ValMoto Triumph won the last round of British Supersport Sunday at
Donington Park following the release of their intention to stop racing after this season the previous week.
Young Craig Jones piloted the Daytona 600 to a sublime victory with a race long battle with four other bikes, representing Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Ducati, to take his, and Triumph’s only win since they started competition in British Supersport last season.
ValMoto have enjoyed success with the Triumph Daytona previously at the Isle of Man TT, but last weekend marked a mammoth victory in a head-to-head battle against the world’s leading manufacturers.
Triumph now have pulled out of racing following a decision to increase the capacity of the Daytona 600 to 650cc, making the machine too large for supersport homologation entry requirements.
The move by Triumph follows in the footsteps of Kawasaki’s ZX-636RR, with its 636cc capacity enlargement to gain vital power and torque in the highly competitive 600 sports bike market.
Triumph will hope, with a capacity increase, their Daytona will be able to offer the buyer more performance for their money.
The Daytona 650 was recently unveiled at the Intermot International Motorcycle show and there seems to be only minor changes over the previous 600cc
Daytona.
These improvements seem to have been mainly made to the engine. The larger capacity comes from a stroke increase from 41.3mm to 44.5mm, increasing claimed torque only slightly to 51ft.lbs, whereas power remains the same as to the ‘old’ 600’s claimed 112bhp.
Benefits will probably be that the engine is a great deal more drivable, offering a larger amount of torque throughout the rev range, however only tests will be able to determine this.
At the moment it is unclear the effect of Triumph moving away from racing will have on their sales of the new bike, obviously the British manufacturer hopes to increase its market share with a more competitive road going machine.
