the world's most exciting sport car |
The Group 44 |
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During the team's 25-year run, they amassed some 300 overall victories while competing in three of the toughest road racing series in America: SCCA Club Racing, IMSA GTP endurance events and SCCA Trans-Am pro contests. Group 44 Inc.'s familiar white cars with green accents were raced by a talented group of drivers whose leader and co-founder was Bob Tullius. Tullius started with his own Triumph TR3 in early 1961, enrolling in the drivers school at Marlboro, Md. It didn't take him long to show what was to come: He won the race at the conclusion of the school. Soon after, he heard that Triumph was giving a couple of TR4s to selected East Coast drivers for the upcoming season. Tullius traveled to New York to meet with company officials, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to garner one of the new TR4s. Far from discouraged, he raced his trusty TR3 and finished first or second in his first four races, giving him the points lead. In capturing that points lead, he outran the drivers who had received the factory TR4s whenever they went head-to-head. With this success, another visit to Triumph in New York yielded assurances that in the near future Tullius would receive a TR4. "I got a call from Mike Cook at Triumph that they had a car for me," he recalls. They delivered a light blue TR4 to me in the paddock at Marlboro Raceway. With the help of my friend Ed Diehl-also a racer and a very good mechanic-we proceeded to turn the stock TR4 into a racer, right there in the paddock. "The next race was at Lime Rock; I finished second. Then at Lake Garnett, Kan., while out on the course during practice, an exhaust part came off the car in front of me. Well, I ducked to the right, which pulled the steering wheel in that direction and I went off course, hit a tree, and totaled the car. Triumph was not happy when I called to tell them I needed a new car. They declined to supply another one." |
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Bob Tullius passa Bruce Jennings |
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Without a new TR4 from Triumph but in possession of a check for $500 to help him continue racing, Tullius turned to his friend Ed Diehl for help. Diehl took one door from the previous car, bought two wrecked TR4s and proceeded to build one good car from the useable parts-and he did it in three weeks. For the balance of the season, Tullius and Diehl shared the car in SCCA Nationals and Regionals, respectively. They never lost a race and never had a DNF-not bad for a car created from two wrecks. Upon leaving his job at Kodak, Tullius wanted to race full time, but he needed money to do so. He sold his TR4 to generate some funds, and Triumph arranged to give him one of the Kas Kastner TR4s that had raced at Sebring. Tullius put the TR4 to good use during the next two years, winning two national championships, including the first American Road Race of Champions at Riverside in 1964. At this point in his career, Tullius decided that to continue racing full time, he needed to find a way to make it pay for itself. He was now working for a local Triumph dealer and had hired both Ed Diehl and Brian Fuerstenau as mechanics. Tullius had met Fuerstenau at a local body shop where his TR4 had been repaired after incurring some race damage. Tullius's goal began to take shape in March of 1965 when he decided to form a team with Fuerstenau and fellow racer Dick Gilmartin. The new team wanted to prepare three race cars so each of the partners could compete in a full race season. Creating a team was not so unusual in road racing circles, but the approach that Group 44 Inc. chose to take was different: Since both Tullius and Gilmartin had business experience-Gilmartin came from a Madison Avenue advertising/public relations firm-they decided to combine their talents and develop a three-point plan. First, relying on Fuerstenau's mechanical knowledge, they would build competition cars for resale; second, they would maintain existing race cars for customers. These first two points were not that unique, however; it was the third part of their plan that set them apart from almost every other road race team of that era: Using Gilmartin's business background, they would form an advertising/public relations firm primarily focused on Triumph dealers interested in racing. The name for this new organization was taken from Tullius's race car number: 44. Thus Group 44 Inc. was born. |
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John Kelly |
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That first season, Group 44 Inc. raced three cars. Gilmartin was in a Spitfire, Tullius was in a TR4, and the 22-year-old Fuerstenau was trying his hand at racing in a TR3. Fuerstenau also handled the lion's share of maintenance and preparation for all the cars. That season, Tullius won nine of 11 races, claimed his SCCA regional championship and placed second at the ARRC in Daytona. Fuerstenau managed to win his class in regional and national championships. Not a bad start for a new team. On the business side, things were going well, too. For each race, Gilmartin and Tullius would engage a local Triumph dealer to sponsor their cars for that event. Prerace publicity was sent to the local media to motivate potential car buyers to come by the dealer's showroom to see the Group 44 Inc. race cars. Gilmartin and Tullius would also hold seminars for the dealer personnel on how racing success could help sell cars. The two were also very active in working with local community and youth groups on driving safety and promoting sports cars in general, all of which was Several changes to the team came about in 1966. First, Gilmartin decided he needed a change of scenery and left to race Datsuns with the Bob Sharp team. Brian Fuerstenau's Naval Reserve unit was called to active duty and he shipped out to Vietnam. Tullius brought in Tony Adamowicz as a driver, and Roy Wade as crew chief. Adamowicz had won the SCCA's Northeast Region B Sedan class title in his Volvo 544 and fit right in with the team. Group 44 Inc. also took on a different road racing regional championships in 1974 and 1975, breaking the Corvette domination of the series. Tullius easily won the SCCA B Production national championship following a spectacular 1975 season in which he won 12 races from 17 starts. The Group 44 Inc. team was once again dominant in 1976. Thanks mechanical problems to the efforts of in several races, Tullius in an E-type resulting in DNFs. and an XJS coupe, For the balance Brian Fuerstenau of the 1960s and on in an MGB, John into the early 1970s, McComb in a TR7 Tullius and Group 44 and John Kelly in Inc. would continue an MG Midget, the to race a variety of team compiled an British Leyland cars impressive record of including the TR4, 29 victories in 45 TR250, TR6 and starts. Even though the team's official race efforts ended 15 years ago, their cars have not been dormant. Several Group 44 Inc. cars, including the ones highlighted here, are now in the hands of private collectors and still get regular workouts on track. We hear that Tullius may still have a few for sale himself. |
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Brian Fuerstenau |
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Nicola Marras 2005 |
Credits: ClassicMotorsports.net & grassrootsmotorsports |
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