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TRIBUTE
Stuart Turner
Winning co-driver, journalist, team manager, Public Relations man, motorsport director, charity trustee. Twice Lucky is the title of his autobiography but you could disagree with both of those words.
It was not luck which took Stuart Turner to the top of World motorsport, it was his eye for detail and sense for opportunity. Stuart’ s life had far more than two pinnacles.
Starting out in Stoke destined to be an accountant, Stuart discovered the world of rallying when his step-sister’ s boyfriend asked him along. Stuart quickly established himself in rallying, writing his first book and having articles published in Motorsport News. During the 1950’ s he was navigating on a huge number of events and started organising and marshalling them. With Ron Gouldbourn he won the BTRDA Gold Star championship in 1957 / 58 and British Rally Championship in 1958, its first year. He won the British Rally Championship again in 1959 with John Sprinzel with whom he gathered another BTRDA Gold Star. In 1960 he won the RAC Rally with Erik Carlsson.
By 1960, Stuart was well established in the British rallying scene and although getting paid to co-drive by manufacturers, needed a regular income to replace accountancy. Motoring News was to be his saviour and although he was only there for just over a year, in that time he established the famous Motoring News Rally Championship and the legendary“ Verglas” column.
An unexpected approach from Marcus Chambers in 1961 gave Stuart a dream job and a platform to really show off his skills. As BMC competition manager, Stuart saw the potential of the Mini. The 60’ s were in full swing and the Mini Cooper crossing the finish line first on four consecutive Monte Carlo rallies took the team and rallying to levels never seen before or since. Stuart’ s dedication to detail was key in propelling the little cars to significant wins, so much so that some were convinced the cars were being swapped on the stages. Stuart turned the 1966 disqualification into a success by gathering more publicity than they would have received for another win.
In 1967, Stuart moved to Castrol to a more“ conventional” business life launching GTX. The pull of motorsport was too strong, and he got involved with the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon and by 1969 he was lured into Ford by Walter Hayes to take over the Advanced Vehicle Operations department.
Stuart giving some final advice to the footballer Jimmy Greaves at the start of the 1970 World Cup Rally – London to Mexico
Stuart Turner and Erik Carlsson, winners of the 1960 RAC Rally
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Revolution- September 2025