Curtis Turner was one of NASCAR’s early drivers. He was wide open and fearless and many saw him as one of the best of all time. He was born in Floyd County, Virginia in the middle of the bootlegging era, so it was natural for him to become a part of it.
A familiar story, Curtis learned to drive before he was ever old enough to have a license and started exporting moonshine early. He became quite a legend at it and is known for the talent he developed while driving ‘shine. He once lined up several jars of moonshine on a remote road in the hills of Virginia, and proceeded to maneuver a Cadillac between them. He slid the car backward and was able to do a 180 between them without knocking even one over. This move became known as the “Bootlegger Turn”. Curtis then got out of the car and drawled: “It was easy. I couldn’t waste all the good liquor”.
From the very beginning, Curtis Turner showed off his talent no matter what vehicle he happened to be in. He’d drive the family car, work truck, or an airplane-it didn’t matter to him. His real racing career began in 1946 when he entered a race on a small track in Mount Airy, NC. He finished 18th out of 18 drivers, but that didn’t deter him. He turned right around and entered another race and won first place.
He had begun the business of becoming the best dirt track driver of all time. In the early 50’s, Turner began driving for Oldsmobile and gained the nickname the “Blond Blizzard of Virginia”. A few years later, he switched to Ford and became known as “Pops” because of his amazing ability to ‘pop’ drivers in the back and out of his way. He was the first NASCAR driver appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the caption: “The Babe Ruth of Stock Car Racing”.
Curtis never ran a full schedule so he never won a Cup Championship, but his aggressive driving style and determination made him famous none the less. He also became known for his love of drinking and partying. Sometimes he would show up at the track after a hard night of partying without a wink of sleep-but that didn’t seem to affect his driving. He accomplished several records during his time in racing. In 1950 he was the first driver to win a race by two laps after leading every lap of the race.
At Weaverville in 1956, the race was red flagged after every car had wrecked or broken-except Curtis Turner’s. He won by default. He also beat out the pole sitter Speedy Thompson at the Southern 500, winning by two laps. In qualifying for the Daytona 500 in 1967, Curtis became the first to break the 180 mph speed barrier with a speed of 180.831 mph.
Curtis Turner’s driving career came to an end while he was driving for Smokey Yunick and suffered a hard wreck at Atlanta. It was a horrific crash and Curtis was badly shaken, but not seriously hurt. Smokey however couldn’t bear the thought of what might have happened. He withdrew his Chevrolet entry immediately leaving Curtis without a ride. “I’m not going to build the car that Curtis Turner gets killed in,” Smokey said.
Curtis wasn’t only a success on the racetrack, but he also made a fortune in buying and selling timberlands. In 1959 he found a piece of property near Charlotte, NC and came up with a scheme to build a racetrack. He spent almost every penny he had to start Charlotte Motor Speedway (now Lowe’s) but was edged out by his investors shortly after the track opened. Left with no money and no racetrack, Curtis hit rock bottom. He had been banned from NASCAR earlier after trying to organize a union and even though he was later allowed to return to the track, he only came out of retirement now and then to race when the price was right. He had planned to race in the National 500 at Charlotte in 1970, but his plane crashed on a mountainside in Pennsylvania, killing Curtis and a passenger.
By: Cindy Pischel