A legend in the motor racing world, Truter, who grew up in Camperdown where his parents farmed, was also a well-known businessman.
According to The Hilton newspaper’s veteran motoring journalist Gordon Hall, writing in SA Roadtests in 2012, racing was Truter’s his first love, and at just 20, he entered his 1954 MG TD in a grass track event at the old polo fields in Mountain Rise. Nine years and many races later, he secured his first sponsored drive with the Campbell Racing Team, driving one of its two Sunbeam Alpines at the Roy Hesketh track. He won that event and went on to become a regular on the team, racing with Keith Berrington-Smith.An astute businessman, Truter bought a service station in Edendale Road, which when he eventually retired, he moved to Boshoff Street and transformed into a used-car business with his son Laurence and a partner. In April 1990, he also bought the well-known Thistle Hotel and bottle store next door, which his other son Mark ran for 15 years before being murdered in the hotel in 2008 by robbers who stole the takings. It was the second tragedy to befall Truter and his wife Paulette in five years: their youngest son, Adam, had died in a car accident not far from the hotel several years before that.The Truters ran and then leased the Thistle for 31 years before Laurence and his wife Lindy took over its running this month, May, (now known as The Thistle aka Boshoff Street Country Club).Truter spent much of his retirement at the family beach cottage at Sea Park, but his reputation on the race circuit has never waned. His name was synonymous with the Campbell Racing Teams’ three famous GSM Darts. The legendary NP 18808, originally fitted with a 1640cc Cortina racing engine, was later fitted with a 1588cc Lotus twin-cam engine and went on to become one of South Africa’s most raced cars in a career spanning 10 years, according to Gordon Hall, who wrote a comprehensive article about Truter in 2012.
Leave a Reply