Daytona Winner: Gary Nixon’s 1967 Triumph T100R

A young and feisty Gary Nixon first experienced what it’s like to lead the field at Daytona International Speedway during the 1964 200-miler.

A fast-moving Harley-Davidson KRTT freight train trailed him and his Triumph onto the famous banking, but Nixon appeared up for the challenge. However, later in the race a slow pit stop cost Nixon the lead, eventually placing him second behind Harley-Davidson’s Roger Reiman and his highballing KRTT.

No doubt, the confident redhead from Oklahoma had enjoyed the welcoming view of an empty track sprawled wide open before him and his Triumph. He wanted more of the same, so after finishing second to Reiman he dedicated himself to not only becoming AMA Grand National Champion one day, he also desperately wanted to win the Big One — the Daytona 200 road race.

The following year a rain-soaked Daytona track put a damper on those ambitions as Reiman repeated for a third Daytona victory. Later that summer another reality check greeted Triumph when a groundswell of rumors spread within AMA racing that Honda, with its new dual-overhead-cam 450cc twin, laid plans to compete in the 1966 Daytona 200. By 1965 Honda had proven that it was a road racing force to be reckoned with anywhere, anytime. So AMA competitors eyeing the 1966 race anticipated the worst for the forthcoming March madness that sets the Daytona 200 apart from all other races.

Almost on cue, Triumph’s two U.S. distributorships contacted Triumph management in England to discuss what could be done to prepare for the 1966 Daytona 200 that, everyone feared, would include competition from the world’s largest motorcycle company. Rod Coates, representing Triumph Corporation (TriCor) and Pete Colman of Johnson Motors (JoMo) strategized with managing director Harry Sturgeon to formulate a plan. Eventually Sturgeon gave the green light for Doug Hele’s Experimental Department to build five rather special 500cc road racers based on the T100 platform for Daytona. The two U.S. distributors would field bikes and riders. TriCor’s 1966 team consisted of Nixon, road race specialist Buddy Elmore, and Billy Lloyd, while JoMo had bikes for Ted Davis and Sid Payne.

Even though much of the development to Triumph’s unit-construction 500cc twin had been perfected when Cliff Guild built Don Burnett’s 1962 Daytona winner, Hele’s engineers had their work cut out for them. Primarily, his department was in the midst of developing 650cc bikes for production racing in England, where a loyal customer base existed. Plus, there was the matter of another hush-hush program, that of preparing the 750cc 3-cylinder Trident for market. That left little time for updating the 500cc twin for Daytona in March. Pressed for time, Hele, who had been instrumental in developing Norton’s famous 500cc Domiracer when he was with that marque, used a fair portion of the technology he generated from that program to improve upon the Triumph engine for Daytona.

A new beginning

The new Triumph racer, christened the T100R, had a revised cylinder head with 39-degree included valve angles — six degrees shallower than the standard T100, allowing for larger valves, including 1.5-inch intake valves. A pair of 1-3/16-inch Amal GP carbs were mounted behind the head on 4-inch rubber hoses to prevent fuel frothing caused by vibration. The compression ratio was 9.75:1.

A special Lucas energy-transfer racing ignition provided spark. Mounted outboard of the lightweight magnesium timing cover that concealed a set of breaker points mounted on its own bearing, the system was driven by an Oldham coupler (a slotted shaft) from the exhaust camshaft. Parts from the 500 Thruxton production racer were used, such as Thruxton Big Foot tappets and tappet blocks. The parts list also included BSA form cams, tapered large-diameter steel-tip pushrods, a mirror polished crankshaft, and an alloy clutch hub. A close-ratio 4-speed transmission joined the mix.

The new T100R engine developed 46.5 horsepower at 8,200rpm, considered to be about four horsepower less than Harley-Davidson’s vaunted V-twin KRTT engine. But the Milwaukee bike and its aging side-valve 750cc engine was noticeably heavier than the Triumph, which weighed a svelte 315 pounds, so power-to-weight ratio favored Triumph, plus the Brit bike’s smaller engine should offer better fuel mileage, important for 200-mile racing.

