The EURO MOTO Superbike era came to a close at the Fuchs-Silkolene Hockenheim finale with a victory by runner-up Marcel Schrötter (BMW). His GERT56 teammate Jan-Ole Jähnig finished second. Florian Alt (Honda) headed into the winter break in third place. Fourth-place finisher Lukas Tulovic (Ducati) had already clinched the championship title in the first race of the day.
Even before the race, one thing was certain: No matter what the result turned out to be, the order of the top finishers in the overall standings wouldn’t change. Nothing could shake up the positions held by Tulovic, Schrötter, and Markus Reiterberger. It was all clear sailing. Just step on the gas and see what you can pull off at the end. Tulovic just wanted to have some fun one last time. And that’s exactly what he got.
The three BMW riders—Markus Reiterberger, Marcel Schrötter, and Jan-Ole Jähnig—got off to a strong start from the front row. Reiterberger skidded into the gravel trap at the end of the Parabolica, but managed to dig himself out and made his way back onto the track, 18 seconds behind. After that, he had to give up on the hoped-for one-two finish. At the end of the first lap, Jähnig—who was the only rider on Pirelli SC2s, a harder compound than the rest—led the field.
Tulovic had put his calculator aside and, after three laps, had worked his way up from ninth on the grid to fifth place. Ahead of him, Toni Finsterbusch (BMW) was hot on the heels of Florian Alt. At the front, there wasn’t a hair’s breadth between Jähnig, who remained in the lead, and Schrötter.
It wasn't even halftime yet, and Reiterberger had already overtaken his teammate Milan Merckelbagh in his comeback attempt. Despite a cross-track incident, the four-time champion still managed to finish in the top ten after 18 laps.
When Finsterbusch’s motorcycle broke down at the last minute, the Saxon lost valuable ground and ultimately had to retire from the race. Tulovic took his place and finished fourth as a result. Alt defended his third-place position against the aggressive Tulovic all the way to the finish line. It was an exciting farewell race with the current Honda model. A new model is coming next year.
And how did the battle for the lead turn out? Schrötter outmaneuvered Jähnig on the final lap. Jähnig had suspected as much, “but I didn’t know exactly where he’d make his move.” It would surely have been right up the alley of team boss Karsten “KW” Wolf, who passed away this winter, for a GERT56 one-two finish to cap off the season.
Finsterbusch said goodbye to the team after the race. After all these years, he didn’t want any big fuss made about him, even though he really deserved it. The 33-year-old BMW driver from Leipzig helped the team secure the Le Mans victory in the 2020 World Endurance Championship. Now the excitement has faded.
