After scoring seventh and eighth in the British Supersport Championship with Kyle Smith and Brandon Paasch respectively, Dynavolt Triumph are stepping up to the big leagues, the World Supersport Championship, for 2022.
That’s right, the news has just come through that the Simon Buckmaster run team will be running 23-year-old Estonian rider Hannes Soomer in World Supersport this year. Soomer, or the ‘Baltic Bullet’ to his mates, enters his fifth full season in the class. That’s after being a regular points scorer and occasional podium finisher in the last few years.
Of course, the Triumph isn’t a Supersport bike in the traditional sense of the word. And some might say that it’s 765cc engine ought to give it an advantage over its 600cc rivals. Some might ask how it’s even allowed to compete. Well in an effort to reinvigorate the class, the FIM have overhauled the rules, in a similar way that BSB did for last year’s championship, using a ‘Balance of Performance’ system. The idea being, each category of bike has a slightly different set of rules to abide by, in order to level the playing field.
I’m absolutely delighted to see an official Triumph race team competing in the world stage. And when you consider how much they’ll be learning from their Moto2 Project, you’d have to say they stand a good chance of doing something a bit special.
And I’m not the only one excited about it. Hannes Soomer had this to say,
Hannes Soomer
“I’m very happy to join the Dynavolt Triumph team for the 2022 season. I truly believe in the bike’s potential and the team’s experience. I’m sure we can find a good way to work quickly. This year will present some new challenges with the new regulations which makes it very unpredictable and interesting. I can only say we will give it our all and I can’t wait to start testing and really working for the season ahead.”
And Simon Buckmaster, Team manager for Dynavolt Triumph said,
Simon Buckmaster
“We are really pleased to announce that we have come to an agreement with Hannes Soomer for our official Dynavolt Triumph team. I’ve been watching Hannes’ progress in recent years and have spoken to him the last couple of seasons about the possibility of signing for our team. I’m pleased that for this year we’ve been able to make an agreement together. Hannes has already had podiums in 2020. Last year he broke his leg early in the season and came back impressively from that. I believe the potential is there, he has the experience and he believes in our team and the Triumph project.
We are excited to get started with testing and looking forward to the early part of the championship. Our aim must be to challenge towards the front and ultimately for the podiums and the title. I think he is going to surprise a few people; not everybody because there are a few of us who realise his talent. But he is going to be a surprise. I’m really looking forward to it.”
The 2022 World Supersport Championship starts on the weekend of the 9th April at MotorLand Aragon in Spain. Let’s see what the Baltic Bullet can do.
