US motor sport pioneer and Group 44 co-founder Bob Tullius died peacefully at his home in Port Orange, Florida, on March 16, 2026. He was 95 years old.
After graduating high school, Tullius joined the US Air Force and played quarterback for the Chanute Air Force Base American football team until his playing career was cut short by a leg injury. He then worked in sales for Kodak.
Despite being named Salesman of the Year at Kodak, Bob Tullius’ true calling lay in motor sport. His career began by accident after he bought a Triumph TR3 for his wife, who rarely drove it. He took it to a racing school himself and promptly won the graduation race.
Having discovered his talent behind the wheel, Tullius’ racing career began in earnest in 1961. He finished no lower than second in his first four races and soon convinced Triumph to supply a TR4 for 1962. His success continued and, in 1963, his supervisor at Kodak forced him to choose between racing and his day job. He chose motor sport and never looked back.
In 1965, he co-founded the Group 44 race team with mechanic Brian Fuerstenau and New York advertising executive Dick Gilmartin. Closely associated with British Leyland – and renowned for backwards-facing race numbers – Group 44 went on to revolutionise US motor sport over the next 25 years.
Bob Tullius and Group 44 effectively pioneered modern motor sport marketing in the US, securing major corporate sponsorships and treating the team as a brand in its own right. Group 44 actively pursued media coverage, involved local dealerships and set new standards of professionalism, with its iconic green-and-white livery worn by team members and applied to transporters as well as the race cars.
Across 25 years, Group 44 amassed more than 300 victories. Its tally included 14 SCCA national championships, three Trans-Am titles and a GTP-class win at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1985. Tullius made 252 race starts, scoring 38 outright victories and a further 43 class wins. His final triumph came in a Jaguar XJR-13 at the Daytona Three Hours in 1986.
Beyond British Leyland’s Triumphs and Jaguars, Tullius’ career spanned a wide and eclectic range of machinery. He entered a Dodge Dart in the Over 2.0-Litre class at the inaugural Trans-Am race at Sebring in 1966, raced the turbine-powered Howmet TX at Le Mans in 1968, drove a NART Ferrari 512 BB at Daytona in 1979 and campaigned a Javelin in NASCAR.
The team was responsible for bringing the British marque’s first Le Mans entry in almost three decades with the XJR-5, marking Jaguar’s return to top-level endurance racing and laying the foundations for its success in Group C. In 1981, Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons presented Tullius with an eponymous award for his contributions to the brand.
Tullius was also a passionate aviator and assembled a collection of aircraft, including a Fairchild PT-26A, a Beechcraft King Air, a Waco biplane, a North American T-6 Texan and a Donald Duck-liveried Mustang P-51D fighter that he donated to the Royal Air Force Museum in 2003. Tullius logged thousands of hours in his aircraft and flew the Mustang P-51D in more than 140 airshows.
Tullius’ achievements are reflected in his induction into the Sebring Hall of Fame, the SCCA Hall of Fame, the British Sports Car Hall of Fame, the IMSA Hall of Fame and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. He also served on the SCCA Board of Directors.
Bob Tullius is survived by his daughter, his daughter-in-law, eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He will be missed.
