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by Jonathan Lord (25 Mar 00) He has now turned his hand to autobiography, and in Twice Lucky: My Life in Motorsport he outlines a life which began as a Potteries schoolboy, standing on the terraces watching Stanley Matthews play for Stoke City. As a competitor, he won the RAC Rally with Erik Carlsson, and as a journalist he founded the Verglas column in Motoring News. Subsequently he moved through the ranks of world motorsport as Competitions Manager for BMC and Director of Motorsport for Ford in their greatest days. Having reached the age when many would have settled for the leather armchair and the occasional stewarding duty, he took up another career as an adviser to the Motor Sports Association on grass roots motor club activities and safety matters. As a sideline, he spent some time with Castrol, ostensibly on the publicity side of the company. It wasn't long before motorsport became an important part of the job description, and he founded the series of inter-club quizzes which many of us of a certain age remember with great affection. Twice Lucky is written in the same breezy style which makes Stuart Turner a favourite speaker at business dinners as well as less formal motor club affairs. On almost every page there is an anecdote about one of the many personalities he has known, not just in motorsport, but in show business and politics too. Scottish enthusiasts will particularly enjoy Jackie Stewart's "sort of foreword". In a more serious vein, Turner confirms that Ford held the late Gerry Birrell in high esteem for his ability as a test driver, and reinforces the opinion held by many observers that he would have joined the ranks of Scottish F1 drivers had he not been killed at Rouen in 1973. One step removed from the day-to-day Competition Manager's job, Turner's account of the internal politics at Ford, where as Director of Motorsport he struggled to persuade the number-crunchers to let the RS 200, Sierra Cosworth and Escort Cosworth see the light of day, makes interesting - and occasionally alarming - reading for those of us on the organisational side of the sport. There is no end to Turner's talents: he even won an award from the Dry Stone Walling Association for services to Cotswold stone walls, following a lifetime of buying, renovating and eventually building from scratch a series of houses named Penny Farthing. His wide range of interests also includes the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he claims to fit in fifteen shows over a couple of days each year. Regular visitors to Edinburgh at Festival time may well conclude that the penny farthing is probably the best mode of transport for such activity. For anyone interested in motorsport - particularly rallying - at club or international level over the last fifty years, Twice Lucky is recommended. Twice Lucky; My Life in Motorsport, by Stuart Turner, 224pp, published by Haynes at £17.99. ISBN 1 85960 602 4. |
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Many of us would be pleased to have achieved distinction as an international rally navigator, a respected team manager, a leading motor industry executive, an entertaining author or an award-winning after-dinner speaker. In a career spanning the second half of the twentieth century, Stuart Turner achieved all five.
