HOME HERO TOM BOOTH-AMOS TAKES DOUBLE WORLD SUPERSPORT PODIUM AT DONINGTON
PTR Triumph’s Tom Booth-Amos celebrated a superb weekend at Donington Park with a double podium on home soil. He secured two hard-fought second places aboard the Triumph Street Triple 765. Meanwhile, teammate Oli Bayliss showed strong pace and positive steps forward.
Round seven of the FIM World Supersport Championship took place in glorious sunshine at the team’s home circuit, Donington Park.
Booth-Amos lined up seventh on the grid for Saturday’s race. Teammate Oli Bayliss started from 14th. Both riders made strong starts, quickly working their way through the field. They improved on their qualifying positions. By lap six, Booth-Amos had hit the front ahead of Stefano Manzi, and the pair began to break away from the chasing pack.
Bayliss was also making impressive progress and had just set the seventh-fastest lap of the race. However, he unfortunately crashed out of P7 while battling for a top six finish.
At the front, a breathtaking battle developed between Booth-Amos and Manzi, with the pair trading fastest laps and positions. It was an intense fight for the lead. Determined to deny the Brit a home win, Manzi made several aggressive overtakes. This eventually forced a mistake from Booth-Amos, who was handed a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits.
He served the LLP on the final lap. Such was the pace of the leading duo that Booth-Amos was still able to hold on for a brilliant second-place finish in front of his home crowd. He took back third in the championship standings.
Sunday’s race was slightly cooler but still hot. Booth-Amos dropped back one position off the start. The leading duo came together with Manzi running wide. Booth-Amos capitalised to pass Can Öncü and hit the front. The Brit showed incredible pace and led for much of the race. Then Öncü made his move with four laps to go and the home hero had to settle for second. He rounded out an impressive weekend. Bayliss crossed the line in 12th to collect more championship points.
Tom Booth-Amos, PTR Triumph Factory Racing #69:
“I was happy enough with Saturday’s race, obviously to get a podium at home – also for the team and Triumph – is very special so I’m happy with that but just a little bit disappointed that I didn’t manage to get the victory. I’m a bit gutted that I didn’t get the win today, I used all of the tyre and that was that. I knew Can was going to attack, I’ve known him a long time and I knew he was going to try to get the win and he did so fair play. It’s always nice to be on the podium at home, hopefully we can carry the momentum on to Hungary.”
Oli Bayliss, PTR Triumph Factory Racing #32:
“Yesterday was a bit of an unfortunate race. I felt really good and comfortable on the bike and then had a bit of a crash. Sorry to my team and everyone but we have a lot of positives to take. Today was a bit of a difficult race. I got a good start and first lap but I just got dropped and couldn’t catch up to the group. I struggled a little bit with grip and was just in salvage mode for the race. We’ll try again in two weeks.”
Next round: Round eight: Balaton Park, Hungary, 25 – 27 July.