Funny how one person will put down a list of remembered statistics and others
will come along to fill the gaps. Yes, the "American Road Race of Champions"
(ARRC) was the first one. Sponsorship was partly from Sprts Car Graphic and in
the second year by an organizaton called the Newspaper Enterprise Association
which servied editorial material to newspapers around the country and had an
enthusiastic auto editor named Bob Cochnar who got NEA to sponsor the RRC. There
were lots of acronyms around -- all they would need is ".com" to be up to date.
Later, ChampionSpark Plug became the main sponsor and the event went by
"Champion Spark Plug Road Racing Classic" or CSPRRC, known, to some, as
"Sis-Prik". I think that one was awkward enough to inspire people to start
calling it the "run-offs"
Yes, the SCCA championships prior to 1964 were based on the points earned in
National races. There were also Regional championships. I will also ask Kas if
the final setlment of the conflict between SCCA and the California Sports Car
Club was a big part of why the ARRC began. SCCA and CSCC had big
disagreementsover rules and classification and there were literally two sets of
races, one in the West and aother for the rest of the country. You could not
reasly switch from one series to the other without modifying your car.
Tulius did well with that Dodge Cart which he obtained from Dodge on a
sponsorship deal to run in SCCA and then in the first year of the Trans-Am. He
called it his "sled".
Mike Cook
US West wrote:
> Cary
> I think what eventually became the " runoffs" started off with an event
> called the ARRC that was at least partially organized by Sports Car Graphic
> (SGC) Magazine in 1964. The event involved invitations to the top cars in
> their respective divisions and for the first few years it alternated
> between Riverside and Daytona. In trying to put together the history of a
> TR3 that I own that took part in the 1966 event at Riverside, I contacted
> the late Harry Handley who was the SCCA Archivist and learned a bit about
> what the race was about at that time.
> I had the impression from Harry that most of what records he had of that
> era were in the form of race reports from Sports Car (the magazine of SCCA,
> not to be confused with Sports Car Graphic). For $10 Harry mailed me a copy
> of the issue that had the ARRC results from 1966 that I was looking for. I
> recall him emphasizing that the 1966 race was the first true National
> Championship event where a single winner was recognized by SCCA. I
> understood him to say that the two prior years had crowned ARRC winners, but
> with respect to SCCA, National Championship status was conferred upon each
> divisional champion in each class based on their results running National
> races within their division. Kas or someone who was there might have a
> clearer recollection of all of that. Without digging into some old info,
> I'm not sure when the "Runoffs" term came into play, but it was not used in
> 1966. I want to say it was sometime after the race settled into an annual
> event at Road Atlanta in 1970 or thereabouts.
> Regarding your question about information about SCCA classes and when
> Triumphs were involved; the old GCR's and production car specifications can
> answer a lot of those questions. There is some good information on the
> SOVERN website regarding both SCCA and FIA regulations and classes for
> various years. If your question goes to how many TR's were raced and by
> whom in which year, I would think the old copies of Sports Car, Competition
> Press (Autoweek's precursor) and SCG would be great resources. In reading
> the SCG report of the 1966 Riverside race you would learn that some guy
> named Bob Tullius was driving a Dodge Dart in A Sedan (in addition to a TR4
> in D Production). I have been told that some SCCA regions have maintained
> archives that may go back some years; whether you could dig up anything back
> in the early days of the TR2's I don't know. I'm not sure who took over
> the SCCA National post after Harry Handley died although I seem to recall a
> piece in Sports Car in the last few years that of described the new person
> and the daunting task of making sense of the mountains of boxes he
> inherited.
> You are right about the popularity of TR's in the early days, at least
> at the ARRC. The 1966 event saw 10 TR3's in F Production and 9 TR4's in D.
> The next year the TR3's were bumped up to E Production and I think the only
> TR3
> that ran was Lee Midgely (although he won the race). When it comes to rules
> and how to level the playing field, some things never seem to change. You
> are also right in suggesting that a piece on the history of TR's racing in
> this country would be nice. Thanks to Kas and the Triumph Competition
> Department making the cars, the advice, and the special bits very available,
> there were a hell of a bunch of them being raced for years by a lot of
> everyday people. For twenty-some years they were the backbone of club
> racing in numbers that appear to exceed almost every other make. I'm always
> led to wonder (at least at vintage events here in the Northwest) where have
> people dug up all these damn MG's and conversely, where are all the TR's
> that used to be around in swarms?
>
> Dave Talbott
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