Last weekend Reiti was able to get a breath of fresh air again. As part of the Dunlop tyre test team, he took part in the Spanish Superbike Championship and managed to win the Open classification in both races.
On Thursday mixed conditions ruled the day in Motorland Aragón, ranging from rain to hail to sunshine. The free practice was not scored that day. The most important point this weekend was, of course, to test the Dunlop tyres.
Unfortunately, Reiti had a bit of bad luck in qualifying on Saturday. With a technical defect in the first lap, he was only able to qualify for a 21st place on the grid. The error that led to this defect could be found and corrected quickly. After a great start to the first race, which again took place under mixed conditions, the choice of intermediate tyres and his good performance secured the Bavarian fourth place in the overall classification and first place in the open one.
In the warm-up before the second race, things did not go ideal for the 26-year-old, and Reiti's crew decided to completely rebuild the motorcycle again before the start of race two. The start of race two showed that it was the right decision. Reiterberger was able to make up two places and found himself in second place. In this position he also finished the race - and in the Open classification he was right at the top of the podium again.
Markus Reiterberger does not allow himself a break, because since today he is testing together with the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team of his manager Werner Daemen and the WorldSBK Team from BMW on the Spanish race track in Navarra.
Markus Reiterberger:
“On Thursday we were pretty good at it, both in the dry and in the wet. But this was just a not timed free practice. On Friday the practice took place with timekeeping. But we are there as a Dunlop tyre test team and the most important thing here is to test the tyres. On Saturday in qualifying I unfortunately had a technical defect on the first lap and couldn't improve. I then had to start the first race from 21st place on the grid. The start was great though. On the intermediates we advanced to P4 under mixed conditions. That gave me a good starting position for the second race. I didn't get along so well in the warm-up and we completely rebuilt the bike again before the second race went underway. Right at the start I was able to make up two positions. But since I then had a few problems accelerating out of the corners, I kept the P2 in the end. I won the open ranking both times. Before I can go back to the ESBK, I still have a few tyre tests ahead of me on Dunlop's home track in Miravel, and that's the focus of my work. I would like to thank Dunlop, BMW and my team for giving me this opportunity. I will stay in Spain until Wednesday because I am testing with the EWC team and the WorldSBK pilots in Navarra."