TriumphTR7

Triumph TR7 Racing

The TR7 on the circuits, 1976–81: Group 44's wins in the SCCA's D Production class and Lee Mueller's national title, a season in IMSA, production sports-car racing in Britain, a television race at Donington, and the turbocharged car built for Le Mans.

About the pictureA modified TR7 in a club race of 2011, standing in for a period picture.

A red coupé race car numbered 7 at speed past circuit barriers, the background blurred.
Stand-in A TR7 coupé modified for club racing, number 7, at Brands Hatch, Kent, in May 2011: a car of the type, not a period racer.Tony Harrison, CC BY-SA 2.0

The TR7 was a rally car first; its works team ran in the forests and on the closed roads of Europe, as rallying tells. On the circuits it raced mostly in America, where the importer backed it in the national championships of the Sports Car Club of America, and its best years there were the first, 1976, and 1979. In Britain it ran in production sports-car racing, in Australia a few times, and once at Le Mans in a form its makers would hardly have recognised. Ate Up With Motor writes that BL withdrew its support for racing after 1980. The results below are those the records hold; many of the American club races are missing from them.⁠1​2​3

America, 1976–80

Bob Tullius's Group 44 was the TR7's first racing team in America: in 1976, Ate Up With Motor records, its car won five national D Production races in a row. The importer's newsletter reported its first races, at Charlotte in March, where it won and set a class lap record, and at Lime Rock on 24 April, which Tullius won too. Huffaker Engineering ran a TR7 for Lee Mueller in the same class, and at the Runoffs that autumn, the SCCA's championship race, Mueller was 2nd, beaten by Paul Newman's TR6 by 0.84 seconds, with Tullius 5th and Ken Slagle 8th, the newsletter reported. By its account the TR7 won the SCCA's Northeast Division that year. In mid-1976 the importer sold a Victory Edition of the TR7, to mark, Ate Up With Motor writes, its achievements on the track; the source does not say which.

In 1978 Rod Bremner raced a TR7 in IMSA's long-distance races for the entrant Abingdon and Ashley Motors, placed far down the order in the Sebring 12 Hours and the Talladega 6 Hours, and ran at Sears Point and in a Trans-Am round at Mosport, as racingsportscars records; another TR7, entered for the Daytona 24 Hours that year, did not arrive. In 1979 Mueller won the D Production national championship in a four-cylinder TR7 from Huffaker, Ate Up With Motor records. Group 44 moved on to V8 cars, which Ate Up With Motor calls TR7 V8s; their story, as TR8s, is told on the TR8's site, triumph-tr8.com.⁠1​4​5​6​2

Britain, Australia and Le Mans

In Britain TR7s raced in production sports-car racing, and Motor Sport, testing a road car in 1979, noted what the racers had found:

Brakes, or the lack of them, have been a major problem on the TR7s run in prodsports racing.

Clive Richardson, Motor Sport, June 1979

No results of those races have been read. In October 1979 the televised rallysprint at Donington included a 10-lap race in TR7s, which Alan Jones won from Patrick Tambay, Motor Sport reported. In Australia a TR7 was entered for a round of the Australian Sports Car Championship in 1977 but did not arrive, and Chris Swingler drove one in four rounds of the 1979 championship, racingsportscars records, though not where he finished.

The TR7's one appearance at Le Mans was in the Le Mans TR7 turbo, a car Janspeed and ADA Engineering built from a redundant BL development car with a twin-turbocharged Rover V8, which Motor Sport introduced in 1980 as a TR7 built for Le Mans. It did not qualify in 1980; its page tells what became of it.⁠7​8​2​9​3​1

Results

A yellow year marks a win.

