BARN-FIND TRACKER
This Triumph dirt tracker had been stashed in a South Carolina shed since the early 1960s. Now it’s back in the UK, its true history has been revealed
How Harry Cole discovered that his ebay Triumph purchase has real racing pedigree
HARRY COLE HAS a passion for the Triumph motorcycle brand and how it underpinned ‘cool’ in the psyche of riders and aficionados of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. He says he bought this old Triumph Tiger 100 knowing how cool it was.
The seller provided him with plenty of information, including the name of the original owner – Robert Earl Woodson of South Carolina – but it was only when Harry asked Triumph specialists Ace Classics in Lee, London, to build him a replica to ride, that the full story of the bike emerged.
Ace Classics’ Kev Rushworth explained: “We knew the name of the original owner, so we put out a plea on social media for information on the bike and its owner. Sadly, Robert Woodson has passed away, but he had a daughter called Sherry and, thanks to responses from our internet pleas, we were able to contact her for more information on the bike. She even sent us some photographs of her dad racing it.
“We understand that the Triumph had been stashed in the back of a shed, where it stayed until it was recently sold. Harry, a regular customer of ours, now owns the bike and aims to preserve it exactly as it is. But he wants us to build an exact replica that he can use.”
The seller had told Harry it was a great opportunity to own and restore a genuine, original Triumph T100 race bike. “He explained that in 1951 Robert Woodson was a flat-track racer and, while he had been competitive, he knew he needed something a little special to compete with the fast guys. Triumphs were ruling the roost, so he went to his local dealer and told them he needed a fast bike,” said Harry.
Robert was sold some surplus Triumph GP stock, ordered in from the UK specially. The frame never had a number assigned and has had a plate welded over the space where the frame number would normally be. The plate is stamped with: ‘REW Special R’.
We also contacted Sherry, who added: “Daddy raced on the AMA tracks from the Daytona Beach road races in Florida [then incorporating the beach section] to Springfield [a huge mile oval dirt-track), Illinois and all over the south-east of the States. Daddy and grandpa,
‘THE BIKE FEATURES SURPLUS TRIUMPH GP STOCK’
Floyd E Woodson, did all their own rebuilds and repairs. They got a guy called Mr Blackstone, who worked in the machine shop at a local textile plant, to remake parts for the gearbox so that Daddy could use maximum acceleration off the corners to beat his rivals. Everyone said his Triumph purred!”
We understand that once Robert quit racing, the old Triumph was put in the barn – and that’s where it stayed until about four years ago, when it was sold and shipped to England. With it came the information.
The engine sports Triumph GP barrels with a T100 close-fin head. Harry was told the engine spec includes: high-compression pistons, high-lift camshafts, solid aluminium pushrods, polished rockers, dished GP timing gears, beefy aluminium conrods and a lightened and polished crankshaft.
Carbs are twin-matched one-inch Amals with a remote float chamber and even have the kind of pink fuel lines used on the GP and T100C racers to link the float bowl to the carbs. There’s also a Lucas racing magneto of the type used on the last GP MKIIIS.
It was said it had a close-ratio gearbox and lightweight clutch – but that was before we got new information from Sherry on the reworked gearbox parts. The motor also has the full chain case on the primary side, which American flat trackers retained to stop debris going into the primary chain.
The forks have a home-made fork brace fitted, similar to what would have been fitted to a Triumph GP. The subframe is a race kit part with the rearset lugs fitted and Triumph factory rearsets. On this bike both footpegs fold up. As Kev pointed out: “Normally, only the kickstart-side peg folds up for the kickstart, but with this being a flat tracker the left-hand footrest needed to be a fold-in one as well for ground clearance. The leftside footpeg has been crudely reshaped and there’s another boot-rest just off the front engine plate, typical on a dirt-tracker racing machine.”
The spool front wheel sports a Weinmann alloy rim – and, of course, no front brake. The rear wheel is a stock Triumph steel rim and there’s a bolt-over sprocket to give the bike a lot more acceleration out of the turns. The bike has 4.00 x 19in front and 4.50 x 18in rear Firestone Sportsman tyres.
Beefy stays support the alloy rear mudguard, which has a leather bum-pad mounted to it on which Robert painted: ‘6-gas, 5-carb, 4-get#, 3-position, 2-ok, 1-go’ – clearly to remind him of his pre-race build-up!
The seller told Harry that Robert parked the Triumph at some point to race a Harley – and Sherry confirmed this. “We’ve checked and we think he raced the Harley around 1959, for a local team, but badly broke his leg. Daddy got hit mid-turn by another bike, but didn’t crash,” Sherry said. “He managed to ride back to the pits and from there was transferred to an ambulance and taken to hospital. His leg was broken in five places. Doctors wanted to amputate it, but my grandpa refused to let them, so they pinned it instead. We discovered he finished second in Columbia, South Carolina, riding a Harley, at some point in 1961.”
We believe Robert took time out, probably to recover from his leg injury (see box-out about racing numbers on the right), and then began racing the Triumph again in 1962 – hence the different numberplates.
Harry explains why he plans to keep Robert’s bike as it was found: “I knew straight away it had to remain exactly as it was. It’s like a 50-year-old bottle of wine – the second you blow the dust off the bottle, it’s just another bottle of wine. The only thing I’ve altered is the tank, which I bought from a restorer in Holland called Jim Hiddleston. I have the genuine TR5 it came with, but there were no tank badges so the bike had no focal point. The tank that it now has is a genuine 1950s one which looks just right.
“But the replica I’m going to get Ace Classics to build will be faithful to Robert’s Triumph as it would have been when he got it ready to race back in the 1950s. One that I can ride.”
ACE YEAR
If you like Triumphs, then you’ll love the 2020 Ace Classics Calendar. It’s the 12th edition the Triumph specialist in London has produced and features a great variety of classic Triumphs, including the Bonneville, Tiger, Trophy, Thunderbird, a 1950s flat-tracker and The Desert Fox. It costs £10 plus postage and packing. Order yours at aceclassics.co.uk
‘OF COURSE, THE SPOOL FRONT WHEEL HAS NO BRAKE’