2016 NASCAR HOF profile: Curtis Turner

A quick look at 2016 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Curtis Turner:

Born: April 12, 1924, Floyd, Va.; Died: Oct. 4, 1970 near Punxsutawney, Pa., in the crash of an airplane he owned and was piloting during takeoff. (Golfer Clarence King also was killed in the crash).

Family: Wife Bunny, children Margaret Sue, Priscilla, Curtis Ross and Curtis Jr.

Career Highlights: The 1956 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway was the biggest of his 17 Cup Series victories in 184 starts. He also won the inaugural Cup race at N.C. Motor Speedway near Rockingham, the 1965 American 500. Won 38 of the 79 NASCAR Convertible Division events in which he competed during the 1950s. Is estimated to have won 200-300 non-sanctioned short track races, and had few peers on dirt tracks. Co-founded Charlotte Motor Speedway with Bruton Smith, but shortly lost the track to bankruptcy after it opened in 1960 and staged the first World 600.

Reflections

Retired Observer motorsports writer Tom Higgins on Curtis Turner:

I first saw him: Standing atop a rickety, wood frame, 3-story “tower” on the infield side of the start/finish line at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway on June 29, 1958. Turner and best-buddy Joe Weatherly were passing a fifth of Jim Beam bourbon back and forth and swigging from the bottle. Neither had a driving assignment that day, but they held helmets curled in their arms and would have taken rides if offered. It was my first-ever race and I was covering it reluctantly and with trepidation as a cub reporter for the Asheville Times. I thought, “Dang, this is a hairy-chested sport! I think I’m going to like this!”

My favorite memory of him: Turner winning the first race ever at the new N.C. Motor Speedway near Rockingham on Oct. 31, 1965. It was the hottest Halloween Day on record and Turner was fresh into returning from a lifetime NASCAR ban imposed by the organization’s founder/president, Big Bill France. Turner had been exiled in 1959 for attempting to unionize the drivers. He was 41, overweight, out-of-shape and suffering a painful shoulder injury, but Turner showed flashes of his storied driving talent at the wheel of a Wood Brothers Ford and outlasted much younger runnerup Cale Yarborough to score a storybook victory, the last of his career.

What people might not know about him: Because of his larger-than-life image, immense popularity and drawing power, a national magazine nicknamed Turner “The Babe Ruth Of Stock Car Racing.” He also was a partier of Ruthian proportions. The soirees he held at his home on Freedom Drive while living in Charlotte are also legend. Aside from racing, he is said to have made and lost several fortunes in the timber business.

Most memorable quote: “I had to raise the plane’s wheels earlier than normal in order to fly low enough to get the tail under a power line.” Turner had landed his Aero Commander on a street in Easley, S.C., so an acquaintance/passenger could hustle into the latter’s home to pick up alcoholic beverages for a party in Darlington. It was a Sunday morning before the Southern 500 on Labor Day, and the revelers had run dry – mainly because of S.C. “blue laws” banning alcohol sales on the Sabbath and also because of Darlington Raceway president Bob Colvin’s ominous threats toward anyone that dared supply the drivers booze 24 hours before the race. Turner and the fellow had flown 200 miles to Easley from Darlington expressly to get the beverages.

(In epilogue, the FAA lifted the pilot’s license of Turner, who also had lost his driver’s license. He cracked, “Hell, I can’t even get a hunting license.”)

This story was originally published January 17, 2016 at 12:42 PM with the headline "2016 NASCAR HOF profile: Curtis Turner."