  • 1976

    SCCA National, Charlotte 1976

    28 March 1976, Charlotte Motor Speedway, USA. Bob Tullius: 1st in D Production⁠4

  • 1976

    SCCA National, Lime Rock 1976

    24 April 1976, Lime Rock Park, USA. Bob Tullius: 1st in D Production⁠4

  • 1976

    SCCA Runoffs 1976

    31 October 1976, Road Atlanta, USA. Lee Mueller: 2nd in D Production⁠5

  • 1976

    SCCA Runoffs 1976

    31 October 1976, Road Atlanta, USA. Ken Slagle: 8th in D Production⁠5

  • 1978

    Sebring 12 Hours 1978

    18 March 1978, Sebring, USA. No. 78, Rod Bremner: 71st overall⁠2

  • 1978

    Talladega 6 Hours 1978

    2 April 1978, Talladega, USA. No. 78, Rod Bremner and McKnight: 31st overall⁠2

  • 1978

    Sears Point IMSA GTU 1978

    30 July 1978, Sears Point, USA. No. 78, Rod Bremner: 26th overall⁠2

  • 1978

    Trans-Am Mosport 1978

    August 1978, Mosport, Canada. No. 18, Rod Bremner: 18th overall⁠2

  • 1980

    Silverstone 6 Hours 1980

    11 May 1980, Silverstone, England. No. 14, John Sheldon and Ian Harrower, in The Le Mans TR7 turbo: did not start⁠10

  • 1980

    Le Mans 24 Hours 1980

    June 1980, Le Mans, France. No. 40, John Sheldon, Ian Harrower and Brindley, in The Le Mans TR7 turbo: did not qualify⁠10​3

  • 1981

    Silverstone 6 Hours 1981

    10 May 1981, Silverstone, England. No. 29, Ian Harrower and Brindley, in The Le Mans TR7 turbo: did not start: a heavy crash (TR Drivers Club)⁠10​3

  • 1981

    Brands Hatch 1000 km 1981

    27 September 1981, Brands Hatch, England. No. 21, Wykeham and Ian Harrower, in The Le Mans TR7 turbo: retired⁠10

Sources

Every source the site cites is on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  • Databaseresults and listings, entry by entry
  1. Aaron Severson, "Way of the Wedge: The Triumph TR7 and TR8", Ate Up With Motor, 5 Feb 2012, pp. 1–5, p. 3, Group 44 in 1976; Mueller in 1979; BL's support withdrawn after 1980; p. 3, five D Production wins in 1976; the Victory Edition; Mueller's title, 1979; Group 44's V8 cars; p. 3, BL's racing support after 1980. ateupwithmotor.com/model-histories/triumph-tr7-tr8 Reference
  2. racingsportscars.com, "All Results of Triumph TR7", All results of the Triumph TR7; 1978: Daytona, Sebring, Talladega, Sears Point, Mosport; Australian Sports Car Championship, 1977 and 1979; 1978, 12 h Sebring; 1978, 6 h Talladega; 1978, Sears Point [GTU]; 1978, Trans-Am Mosport. racingsportscars.com/type/results/Triumph/TR7.html Database
  3. Jim Johnson, "The Le Mans TR7 Turbo Entry", TR Drivers Club, the Le Mans entry; Le Mans 1980; Silverstone 1981; the 1981 and 1982 entries; para. 3. trdrivers.com/articles21/lemanstr7turbo1.html Reference
  4. Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, March–April 1976, Mar–Apr 1976 (vol. 22 no. 2), p. 1, the first races: Charlotte, 28 March 1976, and Lime Rock, 24 April 1976; p. 1 headline; PDF p. 3; PDF p. 3; p. 1, editor's note. vintagetriumphregister.org/tsoa/TSOAMarApr76.pdf Primary
  5. Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, September–October 1976, Sep–Oct 1976 (vol. 22 no. 5), the Northeast Division, 1976; p. 1; results p. 3; p. 1. vintagetriumphregister.org/tsoa/TSOASepOct76.pdf Primary
  6. Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, November–December 1976, Nov–Dec 1976, the 1976 Runoffs. vintagetriumphregister.org/tsoa/TSOANovDec76.pdf Primary
  7. Clive Richardson ("C.R."), "The Triumph TR7", Motor Sport, Jun 1979, p. 58, p. 58, "Brakes, or the lack of them …". motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-1979/58/the-triumph-tr7 Primary
  8. Motor Sport, News, editorials and short items on the TR7 (group), Jul 1975 – Aug 1981; Apr 2002, Dec 1979, p. 92, the Donington rallysprint's TR7 race. motorsportmagazine.com/archive Primary
  9. Jeremy Walton ("J.W."), "A TR7 for Le Mans", Motor Sport, May 1980, p. 37, p. 37, the car introduced. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/may-1980/37/tr7-le-mans Primary
  10. racingsportscars.com, "All Results of Triumph TR8" (1979–1999), 1980, 6 h Silverstone; 1980, 24 h Le Mans; 1981, 6 h Silverstone; 1981, 1000 km Brands Hatch. racingsportscars.com/type/results/Triumph/TR8.html Database