Triumph has announced it has signed Richard Cooper to race in the 2024 National Sportbike Championship aboard a Triumph Daytona 660.

Cooper will ride for Peter Hickman’s PHR Performance team in the new Sportbike series, whose season will begin at Oulton Park on 4-6 May.

“For 2024 I’m really looking forward to competing in another new championship within the BSB paddock,” Cooper said. “The new Sportbike Championship looks like it’s going to be a class for the future with lots of manufacturers joining, which is great for racing.”

Cooper, the reigning BMW F 900 R Cup Champion, already has experience with Triumph machinery and with PHR having raced a Street Triple RS 765 last year in the British Superport Championship at Cadwell Park, and then again earlier this year at the Daytona 200. But the Daytona 660 - a new model for 2024 - is yet to be raced in the UK.

“I’m really pleased to be working with PHR Triumph again after I competed in the British Supersport championship last year for them at Cadwell Park. We’ve also just done the Daytona 200 where we have built a good working environment.

“I’m really looking forward to continuing to work together and also passing my knowledge on to what is a very young, enthusiastic bunch of lads. We’re all super excited to get things started on the May bank holiday weekend at Oulton park.

“I was one of the first people to ride the new Daytona 660 and I knew straight away that it’s going to be a very competitive package in the class and one that we can fight for the championship with, which is our main goal for the year.”

On the announcement of Cooper as a Daytona 660 rider in 2024, Triumph Chief Product Officer, Steve Sargent, said: “We’re really happy to have Richard riding the new Daytona 660 Sportbike which has been race prepared by PHR Performance. Richard brings his vast experience and proven talent to the team and he is also familiar with the 660cc triple engine from his role as a Triumph test rider.

“He and the PHR Performance team know what it takes to win and are hungry for success so we are excited to see what they can do in this brand new Championship.”

Peter Hickman added: “We are super excited to be running 'Coopes' in the first Sportbike Championship on the new Triumph Daytona 660. PHR has been working hard over the winter to develop the race bike with Coopes and Triumph and it looks absolutely fantastic.

“This is a really exciting project for us and we are all looking forward to seeing how the bike performs out on the circuit. There’s an array of different riders signed up to race the Daytona 660 in the series and we hope to see more on track in the future.”