IDM Most: Mikhalchik extends podium subscription
The head of the Champion-alpha-Van Zon-BMW team, Werner Daemen, certainly had the longest journey to the third round of the International German Motorcycle Championship. The Belgian, who is also in charge of the Endurance World Championship team for manufacturer BMW, came straight from testing in Suzuka, Japan, to the IDM Superbike weekend in Most, Czech Republic. He was accompanied by his quartet of riders Ilya Mikhalchik (Ukraine), Philipp Steinmayr (Austria), Bálint Kovács (Hungary) and Max Schmidt (Germany). Jan Mohr (Austria) was only present as a mascot due to injury and will have to wait for his appearance on the track.
Ilya Mikhalchik came to the Czech Republic with a broad chest. With Sachsenring and Oschersleben, where he even achieved a double victory, the BMW rider has already completed the two race tracks on the IDM calendar that rank lower on his personal hit list. In Most, the Ukrainian, who started the weekend just two points behind current championship leader Florian Alt, felt right at home and secured pole position for the two races on Sunday. The time of 1.32.086 minutes would also have been enough for a good grid position in the Superbike World Championship last year. “The lap times are good,” Mikhalchik also had to admit. “When you consider that we’re riding stock bikes. All IDM riders have become faster. That proves the high level of the IDM.”
In the general tire poker before the first race, sometimes the summer sun showed up, sometimes not, Mikhalchik opted for the not-so-soft Pirelli variant in order to still be able to act at the end. The BMW driver had to fight several duels before he took the lead once and for all with his final overtaking maneuver in the penultimate corner of the last lap. “It was a rather quiet race for me,” he explained afterwards, “not so much for the others. We had a few good fights. There are a lot of fast guys up front, but we’ve known each other for a long time. I had everything under control until the end.” Incidentally, the BMW driver also took the lead in the overall standings.
However, he had to relinquish this after second place in the second race, only to leave with another two-point deficit to Florian Alt. After a good start, Mikhalchik had to line up in fourth place in the first chicane and from there he quickly closed the gap to the front again. Together with Alt, he then offered racing at the highest level. There was hardly a corner where there was not a direct exchange of blows between the two rivals. Millimeter work was required. Mikhalchik then missed out on victory by a few hundredths of a second. “We had great battles everywhere,” he assures us, “not just with Florian Alt. It wasn’t a smooth race for me this time. Nevertheless, I’m satisfied because I won the corners and only lost a little on the straights. One thing is clear, I will come back stronger.”
Philipp Steinmayr had traveled to the Schleizer Dreieck for a short test after his stint in the Endurance World Championship, where another IDM race will take place at the end of July. “Even though it was only a few laps,” said the Austrian about his trip to Thuringia, “it helped me to get back in the mood for the BMW and the Pirelli tires and to take a good feeling with me to Most.” Unfortunately, the good feeling didn’t last too long. Steinmayr had to cope with a crash in free practice and missed an important session, but then made it into Superpole 2 via the detour of Superpole 1, where the Austrian finished 15th on the grid, which meant a lot of work for the two races on Sunday.
In the first race, Steinmayr took a decent step forward. “On Saturday, we worked a lot on the balance of the bike,” he revealed after crossing the finish line in eighth place. “I got away well at the start and also caught the first chicane well. The field was close together and the standard was really high. But most of them know what to do. I was very happy with my top ten place.” Steinmayr then set his sights on the same in race 2 and it initially looked like it was going to happen. But things turned out differently. “I came out in ninth place. Then my team-mate Bálint Kovács overtook me and when he attacked Mercado, I could see it coming. He had seen a gap that didn’t really exist. When he crashed, I tried to slip through on the inside, but he ended up right in front of me. My only option was to ride through the gravel so that I didn’t run him over. I then somehow fought my way forward again from behind.” He was still disappointed after 13th place. The start was great again and his speed was also right, so the top ten would have been absolutely feasible.
Bálint Kovács had caused a sensation at the last IDM weekend in Oschersleben with two third places and was also able to enjoy the success in his Hungarian homeland, where Kovács tirelessly promotes himself and his sport and the double podium even earned him a TV interview. “I was able to do a few laps in Most on my training bike,” he revealed, “so I felt well prepared for the IDM weekend. I like the track, although last year’s IDM races were difficult for me. But I have good memories otherwise, I won the Most race in the Suzuki Cup back then.” Kovács was not quite so happy with grid position 12 after the Superpole on Saturday.
Things got really exciting for Kovács in the first race. Halfway through the race, the airbag on his leather suit deployed unexpectedly. “I could hardly breathe for two laps,” said the BMW rider, describing his difficult race. “I slipped back to 15th place, but was able to fight my way back to the front in the last five or six laps.” In the end, Kovács took seventh place, with only a small gap to fifth place. “I’m expecting a good result for the second race in the afternoon, because overall I’m in good form,” he promised afterwards.
Kovács then wanted too much in the second race. After a good start, he had already worked his way up to tenth place on the first lap. “When I tried to overtake another competitor, I crashed,” said the disappointed BWM rider. This trip into the gravel bed cost him almost 30 seconds and he resumed the race in absolute last place with a bike that was no longer quite intact. In the end, it was enough for 18th place. “What really annoys me,” he admitted afterwards, “is that I would have had the pace to be much better.”
Max Schmidt had clinched victory with his colleagues Pepijn Bijsterbosch and Jan Bühn in a five-hour race in Zolder, Belgium, under the watchful eye of his team boss Werner Daemen and had arrived in Most in a correspondingly good mood. “I first dug deep into the data,” he said after the free practice sessions, “we are still working on the perfect set-up. I’m happy to have such a good team around me.” The BMW rider made it into Superpole 2 at the first attempt, finishing in 14th place.
In the two races, Schmidt finished 11th and 15th, but he would have liked to have done a little better. “Somehow things didn’t go as I had imagined since Saturday,” he explained. “It was like driving into a wall, I just couldn’t go any faster. In the first race I was a bit stuck at the beginning, but then it went okay. Together with Bálint Kovács, I then followed the fast group. Before the chicane, I got caught between the gears while changing gear and it was then that Bálint tried to overtake me, leaving me with only the emergency exit. In the second race, I opted for the zero tire and it died on me towards the end. I kept coming out of the corners sideways. On the brakes it was still going quite well, but I struggled under braking.”
The IDM squad from Team Champion-alpha-Van Zon-BMW now have four weeks to evaluate the data and results from the Most weekend and prepare for IDM round number 4 at the Schleizer Dreieck on July 26-28, 2024.
