RIP Bill Tuckey

[anthony81901]

In the same week that we lost Auto Action, comes the news Bill Tuckey has passed away. Had a flick through some of the 1980s Bathurst annuals Bill edited tonight, for their time they were very well produced.

http://www.speedcafe.com/2016/05/07/...l-tuckey-dies/

[Henry]

Originally Posted by anthony81901

In the same week that we lost Auto Action, comes the news Bill Tuckey has passed away. Had a flick through some of the 1980s Bathurst annuals Bill edited tonight, for their time they were very well produced.

http://www.speedcafe.com/2016/05/07/...l-tuckey-dies/

Sad that as time goes by, more and more of the colour of impressionable years disappears in reminders of mortality. Bill was my favourite author and writer, and while he's been missing (and missed) from the landscape for many years, his passing is that of one of my true heroes. Will raise a snifter of the Peripheral Port in tribute to ye and Quints.

[D.R.T.]

RIP Bill Tuckey

One of biggest influences on Australian Motorsport.

We lost a good one

[db120176]

Bill accounts of Bathurst were fantastic. Also enjoyed The Rise and Fall of Peter Brock

[GTRMagic]

From Wheels Magazine...

[Casper]

Rest in piece Bill...and Romsey Quints of course. I recall a night with him, Jack Murray and I thing John Bryson telling funny stories of motor sport that will never be heard again. His story of getting the Monaro sideways in the wet while overtaking a semi trailer was definitely worth hearing.

[Fred Mark One]

Thank you all for your kind words about my father Bill Tuckey. Dad passed at 3.30pm on Saturday 6 May after a long battle with pneumonia. Mum and I had left the hospital to do a few quick errands but my sister Elisabeth was at his bedside when he took his last breath. He went peacefully.

Your kind words make it somewhat easier to deal with the grief of losing him as it makes us all realise how much his words meant to people.

From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of my mother Marcia and sister Elisabeth (Fred Mark 2 as Romsey called her) I thank you all for sharing your memories.

Stuart Tuckey (Fred Mark One)

[Trev Campbell]

RIP Bill Tuckey.

The power of words can be truly inspiring. His writing was one of the major influences in me as a very young lad deciding I had to get to Bathurst some day. Having received the 1981 Great Race annual as a birthday present, and reading Bill's description of the event and the Mountain as a living breathing entity that could in an instant decide to make or break someones dreams was amazing, In my mind I saw some mythical mountain I had to see in person.

When I finally got there, He wasn't far off the mark. It's a place that gets in your blood and just makes you want to keep coming back.

The fact my love of motorsport were sewn by some well put together words in a book I feel truly show what an outstanding writer Bill was. Australia and Australian motorsport is a much poorer place for his passing

[Casper]

I would love to see someone do a Romsey Quints collection in one place, I used to buy Wheels just to read that page.

[GreenMachine]

Sad day indeed. He was great playing a straight bat, but in RQ mode he had me by the ... err you know whats. A couple of those RQ columns were so 'me', and one of them I carried with me for a long while.

I will buy a copy of that Quints reprint in a heartbeat.

RIP Bill, you set the standard for those that followed, and as RQ I have not seen your equal yet.

[Henry]

Originally Posted by Fred Mark One

Thank you all for your kind words about my father Bill Tuckey. Dad passed at 3.30pm on Saturday 6 May after a long battle with pneumonia. Mum and I had left the hospital to do a few quick errands but my sister Elisabeth was at his bedside when he took his last breath. He went peacefully.

Your kind words make it somewhat easier to deal with the grief of losing him as it makes us all realise how much his words meant to people.

From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of my mother Marcia and sister Elisabeth (Fred Mark 2 as Romsey called her) I thank you all for sharing your memories.

Stuart Tuckey (Fred Mark One)

Stuart, many of us here (and other places) revered your father above many other wordsmiths. While he was possibly the single most influential motoring journalist in the history of the profession (certainly in Australia), he was simply my favourite author, regardless of genre or era. While a picture is said to be worth a thousand words, I'm sure that a couple of hundred of Bill's words painted a thousand pictures on numerous occasions, for more than just me. I regularly pick up one of the pre-1989 Great Race annuals, or "The Rise And Fall..", or "The Sound And The Fury" simply to read his prose. His descriptions of KB's 1981 pole lap, remembrances of Ian Geoghegan (in particular... I got the feeling that Bill thought Fatty was pretty good, and the phrase "..on fully oppy lock, wreathing tyre smoke in pouring rain,grinning like a Barbary Ape - a memory I read from him more than once in various places - still conjures memories of any number of black and white photos of Pete's second Mustang dangling the inside wheel while its pilot plays cheerfully) I wish I'd managed to save more of the old Wheels magazines I regularly pilfered from the school library in my youf... there was much to savour in Quints' ruminations...

And even though he had been retired for some time, his passing, like Tom Clancy's, like Robert Jordan's... brings to me the melancholy thought that there won't be any more from them... and that there are so few who can fill their place in my bookshelf, or my heart.

[GeoffR]

His book on the 1979 Repco Round Australia Trial, 'An Old Dog for a Hard Road' was also a classic. An insightful look at motoring journos covering that exhausting event.

[PVDA]

Originally Posted by anthony81901

Had a flick through some of the 1980s Bathurst annuals Bill edited tonight, for their time they were very well produced.

This is because when you got the book as a Christmas present it usually was a mid January gift (or later) because they took the time to compile all the information and stories from everyone before going to print rather than the slapped together version these days.

Bill is/was a true legend of motoring writing in Australia and will be missed by all who have read his words

[Gaz170]

The Bathurst books were never quite the same after Bill stopped writing them. He had a way with words unlike anyone else. Definitely always on the Christmas wish list for me as a teenager.

The Wheels columns were great, he was never scared to tell you what he though of a car, sometimes to the disgust of those who made it I'm sure.

RIP Bill, and condolences to his family and friends, of which I'm sure there were many.

[Kingair]

If anyone is interested in some of his books, I found a stash in a second hand shop.
Just pm for details.