Lennox Lehmann and Dirk Geiger’s Yamaha R9 SSPs are working properly. Shortly before leaving for Barcelona, both riders conducted a test run on them. The motorcycles are a temporary solution for the upcoming Supersport. The official R9 SSP v2.0 for the 2026 IDM season will not arrive at the Apreco team until January.
“Our partner Ten Kate won the Supersport this year with Stefano Manzi on a Yamaha. That bike serves as the basis for Dirk and Lennox’s equipment,” says Apreco team manager Corine Brandhorst. Italian rider Stefano Manzi racked up nine wins and nine additional top-three finishes during the season.
“Ten Kate and Yamaha want to do a lot of testing. That’s why we’ve already made plans for November,” Brandhorst adds. “Based on what we learn, we’ll finalize the specifications for the 2026 bike, which we refer to internally as V2.0.” Starting on November 7, four two-day test sessions will be held at various Spanish circuits. The first stop is Barcelona.
For both Lennox Lehmann and Dirk Geiger, the motorcycles are completely new. Geiger, who moved from Honda to the Apreco team, already completed 106 laps during the test run. Where? Yamaha is keeping quiet. No comment from the riders. Officially: “We’ve worked a lot on the seating position, since the bike is relatively large, and on the riding feel, since it’s quite different from what I’ve been used to in recent years,” says Geiger. “We rode much more than planned. But the bike ran without any problems from the very first lap, so we were able to try out more things.”
Lehmann was nervous at first after his back and leg surgery. Following the IDM finale at Hockenheim, the Dresden native had eight screws and two rods removed from his back and an intramedullary nail removed from his right thigh while in the hospital. The 19-year-old is now metal-free again. “It had to come out,” explains the Saxon, “otherwise the intervertebral disc would be under too much strain. And that’s not good, especially at a young age.” Lehmann completed 62 laps. “That’s fewer than Dirk, but I’m still in the recovery phase and super happy that I managed it. Since I had already tested the R9 prototype at the Nürburgring, my seating position was already pretty good, and I mainly focused on the suspension settings and on myself to see how my body would handle everything.”
