A fairytale ending for Triumph.

ValMoto Triumph won the last round of British Supersport Sunday at Donington Park following the release of their intention to stop racing after this season the previous week.

Young Craig Jones piloted the Daytona 600 to a sublime victory with a race long battle with four other bikes, representing Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Ducati, to take his, and Triumph's only win since they started competition in British Supersport last season.

ValMoto have enjoyed success with the Triumph Daytona previously at the Isle of Man TT, but last weekend marked a mammoth victory in a head-to-head battle against the world's leading manufacturers.

Triumph now have pulled out of racing following a decision to increase the capacity of the Daytona 600 to 650cc, making the machine too large for supersport homologation entry requirements.

The move by Triumph follows in the footsteps of Kawasaki's ZX-636RR, with its 636cc capacity enlargement to gain vital power and torque in the highly competitive 600 sports bike market.

Triumph will hope, with a capacity increase, their Daytona will be able to offer the buyer more performance for their money.

The Daytona 650 was recently unveiled at the Intermot International Motorcycle show and there seems to be only minor changes over the previous 600cc Daytona.

These improvements seem to have been mainly made to the engine. The larger capacity comes from a stroke increase from 41.3mm to 44.5mm, increasing claimed torque only slightly to 51ft.lbs, whereas power remains the same as to the 'old' 600's claimed 112bhp.

Benefits will probably be that the engine is a great deal more drivable, offering a larger amount of torque throughout the rev range, however only tests will be able to determine this.

At the moment it is unclear the effect of Triumph moving away from racing will have on their sales of the new bike, obviously the British manufacturer hopes to increase its market share with a more competitive road going machine.

However the latest move in the TT600/Daytona 600/650 time-line may indicate a need for the new machine to have greater performance. It is no big secret the TT600 and Daytona were not the sales success Triumph had hoped for, with many articles referencing the engine as not being as strong as the competition.

If this is the case it begs the age old question as to why Triumph did not make the original 600 sportsbike a three-cylinder machine, to capitalise on its triple heritage.

It is believed by many that this would have been a machine that would given the Triumph name a much needed distinction in the 600 market.

The manufacturer's answer to this has always been that the preliminary research into a triple showed that it would not have the performance to compete against the Japanese manufacturers, where as it was hoped the four-cylinder would.

Over the past two years the ValMoto Triumph has been a much loved partnership by all British motorcycle racing fans, due to its patriotic symbolism, which ValMoto capitalised on with a Union Jack flag painted on the front of its supersport racing machine. The decision by Triumph to move away from racing is probably an unpopular one amongst these fans.

Valmoto, on the other hand, will continue its racing efforts with a British Superbike team in 2005, although it has not yet confirmed what machines and riders it will employ.

The team has competed in various forms for many years and is likely to have a highly competitive package, now that the base team is very well established, next season.