Another piece of the FIM Supersport World Championship grid has fallen into place with PTR Triumph Racing announcing their 2024 line-up. British star Tom Booth-Amos will move from Kawasaki to Triumph machinery next year as he links up with the British manufacturer, with the Brit joined by Ondrej Vostatek. The Czech rider retains his place after joining the team mid-season in 2023 to compete on the Triumph Street Triple 765 RS.
Booth-Amos has become a regular top-ten competitor since graduating from WorldSSP300. In 2022, his maiden WorldSSP campaign, he took a best of eighth in the season-ending Australian Round, his only top ten finish of the season. Returning with the Motozoo ME AIR Racing team for 2023, the #69 competed in the WorldSSP Challenge and won it, as well as finishing 15th in the Championship standings. Alongside this, he ran a dual British Supersport campaign and took second in the standings despite missing a round due to a clash.
Before this, the 27-year-old was in WorldSSP300 for two seasons in 2020 and 2021. He took one win in his rookie season as he finished sixth in the standings, before returning in 2021 to finish as the runner-up. Two wins and eight podiums came in his 13 races that season as he finished behind Adrian Huertas by 66 points.
Discussing his move to Triumph, Booth-Amos said: “I can’t thank Simon and Triumph enough for bringing me into the team for next year; I’ve been working hard for this kind of opportunity in my career for a long time, and we know PTR Triumph Racing has a strong package to offer. After the year I’ve had, I think this is the perfect way to move into the future and it’s exciting to be working with a British manufacturer with a British team. Hopefully we’ll be able to get out soon and try the new bike – I’m really looking forward to next season and seeing what we can do together.”
He will be joined by Czech rider Ondrej Vostatek for his second full season in WorldSSP, although he has appeared on and off in the Championship since 2021. He took two points finishes in 2021, his rookie year, with his best result at Most when on a Yamaha. He returned in 2022 for a full campaign with the MS Racing Yamaha WorldSSP squad, taking two tenth places at Estoril as his best. This year, he replaced Harry Truelove from the Czech Round onwards as he took points in five races out of the ten he competed in.
Reflecting on his re-signing with the team, Vostatek said: “It was a great opportunity to race with PTR Triumph Racing last year, and we made great progress. For the first two races I found it quite hard, but I started to work with my mind and tried adapting my riding style, listening to everyone around me, and I was able to take my first points. I improved in every race so far, so this gives me a lot of motivation to keep working on myself, improving the riding on the bike and I believe we can achieve good things next year. I really see a big potential in the bike, not just for a top 10 but to win a World Championship. I think everyone in Triumph and the team wants to be on the top step and I will do everything I can to help them achieve it. With PTR Triumph Racing we already have some good memories in this short time. I like those guys, they are amazing, they are working really hard and I’m really looking forward to 2024. My objective is to be in the top 10 in every race, but of course we want to push further than that to be the best we can.”
Team Manager Simon Buckmaster said: “We are really pleased to announce our PTR Triumph Racing line-up for next season. Ondrej Vostatek completed a number of races with us towards the end of last year, and we saw a fantastic progression with him. I’m really confident that the work we’ve done with him so far is better than any testing we could have done to put ourselves in a really good position for the 2024 season. Ondrej is a great guy to work with; he’s just 19 years old and we’re really looking forward to seeing him progress further. We’re very optimistic of a good season for him. We’re also excited to sign Tom Booth-Amos. We’ve been watching him all year, and he’s a quiet guy until you get to talk to him; he’s so focussed and so concentrated on doing his best to be able to challenge for a win, and that’s what we want as a team. Winning is our goal too and it’s what our bike is capable of. It’s a really strong line-up for next season, and we’re really happy to be working with Triumph Racing on their whole racing programme from the British Championship, to the TT and so on. As PTR Racing, it’s an honour to be working with Triumph and we’re looking forward to going racing next year.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com