The new engine had been placed in a new frame made of lightweight T45 tubing similar to 4130 chromemoly. The lighter tubing shaved seven pounds from the frame’s weight. The oil tank, essentially an alloy copy of a TriCor accessory, was centrally located for improved weight distribution. Both exhaust pipes were routed along the bike’s left side. Brakes were also Thruxton components — vented hubs laced to Dunlop alloy rims.

When the new Triumphs rolled onto the track the following March, other competitors took notice. They also noticed soon enough that the new T100R engines were experiencing issues, a result of using alloy tappet blocks with iron cylinders. Their expansion rates differed, which allowed the tappet blocks to loosen enough to turn and damage the cams. Soon enough it was apparent that there were multiple problems in the Triumph camp. Engines blew up and speeds were down. In fact Nixon’s bike was especially down on top speed compared to his teammates’ bikes.

The team’s Daytona garage became littered with broken T100R parts. Eventually Nixon opted for a proven, but slightly slower and heavier backup bike that his mechanic Cliff Guild had brought. Guild had a reputation for building reliable engines, so Nixon followed the racer’s axiom that to finish first you had to first finish. But Elmore stuck with the T100R engine as it arrived from Meriden. In reality, though, Elmore’s engine was a patch-work concoction that ace mechanics Dick Bender and Ted Rivard assembled from, in fellow-mechanic Guild’s words, “floor sweepings.”

Gary Nixon’s Floor Sweeping Special

It turned out that Elmore’s faith in the Floor Sweepings Special paid off, and after some shuffling of places he and Nixon found themselves dicing for the race lead. Eventually, though, a punctured tire relegated Nixon to the pits for a tire change, leaving Elmore to win, somewhat of an upset considering the misfortunes the team experienced all week. Nixon’s consolation was found in yet another racer’s axiom: there’s always next year.

And next year brought with it a fresh start full of hope in a reconfigured racer that took all of the good from the 1966 bike, and built on it, leaving all of the bad in the recycling bin. The bike featured here happens to be the T100R that Nixon rode to his Daytona 200 win in 1967, thus fulfilling his prophecy. Now, more than 50 years later the famous Daytona winner is in the possession of seasoned collector Mike Iannuccilli, who commissioned Keith Martin and his crew at Big D Cycle in Dallas, Texas, for its restoration. Fellow Texan Bill Milburn served as historian for the project, and at about that same time Bill acquired Gene Romero’s T100R that was rather intact, and still much in its original 1967 form. Consequently, the Romero bike served as a valuable reference guide for the Nixon bike’s restoration. And, by chance, Martin had managed to acquire the official Triumph log book filled with handwritten notations of all work and modifications made to the Daytona winner. The result is a restoration mirroring exactly what Nixon triumphantly rolled into 1967 Victory Lane, right down to its original number 52104 engine stamping.

To fully appreciate the bike’s three-year restoration, though, we should consider how Triumph improved it for the 1967 Daytona 200. And, by the way, Honda never did show up for Daytona in 1966. That confrontation played out for 1967 when Team Hansen showed up with a stable of well-prepared bikes that proved competitive, but not enough so to win.

A second new beginning

Encouraged by Elmore’s 1966 win, Doug Hele and his engineers set about to improve the T100R for 1967. Honda would undoubtedly be there this time, so Triumph knew they must put their best foot forward. The folks in Milwaukee also were more than agitated that they didn’t win the ’66 race, so Harley-Davidson was also expected to ramp up their 1967 effort.

So after solving the T100R’s oiling issues by replacing the crank bushing with a ball bearing and feeding the oil into the polished and strengthened crankshaft, Hele’s group turned attention to gaining more power from the 500cc twin. They increased the compression ratio for more power and quicker acceleration, using a new squish band of 0.030-inches in the combustion chamber. Doing so helped monitor detonation while creating 11:1 compression ratio. Lighter valve gear included S&W springs, titanium collars and retainers, and 5/16-inch barrel-shaped push rods with steel tips that wouldn’t bend at high rpm were selected along with BSA form cams and Thruxton 3-inch radius followers. The cylinders were made of thicker iron to withstand the higher compression ratio.

