Schleiz: Retired racer Jörg Teuchert takes a podium place on his Yamaha R1

Since retiring from motorsport, Jörg Teuchert’s main focus has actually been cycling. However, every now and then, the man in his late fifties takes to the track on his motorbike, where he passes on his knowledge as an instructor. There, though, the focus is more on things like braking behaviour and corner apexes. So when the International Bike Promotion Championship stopped off at the Schleizer Dreieck last weekend, Teuchert decided to swap his role as a ‘fan boy’ for that of a ‘retired racer’.

Riding his Yamaha R1, the Franconian set off on the short journey from Hersbruck to Schleiz in Thuringia. Meanwhile, his wife Uli took over the bike shop, and his daughters Sina and Jenny had more important things to do than cheer on their dad. So Teuchert managed his race outing as a one-man show. “I can sort out the catering myself,” he assured us, “and there wasn’t much tinkering to do. I just wanted to ride a motorbike again; it wasn’t about the perfect set-up.”

After practice, Teuchert – whose world championship title now dates back 26 years – secured a place on row 2 with the sixth-fastest time. And anyone who knows Jörg Teuchert knows that he doesn’t take part just for a laugh. If possible, a trophy should be within reach. In the end, he secured two. For third place in Race 1 behind Freddie Heinrich and Norick Tschauder. Heinrich was disqualified from Race 2 for unsportsmanlike behaviour and Tschauder cruised to an unchallenged victory. Teuchert had finished second ahead of Kevin Michel.

The will was there, but the body was too weak.

Jörg Teuchert

“The day after, your bones are naturally aching,” explained Teuchert after the weekend. “I would have liked to have gone a bit faster. My mind was willing – and I do know what a 1.26-minute lap feels like at Schleiz – but my body was too weak. I managed to stay on Tschauder’s tail for three corners. But I simply lacked the strength for the section after the Buchhübel. By the time we were heading down towards the town, at the very latest, I realised just how bloody exhausting it is. You can’t recover for a single second on the track. In contrast, Oschersleben, for example, is pure relaxation. Then there’s the constant change of direction at full throttle. It could certainly be done a second faster, but not with my body.”

Memories of the IDM years come flooding back

“Back in 2012, I clocked a time of 1.26 minutes on the BMW in the IDM,” says Teuchert, recalling various races at Schleiz. “In 2004, I was about as fast as I am now. And that was over 20 years ago now. I won the over-50s class by a clear margin this weekend. But no, I’m not thinking about a comeback of any kind. I’d brought some new tyres especially for Sunday, but that didn’t make the slightest difference. I started with a 1.31 min in the first practice session and ended up with a 1.29.8 min. And that was it – I couldn’t go any faster. I did it for myself, after all, and I’ve got nothing to prove. When you’ve got to be back at the shop on a Monday, common sense naturally kicks in.”

Teuchert didn’t have much to do in Schleiz. A bit of cleaning and a thorough check of everything. Nothing more. “On Sunday, I borrowed some tools from Tim Holtz’s dad to bleed the brakes,” he explains. “That helped a bit. But I had those endurance brake pads fitted and had to pull the lever like a bull when braking. Going through the fast corners, I thought I was going to rip the lever off.”