As previously announced, British marque Triumph will be competing in this year’s Supersport World Championship, with five-time GP winner Garry McCoy signed as one half of the official two-man Team Triumph-SC equip. It is Triumph’s first venture into racing on the world stage since the company was re-established by British industrialist John Bloor.
Pre-season testing has already been very encouraging, with 35-year-old McCoy posting some impressive times on the Daytona 675 triple at Phillip Island earlier this month, following on from a sizzling first-up effort in Qatar before Christmas.
With an engine producing eight horsepower more than in Qatar-spec, McCoy’s best lap at Phillip Island was a highly respectable 1:35.9. With huge gains made on chassis and suspension setup, McCoy is confident he’ll be among the front runners in 2008, including the Australian round back at Phillip Island on March 2. McCoy won a world Superbike race at Phillip Island in 2004 on a customer-spec Ducati, so he certainly knows how to win around the decorated 4.448km grand prix circuit.
The second rider for the Bologna-based Team Triumph-SC will be announced shortly, the team continue to say…
In addition to the official factory effort, Triumph’s second entrant in the 2008 world Supersport title will be Team Triumph Italia BE1 Racing, featuring Aussie star Mark Aitchison and veteran Italian Ivan Clementi.
During a recent two-day test at Valencia, Clementi set a fastest lap of 1.38.8, which would have been good enough to get him on the front row at last season’s round. The duo has just completed more testing at another Spanish circuit, Almeria.
In British Supersport Brendan Clarke will campaign a Triumph Daytona 675 for Team Buff/JHS with some factory assistance while the official Factory British Supersport Team has been named as Embassy Racing Moto who will field Australian duo Glen Richards and Paul Young.
As a far as we have been able to ascertain there will be no official supported Daytona 675 machines hitting the track in the Australian Supersport Championship in 2008.
