Booth-Amos crashes out of Race One and Vostatek retires

The weather once again threw everything it had at the FIM Supersport World Championship at Assen, starting with a wet morning warm up followed by another downpour just as the pit lane opened for race one in the afternoon.

With the first half of the track dry and the second half wet, tyre choice was a dilemma but with the skies clearing, the decision was taken for Tom Booth-Amos to go with the slick tyre both front and rear for the 18-lap race.

Booth-Amos got a good start but with the tricky conditions making the first laps particularly difficult, the British rider was caught out and slid off at turn 8 on the first lap.

Tom Booth-Amos: “I just got caught out and slid off.  There’s not really anything else to say. I’m not hurt so we will get another chance to go again tomorrow.”

Teammate Ondrej Vostatek opted for a wet front and a slick rear and despite a good start, the Czech rider found it difficult to manage the tyre and felt uncomfortable in the mixed conditions.  The young rider couldn’t make an improvement and pulled in on lap nine of the 18-lap race.

Ondrej Vostatek: “We tried to figure out which tyre we wanted to use.  There was lots of water in the third and last sector.  In the first laps I was feeling a big disadvantage and I wasn’t able to lean the bike.  I was waiting for a dry line but it was not enough and it was really difficult so then I retired because I couldn’t see a chance to get any points.”

PTR Triumph Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: “At the start of the race we had to decide what tyres to use.  We went slicks front and back, you can’t say it was the wrong choice because Huertas and Manzi had slicks front and back and finished first and second. Caricasulo set the fastest lap also on slicks front and back.  Tom just got caught out and slid off otherwise it would have paid off it’s as simple as that.  So we just have to put it behind us.  With Ondrej, he has no confidence in the wet and he just couldn’t get into the race and pulled in.  We’ve got the pace, the dice is just not rolling for us at the moment. We will look to tomorrow to get the result that the team and everyone that is working so hard deserves.”

Second flag-to-flag race proves costly for PTR Triumph in Assen

The first rain of the day impacted the second FIM Supersport World Championship race this afternoon at Assen in the Netherlands.  The sun was shining until the moment the Supersport bikes lined up on the grid when heavy rain once again lashed the circuit.

Britain’s Tom Booth-Amos started the 18-lap race from P12 on the fourth row of the grid with slick tyres, as did the rest of the field, and rather than change to wet weather tyres after the first lap, he elected to wait to see if the rain would stop.  The gamble didn’t pay off and Booth-Amos pitted after three laps.  This left him too much ground to make up despite his top six pace in the remaining laps and he finally crossed the line in P17.

Tom Booth-Amos: “Just gutted to be honest. I had the pace for top three really, we’ve looked through it and I could have got a podium easy if I’d pitted before but stupidly I stayed out and made that mistake. Yesterday was just one of them things, we checked the data and it looks like I hit a bit of a bigger wet patch then everywhere else, I was on the inside of everyone but…   I’m just gutted for the team and everyone, the only thing we can do is have a break and start again.”

Ondrej Vostatek did enter the pitlane earlier than his teammate but even with the wet weather tyres, the Czech rider still couldn’t find the pace in the tricky conditions.  The 19-year-old finished the race in P27.

Ondrej Vostatek: “My feeling on the dry tyres was good and I was expecting I would be able to fight for the points even though my starting point was not so good. When we started I knew already this was going to be a wet race so in the second lap, when the situation was worse, I went to the box for a change.  I know that my skill in the wet is not as good as it is on a dry track so I took this race as a learning experience to get a good feeling on the Triumph in the wet. The next race is in Misano, I tested there and it was good so I think we can make a really good result in Italy.”

PTR Triumph Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: “What can we say, we tried to get the results and it’s not happened again.  I suppose yesterday if he’d not fallen off on the first lap, Tom would have been right to stay out but I must admit I thought he would stop straight away and we had discussed with him to stop straight away. He can see what is going on and he stayed out too long it’s as simple as that. He had the pace for a top five result, you can see that from the lap times, from the sectors.  That doesn’t matter, we haven’t got any points there’s nothing we can do about it we can only know that it is going to happen.  That’s three rounds gone, there is nothing we can do but put it behind us.  In the case of Ondrej, he just doesn’t have the confidence in the rain at the moment.  In warm up this morning he looked a lot better for a dry race. It wasn’t a dry race and he doesn’t yet have the confidence to put a really good wet race together.  Thanks to the guys, everybody tried their best.  We have a great team but it hasn’t happened, we just have to look to Misano.  Before that we are doing a wild card race in British Supersport at Donington which is good testing time for us for the World Championship race there so we’re looking forward to meeting the British fans and sorry to everyone that we didn’t get the results.”