A weekend full of spectacular motorbike racing in St. Wendel
Exciting race action delighted fans at the ADAC SuperMoto and Grand Prix of Germany.
From 16 to 18 August 2024, St. Wendel was once again in the spotlight as the venue for the Supermoto World Championship and the Grand Prix of Germany world championship race. 7,000 fans came to St. Wendel for the three-day event in Wendelinuspark to experience the best supermoto riders live as they drifted around the bends at maximum lean, chased through the off-road sections with daring jumps, and fought for the top position.
The combination of one-third off-road and two-thirds asphalt requires the drivers to give their all and makes supermoto one of the most exciting motorbike racing series. The motorbikes are based on endurance or motorcross bikes, but are fitted with road-racing tyres and are specially adapted to the requirements of supermoto.
S1 Grand Prix of Germany: world champion Schmidt dominant
The highlight for spectators was the S1 class races, presented as the Grand Prix of Germany and counting towards the world championship. The drivers delighted audiences with exciting battles for the overall win and thus also to lead the Supermoto World Championship.
In the first race on Saturday evening, the reigning supermoto world champion Marc Reiner Schmidt (#1) secured first place, followed by Italian racer Elia Sammartin (#32) and Steve Bonnal (#3) of France.
The superfinal on Sunday evening was then equally exciting: Marc Reiner Schmidt started the race from the second row of the grid, but managed to reach the front of the field on the second lap. He retained this lead throughout to beat Thomas Chareyre (#4, France) and Steve Bonnal. Marc Reiner Schmidt has thus increased his world championship lead to 36 points over Thomas Chareyre and is leading the overall rankings with 364 points.
ADAC Saarland’s protégé driver Tim Szalai (#13) finished seventh in the first race on Saturday, then tenth in the superfinal. Eddy Frech was able to celebrate being the fastest rookie, gaining eighth place on Saturday and fifth in the superfinal.
Supermoto World Championship
The S2, S3, S4, S5, Youngster and Ü40 Cup races were also held on the same racing weekend.
There was a very special guest on the starting line for the Ü40 class: Dirk Spaniol, who completed his final German championship race at this same venue seven years ago, celebrated his comeback in the Ü40 class. And a successful one – he was the first over the finish line in the first race. Unfortunately, he was stripped of the win, as he did not cross the second line in the end-of-finish zone. He did not make the same mistake in the second race, and found himself on the top of the podium for the second time.
In the S4 final, it was Christian Reiß who instead made this mistake. Although he confidently retained the lead and was the first across the finish line, the win went to Nicola Thier.
In the S2 class, Falk Greiner once again stood on the top of the podium, thus increasing his lead in the German championship.
The two winners in the S3 class were Max Böttcher and Philipp Laupus. In both races, a youngster crossed the finish line first.
Full details of the Grand Prix can be found at supermotos1gp.com and the Supermoto World Championship at supermotoidm.de