All that hard work over the winter has paid off for Patrick “Pax” Hobelsberger. He pushed himself to the limit and didn’t take a single day off. His victory in the IDM Superbike didn’t just fall into the lap of the BMW rider from Team GERT56. He dedicates it to his longtime friend and patron Martin Bauer, the “Oberen Wirt zum Queri” from Andechs.
Last year, Hobelsberger repeatedly struggled to put in a single fast lap in qualifying. Eliminating that weakness was at the top of his to-do list for his winter training program, which he completed in sunny Spain. In 2024, the 27-year-old Bavarian returned to the International German Motorcycle Championship (IDM) with a completely different mindset. For the first time, he secured pole position on the BMW M 1000 RR. “With my lap time, I’d even be twelfth in the MotoGP qualifying at the Sachsenring,” he says proudly, adding, “My 1:22.453-minute lap is identical—down to the hundredth of a second—to the qualifying time set by world champion Fabio Quartararo last year.”
On Sunday, Hobelsberger won the second IDM Superbike race. At the same time, he took the lead in the overall standings. He dedicated the victory to his longtime friend and patron Martin Bauer, who passed away last December at the age of just 45. For Hobelsberger, the passionate amateur racer was like family. “Martin helped me from the very first day of my career; he shared a hotel room with me and made it possible for me to train in Spain while still having decent accommodations. He organized my annual sponsor meeting—everyone knew him.”