Triumph’s works British Supersport team will field former WorldSSP star Kyle Smith next season alongside another yet-to-be-confirmed rider.

Smith has a good pedigree on the world stage enjoying race wins at Assen and Losail in 2016 with the PRT team that is behind Triumph’s effort, one third position in Jerez and scoring four fastest race laps over the season.

The Spain-based British rider returned to the team for seven races of the twelve-round series in 2018, awarding the team a podium with second position at Portimao.

Moving on from winning the 2019 FIM Europe Supersport Cup, 29-year-old Smith celebrated one pole position and two podiums with GMT94 Yamaha while deputising for the injured Jules Cluzel in 2020.

“I’m very excited to be back with PTR in a whole new project. It will be exciting to be in a full British set-up racing in the UK where, except for Donington Park, I have never raced even though I’m English,” said Smith.

“I’m very grateful that Triumph, Simon and the team have counted on me. I think it is a great opportunity and we will have a fantastic year racing.”

Smith has never raced at any other track in the UK so will be on a steep learning curve from the word go.

Dynavolt Triumph Team Manager Simon Buckmaster added: “For us to re-sign Kyle is exciting news. We’re a British team with a British bike and we’ve come back with a British rider that is well known to us.

“We felt we needed an experienced rider to lead the development with our team for this exciting new project. Kyle has won races for us, he finished top five in the World Championship, he was the last winner on a Honda and the last podium finisher on a Honda, all for us so there is a lot of synergy between us.

“We can‘t wait for the season to start with a rider and a team that know each other well to give us the best chance of hitting the ground running and achieving success from the word go.

“He hasn’t raced in the British Championship, but there is a great testing programme put forward by MSVR before the season starts and we will make sure he is up to speed on all the tracks and he has got the grit and determination to do a great job for us in 2021. Of course, with his experience we would look to go back into the World Championship with Kyle in 2022.”