The checkered flag was waved last weekend at the grand season finale in Hockenheim, marking the conclusion of the International German Motorcycle Championship (IDM). Ilya Mikhalchik, Andreas Kofler, and Oliver Svendsen have been crowned champions in the Superbike, Supersport, and Supersport 300 classes, respectively. In seven events organized by Motor Presse Stuttgart, riders from a total of 17 countries battled for points. The level of competition was extremely high. At the Hockenheimring, too, the action really heated up once again in front of thousands of fans in the paddock and a packed SACHS Curve.
"Every race is a blast for him," Ilya Mikhalchik (Champion-Alpha-Van Zon BMW) had said. After the first Superbike race in the final, things looked different. Florian Alt (Holzhauer Racing Promotion) was the winner. At the end of the season, the 28-year-old Honda rider managed once again to break through the BMW armada in the class despite a injured finger, thereby securing the runner-up title.
Mikhalchik overtook the German three times in the Sachs Curve, but the driver from Engelskirchen wasn’t done yet. On the fourth attempt, he shut the door on the Ukrainian. However, the battle slowed both of them down, and Jan-Ole Jähnig (GERT56), who had been closing in, seized the opportunity to get back in the mix for the podium spots. The Thuringian was eventually right on Alt’s tail, and Mikhalchik was right on Jähnig’s. That’s how it remained after 18 laps, each 3.629 kilometers long. Mikhalchik, who had already been confirmed as the new—and now four-time—champion of the top class since the Nürburgring, had run out of options by the end and was furious.
Mikhalchik, however, didn’t miss the chance to claim the final victory of the season as a four-time title winner. It was up to his GERT56 teammates Toni Finsterbusch and Patrick Hobelsberger to decide what would happen with the remaining third place in the overall standings. Before the weekend, the two were separated by just 11 points. Hobelsberger, who had started the season with a win, wasn’t happy about that at all. Having set his sights on becoming champion this year, the 28-year-old was now at least trying to secure third place. For Finsterbusch, who was at the bottom of the top ten, things didn’t look good at times. Hobelsberger did make it onto the podium, as did Jähnig, but Finsterbusch finished eighth, and that was enough to secure third place in the overall standings. It was a narrow one-point lead. At that moment, it felt as big as the world. Incidentally, Finsterbusch and Mikhalchik are the only Superbike riders to have finished and scored points in every race of the 2024 season. Every brand represented in the IDM Superbike had at least one rider in the top ten: Ilya Mikhalchik (BMW), Florian Alt (Honda), Lorenzo Zanetti (Ducati), Leandro Mercado (Kawasaki), Maximilian Kofler (Yamaha).
In the IDM Supersport class, there was cause for celebration on all fronts. Andreas Kofler (Yamalube Kofler Motorsport) had already clinched the title after the first race. The Austrian played it safe on his Yamaha, kept a low profile, and sealed the deal with a sixth-place finish. Meanwhile, Honda hopeful Dirk Geiger (MCA Racing) and Yamaha regular Twan Smits (Team Apreco) engaged in a fierce battle at the front, with each hoping to stay upright until the end. With a 0.071-second lead, Geiger won the penultimate race of the season just outside his hometown of Mannheim. He managed to hold on to the victory as he crossed the line. It was also Honda’s first win in the Supersport Next Generation class. “It’s just indescribable to win a home race,” he said afterward, overcome with emotion. Third place went to Belgian rider Luca de Vleeschauwer (MotoLife) on a Triumph.
It was clear that the second race would be a real nail-biter, especially since champion Kofler was sure to push himself to the limit once again and the standings weren’t yet settled. In the final Supersport race of the year, Kofler truly showed up exactly where he likes to be most: at the front. The battle for the remaining positions turned into a nerve-wracking ordeal. There was an incident at the start of the race. The oil cooler hose burst on Lennox Lehmann’s Yamaha (Yamalube Kofler Motorsport). De Vleeschauwer and Filip Feigl (Genius Racing) crashed. The race was stopped. The problem for de Vleeschauwer and Feigl: They had to be back in the pits with their bikes within five minutes to be allowed to participate in the restart on the cleared track. That’s what the rules require. They made it. What happened after the restart was a math problem. De Vleeschauwer was sent back a few places and was well on his way to losing the runner-up title. But champion Kofler stepped it up at the front and won the race by a tenth of a second ahead of Geiger and Smits. De Vleeschauwer crossed the finish line in eighth place, treated himself to a big gulp of beer, and, thanks to the standings at the top, still held a 4.5-point lead over Geiger, who thus finished third overall. Till Belczykowski (LJ Racing) on the MV Agusta scored points in both races for the first time. Luca de Vleeschauwer, Dirk Geiger, and Filip Feigl finished every race of the season and earned points. Andreas Kofler claimed the most wins, five in total.
In the IDM Supersport 300 rookie class, the title was already decided on Saturday afternoon. Denmark’s Oliver Svendsen (Freudenberg KTM-Paligo Racing) had his rivals well under control and secured his first IDM title with a third-place finish in the first race of the season finale.
Phillip Tonn took the race win, while his teammate Ruben Bijman (both Freudenberg KTM-Paligo Racing) finished second for the eighth time in a row. Since the IDM weekend in Schleiz, the new runner-up had consistently held second place, but the long-awaited victory always eluded him—until the final race on Sunday, when he won in the final meters ahead of Oliver Svendsen and Yamaha rider Dylan Czarkowski (Racing DC). With five riders in the championship, the Freudenberg KTM-Paligo Racing team also secured the title in the manufacturers’ standings.
Oliver Svendsen could be the last champion of the IDM Supersport 300. Starting next season, the class is expected to be replaced by the new IDM Sportbike. The Supersport 300 class will only continue if enough participants can be found.