Reiterberger holt sich souverän beide Siege des vorletzten IDM-Laufes
Reiterberger confidently gets both victories of the penultimate IDM run
Theoretically, Markus Reiterberger could have taken it easy on the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, where the International German Motorcycling Championship held its penultimate event of the 2022 season this weekend, but the man from Obing did put all in and rode to victory twice. The 28-year-old already had the championship title in his pocket since visiting the IDM on the TT Circuit in Assen in the Netherlands. Reiti has previously struggled with the Red Bull Ring, and a victory was the clear goal for this weekend. But Reiterberger went one better and won both main prizes in Styria, Austria.
Florian Alt (Wilbers BMW Racing) didn't make it easy for Reiti. In an exciting first race, they swapped positions back and forth between second and third place during the first half of the race. Argentinian Leandro Mercado led the race at the beginning. In the chicane, on the last lap, Markus Reiterberger got ahead of his opponent Florian Alt and won the race with a lead of 0.477 seconds.
The Bavarian started the second race from position nine, because of the reverse grid from the middle. He had a very good start and was already second in the chicane, behind Mercado. In the so-called Rauch-turn, he took the lead on lap one and stayed there until the finish line. Alt finished second, just 0.669 seconds behind him. As in the first race, „Tati“ Mercado finished third.
Markus Reiterberger secured the one-two for himself and the BCC-alpha-Van Zon-BMW team at the Red Bull Ring, where he had previously struggled a bit, and is looking forward with confidence to the end of the season, that takes place from September 23rd to 25th at the Hockenheimring in Baden-Württemberg.
Markus Reiterberger:
“It was really a great weekend. I'm super happy because everything just went perfectly. The bike was set up so well, my team worked without any problems and made everything possible for me that I had achieved. I've always had a bit of trouble with the Red Bull Ring, last year I was only able to fight for second and third place. This year everything was just perfect and we have really good material now. In the second race I was pretty much on the limit, but in the end it was enough and Flo didn't manage to catch me, but he was also very strong this weekend. The first race was really fun, I think for the spectators too. A lot of friends and family have supported me here, which of course gives me some extra motivation. The race at the Red Bull Ring is like a second home race due to the distance to my home and I'm happy that it went so well. Now I am off to the season finale of the FIM Endurance World Championship in Le Castellet in France, where the 100th Bol d'Or takes place, and then we travel directly to the season finale of the IDM at the Hockenheimring. I hope that we will have twice as much to celebrate there.”