Triples Who's Who

Triples Who's Who
Honorary Members & Famous Faces

Don & John Woodward

Don Woodward
Don made most of the petrol and oil tanks for the works Triples. Based at Morton, near Cadwell Park, Don is a sheet metal specialist. He had made body panels for BRM Formula One racing cars since 1954, including those for Graham Hill's world championship-winning machines of 1962.

Before the Triples campaign, Don Woodward had fabricated alloy tanks for Triumph's twin-cylinder racers, including large 5.7-gallon containers for the factory's T120 Bonnevilles to use in production TT. The first 1970 Daytona Triples had glass-fibre fuel tanks supplied by fairing and seat makers Screen & Plastic, but during that season Don's alloy items were adopted.

Don Woodward

A Rob North frame was taken to his workshops for use as a pattern, and later a simple fitting jig was used for fuel tanks, replicating the top section of a frame. A dummy fuel tank, carved from lightweight material, was provided as a guide for its shape, and Don has preserved it at his workshop. For short-circuit racing in the UK, Don designed a smaller 3½ gallon petrol tank for the Rob North chassis. The oil tanks were tailored to individual chassis, to allow for the variations between North's handmade frames. He also supplied Bonneville-based tanks for both Rocket 3 and Trident factory production class racers.

Since joined in business by his son Alan, Woodward made tanks for Norton Rotary team racers of the late eighties and early nineties. As well as fabrications for modern and classic racing machines, fuel tanks for the LP Williams Legend and Renegade Triples were made at the Woodwards' premises. As Mick Duckworth wrote in his book 'Triumph and BSA Triples', Don Woodward - sheet metal wizard.

John Woodward
Younger bother John, was an ace Meriden Experimental Department fitter, but was originally apprenticed at BSA but left because he could not get a post in their Experimental Department. John wrote to Doug Hele at Triumph asking for a job but in the meantime worked at Velocette, before being offered a job by Doug in the Triumph 'Experimental'.

After a nasty smash on his proddy-Bonneville, he returned to work after several months' hospitalisation and found himself heavily involved in preparations for the 1970 Daytona meeting. One of his tasks was to make up the three-Amal GP carb set ups - using a single matchbox float chamber - for the Rob North machines. They had to be 'modified' (with a file!) so as to fit in the North frame.

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Ron Barrett