October 6th - October 10th, 2008
Wednesday: Did your driver survive the Talladega carnage, or did the Big One spell disaster for his spot in the Top 15? Find out where the Frontstretch Staff rates your favorite in this week's Power Rankings!
Thursday: Matt McLaughlin Mouths Off about whether a broadcaster's interest in a race team constitutes a conflict of interest when they're on the air.
Friday: Our John Potts tells it like it is in racing because he lived it - and he'll share it all with you in Driven to the Past.
- This week on the Frontstretch!
Looking to see when and where your favorite columns (and columnists) pop up every week? Click here to find out all the details! - Advertise With Us!
Want your products and services to be a part of one of the fastest growing racing website on the net? Get all your questions answered about advertising here. - Write for Us
Think you have what it takes to write for the Frontstretch? Follow this link for more information on how you can become a weekly columnist for the site! - Driver Diary Schedule
Want to know when your favorite drivers are telling their latest stories to the Frontstretch? Check out the schedule link to figure out when David Reutimann, David Starr, Rick Crawford, and Kenny Wallace are stopping by.
|
| Subscribe to The Frontstretch Newsletter |
| Visit this group |
Wood, Whiskey, Women, and Winning : Curtis Turner
Driven to the Past · Vito Pugliese · Thursday September 20, 2007
Name: Curtis Morton Turner
Birthdate: April 12th, 1924
Died: October 4th, 1970 DuBois, Pennsylvania (plane crash)
Hometown: Floyd, Virginia.
Nextel Cup Debut: Charlotte Speedway (.750 mile dirt track)
Races: 183
Wins: 17
Poles: 16
Top Fives: 54
Top Tens: 73
Career Highlights: 17 Cup wins, including the 1956 Southern 500; 22 wins in convertible division in 1956; first driver ever to win back-to-back races from the pole, while leading every lap; and the first driver to qualify for a race at over 180mph. Was also the brains and backing behind the construction of Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Curtis Turner started out driving well before he was old enough to get a driver’s license. He hailed from the area of Bent Mountain, Virginia, and as with many who lived in remote regions of the South during this era, Turner worked to export the local product: Moonshine. He became as big of a legend running illegal liquor as he did on the track. His ability to outrun Federal agents as well as local law enforcement earned Turner respect for his skill behind the wheel and unlike his counterpart Junior Johnson, Turner was never apprehended by the police. He ran his first race in 1946 in Mt. Airy, North Carolina. He finished last in a field of 18. In his next start, he won, beginning a legend as the best driver ever to race on dirt.
Turner wasn't only a racecar driver, he was a businessman as well. A self-made millionaire (in 1950's dollars), he made a fortune buying and selling timberlands. He would make a fortune and then lose it more than once in his career. He once tried to broker a deal that would have allowed the Ford Motor Company to advertise on US currency. In 1959, with barely enough money to buy the property, Turner would start construction on the Charlotte Motor Speedway, today known as Lowe's Motorspeedway. Shortly after the track opened, Turner would be pushed out by his fellow investors, leaving him nearly broke and without a track following his banishment from NASCAR in 1961.
While he was allowed to drive, one of Turner's most memorable races was one he never won. On the last lap of the 1961 Rebel 300 at Darlington, he and Fred Lorenzen started the last lap running door to door. It degenerated from there into a slugfest. Lorenzen got the last hit on Turner, and won the race. On the cool down lap, Turner rammed his car into Lorenzen's, crushing the front end, in a scene that would serve as the inspiration for one of the more memorable scenes in Days of Thunder. Turner got out of his car and walked back to the garage.
The Blond Blizzard of Virginia was a legend in many respects; he combined hard living, hard driving, and hard partying. Curtis never won a Cup Championship, but he never lost a party. His bashes were legendary, often leaving right from a party to a race, and returning back to the party afterwards. An Oldsmobile pilot from 1950-1954, he would then switch to Fords. In 1956 he would win 22 races in NASCAR's convertible series. He never ran a full season to contend for a championship, but not many drivers did in those days. He was the first NASCAR driver to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated; heralded as "The Babe Ruth of Stock Car Racing." He later would earn the nickname, “Pops”, for his propensity to pop drivers in the back and move them out of his way.
Turner broke many barriers in racing: The first driver to win a race by two laps, while leading every lap at Rochester, NY and Charlotte, NC in 1950 . He was flagged the winner at Weaverville in 1956 after the race was red flagged, because all of the other cars had wrecked or broke. That same year he won the Southern 500 by two laps over pole-sitter Speedy Thompson. In 1967 he qualified Smokey Yunick's #13 Chevrolet for the Daytona 500 at 180.831mph, becoming the first driver to break the 180mph barrier in a stock car.
In 1959, on a whim, Turner decided to build a racetrack and conceived the Charlotte Motor Speedway. With $2 million to work with, he began moving dirt, only to hit a very large rock; he would spend over $70,000 in dynamite trying to blow up a gigantic piece of granite. As the budget for the track continued to go up, the contractors refused to finish the backstretch shortly before the inaugural race in 1960. It wasn't until Curtis provided some persuasion in the form of a Smith & Wesson revolver did the equipment start moving again. This would, however, prove to be his undoing.
Desperate for cash and to pay off the debt he had incurred, Turner attempted to organize a driver's union in 1961. This was heresy as far as Big Bill France was concerned. Turner was issued a lifetime ban from NASCAR racing, although in 1965 he was allowed to return to the track. His final win would come that year at the American 500, the first race ever held at the North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham. At Atlanta in 1967, Turner crashed heavily in Yunick's Chevrolet, a violent wreck that led Yunick to pull his entry from the race stating, "I'm not going to build the car that Curtis Turner gets killed in."
Turner would retire from racing following the 1968 season, and would die in a plane crash near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on October 14, 1970. The crash also claimed the life of golfer Clarence King.
Benny Parson's is quoted as saying, "ask any race fan under 50 who's the best racecar driver of all time, and they'll say Dale Earnhardt. Ask any race fan over 50, and they'll say Curtis Turner." Turner one time lined up eight glass jars of moonshine on an empty road, and proceeded to slide a Cadillac in between them, executing a 180 "Bootlegger Turn" ….sliding the car backwards through them. He did so cleanly, not spilling as much as a drop. He emerged from the car and in his slow Virginian drawl said, "It was easy…..I couldn't waste all the good liquor."
Still haven’t joined the Frontstretch Forums? Here’s a peek at what you’re
missing this week:
How do you feel about A.J. Allmendinger’s release from Red Bull Racing?
Are you surprised to see Paul Menard leaving DEI?
If you’d prefer to stay out of controversial NASCAR topics, feel free to join us in The Infield, where we talk about everything from politics to stick and ball sports to jokes and odd news from around the world.
And for those of you that might visit The Frontstretch Forums to kill time, feel free to join in our Games forum. It’s the perfect place to waste away countless hours playing word association, hangman, and much, much more.
Click here to join the forums and tell us what you think. Don’t miss out on a chance to share your opinion with a growing community of fans just like you!
Message Board Quote of the Week: “I don’t see how Rusty + DEI + COT = competitive on the racetrack in 2009. I do see how Rusty could hook a sponsor, though, which DEI needs more than ever with Paul Menard leaving and taking the Menards money with him.” Scott B on rumors that Rusty Wallace would be making a return to NASCAR behind the wheel of a DEI-owned machine
©2000 - 2008 Vito Pugliese and Frontstetch.com. Thanks for visiting the Frontstretch!
