Erwan Nigon podiums at Nurburgring IDM

Erwan Nigon raced to a podium position with third place overall at the weekend’s fourth round of the German IDM Superbike championship at Nurburgring.

The Frenchman, who was drafted into the HPC Power Suzuki Racing Team to ride injured Vincent Philippe’s GSX-R1000, scored third and fourth places as frequent rain showers plagued both Superbike and Supersport races.

After claiming third place in Sunday’s opening race, Nigon said: “I am told there hasn’t been a Suzuki on the podium in the Superbike class for quite some time so I’m delighted with this result.” The second race got underway in dry conditions, but the rain soon returned and the race red-flagged. On the restart, Nigon began the resumed action lying runner-up but on combined time was classified fourth.

Suzuki’s Supersport 600 riders had mixed fortunes: Vittorio Iannuzzo rode a lonely race to take fourth position in race one, but slid-off in the second. The Italian HPC Power Suzuki Team rider said: “I definitely had ambitions for the second race but it seems I was over the limit.”

Team Suzuki Stoneline-Mayer’s Tatu Lauslehto looked excellent in Saturday´s qualifying and started the race from the front row, but rain eventually prevented a good result for the Finn. He said: “We couldn’t gather experience regarding our rain set-up beforehand. The settings were not ideal and I had to be content finishing sixth.”

Sarah Heide (Team Suzuki Laux ADAC Sachsen) finished both of her races; the 26-year-old scoring 10th and seventh positions as Christian Stange (HPC Power Suzuki Team) finished fifth and eighth.

The next round of the IDM Superbike series is held in Schleiz on July 20th.

Result Superbike race 1: 1. Damian Cudlin (Kawasaki), 2. Xavi Forés (Ducati), 3. Erwan Nigon (Suzuki), 4. Markus Reiterberger (BMW), 5. Michael Ranseder (Honda), 6. Danny de Boer (Honda), 7. Stefan Nebel (BMW), 8. Marco Nekvasil (BMW), 9. Lucy Glöckner (BMW), 10. Marc Neumann (BMW).

Result Superbike race 2: 1. Max Neukirchner (Ducati), 2. Markus Reiterberger (BMW), 3. Xavi Forés (Ducati), 4. Erwan Nigon (Suzuki), 5. Danny de Boer (Honda), 6. Stefan Nebel (BMW), 7. Lucy Glöckner (BMW), 8. Marc Moser (Ducati), 9. Dominik Vincon (BMW), 10. Marc Neumann (BMW).

Superbike Championship Standings (after 6 of 16 races): 1. Xavi Forés 177 Points, 2. Max Neukirchner 146, 3. Markus Reiterberger 137, 4. Stefan Nebel 73, 5. Bastien Makels 70, 6. Damian Cudlin 67, 7. Danny de Boer 64, 8. Erwan Nigon (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 59, 9. Matej Smrz 58, 10. Michael Ranseder 54.

Result Supersport race 1: 1. Roman Stamm (Kawasaki), 2. Marvin Fritz (Yamaha), 3. Stefan Kerschbaumer (Yamaha), 4. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Suzuki), 5. Christian Stange (Suzuki), 6. Tatu Lauslehto (Suzuki), 7. Jasha Huber (Kawasaki), 8. Kostiantyn Pisarev (Yamaha), 9. Christian von Gunten (Kawasaki), 10. Sarah Heide (Suzuki).

Result Supersport race 2: 1. Roman Stamm (Kawasaki), 2. Stefan Kerschbaumer (Yamaha), 3. Marvin Fritz (Yamaha), 4. Pepijn Bijsterbosch (Yamaha), 5. Kostiantyn Pisarev (Yamaha), 6. Christian von Gunten (Kawasaki), 7. Sarah Heide (Suzuki), 8. Christian Stange (Suzuki), 9. Jasha Huber (Kawasaki), 10. Michael Ghilardi (Yamaha).


Related Motorsport Articles

84,521 articles