TRIUMPH’S MOTO2 TAKEOVER
Project leader, Steve Sargent, on big dreams and sleepless nights
In 2019, Triumph took over from Honda as the engine supplier for the Moto2 World Championship. The first time a British motorcycle manufacturer’s engine had lined up on a GP grid since the 1950s*, in their debut season the Triumph-engined bikes broke 16 lap records out of 19 rounds and set Moto2’s first top speed of over 300kph.
A project that sees the firm’s contracted engine builder, ExternPro, race-preparing 160 Moto2-specification 765 Triple motors a year to satisfy the 32 riders on the grid, it is by no means a small undertaking for Triumph. And it is all done in front of a worldwide audience, so the risks involved replicating Honda’s CBR600RRbased motor’s reliability record under harsh race conditions with notoriously un-mechanically sympathetic riders on such a public platform are extreme.
So why did Triumph decide to enter Moto2 and what is the ultimate goal of the project considering the firm no longer make the Daytona 675 supersport bike? Chief Product Officer, Steve Sargent, reveals all: “The Moto2 project started after a telephone conversation between myself and a former Triumph employee in late spring 2016. He worked in the MotoGP paddock and while we were chatting he said ‘did you know Honda are leaving Moto2?’ I said I didn’t and he said ‘would Triumph be interested?’ We had never considered Moto2 but I didn’t rule out the possibility and so he put us in contact with the right people at Dorna.
“Our first meeting with Dorna was in June 2016 at their office in Barcelona. They were clear they wanted a motor at the start of its life so it had room for development and one that could move Moto2 forwards in terms of performance and technology. Bringing some energy back into Moto2 was also key as teams knew the inline four engine so well it was hampering racing as it was all about corner speed. At that point we were developing the 765 engine for the Street Triple and after explaining the benefits of a triple’s wide spread of power and punch out of bends, Dorna felt it would bring a fresh dimension to the racing as riders would need to adopt a new riding style with more sliding and hopefully overtaking opportunities as a result. The next step was to get all the team at Triumph aligned for the challenge in front of us.
“In 2016 the supersport class was in decline and our Daytona 675 was unfortunately having to be discontinued, but sales of naked middleweights were on the rise. These are seen as performance machines as well as practical motorcycles and so it was clear that Moto2 could demonstrate our sporting credentials which would add to the brand’s credibility and awareness to a new audience all over the world. Triumph have had a lot of race success but have never fully gone in as a factory, more supported private teams, so to head-up Moto2 was a significant decision as it was the first time ‘Hinckley’ Triumph have properly gone racing. And there was certainly an element of risk. “The potential for underperforming and the resulting knock to Triumph’s reputation, especially if the engine proved less reliable, was a concern. We did a lot of bench testing and track testing with professional racers using our Moto2 engine but even that couldn’t account for Moto2 racers, some of whom are extremely aggressive. The triple has a 14,000rpm rev limit but last year we saw a few racers hit 15,150rpm on the over-run as they slammed down the gears.
“The engineering challenges Moto2 throws up have also been very tough. With a control class, each engine has to be between 1 and 1.5bhp of each other and so we had to tighten up the manufacturing tolerances. All Moto2 engines are built on the regular production lines but when making the cylinder heads and crank cases we warm the machines up for an hour beforehand and then do all the Moto2 parts in one continuous batch without letting anyone take a break to ensure they are the same. The rest of the parts shared with production bikes, which is the vast majority of the Moto2 engine, are all measured by hand and checked for continuity. “I went to the first round at Qatar in 2019 to watch the debut Moto2 race using our engine, which was incredibly nerve-wracking but unbelievably exciting for everyone involved at Triumph. During practice if a rider dropped off the timing sheet I was immediately trying to find out if it was an engine issue and instead of enjoying the race I spent the time counting the bikes past! Honestly, it took me six rounds before I could relax and enjoy the racing but I needn’t have worried, we didn’t suffer a single engine failure in 2019 and broke lap records at nearly every round. The Moto2 project has been fantastic for Triumph and I’m so glad we have been involved, not just from my own perspective but for everyone involved, it was certainly a very important phone call!” *Kenny Roberts’ two-stroke KR3 triple and V5 KR5 motors were built in the UK as was the Ilmor X3 but they aren’t manufacturers, the Silver Dream Racer film bike was built in Wales but was a one-off and the Rotary Norton NRS588 only did one GP in 1990 and one in 1991.