First IDM Superbike Season Ends with a Double Top Ten
Last weekend brought the final IDM Superbike event of the season. Team Apreco rider Twan Smits delivered another solid result, closing out a consistent season in style. Smits scored points in every race this year, securing a well-earned eighth place in the final standings.
Friday's schedule featured two free practice sessions and Pre-Superpole. Poor weather in the morning led Smits to sit out the session rather than take unnecessary risks. Conditions improved for the rest of the weekend, and in second free practice Smits posted an 11th-fastest 1'27.518, 1.540 seconds off the pace.
Times dropped further in Pre-Superpole, where a 1'26.110 was good enough for direct passage into Superpole 2. Saturday morning's third free practice ran in wet conditions, where Smits was fifth fastest with a 1'40.755. The track had dried by Superpole, and Smits set his best qualifying result of the year — fifth, just 0.433 seconds off pole.
Race one was stopped with a red flag; after the restart, run over five laps, the Team Apreco rider crossed the line ninth, with half points awarded because of the shortened distance. In the final race of the season he took sixth, just 3.5 seconds behind the winner — a result that reflected the season's upward trend.
With 102.5 points, Smits closed out his debut IDM Superbike season eighth overall, having scored points in every single race.
"We closed out the IDM season in the best possible way and took a big step toward the front group," Smits said. "For the first time we were that close to the leaders for a whole race. In race one a sensor fault caused throttle problems, but we'd fixed it by race two and I could show our strong race pace. I brought the gap to the leader down from five seconds to three and a half in the closing stages. It's a shame the season is over, but it gives us the chance to keep developing the package and myself as a rider, and to make big steps on the competition. I can't wait."
