Mikhalchik seals third title for his team
The season finale at the Hockenheimring was full of emotions for the EGS-alpha-Van Zon-BMW team. Werner Daemen’s Belgian-German crew traveled to the Baden-Württemberg race track with the championship title in their pockets. For Ilya Mikhalchick (UKR), who won the title for the team for the third time this year (2018, 2019 and 2021), it should be a relaxed weekend at the Hockenheimring, where traditionally the final of the IDM – International German Motorcycle Championship always takes place. Jan Mohr (AUT), Pepijn Bijsterbosch (NED) and Tim Eby (GER) also gained plenty of strength for the two races on Sunday after good practice sessions and qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday. The first race started with starting positions four (Mikhalchik), five (Mohr), 16 (Bijsterbosch) and 25 (Eby). The team had their first retirement in lap three when Pepijn Bijsterbosch was involved in a crash. The Dutchman was able to return his bike to the pits, but the race was over for him. Jan Mohr got off to a good start from his best starting position of the year. On lap four his team-mate Mikhalchik had already taken the lead in front of Florian Alt, Vladimir Leonov and Markus Reiterberger when the race had to be stopped due to an oil spill and various crashes that followed. EGS-alpha-Van Zon-BMW rider Tim Eby was amongst those who fell. The 27-year-old was taken to the medical center with suspected concussion and had to be flown to the hospital in Ludwigshafen by helicopter to rule out head injuries. After an extensive check, however, no injuries were found. Eby has to stay in the hospital overnight for observation.
After the restart of the first race, Ilya Mikhalchik had a heavy highside crash and went down between Vladimir Leonov, Markus Reiterberger and Florian Alt. The Ukrainian was very lucky that he only got away with a few bruises, but it ended the race for him too. A short time later, team-mate Jan Mohr also had bad luck. He lost the front in the fight for position six and he too left this race without any points. No rider of the team was able to finish the first race.
The second race in the afternoon went better for the team. Ilya Mikhalchik finished it as the new German champion in fifth place. In a small ceremony at the end of the race, he celebrated his third title in the series with two doubles, which supported him in front of a well-filled grandstand in the Sachs corner and represented the other two titles. Jan Mohr crossed the finish line in eighth place in the second race and finished the season in 14th place overall. Pepijn Bijsterbosch finished 14th in the second race today and concludes his IDM season 2021 in 16th place. The EGS-alpha-Van Zon-BMW team wishes their fourth riders Tim Eby a speedy recovery.
Ilya Mikhalchik will get back to business tomorrow. He and his EWC team-mate Markus Reiterberger will be testing on the Czech race track in Most for the season finale of the endurance world championship in just two weeks time. All other riders deserve a little break now.
Yesterday the provisional calendar for the IDM – International German Motorcycle Championship 2022 was announced. According to it, the new season will start in May 2022 at the Lausitzring.
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