Double Donington Delight for Tom Booth-Amos and PTR Triumph Factory Racing

It’s been a weekend to remember for Tom Booth-Amos and the PTR Triumph Factory Racing team, where the home-hero secured the double winning both FIM Supersport World Championship races aboard the Triumph Street Triple 765 RS.

Having secured the third fastest time in Saturday’s Superpole, Booth-Amos was demoted six grid places following a penalty and lined up for the opening race of the weekend just behind his PTR teammate Bayliss in ninth. 

With a strong home crowd behind him and 19 laps of the 2.49-mile Donington circuit ahead of him, Booth-Amos got his head down from the start. Using the power of his Street Triple 765, the local rider soon had made up places and on the third lap was up into seventh and secured his first fastest lap of the race (1’29.097).

As the laps ticked down Booth-Amos continued to make his way through the pack putting in some carefully executed moves on his Supersport rivals and with 10 laps remaining he was in podium contention.

With just two riders ahead of him, #69 made the most of the pair trading places and stormed past to take the lead. Not looking back Booth-Amos checked out, leaving his rivals chasing the tail of his Street Triple 765 RS. Giving the home crowd a spectacular show Booth-Amos crossed the line taking the win by 2.4s ahead of Albert Arenas, in what was his 100th race start.

Meanwhile for Bayliss it was a seventh place finish after a small mistake on lap two cost him valuable ground where he dropped back to 10th. Maintaining a consistent pace throughout, Bayliss started to reel in the group ahead where he crossed the line seventh, securing solid championship points.

Sunday’s 19-lap race once again took place in near perfect conditions at the Leicestershire track and having secured the fastest lap in the race (1'28.919) Booth-Amos lined up in pole position. Off the line Booth-Amos was pushed back to fourth, but by the end of the opening lap he was back up to third. 

The rest of the race was a frantic battle with Oncu and Arenas as the trio fought for the podium spots. On lap ninth lap the home crowd once again roared as Booth-Amos took the lead, however there was drama on the following lap where Oncu and Booth-Amos touched with the PTR rider being pushed back to fourth.

Following the incident, Oncu was demoted a place, however the Triumph rider made an incredible comeback much to the crowd and PTR teams’ delight. Chasing down the group ahead and keen to clinch a second win of the weekend Booth-Amos harnessed the power of the Street Triple to pick of his rivals one by one to once again lead the race. 

Once back in the lead there was no stopping the Shropshire rider who stormed once again to victory at Donington Park making history as the first-ever British rider to win two World Supersport races in one weekend. The two race wins now see Booth-Amos fifth in the overall championship standings.

Meanwhile for Bayliss today continued to be challenging, starting the race from 10th on the grid he had a good start off the line and started to bridge the gap to the group ahead. However a small mistake caused by another rider saw the Australian lose positions and struggling with grip he dropped back to eventually cross the line 16th.

The team now look forward to the Summer break until the next round of the championship at Magny Cours on 4-6 September.

“I’m over the moon with this weekend. As a rider, you dream of winning at home so to do it twice and do the double is something special. I had a good bike underneath me, Triumph, the team, everyone has done a great job to help make it happen, so thank you to everyone.”

“It wasn’t our best weekend - struggling with a few things. We had a strong start, everything felt okay but we had a small mistake caused by another rider which then hindered our progress and from there everything became a bit more difficult with the hot temperatures and the tyre drop off. Tom rode a great race, I’m really happy for him and the double win. Now we’ve got almost two months off and then we’ll be back at Magny Cours.”