Markus Venus: “I’ve covered many kilometres and gained valuable experience”

Ahead of the final two races of the Sidecar World Championship in Oschersleben in early October, Markus Venus (44) had set himself and his Swiss passenger Thomas Hofer the target of finishing 8th or 7th in the final standings. But things turned out differently. On his way to the Magdeburg Börde on Thursday, the man from Pfarrkirchen received some terrible news that forced him to turn back immediately.

Back on the racetrack for the first time since his father’s death

On Friday morning came the sad confirmation: Venus’s father Karl had died in hospital at the age of 89. Now there were more important things for Markus Venus than motor racing.

More than a month later, Markus Venus and his passenger Thomas Hofer were back in the 600cc LCR sidecar last weekend. Three days of intensive training at the Pannonia-Ring in Hungary, situated approximately 130 km south-east of Vienna, were on the agenda for the ITW Racing (Industrie-Technik Werth) team. The aim: to gain experience by riding, riding, riding.

Venus: “I’m still struggling with a lack of experience when it comes to road racing. When it comes to track racing sidecars, nobody can beat me. I know all the tracks and know how to ride on grass and sand. In contrast, I simply haven’t clocked up enough kilometres in a sidecar on the road yet, so I need to ride a lot and rack up the kilometres. That’s why the test days in Hungary were ideal for us.”

The planned three days ended up being just two, as that was enough. “We rode more than we’d originally thought,” said the 44-year-old from Lower Bavaria in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com, “we were able to do eight 30-minute sessions on the 4.7-kilometre track; that was great training for Thomas and me, and of course for the whole team. Unlike here, you don’t have time to test anything unusual during the races. So we were able to gain a lot of insights for next season.”

8th place in the 2026 World Championship

Right up until the final two races at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben in Saxony-Anhalt, Venus/Hofer had every reason to be satisfied with how the 2026 Sidecar World Championship was going. The duo finished seven out of eight rounds in the top 10, with their best result being 8th place in the main race at Rijeka. They aim to build on this in the coming season.

The schedule for the 2027 season has now been finalised. In addition to the customary World Championship finale at the Sidecar Festival in Oschersleben, the team is delighted to be racing at the Schleizer Dreieck again in early August.