CAISTOR CENTRE, Ont. – April 25, 2017 –Team Turner Racing officially began its 2017 season at Merrittville Speedway’s Spring Sizzler featuring the Patriot Sprint Tour on Saturday night. Cory Turner turned in the first podium finish of the season for the Turner team, while Ryan and Jamie Turner were both strong throughout the night.
Jamie Turner won his qualifying heat race aboard the Charlie-Bee Honey No.11 while Ryan and Cory turned in second-place finishes to qualify all three team members for the top-eight redraw to set the starting lineup for the main event.
“I won the heat and we had a fresh car that hadn’t been on the track, so we were pretty happy,” Jamie said. “It shocked nobody more than ourselves.”
Cory explained that he made a number of changes to his KT Tobacco No.97 from last week’s test at Merrittville that led to a clear improvement on Saturday night.
“We were pretty good in practice the week before,” Cory said. “I thought about it during the week and there were some things that I wanted to try. I tried them in hot laps and it seemed pretty good. We started fourth in the second heat and our heat was really tough. We went fourth to second, so we had good passing points and got in the redraw.”
Come feature time, Cory quickly raced from sixth to second while Ryan and Jamie maintained top-10 running positions. However, a red flag midway through the race changed the night as both Ryan and Jamie were forced to retire with mechanical issues.
“I looked down at my gauges and it was saying (the engine temperature) was 250, so I pulled off,” Ryan said of the unfortunate issue on his Aces Bar & Grill No.91. “We checked it over and it wasn’t actually that high. I guess the gauges were wrong.”
For Jamie, a brake issue was the reason for his departure, but he recalled the positives of an otherwise strong run.
“I was happy. For the first night out on the car, my guys did a really good job on it,” Jamie said. “I think the car has really good potential. I’m looking forward to getting back already, so that makes you feel good.”
Cory’s third-place finish energized the team and offers a strong base to begin the season.
“I was really happy with our car,” Cory said. “We never really changed it all night. We rolled out fast in hot laps, we were good in the heat race and we drove forward in the feature against a really good field of cars.”
Overall, the entire team was excited to come away from the opening race confident in their respective car’s performance. The team is taking its opening night success in stride, but also with a grain of salt. With five months of racing on the horizon, a race-by-race approach is necessary in order to maintain strong finishes.
“You can’t get too excited,” Jamie explained. “We’ve raced long enough to know you can’t let the highs get you too high or the lows get you too low.”
Ryan and Cory Turner hope to race next weekend at either Fulton (NY) Speedway on Friday, April 28 with the Empire Super Sprints or Fremont (OH) Speedway on Saturday, April 29 with the NRA Sprint Invaders. Both entries are weather dependent. Stay tuned to Team Turner Racing social media to follow along with the action this weekend and all season long.
SEASON STATS
11 Jamie Turner – 1 Start: 0 Wins, 0 Top-5s, 0 Top-10s
91 Ryan Turner – 1 Start: 0 Wins, 0 Top-5s, 0 Top-10s
97 Cory Turner – 1 Start: 0 Wins, 1 Top-5s, 1 Top-10s
TEAM TURNER MEDIA
Website: teamturnerracing.ca
Facebook: facebook.com/TeamTurnerRacing
Twitter: @11TeamTurner19
YouTube: Youtube.com/RacingTeamTurner
MAILING LIST
Join the Team Turner Racing mailing list by emailing claytonjohnsmedia@gmail.com with the subject “Turner” to be added to the list.
TEAM TURNER PARTNERS
Team Turner Racing is proud to partner with several dedicated marketing partners for the 2017 race season, including KT Tobacco, Charlie-Bee Honey, Aces Bar & Grill, Braemar Building Systems, Pyett Spring & Alignment, DSE Performance, Gale’s Auto Aftermarket, Plazek Auto Recyclers, Malabar Super Spice, V&R Recycling, Caistor Agri Services, J’N’E Recovery, Skyway Lawn Equipment, Total Coatings, Insta-Panels, KT Gas & Convenience, Six Nations Bingo, Silo Wireless, CJ Mulholland Mattress Factory, Truck Toppers, iC Super Computers, Silverdale Gun Club, Bryan’s Farm Supply, Beamer Farms, The Powerhouse, Hitchman Trailers, Barlow Farms, Mac Tools, V&R Hose & Hydraulics, RCM Racing Equipment, JLB Mobile Mechanical, Tetra-Chem Industries, Wix Filters, Top Flight Wings, Creative Edge Signs & Graphics, ImageFactor.ca, and Clayton Johns Media.
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