Howling Triples at the Mallory Bonanza
Words courtesy Mallory Park. Images by superbike.co.uk
The Rob North-framed BSA and Triumph triples group played a big part in this year’s Mallory Park Bike Bonanza 7 – their numbers boosted this year by road-going machines of the Trident & Rocket 3 Owners Club (TR3OC).
Although the original three-cylinder prototype was designed by Bert Hopwood and Doug Hele in 1965, the production road versions of the Triumph Trident T150 and BSA Rocket III A75 were not unveiled until 1968 but then remained in production until 1975.
Meantime, as a means to promote the exciting new all-British ‘superbikes’ Doug Hele was charged with developing the bikes into racing machines with specially designed Rob North frames reading for the 1971 season to compete in the burgeoning Formula 750 class.
The race bike enjoyed huge success including: Dick Mann winning the 1971 Daytona 200; Triumph-mounted Percy Tait winning the 1971 MCN Superbike title; Ray Pickrell and Tony Jefferies winning TT races; while John ‘Mooneyes’ Cooper not only scored a big victory in the Ontario 250-mile race in California and won the MCN Superbike championship, but here at his home circuit of Mallory Park in 1971, defeated Giacomo Agostini and the MV Agusta’s exotic 500GP racer in what was probably the most memorable of all the victories for a Rob North triple.
Joe Johnson, spokesman for the Rob North Triples group, added: “We had a grid full of original Rob North bikes and a good selection of replicas to the Mallory Bike Bonanza. We have a good bunch of people who enjoy getting together at race tracks and shows to celebrate these great racing machines and those who raced them.”
Joe has an ex-BeeBee Brothers triple raced by Alastair Frame who finished ninth with the bike in the 1984 Formula One TT race. After the official factory team had been disbanded BeeBee Brothers continued to campaign the triples with Alastair and Malcolm Lucas at the TT and British short circuits. Joe bought ex-Frame bike some 40 years ago and continues to ride it in classic parades.
He also owns an ex-John Oldfield Rob North Triumph which was had been raced ever since it was created in the 1970s. This bike was later owned and raced by Les Whiston who worked with Rob North (and would eventually take over Rob’s business, trading as Trident MCS), and it was then sold to Phil Burge who worked for LP Williams, ensuring the bike always had a link back to either Rob North or Triumph.
While the Rob North Triples group continues to celebrate the racing machines, the TR3OC is dedicated to promoting the use of BSA and Triumph pushrod-engined three-cylinder machines. Now in its 42nd year the club has over 1200 members worldwide. The TR3OC covers all production variants of the BSA Rocket 3, Triumph Trident, the iconic Triumph Hurricane, and modified machines based on the pushrod triple, including customised triples, triple-based specials and race triples.
Joy Lyon, spokesperson for the TR3OC said: We were delighted to have been invited to ride on track with the Rob North triples. We had a full range of BSA and Triumph three-cylinder road bikes at the Bonanza, including the BSA Rocket III, Triumph T150 and T160 Tridents, the Craig Vetter-inspired Hurricane and of course, several specials based on the triples.”
All the triples were parked under one huge marquee in the paddock, forming a major centrepiece for the event. And with the Rob North-framed racers and the TR3OC bikes running on track together, the full field of howling triples circulating the Mallory circuit was one of the joys of the weekend.