New direction for Supersport: Engineering guru Tony Scott reveals new Triumph-based Moto Evo racer concept

The 600cc supersport class has died in Europe, with just the track-only Yamaha R6 Race remaining as a traditional fully faired four-cylinder screamer.

As a result, the production-based British Supersport racing class has changed dramatically – welcoming the likes of Triumph’s Street Triple 765, and Ducati’s Panigale V2 to the entry list, as well as encouraging the growth of British GP2.

Allowing teams to run a hard-revving supersport motor inside a complex Moto2-derived chassis, the GP2 machinery competes on the same grid, but in a separate championship, with entries remaining far lower than the conventional supersport ranks.

However, now a new strand of racing machine dubbed Moto Evo is attempting to boost numbers– providing racers and dedicated trackday enthusiasts with a number of bolt-on geometry upgrades to transform a production-based chassis into a race-winner.

Moto Evo is the brainchild of racing engineer Tony Scott, who has worked in British paddocks for over 30 years. Instrumental in getting GP2 off the ground in 2018, he is hopeful bikes from this new project will line up on the grid in 2024.

“The middleweight class has become a bit of a befuddle, because they’re trying to level up all different types of machinery just to keep the grid going,” Scott said. “What Evo does is allow us to look at that plain concept of saying ‘let’s take a chassis and let’s take an engine, and everything else that we bolt onto that motorcycle can be whatever we want it to be’.”

There is no set price, with each customer undergoing a consultation to understand their exact needs. Riders can keep things simple with the geometry kit and fairing package for around £3000, while more complex builds are available.

Being a small operation, Kent-based Tony Scott Motorsport plan to build around eight per year to begin with, focusing on Triumph Daytona 675 and Street Triple 765 as a base.

Starting with the production chassis, the Evo kit includes a rake angle adjuster for the headstock, with inserts designed to fit into the standard Triumph design to change the angle of the forks.

You also get yokes with offset adjustment which allows you to alter stability. The smaller the offset, the more predictable the bike is and the larger the offset, the faster it will turn. These are inter-changeable, allowing you to alter the handling depending on the circuit.

There’s also a rear suspension linkage system, with various levels available depending on rider skill.

Finally, you can purchase swingarm inserts which allow you to change the angle and squat – helping the machine find more traction out on track.

“The whole point is allowing everything to move, rather than anything becoming stiff and any one component having to do all the work,” Scott continued. “Invariably that part is the tyre, which is why we see such high wear.”

Scott began developing the new concept in 2022 with the assistance of Lester Harris, formerly of Harris Performance & HM Racing. They then raced the bike with Bemsee and took podiums in the Supersport class during the season.

Keeping costs down

Scott says that one of the biggest costs in Supersport racing is the refreshing of engines, with top teams spending thousands between each round to make sure their tuned motors are as competitive as possible.

“The principle of Evo is ‘let’s keep the revs closer to what the manufacturer designed for the engine’,” he continued. “Let’s keep the engine closer to what it was when it came out of the showroom and improve the lap times by working on the handling.”

A new category of 800cc racers

Tony Scott believes that this recipe for development around the existing chassis and engine could bring more bikes into contention.

He told MCN: “We’ve got manufacturers producing adventure bikes and nakeds, but they’re not really making race bikes anymore. If you wanted to drive the Evo concept towards the new category of 800s, you could be looking at Yamaha MT-09s, or Kawasaki Z900s, and I’m sure there are other bikes that might fit into that remit.”

He continued: “I’m only doing the Triumphs, and I’m going to leave the rest of the stuff to somebody else, but what I’m hoping is that the concept opens up new industries for companies to look at the concept for other models.”