Triumph TR4 - Sporting Achievements

Sporting Achievements

In America, the TR4 also saw a number of racing successes, primarily through the efforts of the Californian engineer Kas Kastner and his top driver, Bob Tullius, the TR4 in 1962 won the E Production national championship. The SCCA reclassified the car to D Production, and Tullius won that class title in 1963 and ’64. Soon after the TR4 was introduced Kas Kastner along with Mike Cook who was in the advertising department at Triumph in New York City convinced the company to provide three new TR4s to race in the 12 Hours of Sebring race in 1963. Beginning in Sept 1962 the cars were prepared in California where Kastner was Service Supervisor for Triumph. The cars were then flown to Florida for the endurance race in March on 1963. These cars were driven by Mike Rothschild and Peter Bolton from England, Bob Tullius, Charlie Gates, Ed Deihl, Bob Cole, Bruce Kellner and Jim Spencer and finished overall 22nd, 24th, and 35th of 65 entries, and 1st, 2nd and 4th in the 2.5 GT class. This was the beginning of the Triumph Competition Department which Kastner headed for several years subsequently and used to publicize and market the TR4. The next year a privateer TR4 finished dead last in the 1964 running of the Sebring 12-hour race and Kas Kastner returned to Sebring in 1966 with four carefully prepared TR4As, three of which finished winning the class. In 1966 at Sebring, Bob Tullius threw a piston in the most highly tuned car and did not finish. Perhaps the greatest racing victory for the TR4A was at Daytona where a Kastner prepared car driven by Charlie Gates won the 1965 SCCA D Modified Championship against Ferraris and other prepared race car exotics.

The TR4 continues to be raced in vintage sports car events and even won an SCCA class championship as late as 1991. In Australia the TR4 was a common sight at hill-climb events and various club rallies and circuit racing events. In 1964 the factory sponsored Team Triumph entered 3 TR4's in the Canadian Shell 4000 rally. These "works" cars were reportedly built with gussets on the chassis members and aluminum body panels to both strengthen and lighten the car. After import, the engines were prepared in New York by Kas Kastner where they were also fitted with lightweight magnesium wheels. Although they didn't place well in the rally, the surviving cars have become quite valuable, one of which is owned by Neil Revington, the proprietor of Revington TR in the UK. Indeed, the TR4 became a celebrated rally car in Europe and the UK during early to mid-sixties, and various replicas are still campaigned by privateers in vintage rally events through Europe.