Peter Hickman announces US racing return with Triumph

Peter Hickman and Richard Cooper will return to the Daytona 200 this year aboard Triumph Street Triple 765 machinery and with support from the British manufacturer.

It will be the second year in succession that Hickman and Cooper have teamed up for the famous Florida race, having last year showed promising speed by qualifying sixth and seventh, although neither was able to realise that potential in the race.

Hickman, who owns the PHR Performance team, was caught up in an early incident last year, and is thus hoping to make something better of the potential he showed last year.

“[I’m] really excited to have backing from Triumph again for the Daytona 200 as the Triumph supported entrants.

“It’s great to have these strong links for PHR Performance.

“We had a really good year last year qualifying 6th and 7th. Daytona is a really unique place to ride and set the bikes up for and in our first year we had a pretty good year.

“It’s obviously a shame the race didn’t go to plan but we’re looking forward to getting back there and making amends.

“It’s great having Richard Cooper on the team again, he’s super experienced and a really nice guy who fits in so well with the PHR Performance team. The Street Triple 765 is working really well. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to develop the new parts with the next generation rules, working closely with Triumph. We’re supporting a couple of other teams as well including TOBC who won the Daytona 200 with our PHR Performance built engines in 2022. I’m really excited about this race and I cannot wait to get back and have a good go.”

Cooper is in a similar situation to Hickman, having led last year before crashing out.

“I’m super excited that PHR and Triumph have asked me to go back to the Daytona 200 this year,” he said.

“With the experience that we’ve gained, not just myself as a rider, but also as a team and the crew around me, I feel that we are in a much better position going into it this year.

“The PHR boys have been working hard to get the best out of the bike for us and we’ve got a great package underneath us.

“To finish first, first you must finish – we were fast last year, we led the race, but we weren’t there when it counted at the end. This year I will approach it more calmly and level, then there’s no reason why we can’t be competitive and fight for strong results.

“I’d love to say we can go there and win, we can, but we’ll also need a little bit of luck on our side.

“I feel that Peter [Hickman] and I can learn from our mistakes from last year and better the results this year.”