In 1969, USA BSA vice-president, Don Brown, got an agreement from AMA President to officiate record attempts with the Rocket 3 at Daytona International Speedway.
BSA leased the Speedway and hired Dick Mann, Yvone Duhamel, and Ray Hempstead to be the riders for the long-distance speed record attempts. The BSA service manager, Herb Nease, said he thought the Rocket 3 could go as fast as 130 mph if it was set up carefully to exact factory specs, and he was right.
The Rocket 3 achieved a certified lap speed of 131.790 mph for the 2.5 mile oval.
Numerous other distance and speed records were also set, including 124.141mph for 200 miles. Nobody else was even close to those speeds until Kawasaki’s Z1 sneaked past them at Daytona in 1972
The four bikes used to set the records were certified by the AMA as being to factory specifications with the exception of K81 Dunlop tyres, the standard handlebars were replaced with shorter ones, and the front mudguard was removed because it didn’t allow enough clearance for the K81 tyre.
It wasn;t enough to fend off the new Honda CB750, but it did cause the market to believe that the BSA version was faster than the Triumph version.