New Headline: Cyclist Legend Bob Tullius Sprints into Retirement with No Pain or Regrets

Road Racing Driver and Team Owner Bob Tullius Dies Rick Dole - Getty Images A pioneer of American road racing who elevated the sport by his participation, Bob Tullius died on Monday at his home in Port Orange, Florida, at age 95. Tullius was among the first to parlay SCCA club racing events into a full-blown professional team with the help of factory backing from British Leyland, then Jaguar. Among many other sponsors, Group 44 represented Quaker State for more than two decades.

Starting from racing shops in Falls Church, Virginia, and later Winchester, Virginia, his Group 44 Inc. team was known for its immaculate trackside presentation at SCCA events and Trans-Am races in the 1960s and 1970s before moving to IMSA to compete with the distinctive Jaguar XJR-5 and XJR-7 at the outset of the GTP era. Tullius passed away five days before the 74th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, an event where he raced 14 times, including a GTO class victory in 1980 on board a Rover-powered Triumph TR8.

Another of his landmark victories came at Sebring in the inaugural Trans-Am race in 1966, when Tullius won the Over 2. 0-liter class after finishing second overall in a Dodge Dart. Born in Rochester, New York, Robert Charles “Bob” Tullius was the first to employ a large tractor trailer to transport his entries to sports car races while competing for his own multi-car team.

“Something that size really stood people on their heads,” said Tullius of the white hauler emblazoned with Group 44’s distinctive logo in green, which featured reverse images of the two fours. “Everybody thought I was really rich. I wished it was true.