Isle of Man TT star Peter Hickman and the Smiths Racing team will switch from Triumph to Yamaha power for this year’s roads Supersport races.

Although they have had success with the triple in past seasons, a lack of parts to keep the now-ageing bike competitive aren’t available so a change to the R6 has been necessary.

“Finally, we’ve made the decision to change from the Triumph to the Yamaha in the Supersport class for the International road races which will obviously be a bit different to the last three years,” said Hickman.

“We’ve had an awesome time with the Triumph and it’s been absolutely brilliant with the win at last year’s TT and all three victories at the Ulster Grand Prix being phenomenal.

The little Daytona has done a fantastic job but, unfortunately, it’s a little bit long in the tooth now so to try and move with the times and keep up with what everyone else is doing we’ve decided to move over to the Yamaha.

“I’ve never actually raced an R6 before so I’m really looking forward to jumping on it to see what we can do.”

The move completes their assembly of machinery for the 2020 season where they will be the official BMW-supported team for the International road races with Hickman again favourite for race honours in the Superbike and Superstock classes having been victorious at the North West 200, Isle of Man TT and Ulster Grand Prix last year.

The team will also contest the Lightweight races with Hickman riding the Norton 650 Superlight which debuted in 2019. Hickman and Smiths Racing took delivery of the bike before Christmas and will now spearhead the development of the machine as they look to build upon the 8th place and 120mph lap recorded at last year’s Isle of Man TT.