Earl Chapman, who spent 40 years restoring vehicles, among this year's inductees

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Restoring antique cars was a labour of love for Earl Chapman, who was posthumously inducted into the Maritime Motorsports Hall of Fame this weekend.

"It was the love of his life and it took first place to a lot of things," says his wife Jean Chapman. "It's too bad he couldn't have lived to see this."

Jean says she and Earl first joined the New Brunswick Antique Auto Club in the mid 1960s. His passion for restoring cars spanned four decades and too many vehicles to count. He started with a 1929 Willys Coupe. The couple spent many years participating in tours and special events.

"He would get them, fix them up and keep them for a while, and then sell them and start with the next one."

At one point, he told his daughter she would have to reschedule her wedding date because it conflicted with his plans to attend an antique car show.

She said his last car was a 1940 Chevrolet Coupe and he was actually in the process of selling it in 2004 when he became ill. He actually signed the transfer of ownership papers in his hospital bed just days before he passed away.

A total of 12 new members were inducted into the Maritime Motorsports Hall of Fame during a dinner Saturday. The hall of fame is now under construction in Petitcodiac and is expected to open next year.

This year's inductees also include the Greater Moncton Street Rods club, builder/promoter John Chisholm of Antigonish, N.S. and competitors Gordon (Boo) King of Fredericton, Frank Moore of Saint John, Lewis (Junior) Kelly of Lower Sackville, N.S., his son, Scott Kelly, Jack Canfield of Dartmouth, N.S., Eugene Pettipas of Sambro Head, N.S., Raymond Birt of Charlottetown and Robert (Bob) Beer of Charlottetown. Moore, Canfield, Beer, Earl Chapman and Scott Kelly were honoured posthumously.

The Greater Moncton Street Rods club was formed in 1983 as 25 automotive enthusiastic families. They started a very successful car show from only 12 entries in the first year to what is now the Atlantic Nationals, the largest automotive event in Canada.

Chisholm, a dominant modified driver during the 1970s, is best known for building Riverside Speedway in James River, N.S. in 1968 and rebuilding it in 2005 as one of Canada's top facilities.

King began his drag racing career at age 16 and has gone on to drive the fastest street car in Canada, The Nuclear Banana. He also won motorcycle championships at tracks he raced on from Ontario to Maryland.

Moore, who died in 2007, was a legendary stock car driver on tracks all around the Maritimes and won championships at Brookside Speedway in Fredericton and Hammond River Raceway, just outside of Saint John.

Stock car driver Junior Kelly won the 1984 MASCAR Tour championship and his son, Scott, who died of cancer in 1999, was a MASCAR rookie of the year and had a third-place finish in the Oxford 250.

Canfield, a legendary motorcycle racer already in the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, will enter the hall as a competitor and builder. He started racing motorcycles when he was only 14 years old and later competed in road races and won at Mosport Park, Daytona International Raceway and Briar Motorsport Park in New Hampshire. He also headed up construction of Atlantic Motorsport Park in Shuebenacadie, N.S. Pettipas enters as a competitor, builder and promoter in various motorsports, most notably drag racing and road racing.

Birt started in go-karts as a hobby but soon made a career out of racing -- also competing in stock cars and drag racing ­-- that spanned some 40 years. Beer was a stock car (truck) driver in the 1960-70s on the dirt tracks of P.E.I.