Paul Newman Triumph TR6
On 31 October 1976 the actor won the D Production title at Road Atlanta in a TR6, from pole position and by less than a second from a TR7: the car with which Group 44 had won a year before.
About the pictureA TR6 race car at Winton in 2011, not the TR6 of the 1976 championship and not a picture of the driver
Paul Newman came to Road Atlanta at the end of October 1976 with two cars to race at the national championships of the Sports Car Club of America. In heavy rain on the Saturday he finished 3rd in B Sedan. On the Sunday, 31 October, he won D Production in a Triumph TR6, and that evening he received the SCCA's President's Cup. It was the second year running that a TR6 had won the class, and it beat British Leyland's new TR7 to do it, a result that, Aaron Severson suggests, sat a little uncomfortably with the company's American organisation. His result is below.source 1source 2
The race
Newman took pole position in the time trials on 28 October, with a lap of 1 minute 37 seconds, and started beside Lee Mueller's TR7, entered by Huffaker Engineering. The race was not his at first. Jim Fitzgerald's Datsun led into the first corner, Jim Reeve's Yenko Stinger led from the third lap until a puncture on the eighth, and Fitzgerald led again until he slowed on the 12th and retired on the next with a broken rocker arm. Then it was Newman against Mueller: Newman was 0.8 seconds ahead on the 14th lap and 0.28 after the 16th, Mueller led into the 17th, and Newman passed him again and held on through the last lap to win by 0.84 seconds, at an average of 146.40 km/h (90.97 mph). Greg LaCava's Porsche 911T was 3rd, and Bob Tullius, in a TR7, 5th. The importer's newsletter reported that the Associated Press's man called it the best race of the day, and quoted the loser in the winner's circle:
I always thought Paul was a hell of an actor. Right now I think he is a hell of a lot better race driver.
The importer had backed the TR7, and its editorial in the next issue still counted the margin.source 1source 3
The car
The car was Group 44's TR6, which McComb had driven to the D Production title at Road Atlanta in November 1975 for British Leyland, and a reader of the newsletter wrote that he had watched Newman drive it twice in 1976. Both titles are among the results on the racing page.source 1source 2source 4source 5
Results
A yellow year marks a win.
- 1976
SCCA Runoffs 1976
31 October 1976, Road Atlanta, USA. Paul Newman, in Group 44 Triumph TR6: 1st in D Productionsource 1source 2
Sources
Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.
- Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
- Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
- Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, September–October 1976, Sep–Oct 1976 (vol. 22 no. 5), pp. 1–3, the D Production final and its results; pp. 1–3: the time trials, the race lap by lap, the margin, the average, the President's Cup; Mueller's words; p. 1, "Newman's car? A Triumph TR-6, the same car …"; pp. 1–3; results p. 3. Primary
- Aaron Severson, "Grandfather's Ax: The Many Evolutions of the Triumph TR4, Part 2: TR5, TR250, and TR6", Ate Up With Motor, 7 Nov 2012, TR in twilight: the 1976 title and the TR7; TR in twilight: a former Group 44 car; TR in twilight. Reference
- Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, November–December 1976, Nov–Dec 1976, the importer's editorial on the TR7. Primary
- Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, January–February 1977, Jan–Feb 1977, a reader who saw it raced twice in 1976. Primary
- Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, October–November 1975, Oct–Nov 1975 (vol. 21 no. 6), pp. 1–2, the 1975 title. Primary