Their efforts paid off, showing 48.5 horsepower at 8,700rpm. The power band was broader, too, posting 44 horsepower on the dyno while engine speed was still generously accelerating at 6,500rpm. Those dyno figures indicated the new engine should not only offer more top speed, but quicker acceleration out of Daytona’s flat corners.

The frame was reconfigured with more rake and trail, plus a new lower fiberglass fuel tank replaced the bulbous structure of ’66. A sleeker fairing improved aerodynamics, and the three-piece fairing made it easier for the mechanics to disassemble in the pits and paddock.

The exhaust system was improved, too, with one pipe routed along the bike’s right side, the other set slightly lower on the left. Team mechanics had complained that the original dual left-side exhaust pipes made it time-consuming to work on the bikes, so these changes were made in the interest of efficiency.

The suspension and wheels received some attention, too. Foremost a huge Fontana 210mm 4-leading shoe brake found its way to a shorter fork that had new shuttle-valve damping (a feature that would find its way into 1968 production-model Triumphs). To further help set the bike lower to the ground, the ’67 bike rolled on 18-inch wheels and tires; 19-inchers were common on many British road racers of the era, but as the team was to discover, those minor chassis changes would present their own set of handling issues at Daytona.

When Speed Week commenced, the reconfigured T100R checked in at a reported 301 pounds. No surprise, the bikes showed immediate promise, but as speeds increased, it became apparent that the new 18-inch rear tire wasn’t gripping as it should. One scenario suggests that the 18-inch wheels altered the T100R’s rake and trail enough to cause the rear tire to slide through turns. Another scenario, say some historians, is that the new Goodyears — developed expressly for Harley-Davidson — gripped better than Dunlops due to a superior rubber compound.

Regardless, Triumph realized they needed a better rear tire. But only Goodyear had 19-inch tires with 3.50-inch cross sections required for the Triumph racers; Dunlop didn’t. After some back-room politicking (Triumph used Dunlop as their OEM tire brand; Harley-Davidson OEM tires were supplied by Goodyear), the folks at Goodyear agreed to roll some 3.50-19-inch rear tires into Triumph’s garage.

Over the years Doug Hele would contend that the T100R was originally designed for 19-inch tires, and switching to the 18’s front and rear for 1967 disrupted the rake and trail specs, in turn affecting handling. In any case, once the stickier Goodyear rear tires found their way onto Triumph team bikes, the riders were able to find their way around Daytona Speedway without their rear tires slipping and sliding.

Gary Nixon drops the hammer

As noted, Nixon won the 1967 race, but not without a fight. Dick Hammer, his semi-teammate (he rode for JoMo, Nixon for TriCor, and there was no love lost between the two distributors) matched Nixon for speed and both riders easily pulled away from the field. The pair put on a dazzling show for 100 miles, neither rider giving in. After both Triumphs had pitted, Hammer’s bike began to slow, and it took more than a few seconds to determine why. The answer was found in one of the carbs — during the fuel stop a pit crew member tossed the shop rag Hammer used to wipe his face shield with. Nobody noticed that the rag fell on the bike, lodging itself near the carburetor intakes. As Hammer resumed the chase the rag got sucked into a carburetor’s mouth, choking the engine. Hammer lost valuable seconds before realizing the problem. Down about 30 seconds to Nixon, and riding at a torrid pace, Hammer crashed in Turn 1. The 100mph get-off left him with a broken collarbone and a scuffed but intact bike. He remounted to give chase, but the pain and the time lost proved too much, leaving him to finish a painful (literally and figuratively) seventh, while Nixon cruised to his first Daytona 200 win, and Triumph’s second in a row; to add an exclamation point, Elmore finished a close second.

