Wearing sombreros, neck guards, and sipping cold drinks, fans in Most watched as Lukas Tulovic secured a one-two finish in the EURO MOTO Superbike race in Most—just as he had at the season opener at the Sachsenring.
That was right on the edge. The asphalt thermometer in Most, Czech Republic, was now reading 70.1 degrees. The 16 laps of the second Superbike race pushed both riders and machines to their absolute limits.
Marcel Schrötter (GERT56) and Hannes Soomer (Masteroil Alpha Van Zon BMW) failed to make the first turn right at the start and had to go straight on. To prevent them from gaining an advantage by cutting the chicane, the rules require that they lose one second before they are allowed to rejoin the race. For Schrötter, this put his goal of finishing on the podium after every race in serious jeopardy.
In the second lap, Florian Alt (Holzhauer Racing Promotion) used his Honda’s power advantage to pass defending champion Lukas Tulovic (Triple M Racing Ducati Frankfurt), who had been leading up to that point. Alt had already announced after the first race that morning that he wanted to keep Tulo company for a bit. Twan Smits (Apreco Yamaha) couldn’t keep up the pace over the long haul, but remained in third place throughout, well clear of both the leaders and the pack behind him.
Kevin Orgis, Leon’s older brother from the private ORM team, managed to move up from tenth on the grid to fourth place in the race on his BMW within three laps. It was impressive what the Saxon accomplished—and especially how long he was able to hold off riders like Marcel Schrötter, Toni Finsterbusch, Hannes Soomer, Markus Reiterberger, and Jan-Ole Jähnig. Reiterberger, who had triumphed four weeks earlier with his first win of the season, had even dropped as low as ninth place at one point.
Orgi's winning streak lasted until the seventh lap. In the sixth lap, Schrötter was still having a hard time getting past the 26-year-old BMW driver. In the seventh lap, he launched a series of passes.
Alt continued to put immense pressure on Tulovic at the front—for longer than the defending champion had anticipated. On the ninth lap, Tulo struck and took the lead. While in Brno it was Schrötter and Reiterberger—rather than Tulo and Alt—who weren’t quite at their best, the tables had now turned again.
After a good 25 minutes, it was all over. Tulo crossed the finish line 0.940 seconds ahead of Alt. Smits, in third place, was 4.093 seconds behind and also had a comfortable lead over the rest of the field. The riders from Ducati, Honda, and Yamaha made it onto the podium. Despite the BMW armada in the field, none of them made it onto the podium. The top rider on the M 1000 RR was Toni Finsterbusch (GERT56), who finished fourth.
Without exception, all the riders were completely exhausted, despite being in top physical condition. As for Tulovic, he added: “The second half of the race was nothing but pain,” he said, describing the toll the heat took, “The V4 engine on the Ducati is right against my calf. It was scorching hot, and it just hurt.”
EURO MOTO Superbike, Round 2
1. Lukas TULOVIC (GER/Ducati)
2. Florian ALT (GER/Honda)
3. Twan SMITS (NED/Yamaha)
4. Toni FINSTERBUSCH (GER/BMW)
5. Marcel SCHRÖTTER (GER/BMW)
6. Hannes SOOMER (EST/BMW)
7. Markus REITERBERGER (GER/BMW)
8. Jan-Ole JÄHNIG (GER/BMW)
9. Kevin ORGIS (GER/BMW)
10.Lorenzo ZANETTI (ITA/Ducati)
11.Milan MERCKELBAGH (NED/BMW)
12. Marco FETZ (GER/BMW)
13. Jan MOHR (AUT/BMW)
14. Christoph BEINLICH (GER/BMW)