The second IDM Superbike race at the Schleizer Dreieck was almost a carbon copy of the first race that morning. Ilya Mikhalchik (Champion Alpha Van Zon BMW) celebrated his eighth victory in the premier class of the International German Motorcycle Championship (IDM) and beat crowd favorite Markus Reiterberger (Masteroil by MRP) for the second time that day. For Florian Alt (Holzhauer Racing Promotion), the lead in the standings was definitively lost until the next event. With a third-place finish, the current defending champion on the Honda focused on damage control.
“Schleiz is awesome”—that’s always been Markus Reiterberger’s take on the natural race track. Thanks to his records, Reiti has already been immortalized on the town’s commemorative stele, where he’s in distinguished company. This year, however, he was denied a major victory. In the second race as well, the four-time IDM Superbike champion had to concede defeat to three-time champion Ilya Mikhalchik. And just like in the first race, it happened on the final lap, and Reiti blurted out: “Shit, I made a mistake. That was an invitation for Ilya. I just braked wrong.” The 27-year-old Ukrainian gladly accepted the invitation and had already tucked in behind Reiterberger. Now he also gave his girlfriend Milana, who had her birthday yesterday, the second victory of the weekend.
Reiterberger, who didn’t score any points as a guest rider but would have loved to win in his “green living room,” couldn’t help but feel a touch of wistfulness: “If we’d started Friday with the brand-new bike in the same condition it’s in today, I would have crossed the finish line in the lead over the last 100 meters.”
Florian Alt stayed out of the battle, but was joined by Jan-Ole Jähnig. The Thuringian, who has only been racing in the IDM Superbike class for two years, actually put the defending champion under serious pressure. And the latter knew full well that “JO” is someone to watch out for these days. The rookie from the Team GERT56 machine has come into his own. When the 23-year-old has a rear wheel in front of him, he latches onto it. Alt squeezed every ounce of power out of his Honda and rode a aggressive line to keep the turquoise BMW behind him. On lap 16, “JO” executed a clean blocking maneuver and passed Alt. Alt didn’t take the defeat lying down and countered. “It was heading toward the village; the next corner was on the inside of the right. That was damage control. There wasn’t more to be had that weekend. But we’re significantly faster than last year.” At the same time, Alt stands firm like a bulwark against the BMW armada. Without him, the IDM Superbike would be missing a major attraction.
In the overall standings, Alt is now six points behind leader Mikhalchik. Behind him, there is a 62-point gap to third-place Toni Finsterbusch, who is stuck together with his GERT56 teammates Patrick Hobelsberger and Jähnig like glue.
Luca Grünwald improved his performance even further in the second race and earned ten championship points. Leandro Mercado on the Weber-Kawasaki retired, as did Martin Vugrinec of Skach Motors Kawasaki Racing. The Croatian was competing in his first race weekend of the year following his leg injury.
During the cool-down lap, all the riders were celebrated like heroes. Mikhalchik took off his knee pads and threw them into the crowd, much to the delight of the fans. The spectators stormed the track to high-five the riders. Marco Fetz signed an autograph card hastily produced on the tank of his BMW. And the flares sent plumes of yellow smoke into the air. That’s how a race at the Schleizer Dreieck goes. Simply magnificent.
IDM Superbike, Race 2
1. Ilya MIKHALCHIK (UKR), BMW
2. Markus REITERBERGER (GER), BMW
3. Florian ALT (GER), BMW
4. Jan-Ole JÄHNIG (GER), BMW
5. Patrick HOBELSBERGER (GER), BMW
6. Toni FINSTERBUSCH (GER), BMW
7. Luca GRÜNWALD (GER), BMW
8. Thomas GRADINGER (AUT), Yamaha
9. Bálint KOVÁCS (HUN), BMW
10. Hannes SOOMER (EST), BMW
11.Philipp STEINMAYR (AUT), BMW
12.Jan MOHR (AUT), BMW
13.Milan MERCKELBAGH (NLD), BMW
14.Rob HARTOG (NLD), Yamaha
15.Marco FETZ (DEU), BMW
