Saturday

PTR Triumph rider Ondrej Vostatek claimed his first championship points of the 2024 season with a fourteenth place in today’s ‘flag to flag’ race one at Philip Island.  From his position on the seventh row of the grid, the Czech rider got a good start making up three places by the end of the fifth lap of the 18-lap race.  The team executed a flawless pit-stop on lap eight but Vostatek lost time on the in and out laps. Under the newly introduced rules that race two grid positions are determined by the fastest laps in race one, the 19-year-old will start tomorrow’s race two from P21 on the grid.

Ondrej Vostatek: “So the first race was not so bad.  I had a little bit of a problem with the front fork, it was a bit too high and I found the bike was really difficult to turn into the fast corners but I know this race was more about the head and control over the bike and luckily I was able to score two points.”

Teammate Tom Booth-Amos suffered an injury to his wrist in his debut race with the PTR Team when he took a huge fall at turn 12 on lap seven. The 27-year-old was taken to the circuit medical centre and will be assessed in the morning to determine if he is fit to start tomorrow’s race.  Booth-Amos displayed great pace in the early stages of the race and, if passed fit, will be looking to make amends in tomorrow’s race two which, as he posted the eighth fastest lap of race one, he will start from P8 on the grid.

Tom Booth-Amos: “Unfortunately we had a big crash at the final corner in the race.  Actually we were doing pretty good, I was running fifth/sixth in the opening laps and had a slight electrical issue with the bike.  I made a mistake after that and dropped back but I’d just caught the group and then something happened. We need to sit down and see what went on.  Overall I was actually happy with my performance because we were doing pretty good until then.  Sorry to the guys, they’ve got a bit of work to do and we’ll hopefully try again tomorrow.”

PTR Triumph Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: “We got a couple of points for Ondrej which is good.  I can’t say he rode a good race because there was a huge loss of time on the in lap/out lap pit stop which I haven’t had chance to discuss with his crew chief Michal yet to analyse how much time he lost but it’s a good chunk, you can see by the positions on the track.  

Everything was fine with Tom, he was right there with the leading group. He made a bit of a mistake into turn 4 and he ran on a bit because he was having trouble downshifting.  Not for gearbox, it looked like there was a problem with the rear wheel speed sensor when he came round to the grid. Probably the throttle blipper is not working exactly as it should.  Again we need to check the data for that. Then he had really quite a big off.  He has some pain with his wrist but I’ve just spoken to him and hopefully he will be fine to ride tomorrow.  Let’s hope we can put it right and get the results we deserve.”

Sunday

The second FIM Supersport World Championship race of the weekend finally got underway at Philip Island after a lengthy delay due to a significant oil spill on a large portion of the track.  The length of the delay meant that the scheduled 18-lap race was reduced to a 9-lap sprint and this also removed the necessity for a mandatory pit-stop.

After being passed medically fit to ride, British rider Tom Booth-Amos started the shortened race from the middle of the third row of the grid but quickly lost the feeling in his injured arm.  The 27-year-old then took a conservative approach to the race with his focus on the overall championship and delivered a points scoring finish in P13.

Tom Booth-Amos: “It’s been one of those weekends that should have been unfortunately. I couldn’t really feel my arm after a couple of laps due to yesterday’s crash so I couldn’t ride to the full potential of the bike or myself.  I just thought, it’s a long season, let’s bring it home and get some points toward the championship because yesterday I proved my point and we know we are fast so we will bounce back in Barcelona.  Thanks to the team for working hard, they stayed up all night to build a new bike and it’s very well appreciated.”

Teammate Ondrej Vostatek took some time to find his pace in the second race, and time was something he didn’t have with only 9-laps to make up places from P20 at the start. The young Czech rider improved towards the end of the race and actually posted his fastest lap of the weekend (1’33.443) on lap eight to finish nineteenth. 

Ondrej Vostatek: “It was really crazy from the start because of the oil on the track and we waited in the pits for a long time.  I don’t know, in front of me were riders that last season I was able to beat every time and now I’m not able.  So, we will try to find where the problem is, fix it and challenge for the top ten because this is where we belong.”

PTR Triumph Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: It’s fair to say it’s not the weekend we wanted but after Tom’s crash yesterday he’s got a lot of cuts on his arm and it’s hurting him a lot.  We should be proud that as a team he managed to salvage some points. We can see his potential because of his pace before the crash, we just have to put it down to experience, these things happen in racing.  Fair play to Tom for getting some points in the situation where he was not fully fit and hurting from his big crash.  

Obviously we need to talk to Ondrej to understand what the issues were because at the end of the race he was putting his fastest laps in.  If he had those lap times from the very start he could probably have been in a better position so we need to talk to him to understand why the pace wasn’t there at the start of the race.”