CAISTOR CENTRE, Ont. (July 31, 2018) – Team Turner Racing had a thrilling weekend of 360 Sprint Car action on July 27 and 28 that resulted in Ryan Turner earning his first career Sprint Car Feature win at Brighton Speedway with the Southern Ontario Sprints on Saturday night. Cory Turner drove to a runner-up finish and Jamie Turner had a season-best result of sixth. The Feature event on Friday at Ohsweken Speedway was postponed to August 31 due to rain late in the evening.
Ryan Turner
On Friday night, Ryan drove to a second-place finish in his heat race at Ohsweken Speedway and was quite satisfied with the car before the Feature. He is scheduled to start sixth when the race is run on August 31.
“The car was good. We were happy with it,” Ryan said. “It was a little rough in one and two, so we were just keeping it calm and making sure we would make it to the Feature. The car felt really good in three and four, but needed to tighten up a bit in one and two.”
On Saturday, the night started strong for Ryan as he charged forward in his heat to a second-place finish aboard his Kingpin Farms/Burger Barn No.91 car.
“The car was good. It took us a bit to get to second. We would have liked to get there a bit quicker,” Ryan explained. “It was definitely a different track and a lot more “hammer down” than we saw in the past two races at Brighton, just because of the rain.”
The second-place result was enough to put Ryan in the redraw where he pulled the sixth starting spot for the second night in a row. He immediately raced forward and was in second by lap four.
“I was running the top at that point,” Ryan said. “It was almost like the top went away for my car. When we started to get into lapped traffic, I had to search and I found the bottom. Once we got into some slower cars, they held up Holly and I was able to get underneath her and drive to the lead.”
He took the top spot with 10 laps remaining in the main event, but was reeled in by a caution with four laps to go that setup a crucial restart.
“I just wanted to hit my marks,” Ryan said of his thoughts before the restart. “I made sure I got the jump. I was watching the scoreboard and I saw (Cory) get to second and I knew he was battling with Holly, which was a good sign for me and I could relax a little bit.”
Ryan drove on to collect his first career Feature win in a 360 Sprint Car, but the feeling didn’t set in right away.
“It didn’t really hit until the backstretch that I finally got it done,” laughed Ryan. “I was definitely excited. The car was going really good and I was comfortable in the car. The crew put together a rocketship for me.”
As usual, Ryan was incredibly thankful for all who has helped him advance to this point in his career.
“It’s definitely still sinking in, but it’s amazing to finally get the job done,” Ryan added. “Only so many people realize how much work, how much effort and how much time everyone has put into this. For the No.91 to go this fast and to finally get a win, it’s just awesome. Right now I have so much help from Jason Hill and Gord from the Burger Barn team, but before that it was Team Turner Racing, my family and my girlfriend and everyone for supporting me to do what I love.”
Cory Turner
Cory Turner started his weekend with a heat race win on Friday night at Ohsweken aboard his KT Tobacco/Silo Wireless No.97.
“We started on the pole of the heat, but Dylan (Westbrook) and Mack (DeMan) started in the row behind me, so it’s not like it was given to us,” Cory explained. “We had a caution with a couple laps to go and Dylan was right on my back bumper too. The car was really good and I was happy with it.”
Cory was scheduled to roll off eight in the Feature before the rain came and forced the team to move on to Saturday. In Saturday’s heat at Brighton, Cory drove to a second-place finish in his heat to claim a redraw spot and drew the eighth starting spot in the Feature for the second night in a row.
“We got past a few guys on the start,” Cory said. “Kyle Phillips and Tyler Rand started first and third and they were both running the bottom. Ryan got around them on the top and I was following him. He just got by them coming to the start-finish line and I had them down the backstretch, but the caution came out, so we went back a lap.”
On the single-file restart, Cory took a few laps to build his momentum again, but eventually was able to get past Rand and Phillips in lapped traffic to move into the third spot.
“It took my another 10 laps to get around Rand because the bottom was the place to be and he was on it, so you have to go where he’s not,” Cory explained.
The final restart of the race came with four laps to go and allowed Cory to draw to the rear tail tank of second-place Holly Porter with Ryan leading the field back to green.
“We had a restart with four to go and I was able to get around Holly with two to go,” Cory said. “My brother was about 10 or 12 car lengths ahead of me at the end, so it wasn’t close. I would have liked it to be closer and give him a run at the end.”
In the end, Cory was certainly happy to see his brother earn his first career 360 Sprint Car win at the same track where he earned his.
“It’s been a long time coming for him,” Cory said. “He had one get away from him a couple of years ago in an ESS race at Merrittville. He definitely earned this one when he drove by Holly. Both my Dad’s first win and his first win, I ran second, so that’s pretty cool.”
Jamie Turner
Jamie Turner had his best run of the season on Saturday night at Brighton Speedway aboard his Charlie Bee Honey No.11. Jamie registered a third-place finish in his heat before racing to a sixth-place result in the main event.
“I used Ryan’s old car and I told him I may not give it back,” Jamie joked afterward. “It felt a lot better than what I had.”
Jamie had to overcome some adversity in his run and felt he certainly had a car worthy of a top-five finish.
“I think it was by far my best run,” Jamie said. It could have been even better. I had to drive off the track to miss Dylan (Westbrook) when he spun out and that cost me about five spots, but it was better than the alternate consequence. I was back to about 10th on a restart and I actually got back up to fifth at one point, but I lost it to (Tyler) Hendricks on the final corner of the last lap. Speed-wise, the car was really good and the guys did a really good job. I was happy with it.”
To have all three Team Turner cars run near the front of the field and have Ryan earn his first win made it a special night, Jamie said.
“It’s really cool. We knew it was coming. It wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when,” Jamie said of Ryan’s first win. “We had a good turn out of crew between the Burger Barn guys and ourselves, so it was really cool. We can sit at the table and we’ve got three Sprint Car winners now.”
Up Next
Team Turner Racing is off this weekend as there is no 360 Sprint Car racing scheduled at Ohsweken Speedway. Cory has decided to run on Saturday, August 4 with the Empire Super Sprints at Land of Legends Raceway in Canandaigua, NY. The entire team will return to action at Ohsweken on Friday, August 10. The Ohsweken Feature postponed on July 27 will be run at the beginning of the night on August 31. For more information on Team Turner Racing, visit www.TeamTurnerRacing.ca.
SEASON STATS
11 Jamie Turner – 12 Starts: 0 Wins, 0 Top-5s, 4 Top-10s
91 Ryan Turner – 12 Starts: 1 Win, 6 Top-5s, 9 Top-10s
97 Cory Turner – 14 Starts: 2 Wins, 8 Top-5s, 10 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 2018 race season, including KT Tobacco, Charlie-Bee Honey, Mudcat Entertainment Centre, Braemar Building Systems, Pyett Spring & Alignment, DSE Performance, Gale’s Auto Aftermarket, Plazek Auto Recyclers, Malabar Super Spice, V&R Recycling, Country Event Services, JNE Recovery, Skyway Lawn Equipment, Total Coatings, 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, Mayhew Graphics, ImageFactor.ca, and Clayton Johns Media.
Discussion about this post