Who's Driving That Ambulance?! - A Peanut Turman Story
Stock Car Racing History
Many of us have had the opportunity to meet and share a laugh at various reunions with our RR member, Peanut Turman, a former Virginia outlaw dirt track modified driver and one-time Wood Brothers pit crew member for David Pearson.
I just stumbled across a Peanut Turman story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch that while now 7 years old, I found very entertaining and thought our members would, also.
Retired Racer Marks 32 Years with Virginia Rescue Squad
REX BOWMAN, Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)
August 22, 2006
Where do old race-car drivers go when the last lap is run and the checkered flag waves only in the rearview mirror of memory?
In H.L. "Peanut" Turman's case, retirement from racing meant a simple change of vehicles. He gave up fast cars to sit behind the wheel of an ambulance. And the people of Dugspur and surrounding Carroll County are glad for it, because there's a certain measure of comfort, after all, in knowing your ambulance driver has tested his mettle at high speeds and in dangerous conditions.
Turman, soon to be 66 years old, was once the young prince of the dirt tracks here in Southwest Virginia, a regular maniac hellbent for victory lane. And now he's reckoned a backwoods legend. Between 1964 and 1972, he racked up 118 Modified racing wins and 112 Sportsman victories. In that span, his career included five Modified championships and five Sportsman championships.
"In my day, I was the one to outrun," he recalled recently, gladly warming up to the topic. "After I got to running pretty good, when they'd look up and see me coming, they'd say, 'Oh well, we'll run second today.' "
But for the past 32 years, Turman has eschewed oval tracks for the narrow, crooked roads that run through the bent hills of Carroll. All that time, he has driven the ambulance for the Dugspur Rescue Squad, a group of local volunteers who handle emergency calls in the northern end of the rural county. At the Galax Old Fiddler's Convention this month, an announcer drew applause from a large crowd after assuring them that, in case of medical emergency, they were sure to make it to the hospital in time because the ambulance driver on hand was none other than the renowned Turman.
Turman chuckled at the notion of a dirt-track devil turned ambulance driver. "There's a lot of people who seem to feel safe because of it," he said, "but it's not about how fast you go, it's how smooth the ride is."
Still, he said, occasionally the skills he picked up on the dusty tracks of Southwest Virginia have stood him well.
Turman's hair has turned gray since his racing days, but he has the same wide grin that, along with his victories, endeared him to race fans in his youth. A giant in good humor, he is small in stature, a circumstance that led to his nickname, "Peanut."
Turman learned to drive on the county's back roads and entered his first race when he was 24. Soon he was racing every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, driving a 1937 Chevy coupe. He traded paint with the likes of Ray Hendrick and other early stars of NASCAR on dirt tracks in Hillsville, Pulaski, Pilot, Stuart, Patrick Springs, Ararat and Rural Retreat.
Turman drove car number 1 1/2, and there's a story behind the fraction. "I added the one-half," he said, "because I showed up at a race once, and there were four of us with cars with number 1. The guy said, 'You boys are gonna have to do something.' So one guy changed his to 111. Another changed his to 21. I changed mine to 1 1/2, and I believe the other guy changed his to 41. So when the race started, there's wasn't a single number 1 car."
The victories soon piled up for Turman, and it was an exciting life for a young man, if dangerous. "Once, in Pulaski, me and Billy Hensley wrecked and went over the wall together," Turman laughed. "He tried to put me into the wall, but I wouldn't let up off the throttle. So we got locked up, and I took him over with me. I broke one rib and cracked another one. But yeah, I took him down with me."
Despite the victories, dirt-track racing offered little in the way of financial security. Turman recalled getting paid about $200 for finishing first and maybe $10 after an off-day at the track. So in 1972, he gave it up. "I was financially embarrassed," he said. "Actually, I was broke, but that was just a polite way to say it."
Turman didn't abandon racing completely, though. Throughout the 1970s he worked in NASCAR racing legend David Pearson's pit crew before turning his attention full time to a job in construction. Today, a basement den in Turman's home holds his racing memorabilia, which includes pictures of Turman and his wife, Bonnie, cutting up with racers such as Pearson, Buddy Baker, Cale Yarborough, Ricky Rudd and Donny Allison. His beloved car, the 1937 Chevrolet, sits in a trailer in the wooded backyard.
While racing is in his past, driving the ambulance keeps him behind the wheel. Turman has been faithful to the rescue squad since its inception. In fact, he helped create the fire-and-rescue squad shortly after he quit racing in 1972.
"Used to, we'd have to get the funeral home to bring a hearse out whenever we'd have a wreck and somebody got hurt," he said. "They'd come and throw 'em on the stretcher, tie 'em down and take 'em to the hospital. Weren't even any attendants."
So for 32 years, Turman has hauled the injured to hospitals. He said he knows his reflexes aren't what they used to be, but he's not quite ready to quit. He's still got some driving to do.
Rex Bowman reports from The Times-Dispatch bureau in Roanoke. He covers the western end of Virginia, from Botetourt County south to Henry County and west to the Cumberland Gap.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
