Keith Turner sits in his 1978-79 NZ Championship-winning stockcar. Photo / Supplied
Keith Turner sits in his 1978-79 NZ Championship-winning stockcar. Photo / Supplied
Turn the clock back to the Sunday night of Anniversary Weekend 1979.
Palmerston North Speedway was the venue for the first-ever two-day New Zealand Stockcar Championship, and the meeting had built towards a crescendo.
After the three championship heats, Hamilton's Barry Featherstone and Whanganui driver Keith Turner were tied on points and a four-lap run-off was about to take place to determine the New Zealand champion.
Featherstone, in the familiar 99H Fletcher Steel car, was the favourite, having placed second in the two previous years at Stratford and Gisborne; surely his time had come.
But Turner had other ideas, turning right on Featherston off the start line, neatly slotting the 99H car up the Showgrounds wall then completing the run-off to become the first Whanganui driver to win the official New Zealand Stockcar title, Alan Pryce having won an unofficial event in the early 1960s.
Although not an unknown, Turner's victory in Palmerston North was a surprise to many, but a reward for consistent performances with two third placings in the North Island championship in previous seasons, and third place in the New Zealand Stockcar Grand Prix in the 1977/78 season.
Along with Hawke's Bay star Tony "Tub" Warner, Turner would share the Grand Prix title in 1979/80.
But that Sunday night in Palmerston North will never be forgotten, even though the original car changed hands then disappeared from the stockcar scene.
In recent seasons, the classic stockcar class has become a popular exhibition class around the speedway tracks of New Zealand.
Some of the cars are originals that have been saved from the scrap yard and lovingly rebuilt, and others are completely new projects, built as replicas of cars that are long gone and only remembered from photographs or grainy videos.
The replica of Keith Turner's championship-winning stockcar has been a labour of love. Photo / Supplied
On Saturday night at Fast Lane Spares Oceanview Family Speedway, a replica of Turner's 16V championship-winning car will make its debut, driven by Turner himself.
It has been a labour of love for Shane Hobman and Ross Barnaby, overseen every step of the way by Turner, and the result is a stockcar that immediately takes you back to 1979.
The flat chassis, built from box section steel was welded up by Tony O'Hagan in Feilding, then returned to Whanganui where it was slowly pieced together.
The heartbeat of the car is a Ford six-cylinder motor from a D-Series truck, identical to the original powerplant.
A Ford gearbox links to an Mk Four Zephyr independent rear, while the front end is a beam axle with transverse springs, and a Ford Falcon steering box keeps the wheels pointed in the right direction.
The body is a cut-down Austin A40 Farina, faithfully and lovingly shaped to the identical profile of Turner's original car and is, of course, painted orange.
The Austin A40 Farina body has undergone extensive surgery and shaping. Photo / Supplied
Hand-painted signwriting completes the look, with the sponsorship logos of NZIG, The Rock Shop prominent, along with the number 16.
Turner is reported to have been quite emotional when the final part of the signwriting, the Roadrunner emblem, was added to the car last week.
The eight-month build was helped by Covid-19 rendering other activities redundant, and the team has done an outstanding job.
One of the features is what Hobman has described as a "junkyard build", with all parts other than the chassis having been sourced from wreckers' yards far and wide.
That's very much in the spirit of the way stockcars were built and maintained in the 1960s and 1970s, when spare parts were plentiful and cars could be built and raced on a budget.
It's a contrast to today, where the top cars use expensive aftermarket parts, with chassis and engines often built by specialist engineers.
One of the features of Saturday's meeting at Oceanview is the Charlie Berntsen Trophy for Stockcars, which celebrates Whanganui's other New Zealand stockcar champion.
Berntsen won his title at Oceanview Speedway in 1982 and the championship car, now owned by Whanganui's Mark Cromarty, will also be at Oceanview for Saturday's meeting.
With the Wanganui Stockcar and Speedway Club due to celebrate 50 years of racing at Oceanview in October, it's timely to celebrate the club's history; two New Zealand stockcar champions in four seasons.
Turner, who hasn't raced competitively since 1996 when he drove Hobman's car, will be a regular attendee at classic stockcar meetings in the "new" 16V machine.
