TriumphTR8

Group 44 Triumph TR8

Bob Tullius's Group 44, Jaguar Rover Triumph's official racing team in America, raced two TR8s, No. 44 and No. 4, in IMSA's GT races and the Trans-Am from 1979 to 1981: a class win at the first attempt, four wins in 1979 by the magazines' count, and five GTO class wins in 1980.

A white racing TR8 coupé with green stripes and wide arches, number 144, on axle stands under a paddock gazebo.
A TR8 in Group 44's colours, described by its photographer as one of the team's cars, at the Lime Rock Historic Festival, Connecticut, in September 2021.Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0

The TR8's racing career began before its showroom career. Mike Cook, Jaguar Rover Triumph's public relations manager, told it in two sentences:

JRT's official racing team, Group 44, switched from a Jaguar XJS to a Triumph TR8 in 1979 and entered the IMSA GTO series. They won their first event, a six-hour at Watkins Glen.

Michael L. Cook, Special Interest Autos, November–December 1996

Over three seasons the team ran two TR8s, No. 44 for Bob Tullius and, from 1980, No. 4, usually for the Canadian Bill Adam. racingsportscars lists every race the two cars were entered in, and the results below follow it.⁠1​2

Group 44 and Triumph

Bob Tullius had raced Triumphs since 1961, and in 1965 he founded Group 44 Inc. with the mechanic Brian Fuerstenau and Dick Gilmartin, an advertising man. Before the TR8 the team had raced a four-cylinder TR7 in SCCA D Production, and then the Jaguar XJ-S, with which, Michael Lamm recalled, Tullius won the SCCA Trans-Am drivers' championship in 1977 and 1978. He moved to the TR8 in 1979, Lamm wrote, "because it was lighter and more responsive".

A white and green Jaguar XJ-S racing car, number 44, running uphill past straw bales and a crowd.
Group 44's Jaguar XJ-S Trans-Am car, the team's car before the TR8, with Bob Tullius's name on its door, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2006.Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England, CC BY 2.0

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The seasons, 1979–81

The TR8's first race was the Watkins Glen 6 Hours of 7 July 1979, where Tullius and Fuerstenau finished 7th overall and 1st in their class. It started six races that year, and Lamm's count of its wins agrees with Car and Driver's:

Tullius won four IMSA GTO and SCCA Trans-Am races during 1979 and recently finished an impressive sixth overall (against Porsche 935 Turbos and BMW M1s) in the Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Car and Driver, August 1980

racingsportscars names the TR8 as its class's winner in two of those races, the Watkins Glen 6 Hours and the Road America 500, and shows Tullius leading his category in two Trans-Am rounds, at Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca; by our reading, those make the four. The best overall places of the three seasons were 4th, in the Trans-Am at Watkins Glen in August 1979 and at Lime Rock in May 1980.

The year 1980 was the best. Tullius and Adam won the GTO class at the Sebring 12 Hours in March, and at the Mosport 6 Hours and the Road America 500 in August; Tullius won it alone at Daytona in July, and Adam, in No. 4, at the Daytona Finale in November. Corvettes and Porsches won the class's other rounds. The team's last race with the TR8 was the Sebring 12 Hours of March 1981, where John Kelly and Pat Bedard drove No. 4.⁠2​1​7​4

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The cars

No. 44 raced from the first race to the last, and No. 4 from May 1980. racingsportscars gives no chassis numbers, so which car or cars carried each number, and which survive, is not known; the car photographed in Group 44's colours at Lime Rock in 2021 is described by its photographer only as one of the team's. Both cars had Rover's V8, but no source read gives their engines' specification. Their entrant is printed as Group 44 at most races, and as JRT/Quaker State or Jaguar-Rover-Triumph/Quaker State at some; No. 4's races of 1980 have no entrant printed at all.

