Group 44 Dirt-The Beginning of the American Road Racing Epic

By the mid-1960s, American road racing had grown steadily. Spreading from Watkins Glen and Elkhart Lake in the late 1940s, it tracked the entire American landscape. Some trucks, such as the Sebring Circuit in Florida, were nothing more than Army Air Corps training grounds modified for American aviators during World War II. Other tracks, such as California’s Riverside Raceway, were created to embrace America’s newly discovered love for the form of motorsport that was essentially Europe.

American carmakers didn’t want to accept this newly discovered love. The mid-1950s was a tragic period for road racing, especially Europe’s largest event held every June in Le Mans, France. Due to these tragic events, the American automobile industry formed a race ban in 1957. This officially meant that for American automakers, there was no factory-backed racing effort. Manufacturers knew that racing, especially road racing, was needed to develop and test new products and technologies that companies were developing for tram lines. Many companies put their products in the hands of racers “under the table” in a government-style “black ops” -like way, gaining the knowledge they were looking for to further develop their products.

It was young Americans who couldn’t keep the race ban. In the early 1960s, we saw a young American population fascinated by pop culture and technological advances at the time. In 1964, the Ford Motor Company launched one of the biggest shots the automotive industry has ever seen by announcing a brand new Mustang. The Mustang was small by American standards at the time and could carry Ford’s venerable new small block V-8. Thanks to Carroll Shelby and his Ferrari-eating Cobra, who has been stalking the world’s road race circuits since 1962, the potential to become a racer in a new car with all its own indirect performance parts development programs ready. Some were immediately drawn to it. As the number of tracks racing with SCCA in North America increased, Mustang soon became a rapid success on the track. As a result, other American manufacturers struggled to come up with a remedy for Ford’s dominance in road racing. SCCA was willing to provide the perfect setting for such shootouts to occur.

For the 1966 season, SCCA has announced that it will approve a new series entitled “Transam.” This series includes showroom stock production type machines that are readily available to the general public in North America. The rules allowed two classes of competition within one event. The first class was the class of production vehicles with a displacement of over 2 liters (O2L). The second class was for mass-produced vehicles (U2L) with a displacement of less than 2 liters. European manufacturers were supposed to dominate the U2L class, but American manufacturers and road racers alike have fixed their targets in the O2L class, which can run large V-8s on the compact coupe line. I did. The Mustang had an advantage in many teams and cars, but only a handful of very enthusiastic teams chose a different route than the Ford pony car. One of these teams, separated from the path planned by Ford’s Total Performance Program, was Group 44 Racing.

Group 44 Racing was the father of young racer Bob Tullius, who ran in the Mid-Atlantic region in the early 1960s and started his career in the American road racing scene. In the 1966 season, Tullius and Group 44 partner Dick Gilmartin arranged to run the new Dodge Dart during the first TransAm season. Bob has always been reputed for very high standards, many of which have shown Group 44’s success over the years, yet his high standards can sometimes make him a little harder to get over. Dick Gilmartin has secured a sponsorship of Quaker State Motor Oil in Group 44, but has become a victim of ever-increasing standards within Group 44. Quaker State funding remained in Group 44 Racing, with American Racing White Dodge Dart on track. First time in Sebring, Florida on March 25, 1966. As Gilmartin left the team, young Tony Adamovich was asked by Bob to stand as a co-driver for the four-hour Sebling Transam event.

Tony Adamovich became famous for driving the Volvo PV-544 and winning an event in the North-East region of the Sports Car Club of America. Bob began to recognize Tony’s achievements in maneuvering Swedish heavy metal sleds and demanded that he drive with Tony at the 1966 Sebling event. The result was spectacular, with Tony and Bob finishing second overall after U2L Alfa Romeo, driven by future F1 World Champion Jochen Rindt. Group 44 Dart won the O2L class and is ready for several dynasties to unfold in the coming years.

The small white darts, with a blueprinted 273 cubic inch engine producing over 350 horsepower, continued to amaze both teams and race fans throughout the 1966 Transam season. The driving duo of Tarius and Adamovich continued to dominate the Trans-Am endurance event. The first was Marlboro’s 12 hours, the sixth was Green Valley and the second was Riverside. With these results, Group 44 Dirt achieved the Top 5 finish in the 1966 season championship.

Things seemed to get off to a great start in 1967 as Bob led Dart to victory in the first race of the season in Daytona, Florida. After that event, a team with strong support from the manufacturer joined the series, limiting the success of the little white mopar. Bud Moore Racing appeared in Mercury’s new Mercury XR7, with Pennsylvania’s soon-known team manager appearing in 1967 with the Chevrolet’s all-new Camaro. The debut of these two teams marks the beginning of a factory-backed muscle car shootout that lasted until 1972, with the final entry of AMC, a brand known for making the toughest cars. And win two titles.

For the cast of characters behind the spectacular 1966 season of Group 44 darts, Bob Turlius has continued the Group 44 racing project for nearly another 20 years, some of the most famous circuits on the continent and the most prestigious in North America. Won some of the titles. Most notably, Tullius has been involved in British Leyland, with excellent results for marks such as Triumph and Jaguar.

Tony Adamovich left Group 44 in late 1967 and eventually joined Marve Davidson in 1968 to win the U2L Crown at the Porsche 911. Tony then won the 1969 F5000 Championship at Milestone Racing’s AAR Eagle Chevy. This opened the door to Ferrari’s drive to NART (North American Racing Team) in 1970. This is one of the best endurance racing teams ever. Tony continued to drive at the professional level of sports car racing until the late 1980s. Tony continues to race today, reuniting with the 1969 Eagle F5000 car by Doug Magnon, and 40 years after the same car and driver combination won the F5000 title in 1969, the Eagle / in a vintage race. Leading Chevy to the 2009 F5000 class championship. .Tony also operates a2zracergear, an online store for vintage racing apparel.

Over the years; Group 44 Racing and team officials have accomplished some amazing things in road racing. There is one thing for sure. Without the efforts of Bob Trullius, Tony Adamovich, the crew, and Dodge Dart, who organized the 1966 Trans-Am campaign. The North American road racing landscape is arguably not as bright as it is today.