TRS Motorcycles has announced through a press release that the professional relationship between the brand and Adam Raga will end in the 2023 season. In this way, it is confirmed that Looking ahead to the 2024 season, the future of the Tarragona rider is not defined, which could go through several options, both to continue as an active pilot, either as an official driver of another brand or privately, and finally to communicate his retirement as an active pilot.
This statement goes beyond the breakup of a rider and a brand. It is an issue that addresses a new paradigm of how brands have to approach their future to ensure their sustainability as a company.
These are difficult times, where after a great sales boom in 2020 and 2021, a downward cycle began in 2022 that has been confirmed in 2023 and is expected to continue in 2024. We are talking about a drop in the number of units sold in all brands, price rises and slowdowns in new projects or high-impact technical evolutions.
On the other hand, the world of top competition has not been able to adapt to the new challenges. The visibility of the trial world championship continues to decline, with a calendar concentrated 90% in four central months of the year, mainly in Europe and with paddocks that are real deserts for most of the day. In this context, capitalizing on all the economic effort involved in keeping a great rider active during the season is really complicated. And even more so, if the brand in question bases its income exclusively on the trial.
With these premises, which apply to practically all brands, the chips are starting to move for 2024. In this case, we share with you the statement of Jordi Tarrés on behalf of TRS Motorcycles, and a second statement on behalf of Adam Raga, where he admits that the decision has been “unilateral and without grounds for negotiation”.
The rider himself has announced that he will reveal his future in the coming days.
Official Announcements
Jordi Tarrés (TRRS): "On September 14, 2015, we announced the signing of six-time Trial (Outdoor & Indoor) World Champion Adam Raga, coinciding with the start of marketing of our first TRRS ONE model. Since then, there have been many achievements, both technically thanks to Adam's work with the Technical Management (Jordi Tarrés) and the R+D team, and sportingly. At TRRS we think that the time has come to start a change of stage, with the determination to give more opportunities to the new generations of drivers, to continue betting on racing and the world championship, working at the same time to expand the fan base and get closer to our customers, with new and multiple marketing and communication actions that will go beyond the world of competition. We would like to underline our sincere thanks and recognition to Adam, with whom we will surely maintain the bond forged over all these years."
Adam Raga: "At the end of the 2023 season I will no longer be an official TRS driver. On September 14, 2015, I signed with TRS. It was a great challenge for me from the beginning, which required all my enthusiasm and commitment, since it was a new project whose objective was to take the bike to the highest level competition. 8 years later, and after many achievements, TRS believes that the time has come to start a change of stage. For this reason, they have unilaterally decided not to count on me for the next few seasons, without giving me the opportunity to negotiate anything. This decision, which I respect, came as a surprise to me and caused me a lot of sadness, since my intention would have been to continue in TRS until my retirement. This year has been very hard for me, with several injuries that have prevented me from being at 100%. But I'm still strong, competitive and eager to continue competing at the highest level. I would like to underline my most sincere thanks and recognition to Jordi Tarres and TRS, with whom we will surely maintain the bond forged over all these years. I will keep you updated in the coming days."
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