Having finished fourth in Supersport, Luca Göttlicher is now among the favourites in the IDM

Having only started the season at the second Euro Moto round in Brno due to injury, he secured his first podium finish at his second event, followed by two more. In the end, Luca Göttlicher finished fourth in the Euro Moto Supersport, although ‘best of the rest’ is a very good and apt description of this result. Apart from the 2026 champion and eight-time race winner Dirk Geiger and the runner-up Daniel Blin, who claimed five victories, only Lennox Lehmann (without a win) was a regular on the podium. Out of a total of 39 possible podium places, these three riders claimed 36. And whenever one of them wasn’t on the podium, Luca Göttlicher was there to fill the gap.

Touching the tarmac in Race 1

At the Euro-Moto finale in Hockenheim, the 19-year-old from Schwifting, riding his MV Agusta F3 800 RR for the LJ Racing / MC Augsburg e.V., was on form in both ADAC races and on the verge of spoiling the party for the big three, but ended up tripping himself up. “The whole weekend went pretty well. We did a very good job as a team again and I was always quite far up the field in all the practice sessions. But then came Race 1,” he reflected later on a missed opportunity.

He started from second on the grid and crashed on that very corner on the final lap; he picked himself up and at least managed to cross the line in ninth place. “I had good top speed all weekend. When I realised that Blin was slowing down a bit, I just wanted to finish the race without any stress or pressure. That would easily have been enough for second place. But then my front wheel slipped out from under me,” he explained later, describing the dreadful situation in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com.

Luca Göttlicher

Foto: Thorsten Horn

He added in more detail: “We had a good chassis set-up, but we struggled a bit with tyre management all weekend. We spent a lot of time in practice ensuring I’d have good grip throughout the race, but when I crashed, exactly what we’d feared happened. Because my front wheel was overloaded and we had quite a lot of tyre wear, in that crucial moment my rear wheel initially had little grip when braking, but then suddenly gave way whilst drifting. That was too much for the front wheel, so it just gave way. It wasn’t that I was defending like mad; it’s just that it could have happened like that at any point during the race.” In the second race, he crossed the finish line in fourth place for the fourth time this year, behind Geiger, Blin and Lehmann.

Negotiations for the 2027 IDM are underway

As one of four riders who have secured Supersport podium finishes this year – two of whom are leaving – he could set his sights on the championship title for 2027. He has already given this some thought and had this to say on the matter: “If we can pick up where we left off and keep working on our game, it’s definitely possible. I’ve already taken a huge step forward compared to last year and want to take another big step over the winter. Then I should be able to finish in the top three and, if necessary, fight for the title.”

He cannot yet say which team he’ll be with. “Having worked so well together this year, the team would like me to stay on. However, we’re still in negotiations. As I’m currently organising my plans for winter training, we haven’t yet discussed in detail how things will proceed.” Both Luca Göttlicher and LJ Racing have taken a big step towards the top this year, but motorsport isn’t always characterised by mutual gratitude and loyalty for ever and ever. And when interest in a driver and his market value rises, changes can occur in his case too. However, a financially lucrative offer isn’t the only thing that matters to Luca Göttlicher; he also wants to feel at home in his environment. And the prospects of success are more important to him “… than 5,000 euros one way or the other.”