Curtis Turner(1924-1970)
- Actor
Named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers in 1998, Curtis Turner was
perhaps the hardest charger ever to drive a race car. Turner was there
from NASCAR's beginning. He finished sixth in the championship
standings during NASCAR's first season in 1949 and won 18 races in
NASCAR's top division in his career. He was also an entrepeneur; he
owned a lumber business, owned and flew his own plane, and along with
Bruton Smith built the Charlotte Motor Speedway (now Lowe's Motor
Speedway). Though it was his dream, the Charlotte Motor Speedway
project caused an unexpected interruption in Turner's driving career in
1961. Strapped for cash after numerous cost overruns, Turner turned to
the Teamsters Union for help. In exchange for the money he needed to
pay the debt on the speedway, Turner agreed to help organize NASCAR's
drivers into the Federation of Professional Athletes. When Bill France,
Sr. got wind of Turner's efforts, he called a meeting of the drivers
and, with pistol in hand, declared that none of NASCAR's drivers would
be involved with a union. He then banned Turner and fellow driver Tim
Flock for life from NASCAR. From 1961-64, Turner raced in various
non-NASCAR events winning, among other events, the Pikes Peak Hill
Climb. France and Turner eventually settled their differences and
Turner was reinstated in late 1965. In his comeback, Turner won the
American 500, the first race held at the North Carolina Motor Speedway
in Rockingham, NC. He retired from racing in 1967 after a crash at the
Atlanta International Raceway but was planning a comeback when he died.
On October 4, 1970, Curtis Turner was flying his Aerocommander with
professional golfer Clarence King when the plane crashed into a
mountainside near Punxsutawney, PA. Turner was inducted into the
National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Hall of Fame in 1971, and
the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992.
