IDM 2018 – highlights of the first half of the season

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IDM 2018 - highlights of the first half of the season
Toni Borner

Sports & scene

Motorsport

IDM 2018 – highlights of the first half of the season

IDM 2018 – highlights of the first half of the season
Half-time report

The appearance at Schleizer Dreieck marked the half-time of the International German Motorcycle Championship 2018. Reason enough to subject the protagonists, the series and stars to an analysis.

Toni Borner

08/03/2018

The IDM is alive – and is on the way up and forward again. If you talked about the year zero last year, in the first year of implementation by the MOTORRAD action team, you can confidently speak of the successful and successful restart of the most important motorcycle racing series in Germany this year. And that although the implementation of the International German Motorcycle Championship was again on the brink for a long time and – if you will – was only secured in the warm-up of the first event.

The year after Reiti

With all due respect: It is good for the IDM that Markus Reiterberger has taken the next step in his career. After everything that Obinger has “on the kerbholz”, it seems unimaginable that he is only 24 years old. Reiterberger has already raced seasons in the FIM Superstock 1000 World Cup – where he is now back on the road – and in the Superbike World Championship. He won the IDM Superbike title three times, last year he won all races except one, where he finished second. Reiterberger no longer “belonged” to the IDM if you see it from a sporting point of view. Don’t get it wrong: As a type and person, he simply belongs wherever cool people are. And positive-crazy-wacky ones. From a sporting point of view, Reiterberger remains the now invisible benchmark in the IDM Superbike. But he’s not there anymore – and that benefits the series as a whole, because not one of them drives around the front alone and dominates. Instead, new names have found their way onto the tableau – but they always look back at Reiterberger’s times. Often, however, these are not yet achieved.


IDM 2018 - highlights of the first half of the season


Toni Borner

The country needs new men: Mackels, Mikhalchik, Puffe.

And yet you can read, assess and classify a lot in comparison. For example, how strong a Julian Puffe is, especially at the Schleizer Dreieck. Because there are just two drivers in the motorcycle class on this natural race track who were able to drive under 1:25 and in the range of 1:24 minutes: Reiterberger and Puffe in his pole position this year. In terms of sport, BMW continues to dominate, but three different drivers from two teams set the pace. Ilya Mikhalchik is Reiterberger’s direct successor at Van-Zon and has achieved seven podiums in the first eight races – including six wins. Sounds like dominance, but mostly he had Bastien Mackel in absolute tow at the finish line, often it was only tenths of a second that decided the victory. Often there was still puff in tow.

Team boss Werner Daemen is enthusiastic. “I am very satisfied,” he says. “For us there are two new drivers and then two young drivers too. What also makes me happy is that we have a completely new team on the mechanics side, especially with the data engineers. ”Daemen knows that the Reiterberger topic is still omnipresent. “Everyone always said that only Markus made the difference,” he analyzes what is being said about his team. “But now I’m also happy that our new drivers are showing that our machines can do it. Sure, they are not as fast as Markus, but they are still good at it. “

Puffe theoretically remains in the race in the championship, but Mikhalchik and Mackels are just stronger at the moment. “We brought Bastien back from Yamaha and we knew that our motorcycle was also in a very good state,” summarizes Mackel’s ‘team boss Benny Wilbers. “The first half of the season went as I actually expected.” Mackels has won two races and has a 100 percent podium rate.

Four out of five brands on the podium

A positive development is that with BMW, Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda four of the five participating brands have already stood on the podium. Behind the three leading BMWs, Austrian Stefan Kerschbaumer on his MPB Racing Yamaha is classified at halftime – even though he skipped both races at the second Oschersleben race in order to concentrate fully on his commitment in the endurance world championship that weekend. In Zolder he celebrated second place – right in front of his team mate Daniel Kartheininger, who is seventh in the tableau.


IDM 2018 - highlights of the first half of the season


Toni Borner

Jenz Holzhauer (Honda): Only satisfied when we are at the top.

