Automobile manufacturers have long used racing as a tool for both exploring new technologies and advancing marketing agendas, and one of the richest of these competition records belongs to Jaguar. In North America, much of that history has been written by Bob Tullius’ Group 44 Inc. Commencing with an SCCA B Production National Championship at the Road Atlanta Runoffs in 1975 and continuing over two subsequent decades, the partnership generated 15 Trans-Am victories and two championships, as well as nine IMSA GTP wins in an era dominated by Porsche’s 962.
Bob Tullius says he’s had a racer’s mindset since leaving his mother’s womb, and recalls with relish the Schwinn-built “English Racer” bicycle of his youth—while all his friends were still riding fat-tired single-speeds. He readily admits his imagination was irrevocably captured by the sport when as a pre-teen he and his dad first climbed the back fence at Caledonia Speedway near his hometown of Rochester, N.Y.
