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Donington podium a triumph for Triumph

40 years have passed since the last Triumph podium in a world championship, an event that was repeated at Donington by the "The King of Slide" Garry McCoy with Team ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing. The Australian rider finished third in the Supersport race, making history for the English brand.

It was 1969 when test rider Percy Tait finished behind Giacomo Agostini on a MV in the 500 class at the Grand Prix of Belgium. This was the last round of the factory team in the World Grand Prix championship. However, it was not the only great result of those years, as the Hinckley-based manufacturer can boast an impressive record in other competitions which at that time were not world championships. Paul Smart and Tom Dickie won the Bol D'or in 1970 followed by Percy Tait and Ray Pickrell who did the same the year after, just before the racing division had to be shut down because the factory went into crisis as most European motorcycle brands did in the 70's and 80's.

Team ParkinGO Triumph BE1 Racing received the great honour to continue the brand's history as Giuliano Rovelli's squad, who only 8 months before had become official factory team, reached their objective, that of getting on the podium with a Daytona 675 in World Supersport. "We've made it six months ahead of what we hoped for", team owner Giuliano Rovelli said. "We kicked things off with the Italian Championship in 2007, where the Daytona 675 made its debut. After six races only, Ivan Clementi scored our first podium result at Mugello. That boosted our morale and we decided to participate in the world championship as a private team. Our performance convinced the manufacturer to promote us to factory team status at the end of 2008".

All this probably would not have been possible without the talent of a passionate and experienced rider such as Garry McCoy, famous for "inventing" skid racing. "When I first met the team members, I knew right away that they were doing things seriously and good results would come sooner or later. The crew works hard on every detail and situation. The staff who works alongside me is made up of very prepared people. I could compare them to the Red Bull Yamaha team with whom I won a lot of races in the 500 world championship", the Aussie rider explained.

Triumph's racing coordinator, Paul Taylor also commented on the team's historic result: "We are delighted to have scored a podium finish so early in the project and to have achieved this at our home race made it even more special. This is only the second time in the history that a Triumph has appeared on the podium of a full world championship race and our first in the modern era. From my first meetings with Giuliano it was clear that he had the skills and determination to allow Triumph to compete with the big budget teams from the Japanese manufacturers on the world stage. We are also very fortunate to have the talent of Garry McCoy, who had a tough 2008 season but has never stopped believing in the Daytona 675. This is a great reward for his efforts and I hope that he will continue to collect the silverware between now and the end of the season".