Back in June this year, the British motorcycle manufacturer had announced their entry into the world of motorsports by replacing Honda->ke291 as the engine manufacturer for the Moto2 Motorcycles from the 2019 season.

Making use of the talented 765cc Triumph Street Triple engine, the folks at the racing department are putting all their resources into tuning this three-pot motor into a dedicated Moto2 worthy engine. With multiple enhancements and developments underway, the engine has successfully being tested with the second track test at the Ciudad del Motor de Aragón by Julian Simon, 2009 125cc World Champion, Moto2 runner-up and experienced Moto2 test rider.

Triumph->ke1864 had recently moved focus onto making retro-classic motorcycles and gave us wallpaper material motorcycles with their Bonneville range. I, for one, was taken for a surprise when Triumph confirmed the deal and was in an abyss to shift my thoughts of the brand as the modern-retro silhouette to someone making a 160bhp screamer of an engine, ready to set ablaze racetracks around the world.

In 2010, for the first time in the 60-year history of World Grand Prix racing, a one-make engine rule was adopted. The 250 cc class was replaced by the new Moto2 600 cc four-stroke power mill supplied exclusively by Honda, which was capable of producing close to 125 bhp to 140 bhp of gut-wrenching power and 16000 revolutions of ear-splitting redline.

Since Honda's current contract with the World Championship runs only until the end of 2018, the largest British Motorcycle manufacturer, Triumph, has recently signed a three-year deal with MotoGP rights holders Dorna to build the control engine for the Moto2 championship from 2018.

And now, the Hickney firm has come midway into the engine development programme and all signs show green. The engineers and honchos behind this are happy with the way the engine performed itself consistently and above expectations.

The track shakedown test gave a pretty good initial feedback and essential data for the project development. Julian Simon put the 765cc motor through its paces at the Aragón track and was happy with the consistent performance and feedback he got from the dedicated Daytona 765 body and frame.

The dedicated race tuned 765cc Triumph triple engine, based on the powerplant from the all-new 2017 Triumph Street Triple will include multiple modifications such as a modified cylinder head with revised inlet and exhaust ports, titanium valves, race kit alternator, tuneable slipper clutch, race ECU, taller gear ratio, revised engine cover and improved header run.

The engines have to be rock-solid and of the highest cadre in terms of precision and performance, good enough to match the Honda’s bulletproof engine which has had only five failures in a million kilometres. They will have to make close to 200 engines and put dedicated support required to replenish them every three races.

Based on this, the chassis manufacturers such as Kalex, Speed-up, Suter, Tech3 and KTM will also be informed in time to get started with designing. Extern Pro will remain in business and help build the Moto2 engines for Triumph and tune them to race specs.

As far as Triumph is concerned, they are financially stable ever since British real estate billionaire John Bloor took over the company and laid out a sensible strategy in developing two and three cylinders. With this deal, the company will look at churning fortunes and make a mark in the motorsports arena.