Ilya Mikhalchik has reason to celebrate today. The Ukrainian rider from Team Champion Alpha Van Zon BMW turned 28. Securing pole position in the IDM Superbike race today would have been the icing on the cake for him. For much of the 15-minute Superpole qualifying session, it looked like he was on his way to doing just that—until Florian Alt (Holzhauer Racing Promotion) put in a blistering lap on the 4.555-kilometer-long TT Circuit.
Mikhalchik or Alt? BMW or Honda? The title race in Germany’s top road racing class has intensified. Barring any major incidents, one of these two riders will clinch the title. Defending champion Florian Alt is battling an extremely strong BMW contingent on his Honda CBR 1000 RR-R. Three-time Superbike champion Ilya Mikhalchik leads the championship standings with 163 points. Alt trails by eight points. Whether he can use his pole position to close the gap remains a big question mark until tomorrow. BMW has always been a force to be reckoned with at Assen. A year ago, Mikhalchik won both races here.
“Our chances of getting past BMW are just as slim as they were at the Schleizer Dreieck,” Alt says. “We’ve made a big step forward with the suspension, but we’re lacking tire grip on the outside of the corners. That really hurts in the long, sweeping turns. But I also know that Ilya doesn’t handle pressure very well. He’s shown that in the past. So I’m going to try to put him under pressure. Now, though, the BMW team has fresh engines, so our advantage on the straights isn’t as noticeable anymore.” It could work in Alt’s favor if Leandro Mercado stirs things up a bit among the BMW pack at the start of the race with the Weber-Kawasaki, or even Maximilian Kofler (Yamalube Motorsport Kofler). They, too, have made it into the top ten on the starting grid.
Hannes Soomer (Enos Motorsport) edged out the young, wild GERT56 driver Jan-Ole Jähnig from the front row, where his teammate Patrick Hobelsberger will line up alongside him. The Bavarian had taken a big risk and made it to Superpole 2 via Superpole 1. The three fastest drivers from SP1 will compete against the twelve fastest drivers—who were already determined on Friday—for the final starting positions through 15th place.
Dutch rider Rob Hartog (Team SWPN) became the first rider to qualify directly for Superpole 2. The crew of the 32-year-old Yamaha rider. The letters in the team name stand for Stichting Wegrace Promotie Nederland. SWPN is an official partner of Stichting Zorgeloos Kind. The foundation strives to give children with serious or long-term illnesses—and their entire families—a day when their illness can be put on the back burner for a while. And even the children who are no longer with us are not forgotten. They are immortalized on a list on the race truck and are always with us.
Superpole 1: Patrick HOBELSBERGER (BMW), Max ENDERLEIN (Yamaha), Maximilian KOFLER (Yamaha), Kevin ORGIS (BMW), Lorenzo ZANETTI (Ducati), Thomas GRADINGER (Yamaha), Martin VUGRINEC (Kawasaki), Luca GRÜNWALD (BMW), Oliver KÖNIG (Ducati), Marc MOSER (Ducati), Sandro WAGNER (BMW), Leon FRANZ (BMW), Björn STUPPI (BMW), Julius ILMBERGER (BMW)
Superpole 2: Florian ALT (Honda), Ilya MIKHALCHIK (BMW), Hannes SOOMER (BMW), Jan-Ole JÄHNIG (BMW), Patrick HOBELSBERGER (BMW), Leandro MERCADO (Kawasaki), Maximilian KOFLER (Yamaha), Colin VELTHUIZEN (BMW), Toni FINSTERBUSCH (BMW), Bálint KOVÁCS (BMW), Milan MERCKELBAGH (BMW), Jan MOHR (BMW), Max ENDERLEIN (Yamaha), Philipp STEINMAYR (BMW), Rob HARTOG (Yamaha)