A photograph in Lamm's article shows the Group 44 car at the American press launch of March 1980, beside John Buffum's rally car and a new convertible.⁠2​4

The white and green racing TR8 from the rear, with a tall rear wing, wide slicks and a roll cage.
The same TR8 in Group 44's colours, seen from behind at Lime Rock in September 2021, with its tall rear wing.Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0

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Jaguar Rover Triumph's support

The company backed the TR8 in amateur racing too. From 1 June 1980 its competition department offered prize money to drivers of TR8s in the SCCA's C Production class at national races, as it did for TR7s in D Production. The rest of the TR8's racing, from Ken Slagle's SCCA title of 1981 to the cars in Canada, is on racing. Cook adds how long the company's backing lasted:

The TR8 was officially raced in the United States for a year after it was discontinued. SCCA competition, sponsored by JRT, continued through 1982.

Michael L. Cook, Special Interest Autos, November–December 1996⁠8​1

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Results

A yellow year marks a win.

  • 1979

    Watkins Glen 6 Hours 1979

    7 July 1979, Watkins Glen, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius and Brian Fuerstenau, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 7th overall, 1st in Group 4 – Grand Touring⁠2​1

  • 1979

    Trans-Am, Watkins Glen, August 1979

    5 August 1979, Watkins Glen, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 4th overall, 1st in Trans-Am Category I⁠2

  • 1979

    Road America 500 Miles 1979

    2 September 1979, Road America, Elkhart Lake, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius and Brian Fuerstenau, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 6th overall, 1st in its class⁠2

  • 1979

    Road Atlanta 100 Miles, September 1979

    23 September 1979, Road Atlanta, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 13th overall, 2nd in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1979

    Trans-Am, Laguna Seca, October 1979

    14 October 1979, Laguna Seca, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 11th overall, 1st in Trans-Am Category I⁠2

  • 1979

    Daytona Finale 250 Miles 1979

    25 November 1979, Daytona, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: retired⁠2

  • 1980

    Daytona 24 Hours 1980

    February 1980, Daytona, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, John McComb and John Kelly, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: retired: gearbox⁠2​9

  • 1980

    Sebring 12 Hours 1980

    22 March 1980, Sebring, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius and Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 6th overall, 1st in IMSA GTO⁠2​7

  • 1980

    Riverside 5 Hours 1980

    27 April 1980, Riverside, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius and Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 27th overall, 11th in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Laguna Seca 100 Miles, May 1980

    4 May 1980, Laguna Seca, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 9th overall, 2nd in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Laguna Seca 100 Miles, May 1980

    4 May 1980, Laguna Seca, USA. No. 4, Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 4: 13th overall, 5th in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Lime Rock, May 1980

    26 May 1980, Lime Rock, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 4th overall, 2nd in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Lime Rock, May 1980

    26 May 1980, Lime Rock, USA. No. 4, Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 4: 5th overall, 3rd in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Brainerd 100 Miles 1980

    15 June 1980, Brainerd, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: retired⁠2

  • 1980

    Daytona Paul Revere 250 1980

    4 July 1980, Daytona, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 6th overall, 1st in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Daytona Paul Revere 250 1980

    4 July 1980, Daytona, USA. No. 4, Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 4: 7th overall, 2nd in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Mosport 6 Hours 1980

    17 August 1980, Mosport Park, Canada. No. 44, Bob Tullius and Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 8th overall, 1st in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Road America 500 Miles 1980

    31 August 1980, Road America, Elkhart Lake, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius and Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 7th overall, 1st in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Road Atlanta 50 Miles 1980, heat 1

    21 September 1980, Road Atlanta, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 12th overall, 2nd in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Road Atlanta 50 Miles 1980, heat 1

    21 September 1980, Road Atlanta, USA. No. 4, Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 4: retired⁠2

  • 1980

    Road Atlanta 50 Miles 1980, heat 2

    21 September 1980, Road Atlanta, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 16th overall, 8th in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Road Atlanta 50 Miles 1980, heat 2

    21 September 1980, Road Atlanta, USA. No. 4, Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 4: did not start⁠2

  • 1980

    Daytona Finale 250 Miles 1980

    30 November 1980, Daytona, USA. No. 4, Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 4: 7th overall, 1st in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1980

