Ondrej Vostatek will return to the FIM Supersport World Championship with the PTR Triumph outfit from the French Round onwards as he completes the 2023 season with the team. Having returned to WorldSSP action last time out at his home round, the Prague-born rider will see out the current campaign with the British manufacturer in place of Harry Truelove after he and the team parted ways after the Czech Round.
Truelove started the campaign on the Triumph Street Triple RS 765 machine and took a best result of 11th in the season-opening Race 1 at Phillip Island. His season kicked off in strong fashion, but it would turn out to be his only points-scoring race of the season and he missed the Czech Round through injuries sustained in a Donington Park crash; he did compete at Imola but recorded two retirements. Following the visit to Most, the team announced that they had amicably split with Truelove.
Vostatek, who turns 19 before the French Round, was originally slated to ride for the team as a wildcard at Most but took Truelove’s place, finishing 16th in Race 1 and retiring from Race 2. He showed impressive speed at his home circuit and has WorldSSP experience to his name already having raced on Yamaha machinery in 2021 and 2022. He had been a regular points scorer throughout his time on the YZF-R6, including a best result of 10th on two occasions: in both races at the Circuito Estoril.
The Czech rider will now step into Truelove’s shoes for the final four rounds of the season at Magny-Cours, Aragon, Portimao and Jerez; all circuits he has raced at before in WorldSSP albeit on Yamaha machinery not Triumph. His best result across all four tracks came at Portimao when he secured 15th in Race 1 in 2021 with IXS-YART Yamaha and in 2022 with MS Racing Yamaha WorldSSP.
Explaining the decision to bring in Vostatek in Truelove’s place, Team Manager Simon Buckmaster said: “We always want to succeed with every rider that rides for us, but after so many years of riding an inline four-cylinder machine it was difficult for Harry to adapt to our bike, so we have mutually decided to go our separate ways. It’s such a shame we couldn’t make it work but it’s in everybody’s best interests not to keep going. After seven rounds together, track days and testing with the team, we’ve just not been able to find that solution for Harry and for us as a team to achieve what we’d hoped to achieve together. We wish Harry all the best for whatever he does racing wise in the future, and we want to thank him for all his efforts.
“We are pleased that Ondrej Vostatek will join us for the rest of the season. He showed great promise as a substitute rider at Most when Harry Truelove was injured, and we are optimistic he can show us what he can do. We had a meeting at Horice in the Czech Republic last week and signed the deal for him to test with us at Aragon and do the last four rounds. We are looking forward to working with Ondrej, he is young and has great potential. We want to work as best we can as a team to realise that potential and we are looking forward to getting started.”
Talking about his return to WorldSSP, Vostatek commented: “I’m really happy that I get a chance like this to continue with PTR Triumph for the rest of the season. I’m excited and I will put in maximum effort to make a best result.”
Truelove said about his departure: “It’s been a tricky year obviously, adapting to the Triumph hasn’t gone as we would have liked. The team and I have tried as much as we can to get a good feeling, however this has not come. For this reason, we have decided to part ways. I wish the team the best of luck for the remaining rounds, and I’d like to thank them for the opportunity.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com