‘Smart was forced out on lap 41 leaving Mann to win’
finished, Meriden decided to instead ship components to the US for final assembly and testing. There, further problems arose including the apparently illegal use of the non-standard Quaife gearbox (something solved by rapidly adding it to the Triumph accessory catalogue); overheating issues at high speed in the Florida sun and the unexpected arrival of four Honda CR750 racers.
With Triumph more popular than BSA in the US, four of the six bikes were Tridents, in distinctive, sponsor-free, blue/white livery ridden by leading American racers: Gene Romero, Gary Nixon, Don Castro plus British rider Tait. The two red/white BSAs, meanwhile, were ridden by Mike Hailwood (by then mostly racing in F1) and American Jim Rice. Hailwood was primarily hired for publicity reasons while up-and-coming Rice was preferred over long-time BSA rider Dick Mann, who was snapped up by Honda instead.
It proved a disastrous mistake. Although the bikes performed and handled well (so much so that Hele later recommended, fruitlessly, that a road version be put into production), and Romero, Hailwood and Nixon qualified fastest, in the race, things didn’t go to plan. After leading briefly, Hailwood’s engine overheated. Nixon suffered a similar fate just three laps from the end leaving Mann’s Honda to snatch victory, much to the British team’s dismay – although Romero and Castro did finish second and third.
Going for broke
Despite that disappointment, the rest of the AMA season proved a great success. The championship was then a combination of road racing and flattrack events on dirt ovals. The triples were used on the track with special BSA-Triumph twins preferred in the dirt (although Rice was convinced by Thornton to try a special Rocket3 flattracker at the Sacramento Mile, only to end up in the barrier in his first heat!). And not only did Romero claim the overall title, BSA-Triumph riders scooped the top five places overall. It was all enough to convince Thornton to go for broke in 1971.
To achieve exactly that first they re-hired Mann, not just for Daytona but with the promise of a no-expense-spared full AMA season as BSA’s lead rider. The previous six-man team was further expanded to a 10-rider line-up, this time with five BSAs and five Triumphs. While the North-framed bikes were also improved: in addition to the six 1970 ‘high boy’ bikes (as they’d become known due to their high engine mounts), four new machines with revised ‘low boy’ frames including a more forward engine position, lower steering head, revised geometry, shorter forks and wheelbase were also brought in. These new bikes also featured new, more aerodynamic bodywork that incorporated a ‘letterbox’ air intake to improve cooling, small internal engine changes raise peak power to 84bhp and they also featured Lockheed disc brakes all round, two at the front and one at the rear, becoming the first race bikes so equipped. Mann and Hailwood rode the new low-boy BSAs with Smart and Romero allocated the Triumph versions. The BSA line-up was completed by Don Emde, Jim Rice and Dave Aldana with Triumph’s by Castro, Nixon and Tim Rockwood, all on older versions. And, with no official Honda involvement that year, Yamaha’s new two-stroke TZs yet to become dominant, the side-valve Harley 750s outpaced and the Kawasakis needing two fuel stops to the British bikes’ one, the triples’ time had finally come.
Smart, then Hailwood, led in the early stages before the latter’s bike dropped a valve on lap 14. Smart was then forced out on lap 41, leaving Mann to win ahead of Romero and Emde – a clean sweep and a result inconceivable today. And although the rest of the AMA season brought similar success for the British bikes (Mann also won the AMA championship with BSA/Triumph filling out the top five places), the first AngloAmerican Match Races (later the Transatlantic Trophy) took place, basically as a publicity vehicle for the triples, and a ‘low boy’ Triumph ridden by Tony Jefferies also won the F750 TT, with the British factory haemorrhaging cash there was no way it could last.
Up in flames
In December of 1971 the decision was made to dramatically cut back on racing. The Daytona challenge was cut to just three riders, all outpaced by the new Yamaha TZ350s, with only Mann finishing, in fourth. 1973 was worse still. With BSA now defunct, Mann repainted his Rocket3 in Trident colours and was outpaced, not just by the TZs but also Suzuki’s new TR750 and Kawasaki’s H2R triples.
Nor is that the end of the tragedy. Hailwood’s 1971 Rocket3 was destroyed by the fire at the National Motorcycle Museum in 2003. That bike, however, has now been successfully replaced by an exact copy while replicas of the Rob North triples continue to be made and sold in the West Midlands, are revered as one of the best performing British bikes ever, and are some of the most collectable 1970s bikes of all.