Tom Booth-Amos crashes out of Race One. Ondrej Vostatek improves for P19.

PTR Triumph’s Tom Booth-Amos crashed out of today’s race one at Misano with a spectacular highside at turn 14 on lap four of the 18-lap race.  

Having a three-position grid penalty imposed for a minor infraction in qualifying meant the British rider started the race from P22 on the eighth row of the grid.  Booth-Amos started really well, immediately gaining five positions but was being held up by Edwards when he came very close to hitting the back of him.  He had to shift for first gear in a big hurry and went to use the clutch to help soften going back into first gear but hit the handbrake instead of the clutch at the same time and was unfortunately thrown off and out of the race.

Tom Booth-Amos: “I got a good start and made my way through the pack catching Schrotter and I just got stuck behind Edwards.  It’s really hard to pass as the Ducatis are so strong on the straights.  I panicked, tried to grab the clutch and grabbed the rear brake as well as the bike going back into gear and it just launched me off it.  The positives are we have made big progress with the bike so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Teammate Ondrej Vostatek also made up several positions off the line and got into a good consistent rhythm by lap eight of the race.  The young Czech rider posted his strongest laps of the race at the midpoint but faded slightly towards the end to finish P19.

Ondrej Vostatek: “The first race is behind us. I think the start was not so bad. In the first laps I felt really strong but the whole grid was really strong too. In the middle of the race I was still in good shape and my tyres were in good shape.  I was able to catch the group in front of me and start to fight but we need to talk about the front tyre because there was lack of grip on the front so we need to fix that for tomorrow. Anyway, we made a big step in set up and I felt much better on the bike. I am really happy that I am physically prepared for everything and we need to solve how to make the bike easier for me to ride.”

PTR Triumph Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: “Ondrej rode the best he has ridden in a while especially in the middle of the race when he was lapping fast enough to put him in the points.  It’s a step in the right direction for him.  Tom quickly made positions and was up to twelfth when he crashed, he’s ok though.  It’s just not going our way at the minute, what can I say? But we will dust ourselves down and look for a good result tomorrow.”

Tom Booth-Amos back in the top ten, while Ondrej Vostatek crashes and re-joins for P27.

PTR Triumph’s Tom Booth-Amos rounded out the top ten in today’s red-flagged FIM Supersport World Championship race two from Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli with a solid tenth position from his grid spot of P19.

After the disappointment of crashing out of Saturday’s race one, Booth-Amos was keen to redress the balance today.  The true progress was clear to see as he was chasing down Antonelli for the last top ten position when Sofuoglu crashed out of P9 and the red flag was deployed on lap fifteen of the 18-lap race.

Tom Booth-Amos: “Pretty solid day after a tough weekend.  We worked really hard on the set up and found something that has improved the bike massively so hopefully moving forward we can keep going on like this.  Obviously starting from 19th was never going to be easy but we feel like we made good progress in the time that we had in the race. Just looking forward to going back to Donington.”

Ondrej Vostatek showed a big improvement in the morning warm up and was making steady progress in the race. He was fighting with Ruiz when he pushed hard into turn 4.  The team analysed the data which revealed that the back shifts were too high which cancelled the blip.  This meant the gear change couldn’t happen which pushed the front and he went down on lap four.  Vostatek re-joined the race and was in P27 at the stoppage

Ondrej Vostatek: “I think this race was not bad at all.  I was in the group that fights for the points so we definitely got better. Around the fourth lap I got into a fight with Ruiz.  I wanted to go more defence because right behind was Baldassari and I lost the front so the race was over.  I picked the bike up and continued.”

PTR Triumph Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: “Really good ride from Tom. From the seventh row of the grid to make the top ten is great. Obviously we want better than top ten and we can see we are going in the right direction.  His fastest lap was a 38.3s and the fastest lap from Huertas who won, was 38.2s so we can see we are getting there. Congratulations to the whole team after the disappointment of yesterday, we are starting to get back on track.  Ondrej’s lap time was good in warm up but unfortunately he slid off in the race.  These things can happen and we will just keep working together with him and everybody in the team. We are looking forward to Donington, we have an advantage after BSB and we need to make it count but before that, when we leave here we are testing at Cremona because we have never been there before.  Thanks to everybody in the team for all we are doing together.  We can’t hide the fact it was a disappointing start to the season but we are coming.”