German Moto Masters 2024 Race 3 & 4

The weather conditions were perfect, it was dry and we had an outside temperature of 21-26°C.

I had difficulties setting times from the very first turn. The problem was the feeling with the front wheel, it was difficult to hardly get around the corners with the bike and I was constantly carried out on the brakes when pushing, so I couldn't get on the gas early and hold or ride my line.

We laboriously improved turn by turn and tried something new each time, which took a lot of time and stress.

But the problem with holding the line and accelerating was not solved. We ended up in 5th position on the grid.

Race 1:

I started the race from P5. I got off to a good start and was able to move up to P4 in the first corner. Unfortunately, I didn't get out of this corner well, for the reasons I mentioned, so I was overtaken before a long high-speed left-hand bend. I tried to keep up as best I could, but immediately realized that my pushing wasn't helping and that I was making mistakes. So I rode more cautiously and lost a few meters on the rider in front of me, which gave an opponent behind me the chance to overtake me from the slipstream. However, I was able to fend off this attack and counterattacked straight back. After this move, I pushed again and closed the gap. I tried to gain momentum in the last corner to start the overtaking maneuver from the slipstream. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to accelerate early enough and missed out on P4 by 0.06sec. I therefore crossed the finish line in P5. Due to an overtaking in a yellow phase, which lasted the whole race in the first corner, I was classified as P4, as the actual fourth-placed driver received a time penalty. The times I was able to set in the first race under the conditions amounted to 1:41.5 min.

Interim info:

After the race we made some other changes to the bike, including the gearing and a different front tire with a harder compound. The test on race Sunday in the warm-up was immediately promising. The feeling was finally there and I was able to get on the gas early. With old tires I set a time of 1:41;0 with traffic right away. The setup was finally right!

Race 2:

I started the race again from 5th on the grid. I got away well again and positioned myself in P4 in the first corner, but was then overtaken straight back. Unfortunately, I was then one lap behind P4, which gave the leading pair a head start. I then moved up to P4 on lap 2 with a braking maneuver and closed the gap directly to P3. I overtook him from the slipstream on lap 3. The gap to the leading pair was now already 4.6 seconds. So I focused and pushed, which resulted in consistently low 1:40 times. I got closer lap by lap and was back on the leading pair with 4 laps to go. The two rivals in front of me overtook each other before the start and finish and lost speed as a result, so I was able to generate a surplus and overtake them both from the double slipstream. I then got ahead of them on the brakes. I was now leading the race and kept pushing. On the following laps, I set the fastest lap time of 1:39:815. On the last lap, however, I made a small mistake in the hairpin bend of the track, where I was lucky to catch the front wheel sliding off. My opponent got back within striking distance as a result. I heard his engine and tried to ride tighter radii to fend off an attack. In the last high-speed corner, I kept full throttle, but my bike bounced so much that I had to close the throttle. As a result of this action, my opponent was able to sit next to me with a slipstream on the brakes and overtook me in the penultimate corner. I squeezed in on the inside on the brakes for the last few meters and the last corner, but he cut the corner and rode in front of my front wheel, so I had to stop to prevent both riders from crashing. I crossed the finish line a little dejected in second place. But I was able to breathe a sigh of relief that we were finally back in the game.

The pace is right again as well as the setup for the bike and the season is finally back on track.