I recently bought the ex-Bill Boemler 1955 TR3 racecar. I'm looking for history on the car: photos, race records, stories, anything. I don't have a log book, but here is what I've learned from the seller, the internet, and Friends of Triumph. Bill Boemler raced in SCCA Midwest division out of St. Louis in the late 60's and early 70's. He made the American Road Race of Champions (runoffs) in 1966 at Riverside and 1969 at Daytona (photo below of practice at Daytona runoffs). Both times DNF'd on the 14th lap. Classic Motorsports readers will remember 1969 Daytona runoffs as the race that Mike Downs won the championship in the Group 44 GT6 (the same car that Tim Suddard restored). My TR3 was class FP in 1966 and class EP in 1969, the same class as Tim's car. Because my car was an "also-ran" in that race, I'm hoping Tim will have some documentation of the race that might include my car.
There was a brief mention (and photo below) of my car in a Hemmings article a few years ago called the Last Dance at Daytona, in 1970 the Runoffs moved to Road Atlanta. In the article Hal Crocker says “But yeah, that TR3… wow. It was pretty crude. That was Bill Boemler, leading Terry Barker in the Triumph Spitfire and David Headley in the number 61 MGB. That’s about all I can tell you about these guys.”
By pretty crude, he means the car was (and still is) brush painted the color of silly putty. Apparently it had a reputation in it's racing days as the "flying bedstead" because the unique rollbar looks like grandma's old headboard. Best I can tell the car came off the track in the early 70's and has hardly been touched in almost 50 years. My plan is to preserve all the character I can and take it vintage racing.
Side note: it was the 15th TR3 made, likely rolled off the assembly line on the very first day of TR3 production.
Does anyone know my car???
Dusty Nicholson
Texas
