BOTT4

More BoTT Racing...The End

For 1986 we had high hopes... We were headed for Daytona! Daytona is one of those tracks that just draws you in, and it was a track we knew we could be very competitive at with the Triumph. How'd we pull it off? We were able to soley because of the Invitational Historic Races on the Monday preceeding the Daytona 200. With that said we loaded 14 vintage machines, Rich Oliver's Honda 250GP bike and two BoTT bikes into a big Ryder Truck we had rented... then Dave Walden drove it to Daytona while we all flew in (for $99.00 on Eastern!).
We were all hyped up about racing at Daytona (MG won the 250GP Vintage race on Monday with the Ducati), and couldn't wait to get the Triumph on course. Practice would begin on Tuesday, so Monday evening I talked to friend Dick Mann about the course. He said, in part, "the shortest way around is on the bottom." We had a problem at Tech Inspection, seems the AVON tyres we'd been using all this time we not legal for the banked track, AVON not having supplied information to the AMA. We called our sponsor and found that since they'd never tested at Daytona, we were basiclly SOL. So we called our other sponsor, who's a Michelin distributer, but again SOL, as they didn't have a rear tire to suit our bike (the 130/80V18 was too small, we needed a 130/90V18 to suit our gearing). So we went to Dunlop, who took care of us at N/C!
During the first practice the Triumph quit on the west banking, the kill switch having broken. That repaired, we were out again for the afternoon practice, only to blow out the base gasket after a few fast laps. We repaired that, and again it happened... (later, after we got home, we found that the material had aged to hard thus wouldn't compress and stay intact). We ended up changing a number of base gaskets (all supplied by JRC) and even a gearbox gasket (thus we later glued). During one practice we ended up breaking a cylinder stud when the gasket again blew!
By race time on Friday we thought we had a handle on it, thus pushed the bike to final tech, then the grid. We were on row-13 (ouch... gridded by post mark due to rain). When the flag dropped the Triumph did well... once on the banking it really flew as MG made his way towards the front. On lap 5 it was all over, the cylinders were again jumping up & down after the gasket blew on the front straight. Dick remarked later, "I think you went to the front a bit too quick Mr Green." With that we loaded up.

There had been talk of taking the Triumph to England and even the Isle of Man for a few races (MG even obtained all the FIM lic's), but again sponsorship cash, lack thereof, did us in.

Daytona was our last BoTT race with the Triumph. AMA later allowed the new F1 Ducati to compete in Lightweight Mod Prod, and we hadn't a chance against it... having neither the power, brakes or handling.

Our next event for 1986 and the Triumph would be the LaCarrera Classic in Mexico. The was a real hoot, 150 miles on open roads! The official said, "the roads from Ensenada to San Felipia are closed..." but this wasn't quite true. Dave Roper and MG left dead last, Roper on a G50, Mike on the 750. Roper & MG would stay together all the way to the gas stop at the 75-mile mark, waiting there was Dick Mann who pointed the way. MG was away quicker than Roper and nearly ran into an old Chevy pickup head on when departing the fuel stop! After that, "I stayed in my lane the rest of the way" said Mike Green after the race. In fact, the road wasn't closed, as MG passed a motorhome going the other direction, a and cattle truck. After that MG slowed and Dave went past... "Dave shot over the top of the raise in the road, then dust appeared! I got up on the pegs to see if I could see anything, I saw one pickup passing another and Roper in the dirt passing them both!" Approaching the Mexicalli highway the Triumph holed its left piston, the day was done.
The Triumph would never compete in a "modern" race again, it just wasn't competitive and MG couldn't bring himself to sell it, hence it went vintage racing now and again. "It was great fun while it lasted", Mike was heard to say after LaCarrera.