DAYTONA: THE NAME OF THE GAME

TRIUMPH HAD A fascination with big American motorcycle events, which wasn’t surprising really since their biggest market for selling motorcycles was the US.

They named their 650cc twin after Bonneville, thanks to Johnny Allen’s success on the salt Flats with JH ‘Stormy’ Mangham’s ‘Texas Ceegar’, a Triumph-powered streamliner. And they named their 500cc unit-construction twin ‘Daytona’ after Buddy Elmore won the 1966 200-mile race riding a works T100/R around the famed banked oval.

Bonneville always attracted huge interest with the bike community, as well as the hot-rod car fraternity, being in tune with a record-breaking culture that blossomed in the post-war era.

But Daytona was a weird one. In its heyday, the 200-miler always attracted a top-class international field and major manufacturers – and enjoyed huge crowds, too – while the race was held on the beach course. That began as a 3.2-mile circuit in 1937 when Eddie Kretz won on an Indian, then became a 4.1-mile course in 1948 and was used for the last time in 1960. The following year the race moved out of town, just off I-95, into a purpose-built facility known as Daytona International Motor Speedway with a two-mile road course initially, which in 1964 was superseded by the full 3.81-mile road course, incorporating some infield turns but also much of the banked tri-oval that was used for the NSACAR 500 stock car races.

But while the racers thrashed around the banking, the biggest crowds of ‘Bike Week’ were downtown on Main Street, soaking up the laidback vibes of the custom bike crew.

Despite this, the race continued to garner big publicity and the American car racing philosophy of ‘race on Sunday, sell on Monday,’ also applied to bikes and meant manufacturers celebrated every 200-mile race win in a big way. And while Harley had the bigger percentage of wins on the tarmac track, it was Triumph who were smart enough to cash-in on their 1966 victory, celebrating by renaming their twin-carb 500cc twin.

Sadly, advances in technology eventually meant bikes were too powerful for the banked oval and the race faded into obscurity, but at least motorcycles like Buddy Elmore’s 1966 winning Triumph remind us of how prestigious the Daytona 200-Mile race once was.

Read the full story behind the restoration of Buddy Elmore’s bike on page 32.

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