Patrick “Pax” Hobelsberger has called it quits. After losing his main sponsor, a rough start to the EURO MOTO Superbike season, and hitting rock bottom at Most, the 29-year-old Bavarian will not be racing any more this year.
When the Superbike class was competing for championship points last weekend in Most, Czech Republic, Pax was already gone—back home to Landau an der Isar. And that put a damper on the season. As a result, the number of Hondas in the field dropped dramatically. There were only two CBR 1000 RR-Rs to begin with. Now Florian Alt (Holzhauer Racing Promotion) is once again the only rider lining up on a Fireblade. He currently sits third in the overall standings. Hobelsberger won’t be racing again this year. “On Saturday after qualifying, I decided to call it a season,” says the 2023 third-place finisher—who was riding for Team GERT56 on a BMW at the time.
Things weren’t going well with his own Hobelsberger Racing Team. “A few weeks ago, we lost our main sponsor, who covered a good 85 to 90 percent of our budget.” Hobelsberger fell ill at the Sachsenring and was out of commission for several weeks. Lack of sleep, a heavy workload at the motorcycle shop, coaching, his own training, and countless hours behind the wheel took their toll on him. “Above all, there was the added pressure of knowing that, due to the limited budget, we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes.”
Hobelsberger says he wasn’t focused on racing anymore, but instead spent more energy just making sure everything worked at all. He wasn’t able to show either his own potential or that of his motorcycle. Pax Hobelsberger never found his form this year; instead, things just went downhill. He had actually wanted to be in the mix at the front. His plan—following the successful winter test rides—to compete for more than just the experience didn’t work out. He scored four points.
Pax says goodbye with these words: “This is the end of the line for me. I won’t be racing anymore in 2026. I don’t know yet what the future holds, except that I’ll continue to devote all my effort and energy to motorsports. Who knows what doors will open in the future.”
