Turners aim for victories Racing is family affair at Unity

loading...

The Turner family from Freedom is one of the best-known racing families at Unity Raceway.

Tim Turner and his cousin, Randy Turner, race against each other in the track’s pro stock class. Junior, Tim’s brother, is Randy’s crew chief and Dennis, brother of Junior and Tim, works on the cars for both teams.

Dennis has been hampered by an accident 14 months ago that has left him with nerve damage in his legs. He got wedged between two tractor-trailers at a Department of Transportation inspection.

“I’m very limited in what I can do but I do what I can,” said Dennis, who was a former racer.

Randy Turner won the pro stock points championship at Unity last season but isn’t focusing on the points this season.

“We just want to win as many races as we can,” said the 24-year-old Turner, who won the 50-lap pro stock feature on the opening weekend.

Tim isn’t racing for points either.

“We also like to do family things so we’re going to take a few weekends off,” said Tim Turner, who was Unity’s pro stock champ in 1998 and ’99.

For the Turners, auto racing is how they like to spend their free time even if it means racing against each other.

“If it wasn’t for work, I’d watch racing seven days a week,” said Junior Turner.

“It’s fun. It’s what we’ve always done,” said Tim Turner who credited his uncles, Dick and Winfield, with being the major influences that led him to pursue the sport.

“They raced at Unity for years,” said Tim Turner who added that his father, Elwin, would always take him and his brothers to the races.

“And now he likes to watch his boys race,” said Tim.

Dennis said their late mother, Judith, used to videotape the races.

Even though Randy and Tim race against each other, it is a friendly rivalry.

“We pit side-by-side,” said Tim. “If they need a hand, we’ll help them. If we need a hand, they’ll help us. That’s the way families are supposed to be. We work together a lot.”

“It’s like having a teammate,” said Randy Turner. “Racing against your family is pretty cool.”

The Chevy Monte Carlo Randy Turner drove to the points championship was designed and built by his cousin Tim in 2000.

Tim Turner, who is 38, began driving race cars in 1993 in the wildcat class after spending a couple years racing remote control cars.

He said the investment was about the same so he figured he might as well climb into a car and race.

He took some time off to be the car chief for Travis Benjamin’s Busch North team but returned to racing when he bought back the car in which he won the back-to-back championships.

Now another generation of Turners is waiting in the wings.

“All three of my sons, Austin, Dylan and Kyle, work on the car with me,” said Tim.

Randy Turner has been racing for nine years and admitted he was “more excited about winning seven races than the points championship” last year.

Randy spent two years on the Pro All-Stars Series tour, finishing 14th in 2002 and 15th in 2003.

“I loved it but it takes up too much time for a working person,” said Turner.

He enjoys racing at any level.

“I’m very competitive and I like to go fast,” he said.

Junior Turner, who has been with Randy since the beginning, said they intend to race “week-to-week” this season.

“Like most pro stock racers, we need to do well each weekend to afford tires and fuel for the next race,” said Junior.

Unity, Wiscasset, 95 doubling up

Unity Raceway, Wiscasset Raceway and Hermon’s Speedway 95 are doubling up this weekend in the wake of the lengthy rash of rainouts.

Unity Raceway will hold a regular race card on Saturday night at 7 and will have a 4 p.m. card on Sunday including the 105-lap pro stock feature.

Wiscasset will have racing at 6 p.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday and Speedway 95 will have its regular race card at 2 p.m. Sunday before the 1 p.m. Community Pharmacies 150 PASS race on Monday, Memorial Day.