The Swiss Dominic Schmitter was also on the IDM Superbike podium, finishing third on his Suzuki in the second race of the year. In the first race in Oschersleben, Jan Halbich was third on the podium on a Honda. For his team boss Jens Holzhauer, that’s not enough. “You can only be satisfied when you are right at the top,” says the Honda premium tuner from Wittenberge.

The best woman of the IDM is and will be Lucy Glockner, who took fifth place on the grid in Schleiz. In the race, she sensed her chance for a top result, but was eventually pushed into the meadow and broke her third lumbar vertebra. “That means a couple of weeks off,” she told us. Her racing colleague Sarah Heide has meanwhile finished all the races of the year. The first points are only a matter of time with her.

SSP600: Enderlein pulls away

In the Supersport 600 there was hardly a way past Max Enderlein this season. The Freudenberg Junior won four of the six races, and was third once. Enderlein has gained a lead of 34 points. But he had tough competition in almost all races, against which the Yamaha rider had to prevail, especially in Kevin Wahr. But he had quarrels with his team and split up, finally doing it again from Schleiz on – and won the second run there. In the first race he finished second, but was given a subsequent time penalty for an early start. He is second.


IDM 2018 - highlights of the first half of the season


Toni Borner

Max Enderlein can only stop himself.

From rank two to four things are close in Supersport anyway, Wahr has 88 points, Daniel Rubin 82 and Marc Buchner 80. Buchner couldn’t drive the two races in Schleiz. In the Superstock classification, Marco Fetz was the dominator of the year and won five out of six races. Only in the first run in Schleiz did he not emerge as the winner in this classification: Then the time for Moritz Jenkner, son of the former GP winner Steve Jenkner, had come. He’s had an incredibly consistent season and was on the podium five out of six times and fourth in the other race. Fetz (145 points) and Jenkner (114) are at the top of the table.

SSP300: 4 different winners from 6 races

So far, only two drivers have won more than one race in the IDM Supersport 300: championship leader Victor Steeman from the Netherlands and most recently his KTM brand colleague Jan-Ole Jahnig in Schleiz.


IDM 2018 - highlights of the first half of the season


Toni Borner

Victor Steeman is at the top.

The other winners were Dion Otten and Maximilian Kappler. Steeman is at the top of the overall standings with 113 points, only messing up in Schleiz’s first race, where he only got three points. Otherwise he was first or second in all races.

With Konstanz, a fourth, a second and four third places Toni Erhard fought for second place in the table. He has 97 points and is still ahead of Otten, who has 91 points. Jahnig was not there in Zolder, just like Kappler, so the two are on four and five with 79 and 74 points.

Sidecar: Dominance Sattler, Spreader leadership

In the sidecars, the reigning champions from the Bennie Streuer / Gerard Daalhuizen team are at the top of the half-time ranking with 131 points. The Dutch had started the season opener in Oschersleben with a double victory, and since then there has been a third place and two second places – as well as a “free” victory.


IDM 2018 - highlights of the first half of the season


Toni Borner

The title defense project is under way.

After the two second places from the start, the time for Josef Sattler and Uwe Neubert had come: In principle, the duo won the four following races. The victory of race two in Zolder was denied to the duo, as discrepancies on the engine were found during the technical follow-up inspection. Sattler / Neubert were thrown out of the ranking and lost the 25 points. Therefore they are currently in second place with 115 points, 16 points behind Streuer / Daalhuizen, otherwise they would be leaders in the IDM Sidecar.

Four thirds and one second, one retirement: Andre Kretzer and Bjorn Bosch have also had a consistent season and are third with 84 points. Mike Roscher / Anna Bukard, the German-Swiss-man-woman duo, finished all races on four or better – in Zolder they inherited third place. Therefore there is currently fourth place in the table with 81 points.

The cups: consecration & Weinke

In the Suzuki GSX-R1000 Cup, Maximilian Weihe is at the top of the table after five wins and second place with 145 points. His worst predator is the Hungarian Balint Kovacs, who is the counterpart of Weihes: five times runner-up and one victory.

In the Twin Cup, Justus Weinke achieved five wins and a second place and is therefore clearly at the top of the field. Racing dinosaur Kai-Uwe Lenz is second after four podiums.

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