Once upon a time there was a slogan that went ‘Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday’. It was a particularly American saying used to justify a massive spend by manufacturers and importers on their racing programmes. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, all the big four Japanese bike makers went racing to develop new technology and raise brand awareness, while in recent years it’s been European companies who have built their reputations in racing.
Ducati’s brand has largely been built on its successes in world superbikes and, more recently, MotoGP, while the company slogans of Aprilia (Be A Racer) and KTM (Ready To Race) leave you in no doubts as to how important a part competition plays in their DNA.
And arguably now Triumph is joining its fellow Europeans as a ‘racing brand’. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a company with very little racetrack heritage, especially at the upper echelons on the sport, but with wins in world motocross and supersport racing this year, and a very public commitment to develop its Street Triple-derived Moto2 engine, Triumph is hoping that by racing on Sunday, it too can sell more on Monday.
Triumph enjoyed moderate success in production-based racing, both on road and on the dirt, in the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s, despite boss Edward Turner’s aversion to spending money on racing programmes. Some prestigious wins with production-based machines at events like the Isle of Man TT and the Daytona 200 came in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, but even though Turner had retired in 1967, racing was never a priority at a time when Japanese manufacturers had overtaken the Europeans both on the road and track – due no doubt in part to their investment in Grand Prix racing throughout the 1960s.
When John Bloor took over Triumph in 1983, he continued to be very much anti-racing. The company had a largely underwhelming factory race programme with the Daytona 600 in the early 2000s (although it did power Bruce Anstey to victory in the 2003 Junior TT) and offered limited support to a few teams running the Daytona 675 in world supersport, but it was a major surprise when it was announced that they had won the bid to be the sole engine supplier for the Moto2 Grand Prix class, with a race modified version of the 765cc Street Triple unit mandated for all riders.
Last week Triumph and the Grand Prix organisers, Liberty Media, announced that this unit is to be developed, with an updated version to be used from next year – promising more power and faster lap times. Even though they arguably don’t have to, Triumph is using the Moto2 platform as an R&D opportunity which should help develop technologies which filter down to the bikes we can buy and ride on the road.
Having completed more than a million miles under race conditions, the British company is confident it has more than enough data to develop the new motor and increase power, while retaining the reliability for which the 765cc unit has become renowned.
The new engine will likely be increased slightly in capacity, and there has been a focus on increasing the air flow into the cylinders. The cylinder head, valve train and combustion chamber design are all reported to be new and contributing to a higher compression ratio and improved torque.
Triumph’s engineers say the aim was to achieve a higher air flow into the cylinders. A new cylinder head, with completely redesigned low inertia valvetrain and higher flow ports are said to combine with a new combustion chamber design to produce a higher compression ratio with more torque throughout the rev range. They’ve also redesigned the crankcases and internal components to cope with the additional power and torque and, despite the upgrades, they say the overall weight of the unit will be reduced by around 2kg.
Speaking at the recent British Grand Prix, Steve Sargent, Triumph’s Chief Product Officer, said: “The announcement marks a significant step forward in the partnership between Triumph Motorcycles and MotoGP. We have always strived to develop the Moto2 World Championship ever since we began powering the middleweight class in 2019. We’ve introduced more power, we’ve seen gearbox changes and now we’ve introduced a brand-new, high-performance race engine that will be powering the Moto2 series from 2027.
“The new engine has undergone a vigorous testing programme which has allowed us to really assess its performance, longevity and reliability, to ensure it continues to deliver the quality of racing we’ve seen over the last seven seasons. Updates to the cylinders, bringing in more air, achieving higher compression ratios and more torque have all been expertly crafted and we’re really excited by the results we’ve seen. We can’t wait to see it on track and watch our partnership with MotoGP and the Moto2 World Championship continue to grow over the seasons to come.”
With all Moto2 teams having to use the Triumph engines, which are randomly allocated from a pool of centrally maintained units, the British company could have been forgiven for resting on their laurels. Instead they’ve taken the opportunity to use racing to develop and test their products at the highest level, just like many of their rivals have done in the past in open competition. The new engine is set to be used from 2027 and should see a lowering of lap times, taking the intermediate class even closer to the premier MotoGP series.
The Moto2 project is part of a wider and seemingly growing racing programme for Triumph. Last month Tom Booth-Amos won both world supersport races at Donington Park on his Street Triple 765RS derived racer, while Oli Bayliss is tearing up the UK tracks on a similar machine in the British national series. Triumph is also supporting the new ‘Sportbike’ category at the TT and on short circuits, with a Peter Hickman-developed race kit available for their Daytona 660.
Of course, Moto2, supersport and sportbike are all very controlled racing series. All riders are mounted on Triumph triples in the GP championship, meaning the British manufacturer is a winner whatever happens, while supersport and sportbike rules actively balance the performance of the various brands and engine configurations in an attempt to give them all a chance of winning. Triumph have yet to dip their toes into the extremely competitive (and expensive) open road racing classes of MotoGP and world superbikes, but with the technical regulations for these series changing in the coming years, it would no longer be a major surprise to see a Triumph rolling to the grid in a premier race class within the next decade.
One area where Triumph are taking it to their rivals on level playing field is in the off-road world. Having seen KTM become Europe’s largest motorcycle manufacturer by virtue of its dirt bike range, Triumph (as well as Ducati) have entered the world of motocross and enduro with a range of 250 and 450cc models.
These hardcore competition ranges truly are the epitome of ‘race on Sunday, buy on Monday’ with successful factory racing efforts required to promote the production machines to privateers and amateur racers. Triumph worked with American supercross and motocross legend Ricky Carmichael to develop its range, with which it is currently enjoying significant success in both the world and equally (or arguably more) important American championships.
Spanish rider Guillem Farres currently leads MX2 world championship chase on his Triumph TF250-X, with South African team-mate Camden McLellan also in the title hunt in third. The team is also a contender in the 450cc MX1 class and in world enduro racing, and they’re even taking a leaf out of KTM’s book by entering hardcore rally events like the Red Bull Romaniacs, where former Dakar winner Sam Sunderland recently finished second in the Adventure class aboard a modified Tiger 900 Rally Pro.
It’s a race programme which would have been unimaginable to anyone outside of Triumph as little as five years ago, but which confirms the complete transformation of a company which, until recently, saw little value in racing to one starting to build a serious reputation in motorcycle sport.
Will we ever see this iconic British manufacturer in MotoGP or superbikes, or even the Dakar Rally? Based on its rapid rise in the past few years, you can clearly never say never.
Photos: Triumph Racing
