The 3C Racing Team riders laid the cornerstone for this dream result in the Superpole qualification on Saturday afternoon. Xavi Forés secured pole position with a time of 1:36.824 ahead of Max Neukirchner and Lorenzo Lanzi. The front line of the grid was thus completely occupied by the 3C Racing Team – one marque, one team, three nationalities. That has never happened before in the history of the IDM.

After the 3C trio got off to a superb start in the race on Sunday morning, spectators at the Circuit van Drenthe in Assen were treated to an exciting contest, in which positions changed hands several times. Right from lap one, Xavi Forés started to put daylight between himself and a chasing group made up of Max Neukirchner, Lorenzo Lanzi and Markus Reiterberger (BMW). The Spaniard steadily extended his lead and his sixth victory of the season was never really in doubt. The neck-a-neck battle between the pursuing pack was only decided on the penultimate lap, when both Ducati riders managed to overtake defending champion Markus Reiterberger and turn the race into a perfect Ducati triumph.

The customary second leg of the Superbike meeting had to be called off for reasons of safety after torrential rain flooded parts of the course in just a matter of minutes.

Max Neukirchner: "That's a great result for the team. I was involved in a tough scrap with Markus Reiterberger. He had a slight advantage on the long straights, but I was able to make up for that in the last sector. It's just a pity that the second race was cancelled. I'm sure that I could have kept up with Xavi with a little more luck at the start."

Team boss Karsten Jerschke: "Three Ducati riders on the rostrum is a dream result. I never expected to achieve it so soon, especially as it was only the second outing on the bike for Lorenzo. This result in Assen demonstrates that we have quickly become a force to be reckoned in motorbike racing with our technical know-how and manpower."

The next SUPERBIKE*IDM meeting will be held at the Lausitzring from 12th to 14th September 2014. It will be a premiere. Germany's highest road bike racing series will hold a joint meeting with cars for the first time. Riders in the Superbike and Superstock 1000 classes will start as part of the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) event.

Watched by an enthusiastic crowd of almost 25,000 spectators at temperatures in excess of 30°C, Max Neukirchner achieved two start-to-finish victories. He won the first race with a lead of 11.469 seconds over Xavi Forés, the second by a 5.9 second margin. Xavi Forés still heads the overall leader board in the Superbike class and added another 40 points to his tally in Schleiz. Team colleague Max Neukirchner extended his lead over Markus Reiterberger (BMW) by 9 points to 27 in all.

It could hardly have been a better debut for new 3C team rider Lorenzo Lanzi as the Italian had only had a single day to get to know the Panigale. The team, the bike and the layout of the course (with 14 bends spread over 3.805 kilometres and run in anticlockwise direction) were all uncharted territory for Lanzi. However, he soon found the right line along the corn fields and past the residential estates in Schleiz, and was rewarded for his efforts with fourth place in the second race.

Max Neukirchner: "They were two hard-fought races, although I lastly managed to win both with a bit to spare. At the end of the first race I slowed down a little, so as not to take any risks when lapping the back markers."

Xavi Forés: "The truth is that Max was in better form than me this weekend. Nevertheless, I'm still delighted to collect another 40 championship points."

The next round of the SUPERBIKE*IDM will be held from 8th to 10th August 2014 in Assen (NL).

Despite his experience in the Superbike World Championship, having finished seventh in 2007, Lanzi is now entering unknown territory. Although he knows the marque well having been a Ducati rider for many years, this will be his premiere on an 1199 Panigale R. The team are holding a one-day practice session at the etropolis Motorsport Arena Oschersleben before he makes his SUPERBIKE*IDM debut at the Schleizer Dreieck course.

The 3C Racing Team has registered Lorenzo Lanzi as a permanent rider in Germany's top motorbike road racing series, so he is eligible to win points. After his debut at the beginning of the second half of the season on the Schleizer Dreieck track (18th to 20th July 2014), he will go on to race in Assen, on the Lausitzring course and in Hockenheim.

The third rider in the team is also expected to be in the fight for places on the victors' rostrum. His colleagues Forés and Neukirchner lead the championship after four from eight events with 177 and 146 points respectively.

Apart from its commitment to sport on two wheels, the high-tech 3C-Carbon company based in Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria primarily uses the SUPERBIKE*IDM as a platform to develop new structural components made of carbon fibre and similar light materials. The aim is to test these under hard competitive conditions, in order to use the knowledge gained for series production at a later date.

In a completely rained-out Superpole, Max Neukirchner rode to start position two and Xavi Forés to start position eight. The first race was already over for Max Neukirchner at the second corner after loosing the front wheel. Xavi Forés, on the other hand, inched his way forward bit by bit and was able to pass the chequered flag after 18 laps in second place behind surprise winner Australian Damian Cudlin (Kawasaki).

Race two became a triumph for Max Neukirchner, although Xavi Forés had the more promising posi-tion to start with. The race was stopped in the 11th round due to the onset of rain. After the bikes were changed over to rain tyres, the race was restarted over a further six laps. Now, Max Neukirchner ran the 3.618 kilometre sprint in top form and was the first to cross the finishing line. In the end, Forés finished third after the results of the two sessions were added together.  

After four out of eight events, Forés and Neukirchner confidently lead in the Superbike Championship with 177 and 146 championship points, respectively. From 18th – 20th July 2014, the second half of the SUPER BIKE * IDM season will start at the Schleizer Dreieck in Thuringia.

Forés put distance between himself and his pursuers right from the first lap in both races and broke his best time from practice several times. He set a new course record of 1:25.303 min on the superbike.

"That was a perfect weekend for me. Even so, we had to work hard during practice to fine-tune the Ducati's suspension system to the course. It was beneficial that we were here for training a week ago because we didn't have any electronic data up to that point in time."

His team colleague Max Neukirchner battled with Markus Reiterberger (BMW) for the minor places. Reiterberger was able to fend off the attacks of the man from Saxony during the first race, but Neukirchner got past the Bavarian on the 11th lap and quickly started to build up a respectable gap. However, the 17 lap race had to be stopped with the red flag in the 13th lap because a rider had fallen and his bike lay in the middle of the course. The second run was something of a déjà-vu between Neukirchner and Reiterberger, only in reverse.
 
After three SUPERBIKE*IDM meetings (two races are run at each), the 3C Racing Team riders head the overall leader board in the German superbike championship. Forés leads the pack with 141 points, followed by Neukirchner in second place with 121 points. 

The countdown to the next meeting has already begun. The team lines up for the start at the Nürburgring this coming weekend, 28th – 29th June 2014.