TWO TOP FIVES FOR TRIUMPH STREET TRIPLES AT THE ISLE OF MAN TT
The 2024 Isle of Man TT was interrupted by rain on several days and the supersport class lost a qualifying session and warm up laps. Despite a tricky start, Triumph enjoyed two top five finishes in the Monster Energy Supersport Race two with Jamie Coward on the KTS Racing Triumph in fourth and Peter Hickman on the Trooper Triumph in fifth.
After many delays and cancelled sessions, the Monster Energy Supersport Race one eventually took place on Saturday 1 June. Jamie Coward had shown great pace in qualifying on his Street Triple 765, despite an arm injury. He was running in fourth when he came in for a pit stop and unfortunately had a technical issue and had to retire. This meant Peter Hickman was the leading Triumph and he ultimately crossed the line in ninth and Michael Evans on the Smiths Racing Triumph finished tenth.
The Monster Energy Supersport TT race two was due to take place on Wednesday but was delayed time and time again due to the weather. The race eventually took place on Saturday 8 June and was shortened to two laps following inclement weather in the morning.
Peter Hickman made a number of changes to his Trooper Triumph Street Triple after race one and found some speed for race two which was his 50th TT start.
It was a battle of the Triumph riders for fourth with Hickman initially ahead of Jamie Coward on the KTS Racing Triumph. However, on the second and final lap of the shortened race, Coward overtook Hickman for fourth with a best lap of 128.668 mph, his fastest ever supersport TT lap and Hicky crossed the line in fifth with a best lap of 127.988 mph.
Michael Evans finished ninth for his second top ten finish on his Triumph and Craig Neve finished 15th on the Bathams Triumph.
Jamie Coward, KTS Racing: “The event has been good for me apart from this arm injury that’s come on since I’ve been here. Unfortunately we had a problem in the first supersport race and we had to stop, but I was on for a good, strong P4. We made amends and solved the problem and got it sorted for race two. I really enjoyed riding the Triumph, the bike was working great and feels really good. The changes we made from the first race were really good and we got P4, just eight seconds off the podium. I’m absolutely made up with that. It’s our first year on the Triumph so to beat Pete, who’s a legend round here on the TT course, is some achievement. Hats off to the KTS Racing team, they’ve worked their socks off for me, if it wasn’t for them, I couldn’t go out racing like we are doing so I’m really happy with P4. It would be nice to stand on the box but with this injury and the weather and being our first year on the Triumph, I know we’ll come back next year and be fighting for the podium. I’m really happy with how it’s gone, especially getting my fastest ever time on a supersport bike. I love riding the bike, the bike’s amazing and I’m going away a happy man.”
Peter Hickman, Trooper Triumph: “I was trying really hard in the first race but unfortunately I made a mistake at the Creg where I ran in too deep and had to take the escape road up the side of the Creg Ny Baa pub and do what felt like a 20-point-turn to get back onto the circuit and unfortunately ended up back in ninth which is a long way back considering how close we were to winning last year and doing over 130 mph. The PHR Performance team worked really hard over the week to find a better set-up as we felt the bike wasn’t where it needed to be in the first race and we changed a lot on the bike between race one and two. We found some more acceleration which helped and we had a better result in fifth, a lot closer to the podium but it wasn’t quite to be for us this year. The chassis was working really well, better than last year. We just need to find out what we were lacking to be able to make the bike a race winner as it has proven to be already in the British Supersport championship. So overall, quite a disappointing showing but we will come back fighting next year.”
