British hopeful Tom Booth-Amos will take the place of the SIC-bound John McPhee at the CIP-Green Power KTM team for the 2019 Moto3 season.
Booth-Amos emerged as one of the UK's leading young talents in his time in the British Motostar series, which he dominated in 2017, while he impressed in a wildcard appearance at the British Grand Prix that same year, finishing 21st and just 15 seconds from the win.
In frame for a potential Moto3 move for this year with the Best Capital Dubai team, Booth-Amos instead switched to the CEV Repsol Moto3 Junior World Championship with the British Talent Team.
However, his year has been plagued by misfortune and injury, and has so far only managed to score two points in 34th in the Junior World Championship rankings.
Despite this, CIP boss Alain Bronec has expressed his delight at securing the services of the young Briton for next year.
“I'm glad that Tom will be our rider next year,” Bronec said.
“He is a young and talented, and coaching young riders at the beginning of their professional career in motorbike [racing] is our expertise.
“I'm sure that 2019 will be an exciting season for Tom and us.”
Booth-Amos, who was due to make a second wildcard appearance at Silverstone this year on Joan Mir's title-winning Leopard machine before racing was cancelled, added: “Firstly, I would like to say a massive thank you to Alain Bronec at CIP-Green Power for offering me this great opportunity to race in the Moto3 World Championship for 2019.
It sees a return to the KTM machine on which I enjoyed great success; interestingly, my first BSB [British Superbike] win came on a CIP engine.
“I would like thank everyone at Dorna, IRTA [International Races Teams' Association] and Truth Racing for their continued support during 2018.
“I can't wait to get started and have already been spending some time getting to know my new team and their expectation of me.
“It is also very important that I understand my new environment and build a plan to continue progressing, as I have much to learn.
“The challenge of riding against the best rides in the world on the best circuits is a dream come true. I will work at ever opportunity to repay everyone's faith in me and prove that I can race with the best.”
Booth-Amos replaces Scotsman John McPhee, who will join the SIC team in 2019, while CIP hopes to retain Italian Stefano Nepa, who it signed to replace the struggling Makar Yurchenko ahead of the Dutch TT.
Rookie Yurchenko – grand prix racing's first rider from Kazakhstan – will return to Moto3 next year alongside Tony Arbolino at the Marinelli Snipers team, with the Italian outfit scrapping its Moto2 project to field two bikes in the lightweight class.
Discussion about this post