Curtis Turner

No other driver intrigues me more than Curtis Turner. It seems the stories of his antics and driving prowess never end. Even most ofthe greatracersof his time without hesitation point to him as the most talented driver theyever raced against. Yet, not alot of race fans of today even know who he is. There isn't even a Wikipedia page about him.

I can't go through the old newspapers without finding his name in just about everyracing article. The great Frank Spencer of the W-S Journal wrote about him quite a few times, and here is one of my favorites from July 30, 1949 -

And here is the race results from that samenight at Bowman Gray Stadium in '49-

updated by @robert-mitchell: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

In spring 1986 I was standing with Glen and Leonard Wood on top of their hauler in the garage area of Atlanta (on the old, good, pure oval configuration) as they watched with amazement while Dale Earnhardt made aqualifying run. Both brothers allowed that they had never seen any driver go so deep in turn 1 at Atlanta before lifting. Before I knew it, they were discussing who in their opinion was the greatest driver they had ever seen... and they had seen a bunch.Neither brother named David Pearson, which surprised me. One said Earnhardt, the other said Curtis Turner. Then they named the "dumbest" driver who ever drove for them. I won't repeat the name, but they both agreed. Back in 1981, while managing the Wrangler Racing program in Greensboro, NC, my wife and I went to a parent conference with our older daughter's 2nd grade teacher - a very refined woman, nearing retirement. When she found out what I did, she told us she had once snuck Curtis away from a party he wanted to ditch in the trunk of her car. We thought that was hilarious. My favorite about Curtis used to be told by Paul Sawyer in Richmond about Curtis and the "ought not" bush at the Daytona Beach road course. Curtis used to say that when you got to that little scrub bush you "ought not" be on the gas anymore, or you'd turn over in the turn. After that, Joe Weatherly started calling it the "ought not" bush.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Very Interesting! Curtis is one of my favorite 'old' drivers.

Dave, great stories, thanks! I'm dying to know who the dumbest driver was. Could you drop a hint?

Cody, thanks for checking it out. I'd say most of my favorites are old drivers because they did so much withso little, and it took a lot of guts to race all out with almost no safety gear. That's hardcore.

I stand corrected about a Wikipedia page on Curtis Turner. Kudos to whoever put it up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Turner

I guess I am also intrigued by Curtis Turner as I named my son Curtis also which makes him a Curtis Turner. I couldn't quite hang him with the middle name Morton thought. As a big eyed boy of 15 or so I got the privalige of seeing Curtis drive some when he was allowed to return to NASCAR and also on dirt at the old Lakewood Speedway. He won the sportsman race at Lakewood in '64 or '65 in a borrowed Chevelle against such drivers as Tootle Estees, TigerTom Pistone and others. He was delayed geting to thetrack so BruceBrantly qualified the car. After the race a bunch of us were sitting aroundon a pile of tires talking to Curtisand some other drivers. Someone said thatthey had heard that they were going to pave Lakewood to which Curtis answered, "Hell, don't let 'em do that, then you'll have to race wearing a coat and tie". He surly made an inpression of me and I have tried to get all the Curtis Turner photos and such I could find to give my son to keep. I regrett that I didn't get to see him race in his earlier years.

Promoter Paul Sawyer had paid Curtis to come to the dirt Richmond Fairgrounds on a very cold March night in1965 to run a modified race in a car usually run by Ray Hendrick's brother, Ed. Curtis arrived very late wearing a coat and tie. He raced that night wearing a white shrt and dress pants!
Robert Turner said:

Curtis answered, "Hell, don't let 'em do that, then you'll have to race wearing a coat and tie".

--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"