After finishing on the podium at the International German Motorcycle Championship (IDM) in Oschersleben, Marvin Siebdrath’s fortunes took a turn for the worse again last weekend in Most. The 20-year-old from Saxony, riding for Team Yamaha Racing by M32, scored only seven points after crashing in the second race.
Marvin Siebdrath had traveled to the North Bohemian industrial city of Most with a sense of anticipation. It’s a good 100 kilometers from his home in Wildenfels to the Autodrom there. After the Sachsenring, the two races Supersport in the IDM Supersport were, so to speak, a home game. “I think the track is pretty cool. It’s quite challenging because there are a few tricky spots and some bumps,” said the Yamaha rider, referring to the twelve right-hand and nine left-hand turns spread over a 4.212-kilometer course.
The motorcycle was in the same condition as it had been in Oschersleben. Siebdrath was feeling good. A minor adjustment to the front wheel gave the YZF-R6 a bit more stability. He finished the first qualifying session in sixth place. “I knew I could have been even faster,” he said. Siebdrath had some reserves left, but he wasn’t able to make the most of them.
He was supposed to pull it off in the second qualifying session. But it was strange. Times were dropping across the board for the competition—except for Siebdrath. He was held back by a slipping clutch. The result: tenth on the grid. That was not at all to his liking. He expected the race result to be much better. Things turned out differently: “My start in the first race was okay. It wasn’t a great start, but it wasn’t extremely bad either. My bigger problem was the jostling in the first corner. Another rider crashed right in front of me. I almost had to stop. I came out of the first lap in 15th place; by then, the lead group had basically already pulled away.” Siebdrath made up a few positions and finished ninth after 14 laps. He was angry: “I would have had the pace for the top 5. But as I said, the chaos in the first corner practically ruined my race.”
In Sunday’s second race, while running in sixth place on the third lap, he was knocked out of the race—unintentionally, as it was presumably caused by a technical malfunction—by the second Saxon in the field, his paddock buddy Lennox Lehmann from Dresden. In the overall standings, Siebdrath dropped two positions following the disappointing weekend. He now sits in ninth place in the standings.
“We’re taking the positives from Most with us, because we definitely have the speed to compete at the front. We’ve seen that before. We can fight for podium finishes,” was Siebdrath’s personal take on the weekend, during which a lot of things got in the way.