    Daytona Finale 250 Miles 1980

    30 November 1980, Daytona, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 8th overall, 2nd in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1981

    Sebring 12 Hours 1981

    21 March 1981, Sebring, USA. No. 44, Bob Tullius and Bill Adam, in Group 44 TR8, No. 44: 10th overall, 4th in IMSA GTO⁠2

  • 1981

    Sebring 12 Hours 1981

    21 March 1981, Sebring, USA. No. 4, John Kelly and Pat Bedard, in Group 44 TR8, No. 4: 20th overall, 9th in IMSA GTO⁠2​9

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Sources

Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  • Databaseresults and listings, entry by entry
  • Uncheckedencyclopaedias and enthusiast sites: cited beside a good source, named in the sentence, or marked Unchecked
  1. Michael L. Cook, "1981 Triumph TR8: Fast and Last", Special Interest Autos, no. 156, Nov–Dec 1996, pp. 10–17, p. 13, "JRT's official racing team, Group 44"; p. 13, the first event; p. 13, "officially raced in the United States for a year after it was discontinued"; p. 13. Reference
  2. racingsportscars.com, "All Results of Triumph TR8" (1979–1999), Group 44's TR8 entries, 1979–81; 1979: the Watkins Glen 6 Hours and the Trans-Am rounds; the race pages, with class winners, 1979–81; numbers, drivers and entrants; Watkins Glen 6 Hours 1979, results page; Trans-Am Watkins Glen 1979, results page; Road America 500 Miles 1979, results page; Road Atlanta 100 Miles 1979, results page; Trans-Am Laguna Seca 1979, results page; Daytona Finale 250 Miles 1979, results page; Daytona 24 Hours 1980, results page; Sebring 12 Hours 1980, results page; Riverside 5 Hours 1980, results page; Laguna Seca 100 Miles 1980, results page; 1 h 30 min Lime Rock 1980, results page; Brainerd 100 Miles 1980, results page; 250 mile Daytona Paul Revere 1980, results page; Mosport 6 Hours 1980, results page; Road America 500 Miles 1980, results page; Road Atlanta 50 Miles 1980, Heat 1, results page; Road Atlanta 50 Miles 1980, Heat 2, results page; Daytona Finale 250 Miles 1980, results page; Sebring 12 Hours 1981, results page. Database
  3. Moss Motoring, "Bob Tullius, Group 44 Inc.", 5 Apr 2009, Tullius's Triumphs; Group 44 Inc., 1965. Reference
  4. Michael Lamm, "1st Drive in the Triumph TR8", British Car, Feb–Mar 1999, pp. 46–48, p. 48, the Trans-Am titles and the switch to the TR8; p. 48, "won four out of six"; p. 48, the launch photograph. Reference
  5. Aaron Severson, "Way of the Wedge: The Triumph TR7 and TR8", Ate Up With Motor, 5 Feb 2012, pp. 1–5, p. 3, Group 44's TR7 in D Production. Reference
  6. Wikipedia (EN), "Triumph TR8", 2026, Racing: "dominated SCCA racing in 1979". Unchecked
  7. Don Sherman, "Triumph TR8" (road test), Car and Driver, Aug 1980, pp. 36–40, p. 38, four wins in 1979; Sebring 1980; p. 38. Primary
  8. Jaguar Rover Triumph Inc. (via the Triumph Wedge Owners Association), "1980 Competition Awards Program – SCCA National Events" (Competition News release), 1980, Competition News: SCCA National awards from 1 June 1980. Primary
  9. racingsportscars.com, Driver pages (group): John Kelly (USA), John McComb (USA), Pat Bedard (USA), Ken Slagle (USA), Lee Mueller (USA), Bill Adam (CDN), Peter Bulkowski (CDN), Bruce Kulczyk (CDN), Luc Behar (CDN), John Kelly (USA); John McComb (USA); John Kelly (USA); Pat Bedard (USA). Database

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