“All this is just because of mates,” he said, waving his hand over the hood.

Ron Horner, who grew up in Lidsdale and was the former owner of the Lithgow Tavern, said he was obsessed with cars and, in particular, racing cars from a young age. 

“I used to hitch to Bathurst and sneak into the races from when I was 13,” he said. 

He said he remembers promising himself he would enter Bathurst after the first time he ever drove a car, illegally, without a licence from the old Catalina Racecourse at Katoomba back home. He was 16.

“I remember going to school the next day and saying, ‘driving this car has been the biggest thrill of my life. I’m going to run at Bathurst’.”

Fourteen years later, Horner managed to convince his friend and renowned racing car builder and driver, Barry Jones, to sell him the running gear of his retired vehicle so Horner could convert his royal red Mazda RX-7 into a Group C touring car. 

Horner then got in contact with legendary Sydney racers, the late Leo Geoghegan and Bob Skelton, to form a team.

“Leo was my hero, he was a racing car champion in the sixties and seventies and I managed to convince him to be the team manager for 1982,” Mr Horner said. 

After a few successful preparatory races they entered the hot rod into the 1982 James Hardie 1000, with Paul Jones and Bob Skelton as drivers.

The 1000 kilometre race was filled with drama.  

“At Bathurst it got smashed up during the Saturday practice, so we had to do an overnight rebuild. We got the stickers back on it at 9am for a 10am start,” Mr Horner recalled.

Then Paul Jones, the primary driver, got sick and had to stop driving.

“Bob Skelton got in the car and drove for him, racing in excess of what was legal for one driver. Because it wasn’t allowed we got Bob and Paul to swap hats so the receiver would record it as Paul driving,” Mr Horner recalled. 

At the last pit stop a fire caused by a fuel spill caused the exterior of the car to go up in a mountain of smoke. Horner tipped-off the toe-truck driver, who he coincidentally knew from Portland, to drag the car back up the mountain with Horner in the truck.

“We ended up losing an hour but we still came 18^th out of 100. I’ll tell you, dodgy brothers had nothing on us.” 

After its controversial success, Horner sold the car, which ran in the Bathurst 1000 the following two years.

“I promised Skelton and Geoghegan that I would reincarnate this moment, that one day I would find it and buy it back,” Mr Horner said. 

Six year ago, Mr Horner managed to get together the funds to buy his Mazda back from an owner in Canberra. 

It’s taken 35 years, including a year-long refurbishment by Rod and Corey Gurney, to get it back on the racing track under Horner’s leadership.

“Leo Geoghegan passed away in 2015, so it  was another reason to rebuild it,” Rod Gurney said. 

“This car is all Lithgow. Ron will get a buzz out of it because we didn’t expect to have it done by now.” 

Corey Gurney will be driving the vehicle in a demonstration lap at the Muscle Car Masters in memory of Mr Geoghegan in Sydney this weekend.