Clearly, Triumph dominated the race, with all six factory bikes finishing in the top 10, plus privateer George Montgomery placing 12th.

Nixon went on to win the 1967 AMA Grand National Championship, checking that box, too. Finally, during the off-season, the world enjoyed a satisfied and tempered Gary Nixon who used the winter to contemplate the upcoming defense of his Daytona 200 win and 1967 Grand National Championship.

Behind the T100R’s bubble

Shortly after Triumph’s successful 1967 Daytona 200, Hammer’s alleged bike was hustled back to California for Cycle World editor Ivan Wager to sample at Riverside International Raceway. We say “alleged” bike because the magazine reported the Triumph to be Hammer’s number 16. Years later it was revealed by a Triumph team member to Bill Milburn that Hammer’s bike was too damaged after the race, so crew members put Hammer’s race number on Eddie Mulder’s bike for the Riverside outing, and that was that.

All team bikes were essentially the same so it really didn’t matter which bike Wager rode. After lapping the now-legendary 9-turn, 2.5-mile road course Wager confirmed the bike’s potential. About the engine, he wrote, “Ridden at anything over 4,500rpm, and from 6,000rpm to redline, things happen very quickly, particularly in first and second gears,” adding, “once the engine gets near peak [rpm] in first, it can climb the last 500 revs in one second, near enough.”

As for handling, Wager opined, “The new Triumph is on par or better than anything else for handling.”

Wager also waxed eloquent about the huge Fontana front brake, and was told the team riders shared the same regard for it. “It’s the sort of brake that can be operated all the way with two fingers,” wrote Wager, concluding his ride report that the “new Triumph is on par or better than anything else for handling.”

Gary Nixon’s Triumph

The following year Nixon’s T100R was used as a backup bike for the 1968 Daytona. When that race concluded TriCor sold Nixon’s Daytona winner to Jack Wilson at Big D Cycle in Texas. Rising star from the Lone Star State, Rusty Bradley shared its racing duties with another Texas hot shoe of the time, Virgil Davenport. Later Bradley tragically lost his life in a racing accident, and Davenport moved on to race other bikes, so Nixon’s Daytona-winning Triumph sat neglected for about 10 years before Team Obsolete acquired it, later loaning the bike to Canadian racer Phil Mahood until eventually the bike found a long-term home in Michigan when Ken Grzesiak of British Only bought it. The bike sat for a number of years until its current custodian, Mike Iannuccilli, acquired it in 2012, along with the 1967 Daytona 200 trophy and other Nixon memorabilia. Mike appreciates race motorcycles with provenance the likes of the Nixon Triumph, so he set about to restore it as part of his multi-bike “champion’s collection.”

He promptly commissioned Keith Martin at Big D Cycle to restore the bike to its 1967 Daytona 200 incarnation. Nothing was spared, and to make sure, Mike instructed the restoration crew to “do whatever it takes to bring this bike back to its former glory.”

Martin himself set the tempo by sorting through old parts containers looking for the period-perfect fasteners and fuel line clamps that now are on the bike. And that oil cooler on the frame’s lower right side? It’s it same one that Triumph crew members fabricated from a Chevrolet Corvair engine. And those rubber vacuum cleaner belts securing the oil tank? Identical to what was on Nixon’s bike during March of 1967. Ditto for the baling wire helping secure the (Honda!) exhaust heat shields in place.

Finally, when Big D Cycle finished the restoration, all parts in need of paint were shipped back to Mike’s body and paint shop for application of Triumph’s famous blue and white colors. No doubt, the entire restoration is first class, and Trailblazers members at the 2021 annual banquet were treated to an up-close and personal display of the bike during the pre-dinner Tom Cates Memorial Bike Show. Certainly a fitting tribute to one of the most historic Triumphs ever raced, a bike that won three of four 1967 road races, in the process powering Nixon to his first of two AMA Grand National Championships. MC