Familiar name returns to Teretonga Park

There are always interesting stories to be found at the Ascot Park Hotel Classic SpeedFest at Teretonga Park in Invercargill and one name that shone like a beacon from the entry list this year was Grant Walker of Melbourne, entered in both the Formula Junior and Formula Libre categories.

It was the very same Grant Walker who had won the 1974/75 New Zealand Formula Ford Championship and then raced the ex-Paul Fahey Cologne Capri.

That was some years ago now so we asked Grant to take us through his motorsport journey. “I started in karting, that was about 1967 and I won a few New Zealand titles.” “Then I went to Formula Ford in David Oxton’s Elfin.”

Grant then purchased the ex-David McMillan Titan and it was in that car that he won the 1974/75 NZ Formula Ford Championship. Then came the Capri in 1976. “After that I took it to Australia and travelled to and from there for a while.”

Next, he took the Titan to Australia in 1977 where he got second in the Driver to Europe Series behind Australian, John Smith. Walker smiles as he says, “I missed one round of the series.”

In this period, he also crewed for Keke Rosberg in Formula Pacific over the New Zealand summer. “At that point I realised he could become a World Champion and I probably would not. Keke used to say there is no such thing as a warm up lap! We actually got on really well and even exchanged Christmas cards for a few years.” Rosberg went on to become the 1982 Formula 1 World Champion.

In 1979 Grant started Grant Walker Parts in Melbourne, a business that sells new and used parts and which continues to this day.

Once resident in Australia, he continued his connection with motorsport. “I have rallied for 10-15 years and won a couple of State Championships in a Ford Escort RS1800 BDG. I have come back and done the Otago Rally about seven times, most recently last year.”

Grant was racing two different cars at SpeedFest and both were beautifully turned out. In Formula Junior he was running a Lotus owned by kiwi motorsport icon Jim Richards, while in Formula Libre he was driving the same Titan in which he won the 1974/75 New Zealand Formula Ford Championship.

Grant takes up the story on how his association with Richards came about. “I built Jim’s Heatway Rally car in 1973 and then I built the Melford Falcon in Australia.”

“Jim bought the Lotus in New Zealand in bits and I rebuilt it for him and said you can drive it now.”

“He said, I’m not driving it, you drive it!” Hence the car sports Jim’s name as the car owner and Grant’s as the driver on the side of the cockpit.

As for the Titan, “Martin Lucas had owned it before he passed away. One day I was on facebook, saw it for sale and made a comment – I wonder if I still fit in that? The reply came back, do you want to see if you do, and I immediately said, “yes”. So, Walker has been reunited with the car that brought him that championship.

It has been a long time since Grant last raced at Teretonga Park but he is enthusiastic about the circuit. “I love it, it is a great track,” he says. Hopefully he will return in the near future.