Triple- pronged attack!
In October 1 9 6 9 the Triumph factory’s Head of Development, Doug Hele, was entrusted with the task of developing a racing version of the company’s new T1 50 Trident three-cylinder Superbike, which had been launched the previous year. For someone like Hele, who relished using racing to improve the performance of his company’s products, as well as demonstrating their worth in the hotbed of competition, this was an enticing challenge with just one drawback: He had to have six bikes on the grid for the Daytona 200 the following March, just four months away!
Three of these would be Triumphs, but the other three BSAs, to refl ect the fiercely competitive rivalry between the two principal brands in the parent BSA Group, each of which had its own competition department. Triumph’s was chosen for this venture over BSA’s on the grounds that it had on-going road racing experience in winning successive Production TTs and suchlike, while BSA’s was off-road oriented, focusing on motocross and enduro.
It had,
