Jan Mohr had the longest trip to Assen, covering just under 900 kilometers. The Austrian himself doesn’t yet know whether he’ll make the long drive to the TT Circuit again next year. The question is a more fundamental one: Where does he fit in the EURO MOTO Superbike class, where lap times are getting faster and faster and the gaps are getting smaller and smaller?
Jan Mohr has been racing in the Superbike class for nine years now. To this day, his second-place finish at the Lausitzring in 2022 remains his career highlight. It was the same season in which he suffered a serious crash at 250 in July at the Schleizer Dreieck. At the time, it was even uncertain whether the now 28-year-old would ever race again. He fought his way back. His brother Ken even documented this tough journey back to the racetrack in an emotional documentary.
Now Mohr is thinking about the time after 2026. “The level in the class is extremely high, and there’s hardly any chance of moving up further. I’ve gotten faster, but it’s not enough.” Seven top-ten finishes in ten races—but none of them anywhere near the podium—don’t satisfy him. On the other hand, there are always those highlights that Mohr loves so much about racing. In the pre-practice session for the Euro Moto Superbike at Assen, the rider from Team Masteroil-alpha-Van Zon-BMW immediately qualified for the coveted Superpole 2. There, he secured the seventh grid spot, allowing him to start from the third row.
The Superbike races from Assen:
In the first race, he had settled into ninth place after just a few laps, but his push toward a top-ten finish ended in the gravel. On the final lap, the Austrian was suddenly seen walking across the surveillance monitors. “I pushed hard throughout the race,” he says, describing his Sunday. “Even though the gap to the leaders was still too big for me, things were going great for us in practice. During the race, I noticed my front tire was wearing out. Toward the end, Kevin Orgis in front of me slowed down a bit. I was determined to catch him.” His ambition was greater than his grip. Without any contact with other riders and without an attack from Orgis, Mohr lost control of his front wheel and ended up on his backside.
By the second race, the BMW was back in action, and Mohr praised his team. “Without them, it might have taken me three weeks to get back on the track if I’d had to fix it myself. Full throttle in the second race.”
It wasn’t quite that simple, though. Florian Alt shot ahead right at the start. “I messed everything up in the first turn,” Mohr admitted. “Flo had a blistering start; I wanted to hold my ground on the outside. He then cut right across; I wanted to get into his slipstream but was probably a little too late and ended up way wide.” He’d lost his momentum. On top of that, Mohr had to find his rhythm again after his slip-up in Race 1. “From the middle of the race on, I rode without taking any big risks,” he said. He ended up finishing in ninth place.
So, another top-ten finish. After Assen, Jan Mohr is left wondering not only how long the road ahead will be—but also whether he wants to continue down it. The Austrian is caught between a rock and a hard place.
