yamaha YZF-R6, and Maximilian Kofler on the Superbike R1. The new team will use 2024 and 2025 to get to know the motorcycles better and collect data. Starting in 2026, the team plans to make its debut in the Supersport.
Originally, the plan was to field a pure Supersport to offer 19-year-old Austrian Andy Kofler and Lennox Lehmann from Dresden—who is one year younger—reliable prospects with a multi-year contract. Kofler already finished third overall in the championship last year. Lehmann, a two-time champion, has moved up from the Supersport and switched from KTM to Yamaha.
But Yamaha was also able to convince Maximilian Kofler, Andy’s older brother, to focus on the German Superbike Championship for the next two years. To do so, Kofler turned down offers in the Supersport, where he most recently competed. The 23-year-old got his first chance to test the Yamaha R1 in Jerez in early February. “That was really fun after a year and a half in the Supersport. The four-cylinder engine seems to suit me better than the two-cylinder one.”