Tom takes P2 in race one at Philip Island – P7 debut for Bayliss

PTR Triumph Factory Racing’s Tom Booth-Amos started the 2025 FIM Supersport World Championship season how he means to go on with a stunning second place finish in race one at Philip Island in Australia today.

After struggling a little in the official two-day test, the British rider pulled it out of the bag to qualify on the front row of the grid in P2 for the 18-lap season opener, his highest qualifying position in the series.

Despite losing a couple of places off the line, Booth-Amos was in the mix from the beginning of the super hot race and was soon back up to challenging for the podium.

The team planned an early call for the mandatory tyre change pit-stop, entering the pits in P5 and following a flawless pit-stop, exited in P12. Once all the riders had pitted and the dust had settled, he was once again dicing for the top three spots.

TBA crossed the line in P3 but due to a pit lane intervention time penalty for the physical race winner Masia, was elevated to P2 at the end of the race, his best World Supersport finish to date.

Tom Booth-Amos: “Really pleased with the result, like I have said in pretty much every interview today, if you had told me on Tuesday I wouldn’t have believed you so thank you to the guys who have worked really hard between the test until now because the bike is feeling really good. Hopefully we can continue like this, do the same again tomorrow and for the rest of the year.”

Teammate Oli Bayliss acquitted himself really well in his debut race with the team, crossing the line in P7 in the challenging 36 degree C conditions.  Bayliss also dropped positions at the start of the race but was soon back up to his starting position before he pitted.  The crew executed a perfect stop and the 21-year-old Australian re-entered the race in P13 eventually crossing the line in P7.

Oli Bayliss: “Bitter sweet day for us today.  Warm up I felt great on the bike but for the race it was a lot hotter and we didn’t know what to expect with the feeling of the bike.  Just before halfway through the race I started to feel the front tyre get a bit too hot and felt quite soft.  In the end we finished P7, close to the front group.  We’ll try and make some changes and go again tomorrow.  Thanks to my team and good job to Tom.”

PTR Triumph Factory Racing Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: “Fantastic result I’m really pleased for the whole team. We worked so hard over the winter, we missed testing in Europe to concentrate on bringing the best bike here, maybe that was a gamble. The test for Tom on Tuesday wasn’t great but we arrived at the end of FP1 in the right place.  Maybe Tom could have won as Masia ran everybody wide and I believe our bike is strong enough to beat Manzi to the line.  On Tuesday if we had said we would finish second we would have taken it.  For the first time in a long while we are leading the team’s championship, the first time ever Triumph have led a team’s championship in a World Championship so congratulations to everyone in the team for the hard work they have put in over the winter, this is the reward. We have to look to race two tomorrow and see if we can go one better but the big thing is to get as many points and be in the fight for the world championship.  A great result for Oli as well, he has worked well through the test with limited time on the bike. His best qualifying ever and close to the front so we are going to look to see what we can improve for tomorrow but a great start to the season or him as well so thank you to Triumph Racing and all of our valued partners.”

Tom Booth-Amos flies the flag for Britain with historic first win

PTR Triumph Factory Racing’s Tom Booth-Amos today became the first British rider in a British team riding a Triumph bike to win a World Championship road race with a flawless performance in the FIM World Supersport Championship race two at Philip Island.

TBA got a good start from the second row and after dicing with Manzi and Oncu, led the 18-lap race early on.  By the planned mandatory pit stop on lap eight, he was leading Schroetter comfortably and, following another smooth tyre change was able to re-gain the lead. Manzi was still threatening but was ultimately not able to pass the 28-year-old Booth-Amos who crossed the line in first place to take his first World Supersport win.

After the first round, Booth-Amos leads the World Championship jointly with Manzi, both with 45 points, PTR Factory Racing Team sits at the top of the table as the leading team and Triumph is the leading manufacturer.

Tom Booth-Amos: “I’m over the moon to come away with a first and a second this weekend,  to be leading the championship for the first time I didn’t really expect it.  I can’t thank the guys at PTR Triumph Factory Racing enough hopefully now we can just continue this forward for the rest of the year and fight for the title.”

Teammate Oli Bayliss’ delivered two top ten finishes on his debut weekend with PTR Triumph Factory Racing with a seventh-place in both races.  In today’s race two the 21-year-old started from the middle of the third row of the grid but by lap six an error had cost him and he dropped to P14.  The pit-stop did the home hero no favours but nevertheless he fought back to cross the line in P7.  Bayliss now heads to Europe fourth in the championship with 18 points.

Oli Bayliss: “Not a bad first weekend with PTR Triumph Factory Racing. Two 7th place finishes. Wish I could’ve done a bit better in race two but after a mistake in the first stint and not the best pit stop we were sitting around 15th position. Not a bad comeback back to 7th. The feeling and data we get on the bike improves each session so we need to keep working for Portimao. Big thanks to my team and my sponsors.”

PTR Triumph Factory Racing Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: “What can I say, Tom rode a flawless race so smooth, congratulations to him. Congratulations to Oli as well on his two seventh places. We couldn’t have wanted for more I want to congratulate my whole team for all the effort.  It’s paid off, the bike looked really good. This is a special moment as it’s also the first time a Triumph has led a world championship in road racing. Thank you to everyone at Triumph for all they do for us.  Special thanks to Sarah for the great job she does for us. I’m a bit lost for words, it’s just a great reward for all the hard work put in and we will now look forward to Portimao.”

Booth-Amos and Bayliss will be back in action for round two of the FIM Supersport World Championship at Portimao in Portugal on March 28-30.