GRAND MARSHAL BOB TULLIUS
lius so he transferred all the good bits from his TR3 and started campaigning the TR4. Unfortunately, just a couple of races later, an
exhaust pipe came off a Porsche right in front of him and the ensuing wreck totalled the still unpaid for TR4. Tullius found a wrecked TR4 and his friend, mechanic, and co-driver Ed Diehl got to work and the two were back racing just a few weeks later. Things then started to go right in a big way and Tullius never lost a Di- visional or Championship race in 1962, winning the SCCA National Championship. Triumph then put him behind the wheel of a kas kastner prepared TR4 with which he won the 1963 and 1964 D Production National Championships. 1965 wasn’t as successful in the new independ- ent suspension TR4 IRS. In 1966 Tullius also drove a Dodge Dart in the Trans-Am series and was successful, winning the Marlborough 12 Hour race, the first American car to do so. Un- fortunately Chrysler later bowed out, leaving Tullius and his Group 44 Triumphs to carry on with British Leyland support. In 1974 and 1975 Tullius also raced an E-type
Jaguar, in addition to the Triumphs. During the 1976 season he drove his Group 44 Triumph TR7 to five D Production national race wins in a row. In 1979 he raced a very quick Triumph TR8 in Trans-Am, winning pole and the race first time out at Watkins Glen. Tullius and the TR8 were so successful that SCCA added 400 pounds of penalty weight to the car. Tullius did- n’t think that this was fair. After all, he rea- soned, why am I penalized because we develop our cars better than the competition? So Tullius packed up and went and ran very suc-
cessfully with IMSA, where he finished first in class and sixth overall at the Sebring 12 Hours race. However, he was still eligible to run the last SCCA race of the year and take home a $20,000 contingency fund. But only if the car weighed in with the additional 400 pounds. Continued on Page 14...
ed meRceR
(Opposite page) Group 44 founder Bob Tullius standing next to a Triumph GT-6 at the 1970 New York Auto show. The car was later restored by Grassroots Motorsports. The Group 44 Jaguar XJR-4 won three Trans-Am races in 1981, including
Portland, Brainerd and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with Bob Tullius at the wheel. In 2005 Andrew Moore bought the XJR-4. Both Andy and his son Steve still race it and won the VARAC Trans-Am Reunion Race in the car (above).
2014 CAnAdiAn HistoriC grAnd prix • 13
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