Curtis Turner

Curtis Morton Turner (April 12, 1924 – October 4, 1970) was an American stock car racer who won 17 NASCAR Grand National Division races and 38 NASCAR Convertible Division races. Throughout his life, he developed a reputation for drinking and partying. He also fought to form a drivers union, which got him banned by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. for four years.

History

He was born in Floyd, Virginia to Morton and Minnie Turner on April 12, 1924. Curtis grew up with a brother and two sisters. His father, Morton Turner, was into the moonshine business and had a productive still. Curtis was responsible for delivering his father's moonshine to the customers. From a very early age, long before he was old enough for a driver’s license, Curtis developed his driving talents by running moonshine through the mountains from the law.

Curtis was never caught with alcohol, yet came to grief with a 500 lb bag of stolen sugar (for making alcohol) in the post WWII ration days. After a gunfight escape from the Joint_Expeditionary_Base–Little_Creek where numerous bullet holes emerged in the chassis and the lead lodged in the sugar, his more than 300 mile trip under police dragnet to Floyd, Virginia was successfully achieved by using back roads. However, his father's house was under surveillance, and he was caught with the sugar and incriminating, bullet riddled car. Under oath, Curtis convincingly stated a lie of conspiring to produce apple butter, and the judge let him off with a 1,000 dollar fine and a 2 year suspended sentence.^[1] Locals spoke of how Curtis would drive away from the hot pursuit of revenuers and lawmen and his legendary ability to turn a car 180 degrees in a very small space.

He began his racing career in 1946 when he finished 18th in a field of 18 contestants in a race at

Turner frequently stayed out partying until the early hours, usually with a friend and fellow driver, Joe Weatherly.

Accomplishments

He is noted for several other racing accomplishments:[1] Archived 2006-02-21 at the Wayback Machine

• The only NASCAR driver to win two Grand National races in a row from the pole by leading every lap (Rochester, New York, and Charlotte, North Carolina in July 1950)
• The only win in NASCAR for Nash — Charlotte 150 — April 1, 1951
• The only driver to win 25 major NASCAR races in one season driving the same car in each of them (in 1956 — 22 were won as the #26 car in the convertible division, the other three, including the 1956 Southern 500, were with a top welded on.)
• The only driver to win a major NASCAR race that was red-flagged because his car was the only one still running (at the Asheville-Weaverville, North Carolina track on September 30, 1956.)
• Turner conceptualized, secured financing for, and built Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 before being forced out by his business partners.
• The first driver to climb Pikes Peak in less than 15 minutes (in a 1962 Ralph Moody Ford — the actual time was 14 minutes 37 seconds for the 12.42-mile course.)
• The first winner of the American 500 at the Rockingham Speedway (in a 1965 Woods Brothers Ford.)
• The first driver to qualify for a NASCAR Grand National race at a speed greater than 180 miles per hour (1967 Daytona 500, driving #13, a 1967 Smokey Yunick Chevrolet.)
• Turner's 1967 Daytona 500 car designed by Smokey Yunick, seen to the right, was the inspiration for the car driven by the Talladega Nights character Reese Bobby. The car was banned by NASCAR thus starting Smokey's tenuous relationship with NASCAR.
• In 1999, he was inducted into the
  Virginia Sports Hall of Fame
  .
• In 2006, he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.^[3]
• In 2016, he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Labor union

Needing money to support the newly constructed

Turner's NASCAR ban was lifted after four years in 1965, and Turner returned to racing. Bill France was in a bind and needed to mend some fences. 1962 and 1963 NASCAR-points champion Weatherly was killed driving a Mercury at Riverside, California on January 19, 1964,[11] and his star driver Fireball Roberts had died following a fiery crash on May 24, 1964, at the World 600 in Charlotte.^[12] The track owners wanted Turner back. "Turner was slated to drive for a newly-organized group, The Grand American Racing Association, organized July 31 in Sumter, S.C. Turner was due to compete in the first of 17 scheduled races at Concord, N.C. Aug 21."^[13] France was also short of cars. The Chrysler factory was boycotting NASCAR over the organizing body's ban of the Hemi engine, and Richard Petty went drag racing in the first half of the 1965 season. The Ford factory was also in dispute with NASCAR over the SOHC engine, which faced a joint NASCAR-USAC ban on December 17, 1965.^[14]

Turner, then 41, soon notched the first victory of his comeback in a Ford at the inaugural American 500, at the North Carolina Motor Speedway, Rockingham, North Carolina, on October 31, 1965, winning a purse of $13,090.^[15] Turner lost his Ford ride in 1966 when: "Ford withdrew its factory backed racing teams from competition when the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing and the United States Auto Club ruled April 6 that Fords equipped with an overhead cam engine must carry 427 additional pounds."^[16] Turner started the 1966 season in a Ford, but with the Ford-factory withdrawal, he signed to drive a Chevrolet for Smokey Yunick out of Daytona Beach, Florida.^[17]

In 1968 he was the first NASCAR driver to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Death and legacy

Curtis Turner died in an airplane crash near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on October 4, 1970; the crash also killed golfer Clarence King.^[18] Police said the Aero Commander 500 piloted by Turner crashed shortly after taking off from the Dubois-Jefferson Airport en route to Roanoke, Virginia.^[19] At the time of the crash, Turner was preparing to compete in that week's National 500 at Charlotte in a special one-off race.^[20]

In December 2017, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources approved the erection of a historic marker denoting Turner's birthplace in Floyd County and detailing his accomplishments.^[21]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. ** – All laps led.)

Grand National Series

Daytona 500

See also

• Buck Baker
• Joe Weatherly

References